Transportation leaders travel into the future

WASHINGTON - If you hate your commute, and can't imagine traffic getting better -- imagine this in about 30 years: A Metro line from Dunn Loring to Bethesda, street-car service criss-crossing the District and an express bus network running on toll roads with dozens of stops.

Local leaders got a look at some bold, new ideas Wednesday.

"We really do need to think differently about our future than our current base-line forecast," says Ron Kirby, director of Transportation for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. "We have basically just put together things we have done, the local governments have done, Metro has done -- and you get a lot of things."

Current long-range transportation plans take the region to 2030, but these new plans extend that time frame into 2040 and beyond.

"That gives you more time to look at different kinds of land development opportunities and investments in transit, which take a long time," says Kirby.

While all of the ideas discussed Wednesday will not become reality by 2040, the region's Transportation Planning Board is trying to figure out which projects make the most sense.

The Board is especially focused on the idea of building transit options around the region's projected growth centers like Waldorf and Urbana in Maryland.

"If we are going to get these impacts really in 2050, we need to start now," says Kirby. "Just as the creators of the Metrorail system started building in the 1960's and 70's, we are now getting the benefits some 40 years later."

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