Category: CSG in the News

Are bike lanes safe?

WASHINGTON– After more than six hours of debate, the Alexandria City Council unanimously approved a plan to add bike lanes on King Street on Saturday.

The plan adds lanes west of the King Street Metro Station between West Cedar Street and Highland Place. The decision culminates months of hotly contested debates between bicyclist advocates, city planners, and local residents concerned about the impact on parking and access to their homes.

“It’s unfortunate that a topic of this sort has become so divisive. As Alexandria has committed itself to become an eco-city, we’ve always been attempting to identify opportunities to be more multi-modal, whether that means walking, biking, pushing strollers, jogging, cars, buses, light rail or all of the above,” says Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille.

The key issue that both sides debate was safety. Do bicycle-only lanes increase or decrease safety on King Street in this residential neighborhood? Should bicyclists ride on busy King Street, or use The George Washington Masonic National Memorial?

“Everybody agrees that there is a speeding problem. What we’ve heard is that the traffic is moving too fast. No one moves into Alexandria expecting to live on a street where we have speeding and we don’t address that issue,” says Rich Baier, Alexandria transportation director.

Transportation officials say the average speed on King Street between Cedar Street and Highland Place is 33 to 35 miles per hour, even though the speed limit is only 25 miles per hour. Baier says adding bicycle lanes will slow down drivers and add a buffer to keep pedestrians safe on the sidewalk.

“Bicycle lanes will go a long way towards making this more of a residential-based street than an arterial road,” he says.

Alexandria resident Sue Gunter agrees with the bike lanes because she thinks it will make pedestrians safer.

“Because there’s no bike lane on King Street right now, some bicyclists who ride down to the Metro station regularly use the sidewalk. While walking, I’ve frequently been startled by a bicyclists being behind me. A bike lane will solve this because bicyclists will no longer need to use the sidewalk,” she says.

Resident Scott Binde says he’s a bicyclist, but does not currently ride on King Street.

“This plan would change that. Bicycles, pedestrians and cars would each have their own space, making movement for all predictable and safe,” he says.

Patrick Earl, who teaches at T.C. Williams High School, says he drives and bikes to work from Takoma Park, Md.

“I see both perspectives and by far the safest situation for me as a biker is to have a dedicated bike lane. But also, I feel much more confident passing a biker who is in a bike lane than when there is a blurred area,” he says.

But Lisa Beyer Scanlon of the Taylor Run Citizens Association believes that bike lanes are a bad idea. She thinks only expert bicyclists should use King Street, and adding bicycle-only lanes could lead to more crashes.

“To use bikers as a buffer is just wrong. They’re people, they’re human beings. Having a car hit them first, so they don’t hit a pedestrian is not our idea of a buffer. Let’s say there’s a 100 bikes an hour. If we build these lanes and they do come, there’s never going to be a full lane of bikes going through there. So there will never be a complete buffer,” she says.

“Complete streets for our neighborhood include sharrows, they do not include dedicated bike lanes,” adds Scanlon.

Sharrows stand for shared arrows placed in the roadway to let drivers know that they need to share the road with bicyclists. Sharrows are popular in the District of Columbia, as well as Arlington. Montgomery County is also looking to add sharrows to help with their launch of Capital Bikeshare last fall.

Scanlon also opposes the plan because it would mean parking spaces would go away. Originally, about 27 spaces would have been removed, but a compromise to add sharrows between Highland Place and Janneys Lane mean that 10 of those spots can be saved.

“Instead of getting rid of the parking, we think that parking is the safest part of the street and provides a better buffer for people riding on the sidewalk,” she says.

Baier says on average, only three out of the 27 spots are filled at a time on the street. He says the spots are underutilized and thus do not create a buffer. He adds that removing the parking spots should not create a parking problem for residents in the area. Scanlon agrees parking is underutilized, but recommends throwing out the resident-only parking rules and opening the spots to the general public.

Other residents like Amy Lehmkuhler and Lynn Lawrence, are also worried that it will be more dangerous to pull in and out of their driveways with bicycle lanes, especially with fewer parking spots.

“In order to safely access our home on the hill, we must back into the driveway, so that we can face the speeding traffic when entering onto King Street. If this is passed, we the people, when we pull out, we will be in both of these lanes,” says Lehmkuhler.

“I’ve watched as neighbors have tried to negotiate getting in and out of their driveways in heavy traffic. I just cannot imagine how bike lanes would be an improvement at this location. These lanes will make an already difficult stretch of road even more hazardous to navigate, resulting in potential injuries to bicyclists and residents alike,” says Lawrence.

Resident Louise Welch says the bicycle lanes will make life more difficult for her and her husband.

