Testimony of Lucas Godshalk
on behalf of
Sierra Club DC Chapter
before the
DC Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment
Performance Oversight Hearing on
District Department of Transportation (DDOT)
Monday, January 27, 2020, 11:00am
Councilmember Cheh and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Sierra Club DC Chapter at this DDOT performance oversight hearing.
Electric buses
Electric buses are a key to achieving a sustainable transportation future. Buses, which are important to increase transportation capacity and reduce emissions by displacing private vehicles, unfortunately often combust gasoline or diesel, which create significant particulate pollution and have a large climate impact. On this front, DDOT has done an excellent job accelerating the electrification of the DC Circulator fleet. We applaud DDOT’s success in winning U.S. Department of Transportation funding and using Volkswagen settlement funds to allow DDOT to meet electrification targets from the 2018 clean energy bill well in advance of the deadlines. The Sierra Club is proud to have endorsed DDOT’s grant proposal, and we thank the agency for its engagement with us to achieve this important goal.
Transportation electrification
The Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018 requires the Mayor to establish – by the end of March – a transportation electrification program to require electrification of various vehicle fleets. The bill also requires DDOT to prepare – by July 1, 2021– “a comprehensive clean vehicle transition plan outlining strategies that will encourage and promote the adoption of zero-emission vehicles by drivers in the District.”
For the plan due in March, as far as we know, little has been accomplished beyond planning an RFP requesting a consultant. The Sierra Club urges the Committee to obtain clear work plans and timelines from DDOT and the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) on how the agencies will complete these important plans on time. And we ask that the agencies engage in aggressive public engagement with stakeholders on the transportation electrification plans.
Public EV Charging
The Sierra Club appreciates that DC has taken steps toward building up its EV network. We applaud the District’s efforts to leverage funding and engage Pepco and electric vehicle charging station providers to build public charging stations. We think the 15 charging stations authorized in the Electric Vehicle Public Infrastructure Expansion Act of 2017 (B22-0096) represent another laudable step. We urge DDOT to ensure that funding for the project is included in the next budget.
While public chargers have become more common in the core of the District, they remain relatively scarce in the outer neighborhoods. We strongly encourage DDOT to include an aggressive plan for expanding EV chargers throughout the District both in the report due this March, as well as its July 2021 report. In addition, we recognize that dramatic expansion in charger access may be best facilitated through the Council in order to provide DDOT with the proper tools and funding.
While bills such as the EV Readiness Amendment Act will ease access to charging for off-street parking, the massive number of residents who park on-street will struggle to access charging infrastructure as EV adoption grows. States and cities have built up their charging networks in a variety of ways from leveraging VW funds to approving electric utility programs and investments, including in neighboring Maryland, where almost 1,000 public chargers are being deployed. We recommend the District facilitate investment in charging infrastructure through multiple channels to alleviate range anxiety and facilitate EV travel for those who live and work in the District.
Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI)
The Sierra Club applauds the District’s agencies, including DDOT, that are working on the Transportation Climate Initiative, or TCI, a regional agreement between several Northeast states and DC to address the climate pollution from the transportation sector. We also thank the Council for authorizing the Mayor to join this regional agreement, assuming at least one neighboring state does the same. In December, the TCI released a draft memorandum of understanding that proposes a cap-and-invest system to begin disincentivizing carbon-emitting fuels and technologies in the transportation sector and create funds to be invested in clean technologies and local programs.
We support the cap-and-invest initiative and support setting the most aggressive goals possible. Strong goals and rules will yield the greatest benefits from reducing hydrocarbon use, which include climate, health, and quality-of-life benefits. Strong rules will also collect larger revenues that will fund local and regional programs that reduce fossil fuel use and mitigate equity concerns with the proposed fees.
Conclusion
Thank you for allowing the Sierra Club to testimony before this committee about the importance of reducing emissions from the transportation sector. My Sierra Club colleague Payton Chung will offer additional testimony about transit and multi-modal transportation in DC.
Testimony of Payton Chung
on behalf of
Sierra Club DC Chapter
before the
DC Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment
Performance Oversight Hearing on
District Department of Transportation (DDOT)
Monday, January 27, 2020, 11:00am
Councilmember Cheh and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Sierra Club DC Chapter at this DDOT performance oversight hearing.
