D.C. Mayor: 'We Cannot Grow With Gridlock'

MIAMI—Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C., says that the current pace of population growth will soon boost her city’s population toward its historical highs. The city is gaining an estimated 1,000 net residents per month, she says, and more than 800,000 residents will call D.C. home within 20 years. That would be quite an accomplishment, since the city’s population is about 670,000 people today.

To facilitate that growth, D.C. needs to expand and improve its infrastructure. The performance of the Metrorail system is of utmost importance to residents, present and future. Especially since Metro is already failing the city: Recent safety and performance lapses have since led to unprecedented planned service interruptions in order to speed up the pace of maintenance. In the meantime, across-the-board ridership fell by 6 percent in 2015, with passengers taking 20 million fewer trips by rail or bus. Adding more residents will only increase stress on an overtaxed system if the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority can’t make up its estimated $275 million budget gap and begin investing in capital improvements.