Prince George’s officials hope several proposed bus routes and route expansions in south county will ease commutes and parking for residents, and plan to set up a public task force to work on the final approved routes.

Officials from the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation met Jan. 18 with residents in the Fort Washington and Oxon Hill areas at Oxon Hill Library to gather feedback on the new bus routes.

Residents and staff of Fort Washington Manor, a senior apartment community off Indian Head Highway that is one of the new stops proposed along Route 35 of TheBus, the county’s bus transportation system, have been pushing for a new bus route nearby since the community opened almost six years ago.

Dolores C. Henderson, 78, who lives at Fort Washington Manor, said even for seniors who still drive, parking is often a hassle at certain locations.

“I am ecstatic,” she said. “Even though I drive, I would like the option to take the bus and to not have to drive. [With the new route] I don’t have to work so hard to get to places.”

Prince George's County hazmat crews assisted CSX with a diesel fuel spill caused by a derailment in Bladensburg, Md., Tuesday afternoon.

On a side track, a locomotive struck a derailer, causing the locomotive to flip on its side in an industrial park in the 2900 block of 52nd Avenue.

No injuries were reported, according to the Prince George’s County Fire Department. No evacuations were necessary, and there were no disruptions in commuter rail or vehicle traffic.

The extension will stretch the ICC from I-270/I-370 in Montgomery County to I-95 in Prince George's County.

...Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker called the new highway the “economic engine of the state.” He said it makes it possible to attract and create jobs in Prince George’s County.

The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board plans to apply for up to $29 million in federal stimulus funds to help pay for seven projects around transit stops from New Carrollton to Prince George's County, according to the draft application.

Half of the Capital Beltway’s outer loop is likely to be blocked most of the day while workers inspect and repair the Forestville Road bridge, which was hit by a dump truck, the Maryland State Highway Administration said this morning. The ramp from the inner loop to Forestville Road also is closed and so is Forestville Road over the Beltway.

Northbound traffic on I-95/495 near Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County was backed up for miles during the morning rush, and delays almost certainly will continue until the lanes reopen. That may not be until this evening, the highway administration said.

Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Dist. 26) is calling for state and Prince George’s County officials to help funnel infrastructure improvements to a major Oxon Hill roadway, in light of recently announced plans to bring an 80-tenant outlet mall and a Walmart to the area surrounding National Harbor.

But county officials and some community groups argued that the additions near Indian Head Highway/Route 210 and several other highways would not cause as much additional traffic as Muse suggests, lessening the immediate need for planned road-widening and the addition of exits and overpasses.

Muse, of Fort Washington, argues the highway is already over capacity.

The College Park City Council is rushing to meet a state deadline for allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars made issuing speeding tickets to drivers caught on camera. Council members said they are working to determine by June how to spend the estimated $600,000 the city will net from the newly implemented speed camera program, which mails $40 tickets to speeders.

I just got my hands on the three protests of the General Services Administration's Department of Health and Human Services lease award. Here are some of the salient (nonredacted) points in the documents.

In case you haven't been following the protests over the last few weeks, three losing teams — One Largo Metro LLC, Metroview Development Holdings LLC and King Farm Associates LLC — have all filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over the GSA's decision to keep HHS at The JBG Cos.'s Parklawn building in Montgomery County.

Brandy Meminger's daughter was going to start pre-kindergarten this fall, joining her older brother, a kindergarten student, at the John Hanson French Immersion/Montessori School.

But potential cuts to busing for specialty schools such as John Hanson might derail that plan, said Meminger, a Clinton resident. It would be "a severe inconvenience," she said, to drop off both children at school and still make it to her job in Sterling, Va., on time.

State transportation officials have narrowed their list of potential sites for a $150 million truck-to-rail CSX container transfer facility along the main Camden rail line from 12 to four finalists, including two in Howard, one in Anne Arundel and one in Prince George's counties.

...The fourth option is east of the line between Sunnyside Avenue and Powder Mill Road, west of Route 201 in Prince George's County.

The new administration of Prince George's Rushern Baker sent conflicting signals last week about its approach to bicycle and pedestrian safety. Baker endorsed the great work from a few officials on biking and walking, but his transition report recommends shifting their responsibilities to another agency that has repeatedly disregarded bicycling and walking.

Speed cameras will not go up until fall, but Hyattsville City Council voted 7-1 March 7 to create school zones and authorize the speed control program to go forward.

Before any cameras are installed, the city will conduct a traffic study on camera locations to be approved by the council.

"I'm going to support the enabling legislation, but beyond this, it really remains to be seen whether I'll support the program. The devil's in the details I think," said Councilman Timothy Hunt, Ward 3.

The Maryland State Highway Administration and police agencies in Prince George's County are planning patrols and sobriety checkpoints to keep drunken drivers off roads amid St. Patrick's Day festivities today.

Maryland State Police in the Forestville and College Park barracks will focus on impaired and aggressive drivers on the Capital Beltway from 10 p.m. tonight until 4 a.m. Friday.

The Prince George's County Police Department is conducting saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints from 5 p.m. today until 3 a.m. Friday at unknown locations.

It's not every day that you get to drive on a highway that is only nine days old.

But in the spirit of adventure, Patch editor Brian Hooks and I took a cruise on the smooth, newly poured pavement of the Intercounty Connector, the first section of the toll road expected to substantially slice the amount of time some suburban Washington and Baltimore commuters spend on the road.

The Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Maryland, is launching Branch Avenue in Bloom, an innovative, multi-partner program to revitalize the area around the Naylor Road Metro station and the St. Barnabas Road commercial corridor in Prince George's county.

Branch Avenue in Bloom combines outside planning resources with community assets to stimulate investor interest in development around the Metro stations in that part of the county. The program managers believe it may be the first effort of its kind in Prince George's.

When the first segment of a controversial new highway that will connect Montgomery and Prince George's counties opens Tuesday, Maryland will have built what was once considered impossible in Washington's congested suburbs: a six-lane, multibillion-dollar toll road across fragile streams, a stone's throw from hundreds of homes.

The full cost of the Intercounty Connector - the exchange of woodlands for asphalt; the effects on residents along its path; debt payments that could require raising tolls throughout the state - will be analyzed for years. The immediate question is how opening the first 7.2 miles will affect traffic.

The full cost of the Intercounty Connector - the exchange of woodlands for asphalt; the effects on residents along its path; debt payments that could require raising tolls throughout the state - will be analyzed for years. The immediate question is how opening the first 7.2 miles will affect traffic.

These were some of the statistics Shyam Kannan of RCLCO presented at a community forum last week organized by the Coalition for Smarter Growth and Envision Prince George's. Mr. Kannan detailed the market potential of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the county.

Plans for a major mixed-use development near the MARC station at Bowie State University moved forward last week following a Prince George's County Council vote to create an advisory board to produce recommendations for the development and also the financing of the project.

"The meetings will be public, but I don't know yet when the first meeting will be," said council Chairwoman Ingrid Turner, who introduced Resolution CR-5-2011 on Feb. 1. The resolution created the board with council approval.

I wasn't able to attend last Tuesday's Purple Line forum, as I was happily riding a crowded Amtrak train. But the university helpfully posted a high-quality video of the event online. You can watch it here. If you don't have 2 hours to spare, here's what you missed:

As the first segment of the 18.8-mile toll highway nears completion, the Maryland State Highway Administration is carrying out a 2008 settlement negotiated with the Environmental Defense Fund. The group lost a 2007 federal lawsuit aimed at stopping the ICC's construction on environmental grounds.

The group agreed to drop its appeal of the ruling in exchange for the state spending $1 million to install exhaust filters on 70 diesel school buses, along with $1 million to collect three years of data from a new air-quality monitor near the Beltway and Route 214 in Prince George's County. The results could determine how much people near highways are exposed to unhealthy particles and droplets of chemicals in vehicle emissions.

New data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a wide gap in income and education levels among Prince George's County residents as well as insight into the commuting patterns of residents.

The wealthiest households were in Woodmore, according to the new data collected between 2005 and 2009, where the median household income was about $154,000. By contrast, residents in Cottage City took home a median household income of just $38,750.

South county residents continued to have the longest commutes. In Brandywine, Accokeek, Friendly, Temple Hills and Fort Washington, more than a quarter of residents reported traveling at least an hour to get to their job.

"Myopic" would be the belief that the suburbs are necessarily better places for working- and middle-class whites, even though they are not actually good for wide swaths of people, because of social fictions about the nature of people who occupy them. (This is particularly galling coming from a resident of Prince George's County, which has steadfastly refused to organize land use in a way that would allow its existing transit infrastructure to work in a self-sustaining fashion, in favor of cargo-cultic sprawl and totally atomized new-urbanist theme parks like National Harbor and Konterra.)

Prince George's County planners are seeking public input for redeveloping a stretch of Branch Avenue marred by heavy traffic, rundown storefronts and a lack of office space to take advantage of nearby Metrorail stations and proximity to Washington, D.C.

The proposed eight-mile section of Branch Avenue to be included in a new planning document spans Marlow Heights, Temple Hills, Camp Springs and Clinton, with the likely boundaries being St. Barnabas Road to the north and Southern Maryland Hospital Center to the south.

Planners met Thursday with about 15 representatives of community associations around Clinton to learn about the problems facing the southern section of the Branch Avenue; a similar meeting for Camp Springs-area residents on the northern end of Branch Avenue took place Oct. 26.

A larger public meeting is scheduled for Dec. 11.

Transit-oriented concrete plant: Not only does the proposed concrete plant in Prince George's County intensify polluting uses near the same poor, minority residents, but as Dave Murphy notes, it's really close to Cheverly Metro, missing a good opportunity for TOD at the same time.

Maryland's approach is to improve transportation and environmental outcomes and streamline environmental processes through regular, ongoing dialogues with resource agencies, communities, and other stakeholders.

"That way we can anticipate issues early in the project development process," Sanghavi said. "When you go above and beyond [what is required], regulatory agencies recognize this and it helps develop collaborative partnerships over the long-term."

For example, through an agreement with the Maryland Department of the Environment, the highway administration conducts self-certification for inspections of erosion and sediment controls.

Maryland is currently involved in a particularly challenging "mega project:" constructing the Intercounty Connector across Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the Washington suburbs. The construction zone includes an area of significant environmental challenges. Sanghavi said that the MSHA is proving its environmental stewardship one community at a time, building support for the long-planned project to move into construction.

On a typical weekday, it takes Jane Young about an hour to commute from her Croom home to her job at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

Young, who travels by car and Metro, is among the more than 60 percent of Prince George's residents who travel out of the county for work, according to a new analysis of statewide commuting patterns between 2000 and 2008 that the Maryland Department of Planning released this month. The data highlights the county's struggle during the past decade to attract employers -- especially federal agencies -- and jobs that appeal to the county's professional work force.

