The Johns Hopkins Women In Leadership salon reception was held at the Hotel Zena in downtown Washington D.C. and highlighted how women within the Johns Hopkins Health System are making a positive impact on the region’s healthcare community. Board of Trade executive committee member Nora Gardner of McKinsey & Company also shared important insights and data on how women are being impacted in the workforce and how women are being represented within leadership roles at companies.

Below are the women making an impact in leadership roles:

Check out more photos from the Johns Hopkins Women in Leadership salon reception here.

Our organization is concerned that some elements of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 will have a negative impact on the District of Columbia. Specifically, increasing concerns about public safety and the impact on business activities across the District, especially in the Central Business District (CBD).

Residents, businesses, and employees all need a safe environment to work and live. We agree that social and criminal justice reforms are critical efforts for the long-term prosperity of our region. Still, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) needs the tools and resources required to ensure our communities remain safe.  

Our members are especially concerned about language in the legislation that would impact current staffing levels for MPD, prevent an appropriate response during violent protests, and impact how police can remove trespassers from private property. 

Certain parts of the proposed law will impact:

By Kathy Hollinger (GWP) and Jack McDougle (GWBOT)

On November 9, the Greater Washington Partnership (the Partnership) and Greater Washington Board of Trade (the Board of Trade) hosted the 5^th annual Capital Region Transportation Forum bringing together the Capital Region’s transportation leaders – from Washington D.C., Annapolis, and Richmond – to share progress on key transportation efforts and explore innovations that require multi-jurisdiction collaboration.

Our region expects to add another 1.5 million people over the next 20 years. The Partnership and the Board of Trade work together to ensure the region is advancing accessible and affordable transportation options that keep our economy moving. Building a more efficient and accessible transportation system and investing in long-term transportation solutions is essential to ensuring businesses and residents can thrive.

To help kick off the morning, Pierce Coffee, President of Transurban North America, lifted up and celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Express Lane Network in Virginia, the first being the 495 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia. Pierce stressed the importance and power of partnerships to deliver the infrastructure investments that can better connect our future and shared how Transurban is working with partners across the Capital Region to support a sustainable, multimodal, and equitable transportation future.

The first panel was future-focused and centered around technologies and investments needed to create an integrated multimodal transportation system. During the conversation, Pierce Coffee, President of Transurban North America and Tyler Duvall, CEO of Cavnue, highlighted the many opportunities the region will have to use data from roadways and connected vehicles to create safer, more efficient transportation systems. Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, President and Executive Director of the National Landing BID, spoke about the need to center people in design, planning, and construction to overcome many of the region’s transportation challenges. Pierce also highlighted the need for regional solutions to identify a long-term, sustainable source of transportation funding as gas tax revenues will dwindle with the adoption of electric vehicles.

Ian Rainey, Senior Vice President of the Northeast Maglev, updated the audience on the proposed Maglev project and introduced the second panel which featured W. Sheppard ‘Shep’ Miller III, Secretary of Transportation of the Commonwealth of Virginia, James F. Ports, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, Everett Lott, Director of the District Department of Transportation, and Randy Clarke, CEO and General Manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Each of these four leaders shared updates on current short-term priorities before shifting to a conversation about how their agencies are working collaboratively to advance mega projects like Long Bridge, the American Legion Memorial Bridge replacement, and the opening of WMATA’s Silver Line. They also shared their team’s respective strategies to take advantage of the historic federal funding opportunities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Randy also noted that it is not only local jurisdictions and agencies who have to ramp up their planning and grant work to compete for these new grant opportunities, but so do the teams at the U.S. Department of Transportation who are responsible for administering this historic infusion of infrastructure funding.

The Partnership and the Board of Trade were honored to host leaders to discuss a foundational issue for our region’s ability to grow and thrive: transportation and infrastructure. Thank you to The Washington Post’s Lori Aratani for serving as our moderator and a special thanks to this year’s sponsors: Transurban, Northeast Maglev, HNTB, EY, and Aon. We will continue to convene and look for opportunities to partner with the leaders who joined us at the 2022 Capital Region Transportation Forum to ensure we make the long-term investments needed to ensure this region remains one of the best places to live, work, and build a business.

Watch the full 2022 Capital Region Transportation Forum here.  

