At its December meeting, the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) voted to adopt Visualize 2050, the region’s federally mandated, metropolitan transportation plan. The TPB board is required to approve the plan every four years, and transportation projects must be in the plan to receive federal funding and approvals.
The development of Visualize 2050 involved a reexamination of earlier investment plans to reflect the board’s current priorities for mobility and accessibility. While it advances many regional goals, it also acknowledges the challenges that remain.
The plan consists of highway and transit projects totaling $297 billion that the region expects to fund through 2050. Examples include the New Long Bridge over the Potomac River and the Purple Line Light Rail Transitway, which will increase passenger, freight, and rail transit capacity. Additionally, the area’s current 14 lane miles of bus rapid transit (BRT) and 28 BRT stations are expected to grow to 93 lane miles and 118 stations over the next two and a half decades. More routes on lanes separated from general traffic will improve travel time and reliability.
“Our region’s transportation system has made tremendous progress over the last several decades as a result of committed planning and cross-sector coordination, but there’s still much more to be done,” said TPB Chair and Fairfax County Supervisor Walter Alcorn. “Visualize 2050 reflects extensive public engagement and continues to meet key environmental, mobility, and accessibility standards over the next 25 years.”
Much of the plan’s priorities focus on continued operation and maintaining the system in a state of good repair. Through 2050, an estimated 85 percent of anticipated future funding will be needed for critical work like repaving roads, rehabilitating or replacing bridges, and operating Metrorail, VRE, MARC, and bus transit. The other 15 percent of funding in the plan is dedicated to expanding the current transportation system.
By 2050, the region is predicted to add 1.2 million residents (21 percent increase) and 800,000 jobs (24 percent increase), making an accessible, affordable, and reliable transit system essential to the area’s economic competitiveness. Without the investments proposed in Visualize 2050, the average regional job accessibility by car would decline by 11 percent, as opposed to the five percent projected in the plan. Due to future multimodal investments in the plan, options like carpooling, walking, biking, and transit are expected to grow from 59 percent to 62 percent for all trips.
In October, the TPB voted to defer final consideration and not include the I-495 Southside Express Lanes project in Visualize 2050. Officials noted that the project, as proposed, did not satisfactorily address the issues identified to secure consensus among all involved jurisdictions. VDOT and MDOT were encouraged to continue exploring the project and working with local jurisdictions towards securing a consensus on improvements to this important regional corridor.
Along with Visualize 2050, the TPB approved the FY 2026-2029 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) totaling over $17 billion in programmed funding for projects throughout the region. Both the Visualize 2050 plan and TIP underwent extensive air quality conformity analysis, which confirms that the activities included in both meet federal air quality standards.
MORE: Visit the Visualize 2050 website