Montgomery County, Md. is big and sprawling, built out at the height of suburbanization. This presents problems when it comes to encouraging transit, and even more so for walking and biking.
Fortunately, the county has a long history of implementing transportation demand management (TDM) programs to encourage public transit and other alternatives.
Due to its size and nature—a million people in nearly 500 square miles—Montgomery County must be selective. The county has long worked on developing urban centers and has designated six Transportation Management Districts (TMDs) to implement TDM in key areas with dense populations, as well as job and transit centers.
Montgomery County does have a history of forward-looking regarding transit and smart growth, beginning with the “wedges and corridors” plan in 1964 that helped preserve agricultural areas. Furthermore, the county includes important portions of the greater Washington, D.C. Metrorail system, as well as an award-winning local bus network.
Despite this, Montgomery County consistently has some of the worst traffic in the nation, along with the entire D.C. region.
The TMD areas are designated and operated by the county, but with local input and participation. (For those readers who might be confused, TDM is the policy while TMDs are the areas that manage TDM.)
However, at least two districts, White Oak and White Flint, have had residents actively lobby for measures to reduce traffic and increase transit, on the way to more density and walkability. (The White Oak TMD, however, is not yet funded.)
Some key TMDs
The long, persistent process of building TDM in the sprawling Montgomery County—reminiscent, perhaps, of a guerrilla insurgency tackling some huge, bumbling, yet implacable invading army—began in the 1980s in Silver Spring, in the southeast part of the county just across from the Washington, D.C. border. While the area remained largely dormant through the 1990s, the stage was set for a great revival in the new millennium, centered in an attractive, walkable new downtown.
Currently, walkable, transit-oriented development is most prominent in the North Bethesda TMD, due to the presence of White Flint, one of 20 finalists for the new Amazon headquarters. White Flint is a stellar example of YIMBYism (Yes, in my backyard), in that residents worked hard for a more urban feel, and more density, by taking advantage of the existing Metrorail station. In addition, a new express bus service, numerous local bus routes, and an anticipated BRT line nicely situate the area for growth.
Nevertheless, the expansive North Bethesda TMD still contains numerous detached houses, which meant it requires a circulator bus and shuttles from the beginning, said Gary Erenrich, special assistant to the director for WMATA (the D.C. regional transit agency).
White Flint is not the only center of current revival and expansion. The White Oak TMD, in the county’s eastern corner, is notable for its attempt to build a culture of transit in an area not accessible via Metrorail. At the heart of the effort is a new BRT line, planned to open in 2020, the first of an anticipated larger system. The presence of the Food and Drug Administration provides a strong anchor, and other businesses are moving in. The low-income, largely minority area is notable in that residents and businesses actually called for such development.
Meeting TDM requirements
Each TMD uses a similar process of contracts with developers to specify TDM plans. An employer with 25 or more employees in a TMD must sign a Traffic Mitigation Plan (TMP). A developer must sign an agreement, called a Traffic Mitigation Agreement (TMAg).
Either may draw from a similar menu of options to meet TMD requirements, which “involves allowing us to have access to employees to promote TDM,” said Beth Dennard, planning specialist.
Ways to meet traffic-reduction goals include promotional activities, transit subsidies, and improvements to bicycling and pedestrian facilities.
Promotion includes informational “Welcome Packets.” In addition, the county runs its own events, such as an annual bike-to-work day. For such a new project, “we do outreach,” said Sandra L. Brecher, chief of commuter services of the county Department of Transportation. This includes meetings, on-site events, promotions in employer lobbies or cafeterias, even ice cream socials. (To get people to show up, Brecher highly recommends food.)
Developments are also required to display transit information in prominent locations. Room for car sharing and bike sharing is another way to meet requirements, as is an electric-vehicle charging station.
Unbundling parking is a key strategy for developers as part of a TMAg plan. “The purpose of our efforts with unbundling is to ensure those prospective tenants (employers) are not required to take a certain number of spaces as part of their lease agreement,” a member of the Commuter Services staff told me in an email. Unbundling means “that employers can save money by not needing to pay for as many parking spaces.”
The incentive becomes to make it as easy as possible for employees to get to work by means other than solo car trips, rather than to pay for expensive parking spaces. In addition, market-rate parking is “one of the holy grails of TDM,” said Brecher, but “we don’t always succeed in getting that.”
While many TDM plans include bike parking and showers, Maryland has also pioneered the Liberty program to bring bikeshare to low-income people, including free membership, safety lessons, and helmets. The program “helps the unbanked and un-credit carded,” Dennard said.
Data is key
Information is key to effectively managing TDM in a large, complex region. Regular surveys, via both employers and buildings, are thus required.
The county has a database of more than 4,000 employers that it can use to target specific areas, Brecher said. For instance, a new bus rapid transit (BRT) line is being planned for Veirs Mill Road, an important east-west connection. Should the line materialize, this database will be key in designing a TDM plan to get people onto the new system.
Elsewhere, transportation management is well underway. The White Flint Sector Plan includes especially aggressive goals of 34 percent non-auto share in phase 1, 42 percent by the end of phase 2, and 51 percent for phase 3, according to Dennard.
Monitoring is, of course, a crucial part of the program. Montgomery County DOT periodically conducts surveys to determine mode share. Recent results for White Flint, show some 38 percent of trips are single-occupancy vehicle trips at peak times, easily meeting the phase 1 goal, Brecher said.
Silver Spring has also shown impressive results: the TMD moved from a 39 percent non-auto driver mode share in 1997 to 53 percent currently, according to a county report (p. 40).
To aid in thinking strategically, and dealing with new development, the county has even adopted a color-coded Transportation Policy Areas map for TDM, with red signifying the greatest need, stepping down to orange, yellow, and then green, generally for the least dense parts of the county. To think even bigger, the county shares data with the Council of Governments, a regional organization encompassing Washington D.C., Northern Virginia, and the Maryland suburbs near D.C.
TMDs are only part—albeit a central part—of long-term efforts to tame the beast of traffic and sprawl in Montgomery County. The county also provides Parking Lot Districts in three key areas: Bethesda, Silver Spring, and Wheaton, explained Erenrich. These allow centralized parking with fewer spaces overall, freeing up walkable, mixed-use space.
It takes a long term, comprehensive effort, with many imaginative programs, but Montgomery County is doing its best to reduce car dependence in a traffic-snarled region.
Photo of Bethesda by Dan Reed.