The Greater Washington Board of Trade was thrilled to have DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson join our Regional Policy Leadership Series webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 2, to chat about a variety of topics and policies that impact business in the Greater Washington region. 

Chairman Mendelson was joined by attorney and partner at Holland & Knight, Janene Jackson, who moderated the discussion that covered public policies that impact transportation, education, business initiatives, environmental issues, the region’s workforce amid a digital transformation, and much more.  

Workforce talent is a huge concern for a variety of businesses that call the Greater Washington region home. And Mendelson didn’t shy away from saying that there is more the District can do to help make the Greater Washington area a place where people want to work and live.  

“Well, I’m not going to say that we’re doing enough or that we are doing or that we have the right answers. For this year’s budget, we put about $20 million in for new special initiatives that are trying to help with job training and filling some of these hard-to-fill positions,” said Mendelson. “My view is that the council really needs to rely on hearing from stakeholders to understand what the most effective strategies are. But the short answer is we recognize the problem, and we have put some money into initiatives to try to help (promote workforce training and growing the region’s workforce).” 

Mendelson also touched on how the pandemic showed the already existing digital divide that impacts businesses and communities across the region was even more prevalent than people realized. And that there needs to be advanced broadband access at affordable levels to all residents, and make sure that D.C.’s government is equipped to enhance its digital footprint. 

One of the other key topics he covered was on transportation, specifically on how WMATA and its new CEO Randy Clarke can make headway in boosting a regional transit system that has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and has seen staled growth due to issues with its rail transit cars and delays to maintenance projects to certain rail transit lines.  

“Well, I’ve met with him a couple of times (WMATA’s Randy Clarke) … If I had to give him advice, it would be to make sure that you spend a lot of time reaching out and building relationships with regional players because you’re going to need them to support the (transit) system. And make sure that WMATA gets out of some of the high-bound bureaucracy that has held it back in the past … but I think he’s going to get it figured out,” said Mendelson.  

Mendelson’s expertise on public policy in the District goes back to when he first served on the D.C. Council in the 1990s. And that knowledge allowed him to broadly engage on how D.C.’s positions impact the Greater Washington region as a whole and how D.C Council is moving and working regarding issues that are important to the business community and the region. 

View the whole discussion with Chairman Mendelson here. 

This Regional Policy Leadership Series webinar was presented by Holland & Knight. Supporting Sponsors of the event series are Comcast, G.S. Proctor & Associates, Inc., McGuireWoods Consulting LLC and McGuireWoods LLP. Thank you for supporting the Greater Washington Board of Trade and our region’s business community.  

Broader Questions and Answers from Chairman Mendelson’s discussion with the Greater Washington Board of Trade and Holland & Knight:  

Q: We are a connected jurisdiction. And you know, many of the things that happen in DC, you know, impact Maryland impact Virginia, and vice versa. As you know, companies across the region are struggling to fill positions at all levels. We know that we have police officers, you know, police departments that need more officers, hospitals that need more nurses, schools, and teachers, and so on. Can you talk to us about what the council is doing to address these current shortfalls? 

A: Well, I’m not going to say that we’re doing enough or that we are doing or that we have the right answers. For this year’s budget, we put about $20 million in for new special initiatives that are trying to help with job training and filling some of these hard-to-fill positions. We’ve come to increasingly use the University of the District of Columbia for some workforce training programs such as for teachers and social workers, and we put money in some additional money in the Department of Employment Services to fund the Infrastructure Academy. Money into WIC for the career coaches initiative. I mentioned I, and when I mentioned UDC, I left out nurses. There’s another program called Career Pathways, there are a number of different initiatives, but I’m not going to say every one of them was great. I’m not saying we were putting enough money into them, maybe there are some that we should be putting more money in. And others we should put less money in my view is that the council really needs to rely on hearing from stakeholders to understand what the most effective strategies are, but the short answers, we recognize the problem, and we put some money into initiatives to try to help. 

Q: One of the things you worked on during the height of the pandemic, or educational gaps, and you know, virtual and learning loss during that virtual period. Can you tell us about those efforts and sort of, you know, clearly how they’re going to lead to helping companies, you know, what you hope is that there’ll be jobs on the other end, and that students will be able to make up the difference in their experience. So, can you talk to us a little bit about what you did during the pandemic? 