Young said she is willing to make the two-hour round trip each day to and from work so that she can continue to live in the quiet, rural community south of Upper Marlboro.

Maryland transportation officials said they will be spending more than $12 million on new Prince George's County road projects next fiscal year — but added that they still do not have money for many of the county's top priorities.

Governor Martin O'Malley announced new safety and community improvement initiatives in Prince George's County: the approval of $4 million in design funds will be used to work on the Maryland Route 450 Bladensburg Community Safety and Enhancement Project. The $4 million design project will begin immediately on new roadway safety improvements along Maryland Route 450 between Kenilworth Avenue and 54th Street.

The Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation is planning changes to TheBus service on all 4 routes operating out of Greenbelt Station.

Prince George's wants to better allocate resources to run buses at higher frequency. But several Berwyn Heights officials are upset about the plan, because they think residents don't want — and won't ride — a bus with more frequent service.

This week was, and is, jam packed with special events around walking and biking, including some great walking and biking tours coming up.

Capital Bikeshare launched yesterday to great fanfare in the plaza behind USDOT. TheWashCycle summarized all the press coverage. Memberships are still $50 so join now!

Don't panic if the station you were hoping to use isn't included in the official map. More stations will be rolling out, a few a week, through October. The printed maps on the existing stations have the complete map, and there are no plans to cut any of those stations.

Prince George's County bus drivers plan to continue a strike for the seventh day on Monday, leaving thousands of riders stranded as the workweek starts.

A five-hour negotiating session Friday ended in gridlock.

"Negotiations didn't go well at all," said Howard Marshall, business agent for the bus drivers union. "But we aren't ending the strike. [Drivers] know that without job security they are always going to be tap-danced on."

New Carrollton is slated to become Metro's first large-scale transit-oriented development in Prince George's County.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is looking for development teams to partner on a 5.5 million-square-foot project on 39 acres near the New Carrollton Metrorail, Amtrak and MARC stations.

As reported here earlier, 40-year-old Jose Daniel Cubias-Rivera was killed in a hit and run on University Boulevard in Adelphi last month. Apparently there were two drivers involved in the crash -- a Crown Vic taxicab that hit Cubias Rivera and threw him into the next lane over, where he was hit by another car, perhaps a dark-colored Toyota Camry. Both drivers took off.

Hit-and-run crashes aren't easy to solve, and Prince George's County police say they haven't had any breaks in the case. Considering the time that's passed, it's looking increasingly likely that these two drivers won't be held accountable for leaving a homeless man to die in the road.

When a pedestrian is maimed or killed by a car, you'll often read that the victim was "not in a designated crosswalk" at the time of the crash. There's a strong undercurrent of culpability in such a statement. I don't know exactly where Cubias-Rivera was walking when he was hit. But judging from where the on-scene investigation was held the night of the crash, he probably wasn't in the crosswalk.

That is an important detail -- but only because of what it tells us about how this part of Prince George's County was designed.

In Prince George's County, there will be multiple overnight closures on portions of Interstate 95. There also will be daytime lane closures on Route 301 as rehabilitation of the Route 214 bridge continues.

The State and Federal Highway Administrations recently completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Intercounty Connector (ICC), a proposed highway in Prince George's and Montgomery counties. The comprehensive document will be available on the Internet for viewing and download at www.iccstudy.org by the end of the week and a formal notice in the Federal Register should appear Jan. 13.

Increased buses, shorter routes and better customer service were among the suggestions by residents of southern Prince George's County during a meeting Tuesday held by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to evaluate ways to improve bus routes in the area.

The meeting was one of several officials with WMATA organized throughout the Washington, D.C., region in August as part of a service evaluation study to use resident feedback on bus routes to develop recommendations for improved services.

Although College Park officials once estimated a mid- to late-August arrival for the city's first speed cameras, they now are unsure when the devices will arrive but hope to have them in early fall.

The City Council voted unanimously on June 8 to establish speed camera zones in North College Park and surrounding the University of Maryland, College Park, but still must receive permission from the state and Prince George's County to put cameras on state- and county-owned roads within the zones.

Seeking to ease traffic along Indian Head Highway/Route 210 and maintain state funding for education, Del. Veronica L. Turner of Camp Springs is seeking her third term in the Maryland House of Delegates District 26 seat.

Although Turner, 60, who was elected to the delegation in 2002, made strides in securing funding for a new Oxon Hill High School and auditorium for Crossland High School in Temple Hills, she said she still sees a full plate of tasks to accomplish if re-elected.

The Prince George's County Police Department will be partnering with the Adele H. Stamp Student Union - Center for Campus Life, University of Maryland Police, and the Student Government Association in the CRIME TIME - Get Home Safely Initiative.

Prince George's County will soon be getting more taxis.

The county council voted Tuesday to overturn County Executive Jack Johnson's veto of legislation to increase the number of taxis in the county. The new legislation will add 400 permits to the current 775 and will take effect Oct. 1.

The measure won council approval in July, but was vetoed by Johnson. It was his second veto since he took office in 2002.

Johnson said in a letter to the council last week that he liked the general premise of the measure, but thought it might backfire against prospective taxi drivers who have been waiting for years to get a Prince George's taxicab medallion.

