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PARRIS N. GLENDENING, Governor
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J.R. 15
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from the current average of five hours per day, to over fourteen hours per day by
2020, forcing hundreds of thousands of Maryland residents to endure long hours of
delay each day, diverting many vehicle trips onto already overwhelmed secondary and
arterial roads and inducing increased "cut-through" traffic in neighborhoods,
severely impacting the safety and quality of life of pedestrians and motorists, limiting
accessibility of jobs and affordable housing, and threatening the future of the local
economy; and
WHEREAS, Severe traffic congestion is preventing residents, students, and
businesses throughout the Baltimore-Washington area from taking full advantage of
the many educational, cultural, employment, retail, professional service, and
business opportunities for those in the Baltimore area who are being denied timely
access to such opportunities in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, and
vice-versa, and this reduced accessibility impacts all sectors of the regional economy,
including BWI Airport, the Port of Baltimore, the University System of Maryland,
and other key regional and statewide facilities; and
WHEREAS, The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has
identified a growing transportation "crisis" in the region, despite years of sustained
effort and investment by State and local governments to reduce vehicle demand
through improved transit service, carpooling incentives, concentration of development
around transit stations, employment policies favorable to flex-time schedules and
teleworking, and other demand-reduction measures; and
WHEREAS, The Intercounty Connector (ICC) and other road and transit
improvements throughout the region would serve to better connect the region and the
many venues being proposed in the Baltimore-Washington region's Olympics bid for
2012; and
WHEREAS, The ICC has been on both Montgomery and Prince George's
counties' Master Plans for over 30 years; and
WHEREAS, The Master Plan Alignment of the ICC is consistent with
Maryland's Smart Growth laws because it links major job and population centers
within existing priority funding areas, and all of its exits serve existing priority
funding areas; and
WHEREAS, Montgomery County's and Prince George's County's original
"wedges and corridors" General Plans, developed in the 1960's, identify the ICC as a
critical east-west connection to support planned growth within the 1-270 and 1-95
corridors; and
WHEREAS, The Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's current
Vision Plan for the Washington Region calls for improved circumferential links
between the region's major corridors as one of the region's top transportation
objectives; and
WHEREAS, The last Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the ICC
was abandoned in 1997 before reaching any final conclusions on alternatives, and
without completing the required steps identified in the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA); and
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- 4363 -
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