Here is my latest airing on Transportation Radio, which features Mobility Lab and the work it’s doing to research and publicize Arlington County, Virginia’s cutting-edge transportation programs.
Paul Mackie of Mobility Lab
Paul Mackie, Mobility Lab’s communications director, discusses the possibilities for transportation agencies nationwide to do more with less funding (which seems to now be a permanent state of affairs) if they would take a look at Arlington’s blueprint for success and adopt some of the same transportation practices.
Arlington’s “transportation demand management” programs have something for every jurisdiction – no matter whether that area is urban or rural and has a top-notch subway system or simply teleworking and ridesharing programs. Virginia’s 15 TDM agencies is a great statewide example of how this practice can be implemented.
Mackie says being “inside the Beltway” is a “double-edged sword” because the assumption is that bureaucrats in Washington D.C. don’t have a clue what goes on in the rest of the country, but the partnership opportunities D.C. presents are immense for hopefully strengthening TDM’s policy and funding cachet.
Other issues discussed in my interview with Mackie include:
- Commuter transportation pre-tax benefits (which will likely be slashed within the next month and will essentially give much greater and unfair incentives for driving than taking public transportation), and
- The fact that removing traffic jams with very little funding can be significantly accomplished with TDM “demand-based” practices, instead of the typically “supply-based” method of simply building new, expensive, and unnecessary roads.
Photos by M.V. Jantzen and Rick&Brenda Beerhorst