TO THE LIST of dysfunction at Metro -- broken escalators; deadly accidents and safety mishaps; aging equipment; crumbling platforms; uncertain management; parlous finances -- add one more glaring problem: members of Metro's own board of directors who regard their responsibility to attend board meetings as optional. Put another way, some of the same people whom passengers are relying on to fix a broken agency can't even be bothered to show up.

According to records obtained by the Washington Examiner, about half of the 14 Metro board members have missed meetings in the 18 months that ended July 1 with some regularity, meaning at least a quarter to a fifth of the time. By far the worst offenders are D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), one of the District's representatives on the board, and Marcell Solomon, one of Maryland's. By their absences, both men make a mockery of the nation's second-busiest transit system and display contempt not only for their colleagues on the board, but also for the system's bus and rail passengers.

Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson has issued his second veto in eight years -- this time nixing a bill that won unanimous support from the County Council to expand the number of taxis in Prince George's.

Jackson said in a two-and-half page letter to the council that he liked the general premise of the bill but wasn't happy with the details, which he said could backfire against elderly riders and prospective taxi drivers, many of whom have been waiting for several years to get one of the coveted Prince George's medallions. And some drivers who were in line to get medallions would lose their spot under a new system in the bill, Johnson said in his message.

By next summer, Metrorail may need a broader palette of colors. Transit authority staffers have long discussed a proposal to divert some Blue Line trains across the Yellow Line bridge and send them along the Green Line route to Greenbelt. At the same time, they would add trains between West Falls Church and Largo Town Center, a route that includes stations now served exclusively by Orange or Blue line trains. Besides disrupting the color scheme, what would this rerouting accomplish?

Metro's board of directors approved an agreement Thursday that will allow Maryland and the transit authority to develop 41 acres they own around the New Carrollton Metro station, a first step in transforming the area into an urban center.

The Maryland Transit Administration says riders on MTA Route 904 should be careful near the bus shelter located at the Prince George's Equestrian Center. Officials said the shelter has been condemned due to storm damage that occurred Tuesday night.

Pedestrians and cyclists will be able to bike to the District via Prince George's County once construction is complete on two miles of trail starting at Bladensburg Waterfront Park.

Work began two weeks ago on the 2-mile link, which will cost $1.3 million and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Once finished, it will connect 24 miles of Maryland trails that end near Bladensburg Waterfront Park to 16 miles of planned trails in the District.

A Prince George's County grand jury on Tuesday indicted two District men on charges they stole more than $19,000 worth of copper wire from Amtrak.

The indictments were announced by State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey during a press conference outside the Amtrak station in New Carrollton.

Authorities said the thefts occurred between November 2009 and this March.

Citing a ticking clock, Prince George's County Council members unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to double the number of licensed taxicabs.

"There's been too many years of doing nothing," Council Chairman Thomas A. Dernoga (D-Dist. 1) of Laurel said just before the council voted.

The vote was taken at the council's last meeting before going on summer break, and with four council members leaving due to term limits this fall, the vote marks one of the last major initiatives the council will address before the Sept. 14 primary election. After summer break, the council is scheduled to meet one more time, on Sept. 7, the last meeting before the election.

Metro is increasing security at its bus facilities after a teenager wearing a Metro uniform drove off in a bus from a Bladensburg garage Friday and picked up passengers before crashing into a tree, officials said.

The longstanding debate over whether to increase the number of taxi permits in Prince George's County is expected to be addressed July 13, the County Council's last day of voting before its summer break.

County Bill 36 calls for increasing the number of certified cabs from 775 to 1,175 in October and another 75 each year until 2016. The proposal would also increase fees for licenses and insurance requirements, and require the prominent display of a red official cab sticker on all taxis.

A new 2-mile trail that will be built in Prince George's County is being described as a key link in Maryland's transportation network.

"By providing this one missing trail link, the state is connecting people to neighborhoods, Metro stations, parks, the University of Maryland, several schools, an airport, the Washington Nationals' Stadium and the National Mall at the Tidal Basin," says Gov. Martin O'Malley, in a news release.

O'Malley says the $1.3 million trail will let folks get where they need to go without getting in their cars.

Officials from MARC, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration are investigating why a MARC train stalled eight minutes after it left Union Station on Monday evening and how 900 passengers were stranded in rail cars without air conditioning for more than two hours in sweltering heat, Maryland's transit administrator said Tuesday....

The Prince George's County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department began getting 911 calls from stranded passengers at 7:50 p.m., after train 538 on the Penn Line had come to a stop near New Carrollton at 6:23 p.m., officials said. About 10 people were treated at the scene for heat-related problems, including profuse sweating, nausea and dizziness, said fire department spokesman Mark Brady. Three of those passengers, including one having an asthma attack, were taken to a hospital, Brady said.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision last week to relocate the Department of Housing and Community Development from Crownsville to Prince George's County. is almost certainly good politics -- and it could turn out to be good policy as well.

When you think about it, it just doesn't make much sense to locate a department that mostly serves urban communities on a leafy suburban campus far from transit routes. And Prince George's is an important population center with far superior transit connections.

But while the news is undoubtedly good for Prince George's, it could go either way for Baltimore. Certainly it's not like moving a department out of Baltimore to fulfill a pledge to that county -- as former Gov. Bob Ehrlich tried with the Department of Planning. But some Baltimore-area employees of the department could be severely inconvenienced if the wrong decision is made about where to locate in Prince George's County.

Two of the choices are bad....