“My husband is disabled and on oxygen. Taking away this 7 foot lane and replacing it with a 5 foot bike lane means he cannot even picked up in front of our own home, where we have lived for 35 years,” says Welch.

Others like Jake Jakubek believe the bicycle lanes are important for attracting new business and younger residents. Jakubek is the Vice Chair of the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

“If people are demanding better pedestrian infrastructure, better bike lanes and better transit, then we need to cater to those demands. If we don’t provide for the amenities that this generation of people feels is important, we will be left behind. Public transit use is at the highest level it’s been since 1956,” says Jakubek.

Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, also testified in favor of the plan, calling it a sensible way to promote commuters not to use their cars.

“The consensus among elected officials and the business leaders is one of transit- oriented, walkable and bikeable communities. It is the most feasible and effective means for managing our region’s growth and traffic that is only getting worse. Certainly this is really key to Alexandria’s competitiveness in the future,” says Schwartz.

In the end, the Council unanimously approved the bike lanes proposal. Transportation officials will update the Council on the progress of the project in 2015.

 Read the original article on WTOP >>

At 16th Street NW, a divisive bus-lane proposal

Along the busy 16th Street corridor, the bus stops are crowded with frustrated riders. Traffic congestion causes frequent delays. When buses do arrive, they often are too full to pick up more passengers.Now riders, smart-growth advocates and Metro officials say the chronic commuting problems in one of the District’s top bus corridors could have a simple solution: a dedicated bus lane.

The concept, popular among transit users, is worrisome to many drivers who use the route and some residents of the corridor, who fear a bus lane, even restricted to rush hours, would reduce already scarce parking.The proposal also puts the District in a tough position as the home of some of the nation’s worst traffic congestion aims to become more transit-centric, pitting the needs of suburban residents who commute to the city by private vehicle against those of the growing number of D.C. resident who rely on public transportation.

Read the original article at Washington Post >>

“Public transportation needs to supersede the convenience of suburban commuters,” said Sarah Spurgeon, an attorney who rides the S Line buses from her home near U Street. “There is just so much traffic coming from the suburbs down 16th . . . we need to focus on good transportation within the city center.”

Residents have sent letters and spoken at public meetings in support of the proposal. They say the city should have bus lanes, just as it has bike lanes, and cite a District Department of Transportation study recommending a bus lane in the corridor. Smart-growth advocates are gathering signatures in support of the effort. And Metro says a bus lane is necessary if it is to provide dependable service.

“Unless you address the congestion problem that the buses are facing, nothing is going to change,” said Kishan Putta, a member of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for Dupont Circle and a bus user who lives near 16th and R streets.

Bus lanes that take away a lane for regular traffic are generally not popular, but transportation officials are increasingly viewing them as critical to comprehensive transit networks. Arlington County and the city of Alexandria are set to open the region’s first bus-only lanes this year. The five-mile stretch connecting the Braddock Road and Crystal City Metro stations will offer traffic-free bus travel, frequent service and off-board payment. Montgomery County is studying an ambitious plan to build a system of express bus lanes. And in the District, Metro and DDOT also are exploring bus-only lanes along H and I streets NW.

Increasing ridership in the 16th Street corridor warrants consideration of a dedicated lane, said Jim Hamre, director of bus planning for Metro.

Metro has added buses to the corridor and in 2009 launched a limited-stop bus route. But as service has increased, so has demand.

Metrobus carries about 50 percent of the people traveling 16th Street from Silver Spring to downtown D.C. each morning, yet buses comprise only 3 percent of the vehicles traveling the roadway, Metro said. They get stuck in traffic, sometimes traveling at speeds of less than 10 miles per hour, according to the agency.

No room for more

By the time the bus arrived at the 16th and U streets stop one morning last week, bodies were squeezed up against the exit doors. A glimpse up 16th Street showed a cluster of buses slowly making its way through heavy traffic.

“You wait a long time and see many, many buses pass by,” Catherine Depret said as she and her 22-month-old son waited at 16th and Corcoran for a bus to get him to day care. On a good morning, they might wait 15 minutes. On a bad day, she is forced to take a cab.

When Depret arrived at the stop at 8:30 a.m., an S4 bus had just left. Three other people were waiting at the stop. At 8:36, an approaching S2 stops a few yards away from the bus shelter, and a woman and a child get off. The bus takes off, leaving behind a dozen people.

By 8:40, four crowded buses have passed by without stopping. One woman starts walking west toward Dupont Circle. A man begins to head south toward the White House.

“When it’s cold or raining, it’s really not fun, especially if you see four, five or even six buses go by,” Depret said.