Protected bike lanes
DDOT must move much more aggressively to create a complete network of protected bike lanes throughout the District. Only a complete network of safe, all-ages bicycling facilities will enable a large number of District residents to feel safe and confident cycling for their various transportation needs, and only then can the District begin to reap the fiscal, environmental, and public health benefits of widespread cycling. Longstanding Sierra Club policy says that limited street space should prioritize healthful, zero-emissions modes like bicycling over less efficient uses like on-street parking.
To begin with, we join the Washington Area Bicyclists Association in calling for DDOT to complete a 20-mile network of protected bike lanes by the end of this calendar year. In particular, we request north-south protected bike lanes in both eastern downtown and western downtown, two projects we have persistently supported over several years, but which have yet to see the light of day.
We are particularly disappointed with DDOT’s continued delay in completing the eastern downtown protected bike lane. This project has been seemingly indefinitely shelved, and the infrastructure is needed now. Delays because of politics have real costs counted in injuries and deaths of bicyclists. We ask the Council to keep up the pressure to ensure that DDOT completes this project, which has already been funded.
DC needs better laws to streamline the process for building bicycle lanes. We reiterate our support for the various Vision Zero bills that this committee reviewed last October aimed at speeding up the construction of bicycle lanes. While we always hope that DDOT could make more lasting progress on this, past and present experience shows the need for legislative remedies to ensure that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is installed at a quicker pace. We urge this committee to advance this life-saving legislation.
Transit priority lanes
We applaud DDOT for its recent move to establish bus lanes on H and I Streets NW. With continuous and proper enforcement, bus lanes can speed up travel times and increase reliability of service. We are concerned that enforcement has begun to flag, and encourage DDOT to work with the Department of Public Works to establish automated enforcement on all current and future bus lanes. We know that automated traffic law enforcement works well in DC. In London, automated bus lane enforcement has reduced bus lane violations by 85 percent, and New York City has begun to equip its buses with similar equipment.
But a pair of dedicated bus lanes are unlikely to bring back the lost bus ridership we have seen in recent years. We need a true bus transformation to give efficient, safe transit priority use of the District’s streets. We ask that DDOT begin implementing WMATA’s 2008 bus priority corridor network plan, establishing bus lanes, signal priority, all-door boarding, and off-board fare payment. And we need such a transformation quickly. Bus ridership in DC has declined for six years in a row, and speed and reliability of buses have fallen on many routes. This means more cars on the road, more time and fuel wasted by buses sitting in traffic, poorer air quality and greater greenhouse gas emissions.
The Sierra Club asks DDOT to establish a network of bus lanes quickly, and use the H and I Street approach as a blueprint – the bus lanes were established practically overnight, as a pilot project, and later made permanent. Again, we emphasize the need to work with other agencies like the Department of Public Works on enforcement for these projects so that they have a chance to succeed. For instance, we look forward to finally seeing the bus lane on 16th Street NW open this spring, and we hope that the next bus lane will not take another five years.
We were disappointed to hear recent news that DDOT is delaying further planning for Streetcar service. We continue to believe that a Benning Road to Georgetown Streetcar would be the most effective near-term strategy to provide a frequent, high-capacity, zero-emissions surface transit link across the center of the District, and we strongly encourage DDOT to incorporate future crosstown rail service into planning for the K Street Transitway.
Decongestion pricing
The Sierra Club was heartened to see the Council add funds for a study of decongestion pricing into last year’s budget, as this was a key policy strategy identified in MoveDC to reduce transportation related carbon emissions. As members of the DC Sustainable Transportation Coalition, we are closely watching progress on the related study, as well as progress as New York City launches its decongestion pricing program, which will simultaneously reduce congestion and raise more than a billion dollars a year for transit improvements, including transitways.
The Club has long supported the principle of “polluter pays,” and called for decongestion pricing as a way of simultaneously reducing air and climate pollution from automobiles, improving energy efficiency, and raising critically needed funds to improve transit service.
Conclusion
Again, the Sierra Club thanks you for the opportunity to work with this committee and DC government to advance our shared goal of a safe, clean, and sustainable District of Columbia.