Action Committee for Transit

09/19/2026

This World , we're partnering with our friends at Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on their Commuter Connections program, supported by retailers, local businesses, and regional organizations. CommuterCash participants who take the pledge to go car-free or car-light on that day will be awarded a special badge for their participation!

Learn more: https://www.commuterconnections.org/programs-and-incentives/commutercash/

09/17/2026

Thanks to Natali Fani-González and the Montgomery County MD Council for working to improve pedestrian safety in the Wheaton Mall area, an area that has been too dangerous for too long. The McComas Avenue Greenway project in Wheaton/Kensington delivers key infrastructure upgrades to enhance pedestrian and bicyclist safety along McComas Avenue near Wheaton MallThese improvements extend from St. Paul St. to Georgia Avenue and include enhancements on Douglas Ave.

08/22/2026

08/08/2026

Support Transit-Oriented Development in Friendship Heights

The Montgomery Planning Board will hold two public hearings on September 10th and September 14th to listen to public testimony on the Friendship Heights Sector Plan Update. In brief, this plan will legalize mixed-use redevelopment of the unused parking lot for the closed Saks 5th Avenue on Wisconsin Avenue, dedicate right-of-way for separated bikeways, and recommends studying the repurposing of one vehicle travel lane for a bus lane in each direction along Wisconsin Avenue from Oliver Street to Western Avenue. ACT encourages its members to support the redevelopment of unused parking for building more housing to address the county’s housing crisis and the separated bikeways. ACT also calls on the Planning Board to not just study repurposing a travel lane but approve a bus-only lane on Wisconsin Avenue.

Sign up to testify at https://montgomeryplanningboard.org/meetings/signup-to-testify/sign-testify-form/ or submit written testimony to [email protected].

Información del Ponente y Dirección de Correo

08/06/2026

Our next meeting is coming up on Tuesday, August 11th. The topic: Southern Maryland Rapid Transit (SMRT). This is the meeting originally scheduled for June that had to be cancelled.

Speaker: Gary V. Hodge, President, Regional Policy Advisors
Gary will share an update on the Southern Maryland Rapid Transit (SMRT) project as well as some thoughts on the current crisis in state and federal funding for Maryland transit and transportation infrastructure.

Before the event starts, ACT is hosting a pre-meeting gathering for members to eat dinner (Dutch-treat) , talk transit, and get to know each other better. Meet us from 6 pm - 7:15 pm at Locavino, 8519 Fenton St, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Locavino is next to the Civic Center, overlooking the ice rink/Veterans Plaza.

Gary Hodge has served for more than 50 years as an appointed and elected official, policy consultant and citizen activist, in Southern Maryland, the metropolitan Washington region, and at the state and federal levels of government.
Learn more about the State's plans for transit in Southern Maryland and how they fit in the Big Transit Picture for all DMV residents here:
https://smrtmaryland.com/

07/31/2026

Summer Lim was killed in her neighborhood by a school bus driver.
The driver was fined $390 and got 3 points on their driving record.
Stop signs have been installed at the location. It is, now, an all-way stop sign intersection. Because the driver paid the fine there will be no trial.

Ivan Rivas, the longtime Montgomery County schools bus driver involved in a fatal crash in October that killed a middle school student, paid a $390 fine on Thursday to avoid going to trial.

07/27/2026

ACT is looking for a new staff person...

07/14/2026

Tonight is ACT General Meeting night! This evening, our topic is transit oriented development. Our speaker is MacPherson Hughes-Cromwick, WMATA Office of Real Estate to talk about it. ACT's monthly meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, (TODAY!) at the Silver Spring Civic Center. Meetings begin at 7:30pm. [The soccer game will be over by then, and you will have time for dinner before the meeting].

For those who might want to dig deeper into this topic, this conversation with Boris Johnson and Kevin Faulconer (mayor of San Diego) , from 2015 is still an interesting and relevant one:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/watch-london-and-san-diego-mayors-on-their-cities-global-connections-and-competitiveness/

It covers general infrastructure of two very different cities: London and San Diego. Looking back, it illustrates how London has widened the transit and biking gap with our region.

On February 12, the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings hosted a conversation with London Mayor Boris Johnson and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer about the challenges of governing global cities for inclusive growth. During the discussion, which was moderated by Metro VP & Director Bruce Katz, b...

07/09/2026

Some of the things the two-month closure of the Red Line between North Bethesda [nee, White Flint] and Friendship Heights have demonstrated to a broader public are:
1) That bus infrastructure often meets the needs of planners more than riders.
2) Drivers' sense of privilege. Dedicated bus lanes marked for BUSES ONLY are still being used for parking and hovering by drivers, forcing shuttle bus drivers into the main traffic lanes.

06/20/2026

Did you know that a cyclist has the 'Right of Way' (ROW) over a driver when riding on a sidewalk that crosses a driveway or parking lot entrance? We thought you did.
The bad news is you can't count on the Montgomery County Police to know this law. They recently declared a cyclist to be at fault when the cyclist was hit by a driver while on the sidewalk crossing a driveway. The photograph, below, shows the location of the crash.
ACT noted the police made the same error in the same area a year ago.
As ACT's Ben Ross said: "A bicyclist legally cycling on a sidewalk *always* has the right of way over a driver on a driveway. Yet the police twice - at the same driveway - say the cyclist failed to yield ROW."
We say: Cyclists, KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!
Drivers, KNOW YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES!