Business and transit groups called for a changes in how Montgomery County views its transportation policies, as the county hunts for a new chief for its Department of Transportation, according to Bethesda Now.
Five groups — the Action Committee for Transit, Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors, Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery County group of the Sierra Club and Washington Area Bicyclist Association — jointly sent a letter to county Executive Ike Leggett, asking him to consider that “changing preferences in living style and demographic trends place new demands on the transportation system,” as he searches for a successor to MCDOT Director Art Holmes, according to the letter the Bethesda publication posted on its website.
The agency must take sustainability into account in its future transportation planning, as well as the need to protect more walkable neighborhoods.
“We are a mosaic of rural, suburban, and urban neighborhoods, and each section of the county has its own transportation needs,” the groups wrote. “Automobiles, bicycles, trains, buses, and pedestrian routes must not merely coexist, they must work together as a transportation system that will support and encourage much of the county’s future growth to occur in mixed use higher density walkable transit-served neighborhoods”
Al Roshdieh, MCDOT deputy director, has been named acting director in the meantime.
