Hogan’s PAC + Toll-Giant Transurban Join Fake “Grassroots Group” for Another Go at Hiding the Truth. They’ve Been Exposed Big-Time!

Let’s start with the numbers.

The top 3 things that will get worse for the vast majority of the public because of Hogan’s toll lanes:

  1. Costs (evidence here, pp. 157-162)

  2. Congestion (pp. 18-40)

  3. Safety (pp. 71-80)

 

The top 3 things that will get better because of the toll lanes:

  1. Nothing

  2. Ditto

  3. Ditto

 

The 2 main categories of toll-lane supporters:

  1. Those who don’t yet see how harmful and counter-productive this project will be.

  2. The well-positioned few who ignore the harm, waste, injustice, laws, alternatives, and opposition because they stand to benefit/profit from the project.

 

Category 2 toll-lane supporters have no evidence to back up their claims that the toll lanes benefit everyone at no cost to taxpayers. Having ruled out the truth, they rely on misleading the public, giving false assurances, deflecting, attacking, and repeating the foundational lies.

 

Meanwhile, advocates who oppose the toll-lane project have hard-won evidence to back up their claims, and we’re happy to share it with everyone. That explains the difference between the two Top 3 lists above.

 

Keep all this in mind as you read below about how Category 2 toll-lane supporters were caught out in the latest misinformation scheme. Then check out the Action Item and major news about changes in MDOT leadership.

 

 

Shady pro-toll-lane group exposed in riveting new reporting

 

Online news source Maryland Matters comes through again with a powerful story about Traffic Relief Now. That’s the group of 75+ heavy-hitting orgs that “banded together under the leadership of one of [Hogan’s] former top aides to bolster support for the controversial plan to build toll lanes along two Montgomery County highways.”

 

The group laughably calls itself “an independent, non-profit, grassroots organization.” Among the members trying and failing to cover themselves in grassroots clothing are:

  • Hogan’s Political Action Committee, “Change Maryland” (that’s the PAC that funded personal attack ads against toll-lane opponents)

  • The rapacious Transurban and other international conglomerates

  • Pro-highway lobbying organizations, construction trade unions, and construction and consulting firms

 

The group skirts the truth, starting with its membership list. Five organizations on the original posted roster, including Bowie State University, are “not actual supporters of the group’s efforts. They were removed after Maryland Matters began making inquiries.”

 

The glossy video on the TrafficReliefNow.com homepage never once mentions tolls. It shamelessly repeats the lie about the project coming at no cost to taxpayers.

Hogan’s oft-repeated, thoroughly debunked claim of No Cost to Taxpayers. Captured from TrafficReliefNow.com video on 12/30/21.

This “grassroots” group’s leader is Doug Mayer, “a political strategist who spent three years as Hogan’s top spokesman” and whose firm “handles Hogan’s political and issue advertising.”

 

“TrafficReliefNow.com is a 501(c)(4), meaning it doesn’t have to disclose expenditures or the source of its funding.” And according to the IRS, that also means it must be organized exclusively to promote social welfare.

Hard to see how Transurban and Hogan’s PAC are promoting social welfare here. This is a well-financed, tax-free vehicle for spreading self-serving propaganda.

 

 

Action Item

 

Forward the Maryland Matters article on Traffic Relief Now ("New Hogan-Aligned Group Seeks to Build Support for Toll Lanes Project") to at least one person, and ask them to do the same.

It’s an eye-opening look at who the real toll-lane supporters are, and proof that – even with the vast resources of the Hogan administration – they’re still scrambling to convince the public.

Sharing the article will help alert people to the bogus ads, videos, and claims this group may put out.

 

 

In surprise move, MDOT Secretary Greg Slater is resigning

The Governor announced on December 30 that Sec. Slater is resigning his position as of January 11, 2022. Slater has overseen the toll lane project since becoming MDOT Secretary in December 2019. According to Maryland Matters, “MDOT officials offered few details about his departure, except to say that he was taking an unidentified transportation job outside Maryland.”