A: Yeah, let me start this way. We talked about job training, and we look at the Department of Employment Services or the WIC, or even UDC with regard to job training. And all that makes sense. But some of what I just said was education is job training. And public education is actually the best job training program there is because that’s really what sets the foundation. We have several 100 million dollars in federal money to help overcome learning loss. This is all part of the ARPA Act and the Cares Act. And I have to say that I’m disappointed that that money hasn’t gotten out the door quickly enough. as of a few weeks ago, I believe less than a third of the money had been spent. And I don’t know, I’m not going to convey optimism that all that money is going to be used as quickly or as effectively as it should be. I’m sounding somewhat critical of the government. Yeah, I am a bit critical, because I think we throw money into a lot of programs that don’t always have to follow through or as may be the most effective way to go about. I’ve been focused on how we improve public education at the K through 12 level. That’s a long-term strategy, not a short-term strategy in terms of job training. But as I said before, if kids graduate from high school with a high school diploma, that really means something that they’re literate, and so forth, then their position to go into the workforce and or go on to higher education and go into the workforce. So that’s where I’ve been focused is reducing teacher turnover, principal turnover, more budgets to build in the schools themselves, avoiding getting into the governance fight, which I think is a complete distraction, trying to increase attendance, and pressing through oversight, more work, intensive work on the part of educators to improve literacy. 

Q: So, one of the other things that you addressed in during the pandemic was the digital divide, and the concern about students, can you tell us how the District of Columbia is working to ensure that, you know, DC remains on the forefront of technology or technological advances? And, you know, hoping to prevent the digital divide for some of its residents? 

A: Well, this is I have to be honest; this is not my strongest issue in terms of all the issues I deal with in the council. Again, I’m not sure the government is doing enough. I think that we need to provide broadband access at affordable levels to all residents. I’m supportive of the idea of trying to create, I forget exactly what it’s called, but in the public space, or access to a Wi Fi, and also supporting our Office of the Chief Technology Officer with regard to how to protect the district and that’s not just the government but everybody in the district from issues with cybersecurity. so supportive of initiatives to expand access. And what we saw with a pandemic was in particular, with education that because we moved schools or remote teaching or remote learning, that access to the internet was critical and it was quite obvious very quickly. 

Q: One of the other things impacting the region is transportation. And you know that the Greater Washington area anticipates adding 1.5 million people in the coming years. And the growth of that size is going to put significant stress on an already overburdened transit system. So, can you tell us why transit is critical to keeping us connected and discuss with us any additional funding for WAMATA? And do you expect to continue to support WMATA … and what other steps DC might take to improve the transit networks? 

A: With regard to when WMATA, the council has been very supportive of WMATA. I worked with regional leaders four or five years ago to set up the Metro Rail Safety Commission. I’m concerned right now that there’s been some tension between the City Commission and the WMATA board, and the two need to work together. And instead of what appears to be a bit of a gotcha from one side or the other. I’m not quite sure who, but it is supportive of the Metro Rail Safety Commission, I was very much involved with the dedicated funding for infrastructure improvements, which is critical. I changed the way the District appoints its members to the WMATA board. And I think we’re getting better representation. We are struggling with the fact that Virginia when it adopted the dedicated funding, put restrictions that I think were too severe on alternatives participating. So basically, an alternate can be appointed by jurisdiction, but they can’t attend the meetings, they’re kind of left out in the dark. And then they have to come in and sit in for a regular member if the regular member can’t attend. It’s just, it’s crazy. It needs to find a better balance. I’ve actually talked to leadership in the Virginia Legislature and representatives in the Maryland legislature about trying to address that so that we can get alternates who are well-versed in issues so that we have better representation. There’s legislation pending in the council right now, that would encourage residents to use transit … the basic outline is that every resident would get a $100 fare card. And if they use it during the month, it gets replenished to $100 the next month. I will say that, personally, I think it’s important that the district works with Maryland and Virginia. This is a regional transit system. And we need to make sure that it is a viable operation. It’s been hurt by the pandemic, as we all know. And so, we need to make sure that it gets out of the pandemic and is thriving. 

Christine Porath, an accomplished author, and tenured Georgetown business professor, joined the Greater Washington Board of Trade and our guests for on Friday, Oct. 28, as part of the TD Bank Morning Star Speaker Series that gives local business and organization leaders great insight about how to grow and foster success.  

