Photo by Joe Flood on Flickr.

The DC chapter of the Sierra Club asked candidates in tomorrow’s Ward 4 and Ward 8 special elections about their stances on transportation issues. The Club heard back from Brandon Todd in Ward 4 and from Eugene Kinlow and LaRuby May in Ward 8.

The questionnaire, which covered bus lanes, streetcars, parking, and bike trails, was part of the Sierra Club’s endorsement process. In total, the Club reached out to one candidate in Ward 4, Todd, and to three in Ward 8— of all the candidates in the mix, that’s how many it deemed to be running viable campaigns.

In the Ward 4 race, Brandon Todd‘s campaign answered “Yes” (but didn’t elaborate) to all four of the Club’s questions. That means he’s in favor of endorsing “parking cash-out” so that employees can choose not to drive to work, creating transit-only travel lanes on key corridors downtown, fully funding DC’s 37-mile streetcar plan, and reallocating District resources to complete major off-street trails.

The Kennedy Street Development Association also polled Ward 4 candidates on transportation and smart growth. KSDA’s Myles Smith noted:

No candidate supports a Streetcar on Georgia Avenue, though they do support other transit investments: all back $2 billion in funding for the Metro Forward plan. Andrews, Todd, and Toliver support 16th Street bus lanes, adding new bike lanes even at the cost of parking, while Bowser opposed.

Oddly, on the Sierra Club questionnaire, Brandon Todd endorsed the full streetcar network — including… a streetcar on Georgia.

In the Ward 8 race, Eugene Kinlow‘s campaign answered “Yes” to three of the Club’s questions, but “No” regarding the streetcar. “I still have doubts about the benefits of this investment and believe that other transit opportunities such as small area circulators and increased access to affordable biking options may prove more worthwhile for the ward,” he said.

LaRuby May‘s campaign answered “Yes” to the Club’s questions about parking cash-out and about bicycle trails. In response to the question about the streetcar, the campaign wrote that May “supports the creation of alternative transportation methods to better address the connectivity issues faced by Ward 8 residents. Whichever method most efficiently gets the people I serve to where they need to go is the one I will support.” The campaign also wrote a similar response about bus lanes.

The Club contacted Marion C. Barry‘s campaign several times but got no response.

Full text of the questionnaire’s transportation-related questions:

Subsidies for Parking and Driving: Subsidized employee parking favors commuters from the suburbs who disproportionately drive to work, as compared to DC residents. Employers would retain the authority as to whether, to what degree, and to which employees they provide a parking subsidy, sometimes called parking cash out.

Q: Will you support legislation requiring DC employers that choose to subsidize employee parking to offer an equivalently-valued subsidy to non-driving commuters?

Reallocation of Road Space: The District has limited right-of-way for travel and access. A disproportionate amount of this right-of-way is taken up by lone travelers driving on unrestricted travel lanes and on-street parking, with the result being poorer air quality in the District and less attractive transportation options than if such right-of-way were to be rebalanced.

Q: Will you support DC Department of Transportation creating bus-only travel lanes on 16th, H, and I Streets NW, and placing further streetcar lines in transit-only lanes?

Streetcars: The District has planned for a 37-mile streetcar system, including lines along Georgia Avenue NW and Martin Luther King Avenue SE and Wheeler Road SE, which would put nearly half of DC’s population within walking distance of rail transit. Last year, the Council cut funding levels for the streetcar, and the reduced eight-mile network that DDOT has now proposed to put out to bid, as a single construction contract, would serve neither Wards 4 nor 8.

Q: Do you support raising taxes or reallocating funding to restore full funding for the 37-mile streetcar plan?”

Bicycle Trails: The Capital Crescent, mainstream Rock Creek, Oxon Run, and Suitland Parkway bicycle trails are all in need of major repair and maintenance. The Metropolitan Branch and Anacostia Riverwalk are left at various stages of completion.

Q: Will you demand that the DC Department of Transportation allocate the resources and energy to complete the rehabilitation and construction of those trail segments and reallocate resources, even at the expense of other projects, to complete?

The author is a board member of the DC Chapter of the Sierra Club.