Recent Polling

Regional Poll on Transportation:

DC-Area Residents Strongly Favor New Road AND Transit Projects,

Want Action on Gridlock

(April 18, 2016) A new poll by OpinionWorks released April 18 at a briefing of area leaders shows transportation is by far the top long-term concern for residents of the Greater Washington Region. Overwhelming majorities also favor significant new investments in both the area's highway and mass transit networks. Large majorities in this regional poll of 800 residents in Maryland, DC and Virginia support:

Investing in the core capacity of the existing Metro system (though not necessarily its further expansion);
Major new multi-modal investments to widen and redesign several highway corridors, including I-270, the Capital Beltway, portions of I-66, and the American Legion Bridge, adding new express-toll lanes and regional bus-rapid-transit service on each; and
Virginia's Bi-County Parkway, a new Potomac River bridge crossing north of the American Legion Bridge, and two new transit lines in Maryland, the Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT).

Public support for all of these projects was exceptionally strong, ranging from 4-to-1 to 12-to-1 margins in all cases. The survey was commissioned by the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance (SMTA) and the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance (NVTA).

For more on this survey, click here.

For the survey report, click here.

In the media: "Residents say transportation is D.C. region's biggest challenge," WTOP, April 18, 2016

Clean Land, Safe Water, Healthy Lives -

Tracking Disposable Bag Consumption in DC

(January 7, 2014) - Four out of five District of Columbia residents are using fewer disposable bags as a result of the District’s 5-cent disposable bag fee, according to our recent surveys of both residents and businesses. More than three-quarters of businesses are providing fewer disposable bags to their customers, resulting in 50% fewer disposable bags being purchased by businesses compared to before the law was implemented.

The result has been much less plastic bag litter, with two-thirds of both residents and businesses seeing fewer bags in the form of litter around their neighborhoods and properties. Fifty percent of businesses reported that they were saving money as a result of this law, and only one business in four said they were experiencing any negative impacts from the bag fee.

Overall, substantial majorities of both residents and business owners and managers support the bag fee personally, with 53% of residents and 63% of businesses supporting the law outright. Only 16% of residents and 8% of businesses said they were bothered by the law, while the rest said they had no feelings about the bag law either way.

For more about this from the District Department of the Environment, click here.

This study in the media:

The Washington Times: "Survey: D.C. residents curbing use of plastic bags since tax took effect."

WTOP: "Study: DC bag tax is working."

Popville, DC's Neighborhood Blog: "E ighty percent of District residents have reduced their disposable bag use."