Porath discussed details and actionable steps from her newest book ‘Mastering Community: The Surprising Ways Coming Together Moves us from Surviving to Thriving.’ Her speech and discussion with the audience really helped business leaders in attendance understand how to foster community and a feeling of compassion in the workplace.  

Porath shared a variety of examples about how businesses, organizations, and sports teams she has worked with were able to come together and bond through fostering community.  

“If you can create community, I really do believe it’s a cure for people, whether they’re struggling in some way, which we know all too many are,” said Porath about how 81 percent of employees are more focused and likely to perform well when there is a community atmosphere within their job.  

Porath shared that there are four pillars – self-awareness, physical well-being, mindset, and recovery — to creating happier workplaces and happier employees who want to build and be a part of a thriving workplace community. And emphasized that workplace leaders should know that self-awareness is the most overlooked of these steps. And that recovery is a huge part of keeping workforces engaged when they need to work, but also keeping them from feeling “burned-out,” which she pointed to as an even greater issue since the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted work conditions across the globe.  

Questions that Porath answered from the audience included how to create community via employees wanting to work from home more often, how to engage employees to work together that are of different ages, and how to foster community when the people in your community are very diverse and come from different perspectives and backgrounds.  

The energy in the room with Porath and our guests really allowed for these questions, and the ones asked by moderator Rosie Allen-Herring, to sink in when she spoke about solutions and obstacles to the concerns business and organization leaders face with their workforces.  

One thing that Porath left the room with that Friday morning was that if you are a business leader that leads workforces, you must “walk the walk” as much as you “talk the talk.” And that talking about fostering community in an organization is needed, but if you don’t take actionable steps to make it happen, employees won’t just go along with the idea.  

“I’ve talked about the idea of unleashing people and that really gets at giving people choice or autonomy, decision-making discretion … when people feel like their leaders, care about them, and respect them, you know, they feel valued, appreciated, heard, it makes all the difference. That actually is the number one driver of what motivates people at work, like how they perform well,” said Porath. 

Christine Porath has worked with countless businesses and sports teams to understand how community and workplace success go hand in hand through white at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Her newest book, ‘Mastering Community,’ followed her book, ‘Mastering Civility,’ which she spoke about in a TED Talks discussion at the University of Nevada.  

The moderator for this TD Bank Morning Star Speaker Series event, Rosie Allen-Herring, president and CEO of United Way of the National Capital Area, allowed our guests to feel truly engaged. Her more than 30 years of experience in the areas of corporate finance, strategic leadership, public and private partnerships, corporate philanthropy, and community investment, was invaluable for the discussion.  

A huge thank you to our sponsor for this event TD Bank and its regional president, Terry Kenny, for helping the Greater Washington Board of Trade help grow workforce solutions and promote success for business in our region.  

“If you’re a company in Virginia or a prospective founder, or you’re someone who wants to move a company to Virginia, my goal is to get to yes. I want to figure out how we get to yes, in a way that’s a win-win.” — Caren Merrick, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade  

WASHINGTON – The Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Regional Policy Leadership Series was honored to have Caren Merrick, Virginia Secretary for Commerce and Trade, join regional professionals on Wednesday, Oct. 26, for a webinar focused on how she and her team are helping grow business ventures in Northern Virginia along with the Greater Washington area.  

The discussion between Secretary Merrick and moderator Chris Lloyd, of McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, focused on growing Virginia’s workforce talent, economic mobility in the region, how Virginia is looking to grow small business opportunities along with recruiting global companies to Northern Virginia, and how public-private partnerships can keep the region as one of the fastest growing in the nation.  

“Our goal is to take Virginia to the next level. And so how do we do that? Well, the first thing that we need to do is understand what businesses are looking for. When they are either they’re already here in Virginia, or they are thinking about relocating or opening up (factory) plants. And so, what are they looking for? They’re looking for sites that are ready, they’re looking for an area where their employees want to live and work,” said Merrick.  

The Regional Policy Leadership Series webinar also covered a variety of questions that pertained to economic initiatives and technology industry focuses that impact the Northern Virginia region. 

