After reviewing the report, the members of our organization are of the opinion that the National Capital Transportation Agency did a splendid job in completing its survey and report within a limited time and in so doing achieved excellent results. The Summit Park Citizens' Association, therefore, thinks the National Capital Transportation Agency deserves a vote of thanks from the citizens of the District of Columbia and desires to state its gratitude for a job well done. Yours sincerely, CLARA K. LARSEN, Secretary. CONNECTICUT AVENUE CITIZENS ASSOCIATION, Hon. JOHN L. MCMILLAN, Chairman, House District Committee, Washington, D.C. SIR: The enclosed copy of a letter to Mr. C. Darwin Stolzenbach, director, National Capital Transportation Agency, is being forwarded to your office for consideration in connection with hearings to be held regarding the report of the NCTA submitted November 1, 1962. It is hoped that you will be guided by the enclosed letter in approving legislation for the adoption of the report so that construction may be started soon. Sincerely yours, HOMER J. MCCONNELL, President. CONNECTICUT AVENUE CITIZENS ASSOCIATION, Mr. C. DARWIN STOLZENBACH, Director, National Capital Transportation Agency, DEAR SIR: The Connecticut Avenue Citizens Association at its meeting January 3, 1963, after hearing a fine presentation of the NCTA report by Mr. James Phippard of your staff, adopted the following motion: "Be it moved that the Connecticut Avenue Citizens Association recommends adoption of the report of the National Capital Transportation Agency, recommendations for transportation in the National Capital region." Our association has given much study to the highway and transportation plans over the past several years, and it is now our belief that if this plan be adopted it will meet the region's present and future transportation needs and assist regional development with the least possible cost and with the least possible interference with people and business. We sincerely hope that the enabling legislation to start construction of the first segment of the rapid transit will be enacted early in this session of Congress. Sincerely yours, HOMER J. MCCONNELL, President. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS, Hon. JOHN L. MCMILLAN, Chairman of the District Committee, Washington, D.C., June 1, 1963. DEAR SIR: The presentation, by the President, of the NCTA report to Congress, along with his thoughts on the matter, was long in coming, and I feel that a great deal of soul-searching thought had been put into his remarks before they were presented to you. It is most unfortunate that he did not go the full length of his conclusions which must have been that both highways and rapid transit are needed. The Evening Star, May 29, 1963, assessed the great need of the city of Washington, for both, very adequately and very completely. It would be a great shame if this becomes a fight between those who think the automobile is a thing of the past and those who think the automobile is the only thing of the future. A great deal of study, engineering reports, and research has been put into the design of the network of highways leading into and around the city of Washington. The Bureau of Public Roads, the State Highways of Virginia and Maryland and the District of Columbia have arrived at certain conclusions and those conclusions should be followed. No such detailed study or research was done by NCTA; nor did NCTA have the professional and technical staff to make such a study. Cooperation between NCTA and the various highway departments was at a bare minimum. It is true that they were given briefing lectures but their opinions were not solicited nor followed. The highway system should not be allowed to lag. We are well behind our needs at the present time. We should continue our construction at the same pace that was planned in 1960. The Three Sisters Bridge is an urgent need of the District of Coluumbia and of Virginia in order to allow traffic to flow smoothly between these areas. Empirical formulas, arrived at unilaterally, which vary from the accepted standards of the Bureau of Public Roads and most State highway departments, cannot be used to overthrow the plans and decisions made by these departments. If the correct figures are used for design purposes, the need for the Three Sisters Bridge is obvious. There is no question that a rapid transit system is also required for the future growth of the metropolitan area. Just as in the case of highways, the exact locations and details on the rapid transit system bear research and investigation. The amount of investigation and engineering research given to the plans as presented by NCTA are not sufficient to tie up the millions of dollars required to perfect a system. This is one of the largest expenditures that has ever been made for public works in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area and certainly adequate attention and engineering research and design should be given to this most important project. Congress should do everything within its power to speed up the completion of the highway systems as planned by the Bureau of Public Roads and the various highway departments and to speed up the beginning of a feasible subway system. Sincerely, FRANK WOLFSHEIMER, Civil Engineer-Professional Engineer, Chairman of the Commissioners' Planning Advisory Council, Director-Advisor of the Civic Affairs Committee, District of Columbia Society of Professional Engineers. Gen. F. J. CLARKE, Engineer Commissioner, District Building, MARCH 26, 1963. DEAR GENERAL CLARKE: The Commissioners Planning Advisory Council has reviewed the proposals and appendixes of the National Capital Transportation Agency and several critiques of this proposal. We have independently arrived at certain conclusions. The CPAC unanimously concurs in the following: The CPAC suggests that both subway and highway construction proceed as rapidly as possible to prevent a chaotic condition occurring to transportation in the Nation's Capital. The National Capital Transportation Agency's approach of an