Smart Growth and Transportation Choices
Transportation is the backbone of smarter growth.
Smart Growth Priorities: What Are Yours?
The biggest opportunity to invest in our communities comes not from the money we invest in them, but the people we chose to represent them. With an election looming, 1000 Friends of Maryland is working hard to ensure that all our candidates are well informed on the issues related to smart growth.
We have begun drafting a briefing book for candidates for state or local office, and plan to release it by the end of the summer. The briefing book will cover policies and actions to improve our communities, create a connected transportation system, keep farmers farming, preserve our open spaces, and revitalize our cities and towns.
This briefing book will provide a tool for candidates to understand the issues and the solutions to make your community stronger. If there is a particular issue facing your county or town, let us know! We will post the hottest issues on our county pages, and direct candidates to look there to hear your concerns.
Transportation Priorities
The average Maryland commuter spends more than 250 hours every year commuting – three times as much time as the average Maryland family spends vacationing together. Scattered, automobile-oriented development has made driving the only viable transportation option for most Marylanders. 
1000 Friends is working to change Maryland’s transportation priorities so we have more choices in how to get to where we need to go. We are:
- Working with local groups to fight sprawl-inducing highway projects and support transit options.
- Implementing state transportation reform and advocating for smarter state funding for transportation.
- Supporting federal action for stronger transportation policy and funding.
Rising gas prices are hitting the wallet of citizens and government alike. We will fight to make sure that your tax dollars are spent on transportation choices that help all Marylanders, not new roads to nowhere.
You can read a newly-released report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending here. (Link opens a PDF file).
Send your transit and highway stories to Transportation FOR Maryland -- know of a Maryland highway that goes nowhere? Want public transit work more efficiently? Tell us what you think!
