1	MCCF Transportation Plan April 2004
2	Problem and Approach Constraints The Problems Freeways and most major/arterial roads congested and getting worse. Metrorail crowded in the downtown DC area Bus service today not a viable option for many people The TPR Study concluded that we cannot build enough roads to address congestion in the long-term, even if funds were available Building significant numbers of new roads not realistic County largely built-out and land not available Impact on neighborhoods and quality of life creates strong opposition Impact to the environment also creates strong opposition Funds are limited
3	MCCF Approach Increase funding Make transit a viable travel choice Make road improvements to address current and near-term congestion problems to buy time Implement policies
4	Implementing Steps Objective: Get projects and policies implemented Action required by County and often the State Projects need to be in the master plans Vast majority studied by TPR already included in master plans TPR concluded a few should be deleted, which Planning Board and Council undertaking TPR concluded a few others should be added, which Planning Board and Council undertaking Policies, bus service, and at-grade intersection improvements not covered by master plans County projects Need Executive and Council backing Including them in Go Montgomery and Council Plan helpful Projects need to be included in CIP Most of bus improvements included in Operating Budget State Projects Get Council and Executive to both agree on design and ask state to implement Need SHA/MTA to support and include in their proposed budgets Need Delegates and Governor’s support
5	Project Support Plans Go Montgomery: Target 2015 at $9.5B (actually closer to $11.3B) Council: Target 2015 at $6.9B MCCF: No time frame (2025+) at $7.8B MCCF, Council and Executive agree on essentially all but a few major projects. Major projects where agreement doesn’t exist: Bi-County Transitway ( All support but differences on alignment) Outer Purple (Exec for, Council & MCCF too expensive) ICC (Exec & Council for, MCCF against) Techway (Exec wants study, Council & MCCF against) Beltway widening (east of I-270) (Exec for, Council & MCCF against under the assumption that it will require ROW) Montrose Parkway (Exec and Council for, MCCF opposed) Some projects MCCF supports not in Go Montgomery or Council plan Doesn’t mean they do not support them Means other projects should be accomplished first
6	Plan Summary and Costs
7	Plan Cost Compared to Expected Revenue
8	County Programmed Transportation CIP
9	County AGP and Impact Taxes Impact taxes changed Fall 04 Old New Transportation Impact Taxes Single Family $2205 $5,500 Multifamily $1155 $4,000 Office $1.60/sq ft $5.00/sq ft Other categories Schools Single family detached zero $8,000-$12,000 Single family attached zero $6,000-$10,000 Affordable housing and development in enterprise zones are exempt Estimated revenue for FY05: $25M for schools and $19M for transportation Transportation typically used for County responsible items Local Area Transportation Review remains but needs refinement Developers get credit against impact tax for construction they undertake Need to make sure developer improvements contribute to plan Policy Area Transportation Review eliminated and not replaced with any other measure to limit the amount of total development in any one year
10	Capital Funding Situation for SDOT (Montgomery County needs partly included)
11	SDOT ICC Funding Proposal SDOT Requested COG Transportation Planning Board (TPB) to approve the ICC for construction in the Constrained Long Range Program (CLRP) Construction complete by 2010 Funding - $1.7B (from SDOT) $50M Special request to Congress $100M State revenues from sale of assets and additional federal funds $450M MdTA Bonds (may add to GARVEE Bonds) $500M MdTA Bonds to be repaid from tolls (no final decision to impose tolls) $600M GARVEE Guaranteed Bonds. Use future federal transportation funds to repay bonds. FY98-03 average federal payment was $430M/yr Expect it to increase - $480M to $530M/yr $60M per year principle/interest cost Repayment of bonds from GARVEE and non-toll MdTA bonds $106M per year or 22% of Federal payment Federal payment covers entire state. If these payments come from Montgomery and to lesser extent PG allocation of federal funds, what will remain for other projects?