 

Slater will be replaced by James F. Ports Jr., executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority. He oversaw the toll-setting process that resulted in a sky-high toll schedule for the American Legion Bridge/I-495/I-270 project.

Toll-Lane Project is NOT a Done Deal. Newly-Revealed Facts + Timeline + Vulnerabilities are Game Changers!

If you’ve ever doubted the impact of grassroots toll-lane opposition, take a look at this breakthrough.

 

A grassroots-funded effort led by the Sierra Club to draft legal comments on MDOT’s SDEIS has produced an astounding indictment -- written by nationally-known legal and technical experts -- of the project’s deceits and failings.

 

A few of the revelations in this powerhouse document:

 

  • If the toll lanes are built, the only choice drivers will face is “between two bad options: extreme congestion vs. extremely high tolls” (p. 20 of the document). We know the 2026 rush hour tolls from the GW Parkway to Shady Grove will go as high as $50 each way!

  • The traffic model MDOT used to plan this mega-billion-dollar project was, among its many deficiencies, incapable of capturing queues behind bottlenecks or accurately predicting traffic volumes (pgs. 18-40).

  • MDOT is knowingly sacrificing our safety to maximize revenue (pgs. 71-80). The plan takes the inner shoulder away from the free lanes and gives it to the toll lanes (pgs. 76-77). It effectively forces big-rig trucks into the reduced number of free lanes, a known cause of serious accidents, especially at entrances and exits (pgs. 73-74).

Preferred alternative: 1 outside shoulder for 5 free lanes; 1 inside shoulder for 2 toll lanes (yellow).

Preferred alternative: 1 outside shoulder for 5 free lanes; 1 inside shoulder for 2 toll lanes.

The Sierra Club’s comprehensive legal comments are signed by 50+ advocacy groups and the City of Rockville. They provide not only the basis for future legal action, but fuel to spur our grassroots efforts.

 

See below for actions you can take right now. Then read on for the project’s projected timeline and coming hurdles. (Preview: project construction can’t begin until at least fall 2022 when a construction contract may be voted on.) At the end, you’ll see a big thank you to our readers.

 

Action Item: Know the facts, share the facts

Thanks to the Sierra Club documentation, facts about the toll-lane scam are finally available to the public in clear, authoritative form. We urge you to click THIS LINK and read about any or all aspects that interest (or infuriate) you. Summaries of the new findings are on pages i-iii of the document and also pasted at the end of this newsletter. Click in the document’s table of contents for detailed discussions and supporting evidence.

Please share this newsletter and your thoughts about the project with at least one person who may not yet be convinced that the toll lanes will do no good, only harm. If you know someone who lives along upper I-270, please reach out. Residents there are hearing lies about congestion relief. The Sierra Club document will tell them the truth.

  

Project Timelines and Vulnerabilities

The next few months offer excellent opportunities for grassroots action aimed at elected officials, candidates for office, and federal agencies reviewing the toll-lane project. Watch for details in coming newsletters.

 

MDOT’s timeline for the federally-mandated review process

  • Per MDOT, the public submitted approximately 3,000 public comments on the DEIS and 2,000 on the SDEIS. MDOT has to respond to the substantive ones and issue a final EIS, expected in May 2022, although the timing, here and elsewhere, may slip.

  • The public will have 30 days after issuance of the FEIS to submit comments.

  • Sometime after that, the Federal Government will issue its Record of Decision (ROD) on the project.

  • Parties, including our advocacy coalition, have 150 days from issuance of the ROD to file any lawsuit.

 

Meanwhile…

  • Between now and fall 2022, toll-giant Transurban will be finalizing its bottom-line-first design for Phase 1 South.

  • If the project should make it through the federal review process, the Board of Public Works could vote on the Phase 1 South construction contract in fall 2022.

  • Construction cannot begin until the contract is approved.

 

None of this is inevitable. The project faces big hurdles and sources of delay.

  • Lawsuits, possibly including from the Sierra Club and its 50 co-sponsors.

