Save The Trail Coalition

Testimony -- December 10, 2009

before the Montgomery County Planning Board

Stephen Seidel, Chevy Chase

My name is Stephen Seidel and I am a long-time resident of   Chevy Chase.  I am almost daily user of the Georgetown Branch of the Capital Crescent Trail.  I have a Masters in City and Regional Planning and a law degree, and have worked for over 30 years in various aspect of environmental protection.

Above all, I can quickly recognize a document that is more public relations than substance.  An objective credible planning document would present the proposed plan in a balanced manner, describing both the opportunities and challenges presented by the proposal.  This document is aimed at selling a vision rather than objectively presenting a plan.  For example,

            *          The history of hearings on the Purple Line is described on page 8 of the document without any discussion whatsoever of the issues that were prominent during those hearings.

            *          The vision described on page 9 and its link to the County’s overall growth strategy is portrayed in an idealized manner where solutions abound, but problems remain unstated.

            *          The illustrations included in the plan contain idealized caricatures of  trains and people coexisting in blissful harmony.  They somehow manage not to capture the train bifurcating the pedestrian plaza at Woodmont East (which as you remember, the citizens of the region fought hard to preserve)

            *          Or our high school kids, including my daughter, running across the tracks loaded down with a heavy backpack before dawn trying desperately to get to class before the bell rings – a situation made only worse by the unsubstantiated decision to move the tracks to the town-side of the path.

            *          Or the thousands of runners and bikers who now enjoy the tree-covered splendor of the trail throughout our oppressive summers, who, in the future, will be  laboring along with the summer sun beating down on them because the tree cover has been eviscerated.

            *          Or the totally unrealistic promise of running the trail through the tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue – suspended from the tunnel’s ceiling.

The resident of our county deserve a real planning document, not one that glosses over the very significant challenges that must be addressed to make this project successful.

Finally, I was encouraged to see that a fiscal impact analysis is required before the plan goes to the County Council.  I hope this analysis will look closely at two issues:

First, the huge expense of the light rail system compared to the county-wide transportation needs that could be more cost-effectively served through an extensive bus rapid transit system, and

Second, the likely economic inefficiencies of operating a single light rail system in the county.  The light rail option has all the earmarks of becoming a colossal and hugely expensive white elephant that our county and state can ill afford.

It is not too late to do the only sensible thing and rethink this unfortunate decision.

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