inner loop subway system in the central business district is superior to the MTS suggestion of intersecting lines. If this inner loop of subways is built for a large enough capacity originally, radial lines can be added as they become needed and feasible. This inner loop system of subways is needed just as the inner loop system of highways is needed today. This portion of the subway should proceed at once. Feeder lines, using existing rail lines, should be fed into this inner loop as early as possible; further study can then be made of the controversial sections of the subway system. Subway service to the Northwest-Bethesda area is advocated by both NCTA and MTS, this should also be started as soon as feasible. The highway program, as approved by the Bureau of Public Roads and the Highway Departments of Virginia, Maryland, and the District, must not be delayed any further. As stated in title II, section 205 (a) (7) of the Public Laws 86-669 establishing NCTA, the planning of highway construction should be left in the hands of the experts in this field; the engineers in Bureau of Public Roads and the Highway Departments of Virginia, Maryland, and the District. Congress stated that these highway planners should remain with the authority and the responsibility for developing a system capable of carrying 1980 predicted volumes. The highway departments must continue to bear in mind the following: (1) Volume of traffic on highways must anticipate a system of subways into the metropolitan area and these highway volumes must be adjusted accordingly. (2) Any construction of highways must be in keeping with the architectural and esthetic character of the Nation's Capital and must not cause blight or disfigurement. (3) A minimum number of persons must be displaced; and these persons must be provided for in new locations. (4) The budget of the District of Columbia is limited and the District of Columbia must not be deprived of the fair share of Federal matching funds which are available to every other city in the Nation. The various highway departments and the Bureau of Public Roads have not even been asked for their opinions of the roadway systems prepared by NCTA according to their reports. All cost estimates and related engineering data must be detailed and made by professionally qualified persons to be used for decisions by the Commissioners or Congress. Millions of dollars will be needed for capital expenditures to repair, rebuild, and relocate sewers, water mains, and other utilities affected by subway construction. These expenditures must be provided for in the NCTA costs and borne by whatever subway authority is created instead of being passed on to District taxpayers as individual public works project requirements. Considerable doubt has been thrown on the accuracy of some of the cost and revenue figures of the NCTA report. These doubts should be cleared up before final authorization of construction funds are made by Congress. The need for financing and management compacts was forseen as far back as 1954 when the Joint Transportation Commission was activated. The use of this agency by NCTA has been ignored, this should be rectified. It was partially through the efforts of the Joint Transportation Commission that the MTS study of 1959 was made and that the NCTA later came into being. In title III of Public Law 86-669, establishing NCTA, it says that the solution of problems should be through an interstate compact, not via a Federal corporation. Since NCTA has proposed that the District of Columbia will be required to supply approximately $20 million in funds for the subway construction, and many of their proposals such as the change of the north leg from the requirements of the Federal Interstate Highways System to the requirements of an express street, remove the improvements from 90-10 matching funds to 50-50 matching funds, the CPAC must review the detailed plans before their approval or disapproval of these changes. An express street may cause much more local disruption of community living than a depressed freeway, and carry a much smaller volume of traffic. The Three Sisters Bridge and the Potomac Freeway should be constructed at the earliest possible date in order to accommodate the traffic volumes which will be generated by increased movement between the District and Virginia in the next few years. Both goods and people must be moved and at a reasonable speed, not at a snail's pace. The American Association of Highway Officials critique on "Lane Design Capacity for Urban Freeways" should be used as a guide for design. It has been adopted as the standard by the Bureau of Public Roads and most highway departments. Emperical formulas without foundation cannot be used to disrupt the accurate planning of the interstate freeway systems. If 1,500 cars per hour is the accepted design capacity of lanes today by the Bureau of Public Roads, then we cannot arbitrarily assume 1,700 or 1,800 cars per hour as did NCTA. The safety and the health of the Nation's Capital is at stake. If no action is taken to proceed with highways as now planned, and they were planned with a subway system in view, stagnation will occur. The condition will rapidly get out of hand as a delay in the planning stage now will delay construction for approximately 5 years. The present delays have already pushed the time schedule into the critical area. Further delays will endanger all means of transportation in and out of the Capital. Traffic, other than peak-hour commuter traffic, is bound to increase as more visitors come to Washington and more goods and material are needed for our everyday needs. Peak-hour traffic will also increase. Let's get these projects off dead center. Let's proceed with both subways and highways as rapidly as our plans will allow. Let's have some construction plans and details from NCTA so we may proceed. Sincerely, FRANK WOLFSHEIMER, Chairman. Members: John Daniels, Harold Gray, Dean D. Marlowe, George Petticord, Lee Purnell, W. F. Sheppard, James Willett. HOUSE DISTRICT COMMITTEE, SILVER SPRING, MD., June 13, 1963. GENTLEMEN: