Transportation Hearing in Review
The PG County transportation hearing in College Park City Hall last night drew a probably unprecedented number of people to the council chambers. After some short presentations from the county, there was a seemingly
unending procession of local politicians and community members lined up for the podium to request that the county government prioritize or eliminate this, that, or the other transportation project.
Everyone in attendance seemed avidly pro-transit and anti-highway and there was of course a large contingent of anti-ICC protesters doling out stickers. The interesting thing was that while everyone wanted more transit, relatively few people talked about the necessity of smart growth and infill development that makes transit feasible and trail extensions (great proposals by the way) prudent. Indeed, it’s hard to distinguish what is more important - development or transportation.
Why is bridging that 1.5 miles of farmland between the beltway and 193 so tempting to UMD administrators? We think it’s because that is the system we have built for ourselves and that is the pattern of land use that is easiest to articulate to passive observers of the debate. How, everyone seems to be wondering, with all this new development, is College Park going to be able to handle all the traffic? It’s up to elected officials to articulate this if they expect to avert the Connector Road.
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