Secretary Merrick acknowledged how important it is to see companies like Boeing and Raytheon move to Northern Virginia. And that it is important that the region not lose its status as a hotbed for technology businesses that bring tech talent needed to drive growth in the region. 

A way to do this in the Northern Virginia area is by looking at housing, and how the state can create more affordable housing and workforce housing for people coming to the state. And that businesses working with Virginia to create housing is a vital part of making sure the best talent can live, along with work, in the state of Virginia.  

“We are open to a variety of bold ideas on how we help solve the housing shortage. And we have the Governor’s housing conference coming up in November. We want to unveil a few more ideas on how we solve the housing shortage … There may be a much bigger role for businesses to fulfill in not only workforce talent pipeline, but also in workforce housing,” said Merrick about the Governor speaking at the upcoming conference.  

An engaging conversation sparked by McGuireWoods Consulting, Chris Lloyd, shared how Secretary Merrick and Virginia are supportive of working with both D.C. and Maryland to establish collaboration for regional business opportunities that can benefit the entire Greater Washington area.  

“I’ve met with a lot of the business leaders and the economic development experts, and there’s a lot of opportunity to collaborate. I would like to see us collaborate in that way to form, perhaps, a Research Triangle Park. Like what they have in North Carolina. Or dig into the biosciences together as a region and pursue that,” said Merrick. “I know there are organizations that are wanting to do this type of collaboration regionally, with quantum computing or hydrogen technologies. And so, I think that the Greater Washington Board of Trade is very well positioned to bring together and convene the right group of people to help solve these problems together, or to tackle opportunities to bring certain types of industries to our region where everyone is going to benefit.” 

Secretary Merrick challenged guests who attended the Regional Policy Leadership Series to think about what it would be like if businesses could work closer with states and local governments to promote economic opportunities. And that public-private partnership and working together, will help create a more impactful business community in Virginia and the Greater Washington area.  

“I have a challenge for everyone here. What would become possible for us if we worked together more closely to solve these problems? What would become possible for your business and for Northern Virginia? If you got a group of your colleagues in a room or group of your fellow business leaders in a room and you said let’s whiteboard how to solve these problems? Let’s imagine the government isn’t even going to get that involved,” said Merrick. “What would become possible if we took the initiative and the leadership and the ownership to solve some of these problems? Not to say that you’re not already doing that. But what would become possible if you did it on a whole new level? Because right now, for the next three and a half years, you have a highly skilled team of this is people who understand the shoes that you walk in, and who want to work with you to solve problems and to build whole new ways of doing things that will far outlast the four-year term that we have.” 

Secretary Merrick heads into her second year under Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration and is a business leader with over 25 years of experience launching growth companies and reinventing businesses in Virginia. She was the founding CEO of the Virginia Ready Initiative, a public-private partnership co-founded by Governor Glenn Youngkin and First Lady Suzanne in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Her background in working between public-private partnerships in this region showed us great insight into how Virginia is working to grow business opportunities and allow our audience to really engage about a variety of topics that impact the Greater Washington region’s business environment.  

View the whole discussion with Secretary Merrick here.  

This Regional Policy Leadership Series was presented by webinar was presented by McGuireWoods Consulting LLC and McGuireWoods. Supporting Sponsors of the event are Comcast, Holland & Knight, and G.S. Proctor & Associates, INC. Thank you for supporting the Greater Washington Board of Trade and our region’s business community. 

Broader Questions and Answers from Secretary Merrick’s discussion with the Greater Washington Board of Trade and McGuireWoods Consulting: 

Q: Data centers are obviously very important to Northern Virginia’s economy. What kind of activity level are you seeing what’s the administration doing to keep that growth going, particularly when you see other regions Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago, and others starting to grab some of that growth? 

A: Data centers are very, very important in Northern Virginia to us. And you may have read that there are some energy issues. Remember, I was talking about energy a few minutes ago, and how important it is to companies and Dominion Energy announced that they were having some forecasting issues. And so, we’re on that we’re meeting almost daily with a data center representative or Dominion Energy or often both to resolve that problem. 

Q: How is the state adjusting some of its thinking about talent in a remote or a hybrid work environment? How is the state looking at it from an incentives perspective? And what are some of the ways that the state can be involved in getting people back to work? The governor speaks about the reduction in workforce participation in the state. And that’s been a major challenge holding Virginia back to from getting to as many jobs as we had pre-COVID. Can you talk about some of those topics a little bit? 

