Here in Washington, DC last weekend, the 12-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian lane of the Woodrow Wilson interstate bridge over the Potomac River held its grand opening, filling with bikers and walkers joining the thousands of cars that cross the bridge each day. The bridge, connecting Virginia and Maryland on the southern part of the Capital Beltway, is a vital transportation link in the region, where Interstate 95 (and the large majority of truck traffic) bypasses Washington, continuing north or south along the eastern seaboard. But making the Wilson Bridge an intermodal success was not easy.

The Baltimore Sun presses Maryland’s state government to use more carrots and sticks to encourage smart growth and help protect the Chesapeake Bay.

Declining gas tax revenue and a sputtering economy have prompted Maryland’s state government to delay $1.1 billion in transportation projects over the next five years. (Associated Press — Alex Dominguez)

Maryland PIRG policy associate Kristi Hovarth points to the numerous flaws behind our outdated federal transportation policy — and offers a multitude of suggestions for fixing it.  (Baltimore Sun)

Distancing itself from a longstanding policy of favoring highway projects over transit, Maryland’s state government responds to pleas from activists and directs $340 million over 20 years towards public transportation. (Baltimore Sun — Michael Dresser)

The Baltimore Sun editorial board argues that the federal government should have raised the gas tax a year ago, and adds that we now need a “new and reliable source of revenue” to deal with a looming crisis for transportation funding

“Plowing new ground” with ridership numbers while facing rising costs for fuel, Virginia’s Prince William County may look to increase fares for public buses. (Washington Post — Jennifer Buske)