Continued strong growth in the Washington area appears to have established a consensus, among all but the most crotchety exurban lawmakers, that local jurisdictions need to be active in addressing current and future transit needs, even if that means acting autonomously (as opposed to attempting to tackle every transit problem regionally). Last week, Transit on Thursday discussed, once again, the trolley project making headway in Arlington County. Today, the Post has a story on how Virginia’s efforts to do Orange Line transit “right” might compromise the project’s Federal funding, and today City Desk has an item on how Bethesda might be preparing finally to tackle its own Purple Line project.

While it might be desirable for the region to consider how each project best fits within the overall transit framework, difficulties in pursuing such broad projects might lead to an increase in smaller, independent projects that add to the transit system in bits and pieces. What do you all think? Where are the greatest transit needs in the city, and would local municipalities be better off developing and funding important projects piecemeal (like the Arlington trolley) rather than funnelling everything through a regional process?

Picture taken by andertho.