A: There is a labor shortage across the country, every state is feeling it. However, Virginia’s labor force participation rate is at historic lows, and there are competing states, the ones I mentioned earlier, are the ones that we pay very close attention to. We have an economic data book that’s that thick. I mean, we measure and compare ourselves constantly on a variety of metrics. Take North Carolina, for example, their labor force participation rate is lower than Virginia. But they have not only filled all the jobs that were lost during COVID. But they’ve exceeded that we still haven’t filled all of those, those jobs that were lost. So, we have 300,000 open jobs in Virginia. We have 100,000 More Virginians working than we did on inauguration day. So, we’re heading in the right direction. And we’re delighted about that. 

Q: What can you share with us what the administration is doing to help other businesses relocate to the region? And what is the state and particularly your office doing to increase and maintain Virginia’s economic competitiveness? 

A: Governor Younkin is a high-growth-minded businessman. And so our goal is to take Virginia to the next level. And so how do we do that? Well, the first thing that we need to do is understand what businesses are looking for. When they are either they’re already here in Virginia, or they are thinking about relocating or opening up plants. And so, what are they looking for, they’re looking for sites that are ready, they’re looking for an area where their employees want to live and work. They’re looking for a business environment where they can flourish. That is friendly, tax-friendly for them. And they’re looking, I believe, for a state government that helps them get to yes, a state government that helps make it easier to do business here in Virginia. And so, we have been investing in sites we have $150 million just this year that was passed in the budget for us to develop sites for businesses to relocate to we’re also looking at Northern Virginia, in terms of what are its assets and amplifying those and investing in those. And so, we know we have amazing universities in Northern Virginia, and we are working closely with them on a variety of measures to help them train Virginians for in-demand jobs. So we would like to see the outcome and education be a job. And we’re working very closely with universities to achieve that. And one other thing that we are working on, particularly in northern Virginia is a challenge. And that has to do with housing, that we have had out-migration from Northern Virginia, we think that they’re that a large part of that is the cost of housing. So, you’ll see the governor making some announcements in the near term, particularly in the next legislative session, to help Virginia increase its supply of accessible housing of affordable housing and more abundant housing. 

On Friday October 7, the Greater Washington Board of Trade hosted a webinar with transportation experts and business leaders to talk about the benefits of collecting and using bus data to strengthen transportation growth for the region.

The webinar is part of MetroNow’s Bus Champions Webinar Series that promotes bus transit in the region so it can evolve alongside rail transit and is not left behind, as the area is projected to grow by 1.5 million people in the next 20 years.

The webinar’s moderator, Jack McDougle, president & CEO of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, opened the webinar by speaking about how buses are vital to the Greater Washington area. He expressed that people like himself, who use buses to get to work, need more efficient bus systems that work together to create better transportation experiences and allow for better economic growth across the region.

“We want to make sure we have the best (bus) systems possible for all of us across the region. It is no surprise we’re ranked in the top 5 nationally in traffic congestion, which is not good,” said Jack McDougle. “So being proactive in keeping up with the region’s transit needs must happen now, not later.”

Panelists Allison Davis of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Allan Fye of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), Robert Puentes of the Eno Center of Transportation, and Michael Helta of Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Maryland Transit Authority (MTA), spoke directly on how new federal efforts to streamline data sharing between transit organizations and agencies can help the Greater Washington area meet its busing needs.

The panelists highlighted this federal effort and explained how General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data collection can help transit organizations and agencies dig deeper into bus data and how crucial it is to stay on the offensive to create better customer opportunities.

The emphasis from the panelists on how consumer data can help people travel more efficiently in day-to-day life was of great value to local professionals and business leaders from the MetroNow coalition that joined the webinar. From better timing on bus routes to showing how people move across the region on different transit systems, panelists laid out in detail how vital it is to know logistically and holistically how people commute.

Robert Puentes, who follows transportation legislation and initiatives closely at the Eno Center of Transportation, spoke about why the Greater Washington area has moved towards the future and has been innovative in the transportation community but that buses have been forgotten about.

“Even though we spend a lot of time talking about rail and talking about all these other new technological tools, we’ve forgotten about buses over the years. And so, part of the reason that this bus transformation project was initiated in the first place is because bus (transportation) is an enormously important part of how our region functions, how our economy functions,” said Puentes. “We’ve neglected the people that rely on the bus as a mode of transportation.”

