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"Our over-reliance on cars and $4-per-gallon gasoline has led us to dig a really deep hole for ourselves. The Purple Line is the ladder that helps us climb up out of this hole toward the light of rational land use, friendly commutes and a stable climate." Mike Tidwell, director of CCAN |  |
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2-24-03 This message has five parts: 1) Next Coalition Meeting 2) Calendar Item 3) Summary of 1/21/03 meeting 4) Action items 5) Outreach 6) Resources 1) The next coalition meeting will be held on Friday, 3/7/03 at 3 PM at 1010 Wayne Avenue, 10th Floor, Silver Spring. We are skipping a week in order to give people more time to focus on the outreach tasks urgently needed at the present time. 2) CALENDAR ITEM County Executive Douglas M. Duncan will be at the Allied Civic Group meeting to discuss his transportation program. Tuesday, 2/25/03 at 7:30 - MNCPPC auditorium, 8787 GA. Ave. Silver Spring 3) HIGHLIGHTS OF 2/21/03 MEETING a) ANNAPOLIS Lobbying effort - multiple meetings have been held with various members of the Ehrlich administration as well as several Congressmen. In Annapolis, Delegates Franchot and Hixson have been extremely helpful. The participants of these meetings conveyed a sense that *DEADLINE EXTENSION - The governor's deadline has been extended to 3/14/03. *ADDITIONAL MEETINGS - it was suggested that groups representing a range of coalition members also request meetings with the Ehrlich administration (through his appt secretary Terry Cox). Volunteers included Craig Simpson (AFL/CIO), Jim Clarke (ACT/WRN), Michele or Ed (Chevy Chase Land), Erwin Mack (Takoma/Langley was suggested (returning from vacation next week) and it was thought that CASA and several of the Environmental groups with a presence is Annapolis could be brought in for a meeting. b) HURSON/MADALENO BILL: Amendments and riders dropped, but nuisance bill may move forward in which case CBIPL will need a presence at hearings. This will be a good opportunity to turn this legislative threat into a positive. E-mails to Hurson and Madaleno are still encouraged, especially by residents of District 18 (John_Hurson@house.state.md.us) and (Richard_Madaleno@house.state.md.us) c) TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT STUDY: - copy of the draft, prepared by M-DOT's Office of Planning was circulated. This study will raise interest in the IPL, particularly in the NW Prince George's area. d) EIS STATUS: Western segment - MTA meeting with Country Club, Riviera Apts, North Woodside and others in the next couple of weeks. Working hard to develop solutions to ROW issues along tight spots. Eastern segment - Line and Grade study completed, work on Preliminary EIS in process with goal of public meetings in April. e) PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY: Status of Johnson letter unknown, but he was publicly supportive of IPL on news channel 8. Cheryl Harrington of Councilman Shapiro's office will check again next week. Thank County Executive Johnson via e-mail at countyexecutive@co.pg.md.us. f) MONTGOMERY COUNTY: Sierra Club is now in support of project; Village of North Chevy Chase is withdrawing from the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Coalition due to GBCCC support of Purple Line Loop. Washington Area Bicyclists Assn has made publicly clarified their belief that transit and the trail can coexist. g) CAPITAL HILL - Council members and others have held series of meetings with Van Hollen and Wynn - now plan to meet with Congressman Hoyer, Senator Sarbanes (contact Charlie Steck), and Mikulski (contact Tony Lawrence) Council member Leventhal is setting these up. Suggested that John Porcari might be willing to attend meeting with Congressman Hoyer. 4) ACTION ITEMS Marty Kearns, a communications professional discussed ways of stepping up the grass roots campaign as a complement to the lobbying work. This theme was consistent with the recommendation of the lobbying team. Kearns has developed the ACT website for the purple line: www.innerpurpleline.org, which provides basic information and enables visitors to quickly send a letter to the governor. Kearns also offered to help organizational members of the coalition develop messages tailored to their membership for distribution. Contact Marty@innerpurpleline.org for more information. a) FAX AND E-MAIL THE GOVERNOR - priority remains getting volume of letters and e-mails. E-mail for is Gov. Ehrlich is governor@gov.state.md.us; Fax is 410/974-3591. Governor's staff, who should also be contacted: Lt Governor Michael S. Steele e-mail: ltgovernor@gov.state.md.us fax: 410 974-5882 Steven L. Kreseski, Chief of Staff - fax: 410 974-5735 e-mail: skreseski@gov.state.md.us Edward MCDonald, Deputy Chief of Staff e-mail: emcdonald@gov.state.md.us phone 410-974-3901 fax: ? Joseph M. Getty, Director of Policy e-mail: jgetty@gov.state.md.us phone: 410 974-3336 fax: ? Robert Flanagan, Secretary, MDOT e-mail: secretary@mdot.state.md.us fax: 410-865-1334 Paul Schurick, Director of Communications and Strategic Planning pschurick@gov.state.md.us fax: 410 974-2542 5. OUTREACH If you have contacts in other organizations that might be interested in endorsing our coalition's goals, send them to purple line@aol.com. We can send an outreach e-mail or schedule a visit to meet with the interested parties. Target organizations: businesses along the right of way, faith organizations with interests in communities along the right of way, civic organizations, condominium associations, property management organizations with interests in communities to be served by the Purple Line, federal government agencies located in Purple Line service areas (WRAMC, FDA, NIH, NOAA). 6) RESOURCES www.lightrailnow.org This is a U.S. advocacy site, with lots of basic information on light rail transit. For example, an article shows how many new LRT lines are exceeding ridership forecasts: (exerpt) Light rail opponents often retail the fiction that new light rail transit startups consistently fail to meet their ridership projections. It should be noted that this is often based on a form of "numbers voodoo" performed by anti-rail zealots upon transit agencies' ridership projections for various early system configurations and assumptions, which typically change dramatically during decisionmaking and design refinement.In reality, light rail has an excellent "track record" for meeting and even exceeding its ridership forecasts, based on projections made for a finalized system design at the time of project installation.Here are some figures on recent light rail ridership projections vs. achievement: In Dallas, DART's LRT ridership (now at about 40,000 a day) was 10% higher than forecast. [SOURCE: DART). In Portland, ridership on the new Westside MAX LRT extension exceeded forecasts by 22%. [SOURCE: Tri-Met, 2000] In St. Louis, ridership on the MetroLink light rail system exceeded its initial forecast of 12,000 by carrying 20,000 riders its first year, exceeding the forecast by 67%. Today, after 8 years, ridership has reached the 40,000 level âEUR" already exceeding the 20-year projection of 37,000 [SOURCE: Bi-State Development Agency, 2000; Citizens for Modern Transit, 2001] In Salt Lake City, ridership on the Trax light rail line now at an average of 20,000 people on weekdays âEUR" has exceeded forecasts by 43%. [SOURCE: Utah Transit Authority, 2000; Denver Business Journal And Denver's brand-new Southwest LRT extension to Littleton, Colorado, opened in the summer of 2000, is now carrying up to 14,000 people on weekdays 67% above the original projections of 8,400 [SOURCE: Denver RTD ; Denver Business Journal 2001/01/26] [end] |
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68,000 riders each weekday is huge! Counting down to completion of Purple Line DEIS; Latest news: Latest News; How you can help 
See: We need you to help keep the Purple Line a state and county priority. Write a letter, make a call or send an e-mail in support of the Purple Line today. See: Contact List |
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