  • The ongoing legal challenge from a losing bidder for the P3 contract.

  • Ongoing initiatives by grassroots activists (all of us) to persuade our elected officials, candidates competing for our 2022 votes, and relevant federal agencies to reject the toll-lane project’s precedent-setting subversion of the public good.

  • The potential for unfavorable federal decisions.

  • Outcomes of the hugely consequential 2022 election. If we elect a governor and comptroller who oppose the P3, and if project approvals stretch into their new terms, we will see the end of this project.

 

 

Grassroots activists are key to shutting down this plan. Your efforts matter! Thank you!

 

Because so many of our elected officials, from Governor Hogan and Peter Franchot on down, fail to put the public interest first, grassroots groups have an out-sized role in stopping this project. Every thoughtful and/or outraged email you send opposing the toll lanes, every door-hanger you distribute, every newsletter you pass on has an impact and makes a difference. We are counting on each other to keep fighting. Thank you for what you do!

 

 

For your reference: Summaries of the main points in the Sierra Club’s legal comments

These are broad summaries in the document’s own words (pgs. i-iii). Click in the document’s table of contents for detailed discussions and supporting evidence.

  • The SDEIS fails to disclose the significant financial costs the preferred alternative would impose on the state and its citizens, including a direct subsidy to a private developer, costs of relocation of utilities, decreases in property values, shortfall payments, and other significant financial risks associated with the Public Private Partnership (“P3”) Program.

  • There are serious flaws in the traffic analysis. Moreover, even with these flaws, the information presented in the SDEIS shows that the preferred alternative will be only marginally effective at reducing congestion on the Beltway and I-270, will create new and larger traffic problems at key interchanges and merge areas, and will irreparably harm Maryland’s irreplaceable natural, historical, and environmental resources.

  • The SDEIS does not adequately analyze air emissions and ignores the harms the preferred alternative’s construction and operation will cause from particulate matter, greenhouse gas, and carbon monoxide emissions locally, regionally, and nationally.

  • The SDEIS ignores the negative impacts of the preferred alternative on safety on the toll lanes, general purpose (“GP”) lanes, and arterial roads.

  • Like the DEIS process, the SDEIS process has also violated [the National Environmental Policy Act].

  • The SDEIS fails to adequately address the preferred alternative’s significant adverse effects on historic and cultural resources, which include both direct and constructive uses of historic properties.

  • The SDEIS ignores the harms that [Environmental Justice] communities will suffer during construction and operation of the preferred alternative, including air quality impacts from newly created bottlenecks and impacts from the loss of an otherwise free lane on I-270.

  • The Project has fundamentally changed so many times (including its footprint, phasing, and procurement type from fixed price to progressive predevelopment public-private partnership) that the public cannot understand what is going on, let alone which description is accurate.

  • The SDEIS fails to perform significant analyses regarding nearly every single adverse impact of the preferred alternative, and instead postpones those analyses until either an FEIS is issued, or construction has begun. Contrary to promoting public participation and informed decision-making as required by NEPA, the SDEIS hinders the public’s understanding of the preferred alternative and will lead to less informed decision-making.

  • The SDEIS, in referencing the DEIS, continues to rely on documents and data that the Agencies have refused to release to the public, despite numerous requests from the public, in violation of NEPA.

Jump on This! A 15-Day Extension to Tell MDOT and the FHWA what’s Wrong with the Toll Lanes. New deadline: 11/30

We need to grab this chance to submit public comments, even if the circumstances show MDOT’s lack of respect for the public:

  • MDOT ignored calls from elected officials for a 90-to-120 day public comment period.

  • MDOT delayed granting the extension until COB on the very last work day before the original deadline.

  • MDOT deliberately limited the extension to the 15 days that include the year’s busiest travel and shopping periods plus Thanksgiving and Hanukah.

No matter: We will be heard

Consider this issue of the newsletter a mini-tour of project deficiencies and low-lights. All the items below will give you information and ideas for your comments on the project’s Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS). Note:

  • Comments can be as short or involved as you want.

