This morning the D.C.-based Coalition for Smarter Growth released its recommended development platform for Prince George's County. The coalition produced the report in conjunction with a group called the Prince George's Advocates for Community-based Transit. They're hoping that the pols facing off in the upcoming county primaries take a few of these recommendations to heart. You can check out the report here. 

As we saw yesterday, Prince George's County can be a pretty inhospitable place for pedestrians. It's a county filled with four-, six-, and eight-lane highways that must be crossed, with sidewalks that end abruptly or have fallen into disrepair, with Metro stations that are more accessible to drivers than to people on foot. The coalition did a study on pedestrian safety a couple of years ago that found Prince George's to be the second-most dangerous jurisdiction for walking in the area, falling behind only Fairfax County.

"Right now, pedestrians are very much an afterthought," Cheryl Cort, the coalition's policy director, tells On Foot.

Part of the problem, Cort says, is what the county asks -- and doesn't ask -- of developers working on new projects. "They will require a developer to pay a million dollars to widen a road two miles down the way, but they won't provide anything in terms of filling in a missing sidewalk so residents can walk from the edge of a property to the bus stop." Because of street design it's often difficult to walk to Metro stops or even to bus stops in Prince George's. A lot of the county's thoroughfares, says Cort, are actually "country roads" now utilized "in an urban way."

Among the group's sensible growth recommendations: Funnel new investment into pockets inside the Beltway; work on making the county's 15 Metro stations more friendly to the car-less; and steer new development away from the county's more rural areas. As the report notes, the county has fallen short of its own goals for managed growth. The coalition argues that Prince George's has encouraged "scattered development," making it a chore in certain areas to do anything without a car.

A lot of jurisdictions around here would kill for 15 Metro stops. But Prince George's, Cort says, hasn't done much to capitalize on them. "Most of Prince George's County's metro stations are surrounded by big parking lots," she says. "People are walking to them but it's a pretty unpleasant walk." Even the stations with significant development around them -- like the IRS building at New Carrollton, or the Census Bureau complex at Suitland -- aren't necessarily places you'd want to walk around. "Not by choice, anyway," says Cort. She's heard a number of county residents complain that the Metro stations have simply attracted more car traffic and accidents, rather than making it more ped-friendly.

"It's like a lot of suburban communities that have become more urban over time," she says. "Ten percent of Prince George's households don't own a car and are completely reliant on walking and biking for their daily needs. We haven't caught up in terms of accommodating everyone and not just motor vehicles."