12	Specific Projects and Policies In approximate order of MCCF priorities
13	Overall Policies Affects both Road and Transit Balanced Land Use Improve jobs/housing mix within planning areas to allow people to live closer to work For those traveling, uses non-peak road and transit direction capacity to exists to support demand Helps both road and transit
14	Local Bus County/WMATA study identified many limitations with the current system Fix major limitations – implement grid system and add buses to Increase bus frequency (currently 15 to 30 minutes) Increase areas served – business parks and residential areas Increase hours of operation Other improvements and policies More information and more understandable Additional uses for smart cards (buses, parking lots) More sidewalks More comfortable and lower-floor buses More shelters Access to restrooms
15	Notional Transit Grid System
16	Transit Policies Transit-oriented development* Encourage development around transit stations and to a lesser extent around transfer nodes to allow people to walk to the station/node Implement charges for parking once bus system changed to encourage transit use
17	Road Policies Improve signal operation Time-of-day length to match volumes for non-peak periods - especially nights and weekends Adjusting signal lengths can add 8% to 10% capacity to an intersection Add sixth phase in ATMS to effectively add capacity to select intersections (allow sequencing of movements to better match volumes) Increase people per vehicle to reduce number of vehicles on the road Encourage car-pooling/van-pooling Add HOT to HOV lanes on I-270 and Beltway if widened
18	Grade-Separated Interchanges Build 27 grade-separated interchanges [State $1.5B, most priority 3]* Primary congestion points addressed Adds 150% to 250% in capacity and benefits both N-S and E-W travel Top speed doesn’t increase but eliminating much of stop time increases average speed Retain traffic signals at arterial/residential streets to meter traffic to allow people to exit their houses/businesses Series of interchanges more a benefit than isolated interchanges – create corridors Randolph/Montrose US29 MD 198-MD28 MD 355 Upgrade intersections improvement [State $79M] Add turn, thru lanes
19	Typical Grade-Separated Interchange Vision (MD 28 & Georgia)
20	MD 28 and Georgia Ave Interchange Advisory Committee Recommendation
21	Build Grade-Separated Interchanges
22	Transitways Metrorail Add cars and run all trains to end of lines [MD, VA, DC; $12.2 B 2004 to 2010 , priority 3+] Add station at Montgomery College [Metro, priority 3] New systems (high speed, high capacity equivalent to freeways) Build Corridor Cities Transitway [State $700M, priority 3]* Build Bi-County Transitway (Inner Purple Line), Bethesda to New Carrolton [State, $1.2B, priority 2 with conditions]* Build Inner Purple Line spur from Langley Park to White Oak [State, $198M, priority 2]* Build Georgia Ave Busway from Glenmont to Olney [State, $69M, Priority 3]* Extend Red Line from Shady Grove to Metropolitan Grove [State, $924M, priority 3-]* Extend Purple line to Tysons Corner [State $963M, priority 2-] Build Outer Purple Line [State, $5B, Priority 1] Possible technologies for new system not specified by MCCF since should be part of study Heavy rail - Light rail Bus rapid transit - Mono-beam
23	Transit and Build Grade-Separated Interchanges
24	Build Major/Arterial Roads Few new roads planned since land is not available Projects: Eastern Connector (US29 to US1 on ICC ROW)[State $116M, priority 2-] Montrose Parkway (MCCF opposes but County decided to build) [County $113M] Midcounty Highway MD 124 to MD 27 (MCCF recommends study) [State $207M] MD 27 to Middlebrook [Included in above line] Stringtown Rd to Md 355 [State $14M, priority 2-] Western Connector Follow ICC ROW I-370 to MD 28 (Planning Board), [State $98M] Widen Muncaster Mill (MCCF) [State, $77M] Brookeville Bypass [State, $33M, priority 3] Hyattstown Bypass [State, $5M]
25	Upgrade Major/Arterial Roads
26	Upgrade Major/Arterial Roads (cont) I-270 North Region (Gaithersburg north) – all are MCCF priority 2 Widen Clopper Rd, MD 121 to MDS 124, & Seneca Park to MD 118 [State $145M] Widen Clopper Rd, I-270 to Seneca Park* Extend Father Hurley Blvd, Wisteria to MD 118 [ State, $5M] Goshen Rd, Gaithersburg to Warfield Rd [State $18M] Widen Great Seneca, Darnestown Rd to Middlebrook Rd [$18M] Widen Longdraft, MD 124 to MD 117 [County $20M] Widen MD 118, Clopper to Seneca Creek [State $78M] Widen MD 118, Watkins Mill to I-270 [State $6M] Widen MD 121, Stringtown to Newcut [State $21M] Widen MD 355, Brink to Midcounty [State $40M] Widen Middlebrook, MD 118 to MidCounty [County $12M] Widen Muddy Branch, West Diamond to Darnestown [State, $60M] Widen/Extend Newcut Rd , MD 121 to MD 27 [State, $63M] Widen Ridge Rd, MD 355 to Skylark [State$33M] Widen Ridge Rd, MD 355 to MD 108 [State $108M] Widen Shady Grove, Brairdale to I-370 [State, $8M] Widen Snouffer School, , Goshen to Mooney, MCCF recommends study [$22M] Widen Stringtown, I-270 to MD 355 [ $20M] Extend Watkins Mill, MD 355 to Clopper, MCCF recommends study [County $34M] Widen Woodfield Rd*, Midcounty to Warfield and extend to Ridge [State $170M]
27	Build/Upgrade Major and Arterial Roads
28	Build Local/Business Roads Developer builds local residential streets under subdivision process Issue is not congestion but cut-thru traffic and speeding Most cut-thru occurs because of congested major/arterial roads County builds short business roads/segments to address local congestion Chapman Extended* [County $63M] Citadel extension* [County $2M] Nebel St* [County $10M] Burtonsville Access Rd, [County] Observation Dr, [County] Rainbow Dr, extend to Thompson [County] Others
29	Freeways Build new ones (MCCF opposes) ICC, I-270 Gaithersburg to I-95 south of MD 198 [State $1.7B+] Techway or Techway Light, another Potomac Crossing near MD 118 and widen other roads to support [State $408M] Improve existing ones Widen Beltway by adding one HOV lane in each direction [State $578M] MCCF Executive Board supports from west spur to VA when VA builds HOV lanes MCCF opposes east of I-270 based upon assumption that it would not fit in right-of-way (ROW) – State now claiming lanes can be added within ROW Widen I-270 by adding HOV from MD 124 to I-70* [State $1.2B] Widen I-270 spurs West side* [State $68M] East side [State $68M] Add 3 interchanges to I-270* [State $50M]
30	Affect of Improvements by Road Classification
31	Benefit of ICC and Other Interstate Roads
32	Environmental Impact Comparation
33	Backup
34	Costs for All Projects Considered
35	Capacity