Take five minutes and click HERE to email Del. Kumar Barve. Even if you have emailed Delegate Barve in the past, or if you didn’t do it last week, please click HERE and send another email.
When you click, you will see an email ready to go; just click “send”. We made it easy for you because we know you are busy, but you care, and your voice is needed. If you have time, add your own words to the email.
The bill we support, HB 292, is the “County Consent” bill. It is our best hope of being able to prevent high tolls, worse congestion on I-270/I-495, a multitude of negative impacts to Rockville and nearby communities, and a possible financial fiasco for Maryland. The letter tells Chairman Barve that you support the “County Consent” bill (HB292) and asks him to report it out of committee to give other delegates a chance to make up their own minds about the merits of this legislation and vote.
This bill would give our county leaders a seat at the table, so they may engage in genuine collaboration on a region-wide mobility strategy. The focus would be on multimodal solutions, instead of exclusively paving more lanes of highway.
Time is quickly running out and we NEED you. Numbers matter a LOT! Many delegates support the “County Consent” bill, SB229/HB292, but unless the chairman, Kumar Barve, brings it up for a vote, they won't be heard and it will die.
Supporters have made a very strong case for the bill, and if it is brought up for a vote, it could pass! The people who oppose this bill want the P3 Lexus Lanes project to be fast-tracked – and they are working overtime. Please take action today. Email Delegate Barve and tell him you NEED his support for HB292.
MORE UPDATES
Greg Slater Takes the Helm at MDOT
Greg Slater is Maryland’s new Secretary of Transportation. He replaces Pete Rahn, one of Governor Hogan’s earliest Executive Council (cabinet) appointees, who resigned in early January. The Governor appointed Slater MDOT Acting Secretary on January 14. Slater’s appointment as the new Secretary of Transportation was recommended by the Senate’s Executive Nominations Committee on February 3, and on February 7 his appointment was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
Secretary Slater has been with MDOT for more than 20 years, most recently as head of the State Highway Administration. He has built a solid reputation among State and local elected officials as well as community activists, consistently drawing praise for his integrity, even keel, and collaborative spirit. Slater’s professional background and public remarks suggest that he takes an evidence-driven, forward-looking approach to transportation issues.
However, in announcing Slater’s appointment, Governor Hogan credited him with spearheading the I-495/I-270 P3 project championed by Hogan and former Secretary Rahn. With its apparently preordained focus on road-widening and toll lanes, the project has compiled a record of missteps, obfuscation, acrimony, and broken promises. Appointment to Hogan’s cabinet brings new dimensions—including greater visibility and accountability—to Greg Slater’s role in this controversial project.
Slater replaces Rahn just when critical decisions are on the horizon for the P3 project. Can Secretary Slater restore public trust in the State’s transportation planning process? That’s a lot to ask. We at DW270 are hopeful. However, the current iteration of the P3 project has I-270 widening/toll lanes first in line, reserving similar activity on the Beltway east of 270 until later.
Justifying this approach, Mr. Slater recently said “we want to do an area like 270 first, where we have a much greater agreement, and then just continue a collaborative dialogue with our local partners on what the right solution is on the rest of that system.”
We hope Mr. Slater realizes he does not have “a much greater agreement” in communities that border I-270, including Rockville. He need only ask the 1,000+ members of DontWiden270.org. These communities, and their elected officials, don’t want to feel like they are part of the planning process. They want to be part of the process—not repeatedly blindsided by State officials. As Mr. Slater himself recently said, “You can’t develop the best solutions unless every voice is at the table.”
You can read more about Secretary Slater on the DW270 website.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL Del. Kumar Barve, Chair of the Environment and Transportation Committee. Tell him you support the “County Consent” bill (HB292) and ask him to report it out of committee to give other delegates a chance to make up their own minds about the merits of this legislation and vote.
GOOD READS
More on problems with Public Private Partnerships (P3s) – and why Maryland should pass P3 reform (HB1424)
In case you missed these……
Transurban is the Australian company which has built most of northern Virginia’s toll roads, including the ones on I-95. The state of Virginia wanted to solve a bottleneck at Occoquan, but Transurban would not allow it.
“This issue has been on everyone’s radar for about 10 years now and the primary obstacle to doing anything was the Transurban contract,” said state Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax), who along with state Sen. Jeremy McPike (D-Prince William) lobbied the governor to put the Occoquan improvement on the negotiating table. “The only way that the Occoquan bottleneck was getting fixed was through the governor negotiating with Transurban. That was the only way.” It took ten years. And Transurban is favored to win the P3 for Gov. Hogan’s Lexus Lanes. Read the whole story here:
Two stories show transit is being begged for all over the state!!
Marylanders fear losing federal transit dollars: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/02/12/marylanders-fear-losing-federal-fight-for-public-transit-cash/
OLDIES BUT GOODIES
The Post says widen Maryland highways. But who do they represent? https://ggwash.org/view/75859/the-post-says-widen-md-highways
And how could we forget….
Maryland’s Lesson:Widen the Roads, Drivers Will Come Washington Post, Jan. 4, 1999, about the unexpectedly quick return of congestion when I-270 was widened from 4 to 12 lanes. The construction lasted 6 years (1985-1991); the rolling parking lot was back by 1998, just 7 years later. Read here.