To express how data is being used in real-time to help customers, WMATA Vice President of Planning Allison Davis shared how her organization’s 1,500 buses collect data that can better eliminate gaps in routes and better help plan for how WMATA should adjust to create better bus availability. Davis said some of the data collected by WMATA shows how fast its buses travel down roads, when bus doors open at stops, and when people board buses. And that matching up this data can go a long way to mitigate problems customers see as they travel.

Davis also announced the launch of Better Bus: Network Redesign Project, the first comprehensive effort in 50-year history to re-envision a customer-focused bus network for the National Capital Region. This initiative will rethink, redesign, and revitalize bus service.

“We need to be competitive and connect people with where they want to go at times of day and times of the week that they need to be traveling,” said Davis.

Michael Helta of MDOT and MTA and Allan Fye of NVTC fostered the webinar conversation around bus data to grow further with insight into how Northern Virginia and southern Maryland are using bus transit data. Both shared how the investment in data collection by their organizations has been a game changer. And that at the end of the day, we can’t forget about bus systems and why it’s a must to connect data across the Greater Washington region as customers continue to depend heavily on public transportation systems.

Helta also spoke about how MDOT and MTA have started to invest in artificial intelligence to help the state’s transit authorities fill in the gaps and better serve customers. And how his team worked to help transportation workers in Maryland better understand why certain data needs to be collected to help create better bus systems.

“We had to sit with bus dispatchers and get them to understand why putting an assignment to a bus in real time was important. Because if a bus is not assigned to a block in real-time, we’re not going to get real-time information to the passengers waiting for it at the end of the stop,” said Helta. “Because in the past, it didn’t matter because that (data) didn’t go out. And so, it’s those types of things that bring it all the way to the front lines. Letting them (transit workers) know that they are a critical part to this big data solution.”

Allan Fye furthered this and shared that NVTC has invested in data because they need to make decisions now, not down the road. And why his organization has based its more significant transportation priorities and planning because of the data, it has received.

“Really big companies have been able to monetize big data. And we’re finally catching up when it comes to the transit world, which is why we are putting so much time and effort into making sure that we’re building this giant database of information,” said Fye. “We’re (Northern Virginia) growing at a rapid rate. We can’t survive and be economically competitive if everybody is driving.”

All four panelists agreed that sharing transit data across the region is essential to create economic growth and help our region prepare for a significant population increase. And that a major investment in bus data collection can ensure the Greater Washington area does not fall behind.

“Don’t forget about bus (transportation),” added Fye. “It’s the backbone of transportation in the region. There is a lot of good (through data) that can help us solve transportation problems in the region.”

MetroNow has Six Key Initiatives for busing in the Greater Washington area in 2022: Launch WMATA’s Regional Bus Network redesign process; Build 10 miles of new bus lanes and create a bus lane enforcement strategy; Create a regional strategy to retain and recruit bus operators; Create a strategy for zero emissions infrastructure and workforce; Consolidate regional data on bus operations and create a regional strategy to address the transit funding fiscal cliff.

Want more from the series? The next MetroNow webinar will be held in November and focus on creating a regional strategy to address the transit funding fiscal cliff.

The Regional Policy Leadership Series, invites elected leaders to participate in open conversations on regional policies, priorities and issues impacting the business community.

Last week, Steve Proctor, president and CEO of G.S. Proctor & Associates lead the discussion with Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and Maryland Speaker of the House Adrienne A. Jones.

Mental health, transportation and workforce development were among the top issues that legislators will address in the 2023 Maryland General Assembly. A key theme throughout the discussion was the importance of a clear line of communication with the District and Virginia as well as the business community to create a more prosperous, accessible, and livable region. 

The Board of Trade and our members are committed to addressing these challenges and elevating the region’s inclusive growth and global competitiveness.

Did you miss the conversation? Watch the full interview below or read a detailed recap of the conversation on Maryland Matters.

Want more from this series? Register for the next Regional Policy Conversations:

• VA Secretary of Commerce and Trade, Caren Merrick – October 26 from 10-11am
• D.C. Council Chair, Phil Mendelson – November 2 from 9-10am