As a 2023 transplant from New York City, John Antokas (pictured above with his fiancé), sees Bethesda through the eyes of an urban planner and lifelong public transportation user. And his views on local mobility issues are informed by his 10+ years as a transportation consultant, most recently as president of his own firm: MetroTranspo, Inc.
All of which made his appointment this year to the BTS Advisory Committee by the Bethesda Urban Partnership in the category of “Bethesda Employer with Fewer than 50 Employees” a natural choice.
Antokas has not owned a car in 11 years, as he prefers getting around via Metrorail, which he admits can be difficult when he needs to go somewhere not readily accessible by subway. That’s when his fiancé’s car comes in handy, a travel mode he says they’ve had to rely on more than he’d like.
Luckily, the couple lives in downtown Bethesda — right next door to where he works. She commutes to downtown D.C., while he walks mere steps to his WeWork suite on Wisconsin Avenue. He also occasionally pedals to various destinations via Capital Bikeshare bike.
“I think WMATA is a great organization, and General Manager & CEO Randy Clarke is the right person to be running it,” says Antokas. “The Metro system is 100 times better than when I went to college here [at American University].”
Antokas is excited for the opportunity to work with BTS and, as he puts it, “look under the hood” at transportation in Montgomery County to see where he can help.
“Bethesda has done an absolutely incredible job as a vibrant area with a lot of people working and living downtown,” he observes. “It’s the crown jewel of transit-oriented development — way ahead of the curve.”
Antokas notes that Metro farecard swipes show the same number of riders going out as coming in. “It’s fascinating. It goes to show that downtown development in Bethesda has had positive impacts on jobs, entertainment and lifestyle,” he says.
He’s glad Bethesda “has started a great bike network,” he says, but he’s also noticed that the community nonetheless still has lots of traffic congestion — a problem for which he has some ideas.
“One thing that’s super important to the whole county is bus rapid transit,” he says. “Montgomery County bought these beautiful electric buses, but they could move a lot quicker if high-volume arteries like Wisconsin had dedicated bus lanes. If a bus is sitting in the same traffic as cars, it doesn’t provide much incentive to use public transportation.”
And despite all those buses, Antokas says he’s noted some “transportation deserts” within the county. “You have to build transit in the right places,” he says.
Another Antokas priority: pedestrian safety. He sees the need for pedestrian improvements not only in Bethesda but throughout the county.
“Here in downtown, with all the construction going on, I haven’t seen the construction companies take the correct measures to protect the pedestrian. This also falls on the county and state to create these policies and enforce these practices,” he says. “I’m always seeing people having to cross in the middle of the street to get over to a sidewalk. There are better ways to ensure the safety of pedestrians.”
Antokas was probably fated to become an urban planner: SimCity™ was his favorite game as a youth, he says.
He later landed an internship at the firm of famed transportation consultant Sam Schwartz (who coined the term “gridlock” as New York City’s traffic commissioner and chief engineer of the NYC Department of Transportation) — and was hooked, obtaining a master's of urban planning degree from City University of New York: Hunter College.
Today, Antokas’ firm is a transportation consulting and traffic management services company focused in high volume vehicular and pedestrian areas, built around what he calls his three pillars of success: movement, safety and efficiency.
A world traveler, Antokas has yet to find a city with better transportation — or food — than his native NYC. Paris, Istanbul, and — with a nod to his Greek heritage — Athens, are his favorite cities outside the U.S.
As he settles into his new life with his fiancé in Bethesda, plus his brother and parents nearby in the region, he says cooking at home is their norm. But Woodmont Grill is one of their go-to’s when they’re out. And, he says, he’d like to find a really good Greek restaurant nearby someday.
About the BTS Advisory Committee
BTS is led by an 11-member advisory committee appointed by the Bethesda Urban Partnership's (BUP) board of directors. Drawn from the business and residential communities in and around Bethesda, the advisory committee evaluates progress toward attaining commuting goals outlined in local plans, reviews traffic patterns and control measures, and submits comments and recommendations on BTS’s biennial report and on Bethesda employers’ traffic mitigation plans and annual reports.
Visit the BTS website for a schedule of advisory committee meetings and activities.