Governor Martin O'Malley, joined by Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, state and local officials and community leaders, officially launched the process to move the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) into Prince George's County. Relocating the 330+ employee agency to Prince George's County serves as a milestone in the Governor's transit-oriented development vision for state agencies. Further, the move brings an agency dedicated to neighborhood revitalization closer to one of the population centers it serves most, while promoting smart growth and sustainable communities. To date in FY 2010, DHCD invested the largest amount of mortgage financing in Prince George's County.

"Prince George's County is the second biggest county in our State. Yet in the 375 year history of our State, it has not been home to the headquarters of a state agency, until now," said Governor O'Malley. "Today's announcement fulfills a commitment we made to the people of Prince George's County four years ago. It moves an agency dedicated to revitalizing communities to an area of our state that is rich in history and diversity, capitalizes on the infrastructure investments we've made as One Maryland, and has the potential to spark even more in private development and job creation throughout the County."

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) told members of the District 5 Coffee Club on June 2 that the state's long-promised road improvements to sections of Route 223 and Pennsylvania Avenue are still on hold due to lack of funds.

"The harsh reality is ... we don't have the revenue to start new construction in the state of Maryland," he said during the community association's weekly meeting at the Safeway in Clinton.

Local law officers and transportation officials issued their annual threat Monday to motorists -- "Click It or Ticket" -- in what has become one of the most successful highway safety campaigns in history.

But there's an added message this year: Seat belts need to be worn at night as well as during the day. This year's twist is based on statistics that show that drivers are less likely to wear seat belts after dark. Data from 2008 show 64 percent of people killed after 6 p.m. were not using the restraints, while 48 percent who died during daylight were unbelted.

In an effort to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries in Prince George's County, the police department has formed the Traffic Enforcement Unit. Under the command of the Bureau of Patrol, these officers will provide traffic enforcement and truck inspections in areas determined to have high incidents of traffic crashes. Although crime in the county has been reduced to per capita lows not seen in 35 years, the County continues to lead the state of Maryland in fatal crashes. The formation of the Traffic Enforcement Unit, along with increased traffic enforcement efforts by all officers, will allow the department to carry the momentum of reduced crime to reduced traffic fatalities as well.

If 160,000 southbound drivers set out to cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge this weekend, it's safe to say they will have one thing in common: misery.

That's the normal weekend load for the brand-new, muscular, $2.5-billion bridge over the Potomac. This weekend, its weak sister up the road will cause the problem.

...Outer loop drivers get a free pass until Sunday night. That's when Maryland highway crews will close two or three northbound lanes of the Beltway between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. to complete maintenance work on the Kenilworth Avenue Bridge.

Bob Patten's morning routine is different from most commuters'. With a helmet, special shoes and a yellow reflective vest, he bypasses the frustrations of stop-and-go traffic and Metro delays as he bikes the two miles from his home in Takoma Park to his job in Hyattsville....

But the difficulties don't stop him. And companies such as Toole are using incentive programs to encourage employees to bike to work. Cycling enthusiasts hope the idea gets a boost as thousands of people take two-wheelers to the office Friday on Bike to Work Day, a national event that encourages bicycle safety and awareness.

Prince George's County, Maryland…These days, who couldn't use an extra buck? Your next chance to earn a buck is Wednesday, May 19th beginning at noon at the Boulevard at the Capital Center in Largo, Maryland (near the four way stop sign and Chick-Fil-A). The Prince George's Community Federal Credit Union, which has donated the cash, is joining the Maryland State Highway Administration's Highway Safety Office and the Prince George's County Police Department in tomorrow's Buckle Up For A Buck program. Law enforcement officers and safety advocates will distribute $1 bills to drivers who have all occupants buckled up securely in their vehicles. Those riding unrestrained will receive educational materials about the effectiveness of seat belts and child safety seats in saving lives and reducing injuries.

Nearly 620 people in Prince George's County lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes between 2004 and2008. Preliminary data shows that throughout 2008, someone was killed in Prince George's County every three days in a crash. Extensive efforts within the county have improved the overall seat belt use rate from less than 80% in 2004 to a current compliance rate of more than 93%. However, Prince George's County continues to lead the State with the highest number of motor vehicle deaths and the continued proper use of seat belts is the best way for motorists to protect themselves on the roadways.

Although the university is advocating for an alternative Purple Line route that would run partially undergound, MTA officials maintain Campus Drive is the best solution for an on-campus route.

The university and the Maryland Transit Administration, which have been at odds over the Purple Line's placement since its inception, are not any closer to reaching an agreement on where the rail system would run through the campus. After the MTA deemed Preinkert Drive alignment — which has been billed as the university's choice alternative by administrators — unsafe for pedestrians, the university asked the MTA to evaluate the possibility of running a partly underground line along a similar route, MTA officials said.

Check out this charge (image) from the Coalition for Smarter Growth. There is Transit-Oriented development planned for New Carrollton Metro Station with a negative change in CO2 emissions. Urban infill with local serving retail in Hyattsville also shows a negative emissions.

Some University of Maryland students and Purple Line supporters are criticizing a university plan to temporarily close the main road on the College Park campus to all private vehicles and many buses this summer, saying they worry the restrictions will discourage transit use and complicate plans to build a light-rail line along the road.

The university is considering closing Campus Drive to all but pedestrians, bicyclists, campus shuttles, emergency vehicles and university service vehicles from June 19 to Aug. 15 as a test of longer-term plans to create a "traffic-free, pedestrian-friendly zone" in the heart of campus, said university spokesman Millree Williams. Metrobuses, most commercial vehicles and private cars would be rerouted north of Campus Drive along Regents Drive, he said.