As a two-car, upper-middle-income family in Montgomery County, my husband and I urge you to support the proposals of the NCTA. We and our neighbors would certainly use a rapid transit system. We believe the construction of subways would be far preferable in every way to cluttering up the city with more cars and to the displacement of thousands of families by the building of more highways. Yours truly, Hon. JOHN L. MCMILLAN, House Office Building, Washington, D.C. ELLEN L. BECKER. WASHINGTON, D.C., July 3, 1963. DEAR MR. MCMILLAN: As a long-time resident of Washington, D.C., I want to go on record as strongly opposing the construction of additional highways or freeways in the District. At the same time I urge approval by your committee of plans to create a rapid transit system on the lines recommended by the National Capital Transportation Agency. I am completely exasperated by the efforts of the National Highway Users Conference to inundate Washington-and other cities, with a flood of roads, parking lots, and automobiles. I can assure you that I speak for all of my friends both in Washington and in the suburbs who drive to work. Sincerely yours, RICHARD R. RANDALL. ALLIED CIVIC GROUP, INC., Silver Spring, Md., July 4, 1963. Hon. BASIL L. WHITENER, Chairman, House District Subcommitte, DEAR SIR: The Allied Civic Group is composed of some 60 civic associations in Montgomery County, Md. For some time we have concerned ourselves with the problems of mass transportation in the Washington area. The public highways committee (which has since been renamed the transportation committee) made a thorough study of the NCTA plan and presented its recommendations to the general membership of the ACG. The result was the resolution 63-11, passed this past February. I have enclosed several copies of this resolution, and I will be happy to provide more, and ACG will appreciate it very much if you and your committee will give our position your careful consideration. Over the past 3 or 4 years I have maintained a chronological, looseleaf notebook file of articles on mass transit problems in the Washington area, as well as articles of general interest on transportation problems in other parts of the country and world. I have found this very useful in keeping and developing a proper perspective, and in helping me to decide if various proposals are reasonable or unreasonable. If you think that this might be useful to you, I would be happy to lend it to you. Personally, I am strongly in favor of a rail rapid transit system, and have spent some time studying the plans or existing systems in other cities such as San Francisco, Toronto, Cleveland, Tokyo, etc. I would like very much to present my views to your committee. Unfortunately, I will be in California on business between July 4 and July 29. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to meet with you at some later date, if that is possible. Thank you very much for your consideration of this letter and the enclosed resolution. Sincerely yours, DR. ROBERT S. ALLGAIER, Chairman, Public Highways Committee. ALLIED CIVIC GROUP RESOLUTION No. 63-11 (Adopted at a regular meeting of ACG on Feb. 25, 1963) Whereas the Allied Civic Group believes that a comprehensive urban transportation system should provide an adequate level of service for all of the transportation requirements of the National Capital region, including peakhour radial and nonradial traffic, off-peak traffic, tourist travel, movement of goods, and recreational travel; and Whereas the 1959 Mass Transportation Survey (MTS) and the 1962 National Capital Transportation Agency (NCTA) plans both agree that highways alone cannot meet all of the region's future transportation needs, and radial movements must be suplemented by a rapid transit system; and Whereas there is an urgent need for rapid transit facilities to connect the Bethesda and Silver Spring-Wheaton areas with downtown Washington, and in fact both plans recommend rail transit lines to serve these areas; and Whereas the NCTA plan proposes a drastically reduced highway network and express bus system as compared with the MTS plan; and Whereas many of the transportation requirements of the region can only be met by adequate highway facilities; Now therefore be it Resolved, That the Allied Civic Group, Inc., favors an urban transportation system with sufficient rail, express bus, and highway facilities to serve adequately all the transportation needs of the region; and be it further Resolved, That ACG approves in general the MTS and NCTA proposals to construct rapid transit lines connecting Montgomery County and downtown Washington, but reserves judgment on the specific locations suggested in the plans; be it further Resolved, That ACG has serious reservations concerning the drastic cutback in the highway and express bus facilities proposed in the NCTA plan, and urges the President and the Congress to consider carefully the recommendations of the regional highway departments and other responsible Federal, State, and local agencies before arriving at a final transportation plan; be it further Resolved, That because the rapidly worsening traffic congestion in the region demands immediate action, ACG urges that a final plan be adopted, funds appropriated, and design of the transportation system be initiated without further delay; be it further Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the President, the appropriate congressional committees, the Budget Bureau, the NCTA, the National Capital Planning Commission, National Capital Regional Planning Council, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Interfederation Council, District Commissioners, District Highway Department, the Governor, State roads commission, county delegation to the General Assembly, county council, department of public works, and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Mr. WHITENER. With that, we will recess the hearing until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. (Whereupon, at 12:25 p.m., the committee was in recess until 10 a.m., Wednesday, July 10, 1963.) |