The Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtable, hosted by WILMAPCO, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and Baltimore Metropolitan Council, will focus on mobility, sustainability, and economic competitiveness in the Mid-Atlantic region. The event will take place on Thursday, October 29th at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, DE. The Roundtable allows agencies with common goals to share resources and collaborate on plans, projects, and a variety of contemporary issues. This year's topics will include: Federal Rail Administration's (FRA) Northeast Corridor (NEC) Future Program, Every Day Counts (EDC) Initiative, Planning Emphasis Areas (PEAs), federal authorization, regional transit projects, sustainability, and interregional freight planning and operations. Planners, elected officials, and the public are invited to participate in the free event. For more information or to register, please visit www.wilmapco.org/mid-atlantic.

South Wilmington Wetland Restoration and Conservation Project

Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC) is conducting three Open House Information Sessions to seek input from customers and the public on possible changes to individual bus routes, fare media, and additional SEPTA train service into Delaware. Sessions are being held in advance of introducing service proposals at DART's Public Hearing Workshops later in November. The sessions are:

Carper Proposes Gas Tax Increase
According to a News Journal article, "Tom Carper is continuing his push for a gas tax increase, this time with a new bill he introduced. The Delaware Democrat's legislation would increase gas and diesel taxes by four cents a year for four years and then index them to inflation. It would also extend and expand the earned income and child tax credits to balance the 16-cent cost of the gas tax increase."  To view the source article, please visit www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/08/07/carper-proposes-gas-tax-increase/31307157.

CDC Releases new Built Environmental Assessment Tool

Realtors® Survey Again Shows Preference for Walkable Communities
According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2015 Community Preference Survey, "Americans, especially Boomers and Millennials, want to live just a walk away from destinations and neighborhood amenities. The survey also reveals preferences for maintaining and fixing current roadways, reasons for not walking or bicycling more often, and factors people consider when finding a place to live."  For more information, please visit www.realtor.org/reports/nar-2015-community-preference-survey.

What Do Americans Think about Public Transit? A Review of U.S. Public Opinion Polling Survey Questions
According to the Transportation Research Board, "The Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University has released a report that assembles a large set of transit-related survey questions to identify patterns in public opinion about transit across multiple surveys. The analysis of the poll questions found that strong majorities of people believed that transit brings a number of specific benefits to their community, especially congestion relief and accessibility to vulnerable residents. Strong majorities also support improvements to transit as a general concept. However, fewer people support the general concept of increased spending on transit, and considerably fewer than half support raising any specific tax to
increase transit funding, except for sales taxes, which usually enjoy majority support."  To learn more, please visit www.trb.org/main/blurbs/173015.aspx.

Do Street Murals Help Calm Traffic?
According to a CityLab article, "The Canadian City of Kitchener has a problem intersection that seems to attract accidents. But municipal regulations prevented the installation of a four-way stop.The local neighborhood association persuaded the city to place a mural in the middle of the intersection. The hope is the artwork, now part of a pilot traffic project, will make drivers focus and navigate the crossing with caution. Kitch ener is the latest in a long line of communities to attempt traffic calming via public art. In the 1990s, citizens of Portland, Oregon, started painting their own intersections; St. Paul followed up with two murals in 2006; Cambridge also got in on the action that year and Minneapolis and Tacoma, Washington, installed murals in 2011."  To view the source article, please visit www.citylab.com/design/2015/07/street-murals-help-calm-traffic/399395.