  • If you’ve submitted a comment already, thank you, and consider writing another on different points (there’s no shortage of points).

How to submit your comments

Do any of the following by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, November 30 (click here to access all instructions):

Start every comment the same way

Use these words near the beginning of your comment so MDOT cannot misrepresent your intent (something they’ve done before) when they tally public opinion: “I support the no-build option and oppose the I-495/I-270 toll-lane project.”

Take inspiration and ideas from the Rockville Mayor and Council’s powerful SDEIS comments:

  • “It is critical that MDOT and [the Federal Highway Administration] reinstate transit as a key project element...”

  • “The Purpose and Need omits safety considerations typically featured for transportation projects...”

  • “…implementing only Phase 1 South will create a major congestion and bottleneck in the eastbound direction at the points where the managed lanes end…and cause an existing chokepoint to get even worse.”

  • “The issue of economically challenged populations or social equity continues not to be adequately addressed by the SDEIS.”

Tell MDOT that Innovative Congestion Management (ICM) on lower I-270 works; toll lanes won’t!

  • If you use lower I-270 now, you know that barring an accident, construction, or storm, traffic is generally free-flowing.

  • The welcome congestion relief was created by MDOT’s ICM program, which began in 2017 and is now 77% complete.

  • The ICM program installed ramp metering, extended merge lanes to create extra through lanes, converted a shoulder to an HOV-2 lane, and turned an old HOV-2 lane into an extra through lane.

  • But the toll-lane project would destroy the taxpayer-funded ICM improvements on lower I-270, create congestion where there is none, and make the notorious I-270 northern bottleneck even worse.

  • Lower I-270 will be irreparably harmed by toll lanes. Read all the details here.

Point out that the SDEIS traffic model is spectacularly flawed

  • Our partner, the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition, found that, “The output of the SDEIS’s traffic model is contrary to common sense, logic, and traffic forecasting done by MDOT itself….”

  • Read here why MTOC, DontWiden270.org, and Citizens Against Beltway Expansion called for retraction of the SDEIS until the failed traffic model could be fixed.

Consider these excellent points from our partner Citizens Against Beltway Expansion

Click here for paragraph-long summaries of the items below, and more:

  • “After enduring 5 years of construction delays, drivers who use the general lanes [northbound from the American Legion Bridge to the intersection of I-270 and I-370] will be rewarded with a 7 minute and 30 second increase in their daily commute, round trip.”

  • 500 acres of tree canopy would be cut down.

  • 15 parks would be harmed, including 3 national parks.

  • MDOT would not treat most of the stormwater runoff, which would further degrade local waterways.

  • MDOT did not analyze the impact on global warming.

  • There is no assessment of whether low-income communities or communities of color would suffer more of the harmful impacts.

Give MDOT your opinion of the sky-high tolls just approved on 11/18/21

See the table of final tolls here (p.78 of the file). Note:

  • The maximum toll rates apply when there’s heavy congestion, the only times most people would consider using toll lanes.

  • The tolls in the table are in 2021 dollars. Given the approved yearly escalation rate, tolls for passenger vehicles will be well over $4/mile when the toll lanes open. That means $50 tolls to drive from the George Washington Parkway to Shady Grove!

  • Note the exorbitant tolls for multi-axle trucks. The cost will drive big rigs into the general lanes, causing more -- and more serious -- accidents, extra wear and tear on the roads, more trucks on secondary roads, etc.

Call MDOT on the project’s outrageous financial risk to taxpayers

  • This truth-telling editorial in the Washington Post says it all: “Hogan has claimed that the lanes would have ‘virtually no cost to taxpayers,’ because the 50-year deal…would be paid for using private financing. That’s not true.”

  • The public’s going to pay for those toll lanes one way or another: through sky-high tolls, taxes, fees, assumption of financial risk, compensation to the rapacious Australian contractor for revenue shortfalls, and much, much more.

Please submit your comments to MDOT ASAP. The deadline is 11/30!

Please share this newsletter widely so others will know to submit comments, too. Thank you!