DC's new transportation plan: Green elitism?

Yesterday's Washington Post had an interesting article about the DC Department of Transportation's long range transportation plan.  Unfortunately, like a lot of green initiatives, it is fairly elitist.   

First, let's start with what the plan proposes.  There are new features like water taxis and streetcars as well as improvements to the existing metro and bus system.  Bikers will also get a boost with more paved road reserved for bikes lanes.  There's even a plan to charge commuters a toll to drive into the city. The goal is to make DC greener by forcinggetting people out of their cars.

So, why is this plan elitist?  Three interconnected reasons.  The first is that the plan doesn't take into account the changing distribution of the region's working class and poor populations.  DC's Poor and working class population used to live (primarily) in inner city areas.  They often faced disinvestment and high crime, but there was one benefit to their location--proximity to public transportation.  As DC has gentrified, many of these people have been pushed into the suburbs, or even exurbs.

Second, public transportation becomes less available and efficient the further you move from the city.  There are fewer bus lines and wait times between buses can be more than half an hour.  Likewise, metro stations tend to be located further apart in the suburbs, and the hub and spoke nature of DC's system means that it is often difficult to move from one suburb to another without routing through the city first.  These difficulties are compounded for poor and working class people who also have to find a way to get to their nearest metro stop.  Most can't afford to live within walking distance of a station because rents/home prices tend to be higher near them.  This means that car dependency is not just a choice (as it is often presented) but an unavoidable fact of life for many people at the bottom half of the income spectrum.

Third, if you charge people to drive into DC, you are essentially instituting a regressive tax.  That is, the people who cannot afford to live in the city or near a suburban metro stop will be the ones who have to pay it.  Some will pay it because they have no choice.  But, others, especially those at the bottom of the scale may simply avoid the city altogether--not because they want to but because they can't afford the cost or time it would take to enter it via public transit.     

There's nothing wrong with making it easier to move around DC without a car, but unless and until public transportation in the entire DMV is improved, the city should stick with carrots and leave the sticks behind.  Otherwise, DC's green will come with a side of exclusion.