The local lanes on the inner loop of the Capital Beltway near Indian Head Highway closed this morning as crews worked to clean up a diesel fuel spill that occurred at approximately 9 a.m.

The fuel tank of a tractor-trailer leaked nearly 100 gallons of diesel on the roadway, creating an oil slick about 100 yards long, said Mark Brady, spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department.

About 900 Eastern box turtles have been relocated from the area of a major Maryland highway under construction.

Since 2007, volunteers, trained dogs and state contractors have been looking for the turtles to remove them from the path of construction equipment building the Intercounty Connector.

Officials from the Maryland State Highway Administration announced the results of the turtle rescue at an Earth Day event last week.

This is not news to The Syndicate as last summer I heard stories of youngsters robbing and mobbing for iPods, iPhones, and other hand-held electronic devices. With all due respect, The Examiner was the first print news outlet last fall to break down Metro's crime stats clearly showing a spike in robberies correlating with an increase in portable personal technology over the past five calendar years. The Examiner has continued its close coverage with The Post's coverage noticeably lagging behind. The city's paper of record was at one time on top of the Metro beat, but they aren't anymore.

Auto insurance companies might be expected to get behind legislation that would boost the minimum amount of coverage that drivers must buy to keep their vehicles on the road.

On its face, the proposal now being debated in the Senate would require people to spend more on insurance. This could help the state's auto insurers – if they believed drivers would actually pay for more coverage.

But many of the state's largest policy writers oppose the bill moving toward final passage.

Insurance lobbyists have joined advocates for the poor in opposing raising minimum coverage by 50 percent -- from the current $20,000 per individual and $40,000 per crash, to $30,000 and $60,000. That translates into rate increases of between 5 and 15 percent, and the rate hikes would cause large numbers of people with minimum coverage to carry no insurance at all, they say.

County Councilmembers and state delegates from Montgomery and Prince George's Counties sent letters to Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley asking him to allocate funding for Metro sufficient to stop service cuts, as FairShareForMetro.com has been urging.

The Prince George's County Council and state legislative delegation both sent letters from their collective groups. House Delegation Chair Melony Griffith and Vice-Chairs Marvin Holmes and Michael Vaughn circulated the legislative letter, and County Councilmember Eric Olson championed the Council version.

Both included nearly identical key language: "Closing [the budget gap] without severe service reductions would require an additional contribution from Maryland to WMATA's FY11 operating budget of approximately $29 million. ... We are well aware that these are challenging budgetary times, but this is one expense we believe the state cannot forego."

Variety of proposals include fare increases, service reductions, use of capital funds

Metro will hold a series of six public hearings in March and April to get public input on a variety of options for how the transit agency should close a $189 million budget gap in fiscal year 2011. The projected deficit is largely due to increased expenses and losses in revenue from lower than expected ridership.

The Washington region will get $156.84 million in transportation stimulus funds for a freight rail corridor, priority bus corridors and a new transit center on the border of Montgomery and Prince George's counties, The U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday....

D.C., Maryland and Virginia will see $58.84 million for priority bus transit in the region.

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. * PRECIPITATION TYPE...SNOW. * ACCUMULATIONS...10 TO 20 INCHES.

In the wake of the monumental snow storm, Prince George's County Executive candidate Rushern L. Baker III (D) has begun organizing volunteers to "help dig out senior citizens and others with medical limitations" by shoveling snow, the Baker campaign said in a statement.

The blizzard of 2010 may be over, but Prince George's County officials continue to advise residents to stay off roads as crews dig out from one of the region's worst snowstorms in recorded history.

The storm blanketed parts of the county with as much as 30 inches of snow Friday and Saturday, leaving thousands of residents without electricity and hundreds of thousands stuck in their homes. Today, officials continue around-the-clock efforts to restore power and clear roads.

Prince George's County has deployed more than 320 vehicles to work around the clock clearing roads, according to Department of Public Works spokeswoman Susan Hubbard. She said crews have been working since 1 p.m. Friday.

"We have been working the primary roads," she said. "We are finding that the big plows work best because the smaller 4-by-4s aren't heavy enough to handle this heavy, intense snow."

Fare increases are under consideration this month for bus services in Maryland and Virginia as area transit agencies face the same budgetary shortfalls that led Metro to raise fares by 10 cents per bus or rail trip last month.

No Metrobus or MetroAccess service will be provided Saturday, officials said....

Just after dark Friday, a full blizzard warning was extended east to the Chesapeake Bay for the first time in memory. The National Weather Service said the warning would remain in effect until 10 p.m. Saturday.

"This extremely dangerous storm is expected to produce record snowfall for the Washington metropolitan area," the National Weather Service said. It warned that travel conditions would be "extremely hazardous and life-threatening, and all citizens are urged to remain indoors."

As the first flakes begin to fall in Prince George's County, officials plan to deploy hundreds of trucks to clear the roadways, and the county government has instituted a "liberal leave" policy, allowing some non-essential government workers to go home early, officials said.

Starting at 1 p.m., nearly 300 vehicles at a time will begin working in 12-hour shifts, round-the-clock, "to keep more than 1,821 miles (5,000-plus lane miles) of county-maintained roadways clear of snow and ice to ensure the safety of residents, citizens, and others traveling through the county," according to a statement from the county's Department of Public Works and Transportation....

Officials encouraged motorists to avoid driving if possible. They said primary roads would be serviced first, followed by secondary and residential streets. Officials also reminded residents and business owners to clear their sidewalks of snow and ice, as well as nearby fire hydrants, if possible.

On Jan. 21, The Gazette published an article, "County Council members criticize ICC," regarding the Intercounty Connector's (ICC) environmental projects. I am responding to clarify and correct several issues....

The good news is that more than 20 acres of wetlands and forests, and approximately one mile of streams, were saved through refinements in the ICC's design and innovative construction techniques, decreasing mitigation requirements. While some Prince George's County environmental projects are no longer required as compensatory mitigation, they will now be done as environmental stewardship projects. Additionally, the original "wish list" has been refined to assess technical feasibility. Where not practical, the environmental team identified replacements within the watersheds.

Maryland will receive $60 million to lay the groundwork for replacement of a tunnel built just west of Baltimore's Penn Station in the 1870s.

The tunnel, which will cost $1 billion to replace, is used by Amtrak, MARC and the Norfolk Southern freight line. The state was also awarded $9.4 million to begin planning an $80 million to $100 million project to improve the station that serves MARC and Amtrak near Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport.

"Both [projects] will increase our ability to move people more efficiently by rail and reduce our dependence on the automobile," said Gov. Martin O'Malley (D). "This funding allows us to complete the engineering and environmental work necessary to get these vital projects ready for construction."

Sprawl development comes with many impersonal, mobility-limiting, traffic inducing accouterments. Seven lane roads, grass berms, curb cuts, enormous setbacks, corporate drive-thru fast food restaurants, strip malls... the list is long and ugly. But perhaps the most basic symptom of poorly thought-out suburban planning is in the street grid: the superblock....

I expected to find them in Prince George's County. It is known for poor development around train stations. I did not expect to find them strung along entire routes, almost like an anti-transit-oriented development. But along the Orange and Blue Lines, such is the case.

The maps below show all the self-contained superblocks within approximately one mile of Metro stations.

Dozens of Metro riders voiced frustration Wednesday night at the transit agency's plan to close an emergency $40 million budget gap by tapping into maintenance dollars, cutting service and, or hiking fares by up to a dime....

Others said that service has already been suffering after last year's cuts, and couldn't bear further declines. They cited constant delays, accidents and maintenance problems. "Please do not make any more cuts to Prince George's County, our residents cannot handle it," said Prince George's Councilmember Andrea Harrison. "We can't take any more."

The Prince George's County Police Department, under the project management of Lieutenant Henry White, has begun issuing motorists electronic traffic citations, warnings and equipment repair orders for motor vehicle infractions.

The Electronic Traffic Information Exchange (E-TIX) Program was developed by two Maryland State Troopers seeking to increase officer safety by reducing the amount of time troopers spent on the roadside writing traffic-related citations. The new law, effective in August 2007, eliminates the need for violators to sign citations.

State and federal legislators pitched their priorities before the Prince George's County Business Roundtable Monday, including transit and small-business development.

Del. Melony G. Griffith (D-Dist. 25) of Upper Marlboro, chairwoman of the county delegation, emphasized that commercial development around transit centers is one of the major priorities of the county's residents as roundtable members met at the Colony South Hotel in Clinton.

She talked about the day she could step out of Metro stop and pick up "a bagel, coffee and a nice handbag."

Prince George's County Council members say officials overseeing construction of the Intercounty Connector are penalizing the county by canceling or changing more of its environmental projects than those in Montgomery County.

ICC officials said they plan to cut some previously required environmental projects and to reclassify others because the highway's final design ended up sparing almost a mile more of streams and 30 more acres of wetlands and forests than they had expected, leaving less environmental damage for them to offset.

The Maryland State Highway Administration has decided to cut back on environmental mitigation projects it had planned for the Intercounty Connector (ICC). Prince George's County Council Chairman Tom Dernoga has written a letter to the SHA to protest these cuts.

In 2009, when the Maryland General Assembly was debating Senate Bill 753/House Bill 27 that would have defunded the ICC, these environmental mitigation projects were frequently used as justification for the highway. One politician who did this was State Senator Richard Madaleno (D-18).

The Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee has written a letter to Senator Madaleno asking him to work with the other General Assembly members representing the Anacostia watershed to see to it that all the projects are carried out as originally envisioned, given his past use of these projects to support the highway.

Maryland drivers won't see any toll increases in the new year, but Prince George's County drivers can expect $40 tickets if they speed through school zones.

Speed cameras are slated for installment in at least 50 school zones in the county within the next several months, following legislation effective Monday.

Suburbia is where the population is aging fastest. At the dawn of the 21st century, 69 percent of people 65 or older lived in the suburbs. More than 285,000 people in that age group live in the three largest counties surrounding Washington: Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's.

And aging baby boomers want to remain in the suburbs where they were raised. Eighty-five percent of people 50 or older told the AARP that they plan to live in their communities for as long as they can.

Maryland's U.S. senators say the massive spending bill approved on Sunday includes hundreds of millions of dollars for local programs.... The bill includes $150 million for safety upgrades to Metro....

The bill includes $1.2 million to educate low-income families about the importance of dental care. The program was established in response to the 2007 death of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver of Prince George's County, who developed a brain infection from an untreated tooth abscess.

Beginning Monday, Dec. 28, bus stops on the north side of the Prince George's Plaza Metrorail station bus bay area will be relocated temporarily for four weeks due to construction of a new roundabout that will improve traffic flow from the East-West Highway entrance.

Do not expect much in new roads or maintenance in the fiscal 2011 budget, state transportation officials told a group of Prince George's County leaders.

"We hoped that by this time, we'd be ahead [on the economy]," Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley said to leaders at an annual meeting Nov. 4 to discuss transportation funding for the county. "But as you know we've had a tumultuous year."

Economic losses have led to major state cutbacks, leaving Prince George's with about $1.6 million for road construction in the next fiscal year from the State Highway Administration, and upkeep is expected to be cut so much that the reduction in pothole repairs, road striping and mowing will be noticeable.

Regional leaders have released their Greater Washington 2050 report, "Region Forward," a vision for the Washington region 40 years from now.

The report predicts an ongoing evolution of the region from a "hub and spoke" model to a "lattice" of interconnected "regional activity centers," each with its own walkable, mixed-use core, with transit and roads within and between centers. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is holding a forum on the plan tomorrow evening.

Plans to open a commuter parking lot in Mount Rainier within the next six months are rekindling concerns that the vacant parcel, now fenced-off, could attract crime.

The city bought the property, at 3208 Rhode Island Ave., last year after waiting in vain for three years for a developer to buy the land. The city paved the lot, the former home of Bass Liquors.

...Prince George's Councilman Tom Dernoga, a longtime ICC opponent, showed up to give one more speech denouncing what is already a done deal. "This is an anti-working family proposal and an anti-working family road," he told the board.

Actually, there are many working families that make enough money to use the ICC. It just so happens that they tend to live in places other than Dernoga's Prince George's County district.

The fact is that since the ICC was revived in 2003, the plan has never been about transporting the poor or the middle class - except on an occasional emergency basis or by taking a bus. It was conceived as a road for the movers and shakers. It was designed to get the biotech executives of Montgomery County to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport without all those annoying traffic jams on the Capital Beltway or Randolph Road.

Planners in Prince George's County are hoping that an increased focus on transit will reduce the stop-and-go traffic drivers routinely experience on county roadways.

In the county's 171-page transportation master plan, planners are calling for the extension of Metrorail's Purple and Green lines and consideration of high-occupancy lanes on planned roadways to ease traffic and get commuters out of their cars.

The commercial airport which handles the heavy air traffic in & out of the Capital of the U. S. has been cursed by pilots for a decade. Fifty Eastern Airliners and 16 American Airliners take off from or land at the Washington Airport every day. Yet it is small, partly undrained and bumpy, and the approaches are menaced by factories, high tension lines, a bluff, several structures on the field including a blimp hangar. A highway runs across the field; a military guard and stoplights are supposed to halt automobiles when planes are coming in or going out. For years Congressional committees have toyed with the project of acquiring a municipal port. Nothing has been done. This week a commission appointed by Congress recommended purchase of a site near Camp Springs, Md. Opposition is certain to develop because it is ten miles from Washington.

The Washington Post reported Monday that Prince George's County is updating its 25-year-old transportation master plan to include an extension of the Metro Green line, the proposed Purple line, and consideration of high-occupancy toll lanes on County highways. According to the article, the County Council would like to see the Green Line extended from Greenbelt to Fort Meade via Beltsville, Laurel, and the massive Konterra development project that is currently under construction. Officials would also like to see the proposed Purple Line extended from New Carrollton to National Harbor by the Potomac River.

It's telling to compare Prince George's County's transit plans and growth with the Washington Area's other more wealthy suburban jurisdictions: Montgomery County, Fairfax County, Arlington, and Alexandria. Like Prince George's, each of these jurisdictions sports some of the most expensive, highest capacity heavy-rail facilities in the United States. Yet Prince George's continues to have some of the most stubbornly underutilized stations in the 86-station, and 106.3-mile Metro system exhibiting relatively little transit-oriented development and density around stations and high rates of driving trips to their stations versus other modes.

The stretch of Interstate 495 that rolls through Prince George's County makes up less than a third of the Capital Beltway, but in the past three years it has accounted for 70 percent of its traffic fatalities.

"What's up?" was my question to Montgomery County Delegation Chairman Brian Feldman. He responded, "Well you know, Gail, with this being an election year, most politicians are very guarded about discussing the most difficult topics. But, the one topic they will delve into is transportation." He's right, it is a difficult topic and at the moment transportation is "hot" with politicians and the business community around the state.

With the stark increases in gas prices last year and still high prices at the pump Marylanders are buying less. The Maryland Transportation Trust Fund relies on the gas tax as its biggest source of funding. Less gas sold means less in taxes; less money means fewer transportation projects. There is a backlog right now worth $40 billion for improvements to highways, transit and ports and airports. The 2008 General Assembly took back $250 million from the fund to balance the budget. The budget is still not looking well. Will a further reduction be forthcoming? It is not out of the realm of possibility, as such raids on the fund have occurred 10 times over the last 30 years. The fund is in major trouble....

Business leaders in the greater Baltimore and Montgomery and Prince George's areas are poised to come up with some answers to, as Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee says, "If not the gas tax, then what?"

As work steamrolls along on the massive Intercounty Connector project, focus has shifted from the ongoing land clearing, digging and paving to proposed tolls for the highway that will bridge Prince George's County and northern Montgomery County.

It's the cost of those tolls that has some critics already dubbing the roadway "Lexus Lanes." The tolls will be subject of public hearings scheduled in the two counties later this month.