A fifth bus arrives at 8:46, with limited standing room, and those remaining at the stop crowd on.

Metrobus ridership in the corridor has increased 25 percent in the past four years, Metro said, and the agency expects that trend to continue as people move back to the city, particularly to areas such as Columbia Heights and Dupont Circle. The S Line carries more than 20,000 passengers daily — an average of 4,237 during the morning rush hour alone.

Since the launch of the limited-stop S9, Metro has extended the S9 service from 7 to 9:30 p.m. In 2012, larger buses were added to the night runs to meet the demands of workers who often were passed up by full buses after 10 p.m. Last year, Metro added nine morning S2 trips, starting at Harvard Street, to ease crowding in the southern portion of the corridor. Longer buses have been shifted from the Georgia Avenue Line to increase capacity. And this month, Metro started running emergency buses on the route when people are left behind by crowded buses.

“Bus lanes will help,” Hamre said.

Considering the trade-offs

But some riders say traffic congestion isn’t the problem. They say there simply aren’t enough buses.

“There aren’t enough buses to pick up everyone,” said Ronnie J. Kweller, who lives just south of U Street. “Watching a full bus pass by in a dedicated lane does not help anyone get where they need to go.”

Kweller said she also worries about the possibility of a bus lane taking away parking in an area where it is already tight. “It will be a real hardship to people who have cars and need to park them safely, lawfully and relatively close to home,” she said.

The impact on parking and car lanes will be studied if the city decides to officially consider the idea, said Sam Zimbabwe, associate director for policy and planning at DDOT. The department’s master plan, MoveDC, scheduled for release this spring, is expected to include the transit lane alternative for 16th Street.

“You couldn’t just add a bus lane without any changes. You will need to be taking a car lane or parking. There are some trade-offs in there,” Zimbabwe said. But, he said, “we are probably years away from having a dedicated bus lane on 16th Street.”

The southern portion of the corridor, in particular, presents challenges because of its two- lane configuration. A stretch in the central part of the corridor already has an alternative lane, so during the morning rush three lanes are southbound. If a bus lane were to be designated, the area would still have two lanes for general traffic.

A 2013 DDOT study of the corridor recommends a peak-hour transit lane extending 2.7 miles between Arkansas Avenue and H Street NW. The bus lane has potential to increase transit travel speeds by 30 percent and accommodate up to a 10 percent increase in ridership, the report says. But it also would affect parking, currently permitted on portions of 16th Street NW during peak periods, and could create more vehicular delays at some of the busiest intersections, according to the report.

Drivers dealing with an already bad commute would suffer more with a bus-only lane, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson said.

“Sixteenth Street is a mess, but for them to suggest that it is okay to take a lane and dedicate it to buses . . . is not an acceptable solution,” he said. “I don’t think the cars hold up the buses particularly. Everybody moves along about the same speed. We are all stuck in it together.”

A better solution, Anderson said, would be fast-tracking Metro’s plan for a traffic signal priority program at 16th Street that would allow buses the green light, which could speed bus travel.

Although transit advocates agree the signal initiative is part of the solution, they say freeing the buses from the general traffic will get them moving faster and allow them to make more trips. Metro already has 42 bus trips in the corridor in the 8 a.m. hour. That’s one bus every 85 seconds, more than the minimum required for a successful bus lane, officials say.

“We are seeing folks using all the available space on those buses,” Hamre said. “At the current rate of growth, we need something else.”

 

 

Crowding Prompts Renewed Calls For Rush Hour Bus Lane On 16th Street

If you stand at a bus stop on 16th Street NW south of the U Street intersection after 8 a.m. on a typical weekday, there’s a good chance the next S line bus heading downtown will not stop to pick you up. It’s nothing personal. The driver simply cannot fit any more passengers on board.

The S line carries commuters from Silver Spring downtown.

More buses, same problem

Despite the recent addition of buses to augment service in the busiest part of morning rush hour — more than 40 S line buses travel the route between 8 and 9 a.m. — supply still does not meet demand on 16th St., now the busiest bus corridor in Washington D.C., with more than 21,000 weekday riders. The ridership explosion of 25 percent since 2009 has been fueled by the growing population in Columbia Heights and Dupont Circle, two neighborhoods in a city where forty percent of households are car-free and thus dependent on transit.

The inadequate service is not caused by a lack of buses. Traffic congestion continues to slow down the S line no matter how many more buses Metro adds to the mix (the transit authority currently runs 27 to 42 buses per hour during morning and afternoon rush hour), causing not only crowding but also eliminating spacing between buses. It is now common for commuters to watch two or three buses pass them within seconds of one another.

“Three S1s will pass by and I will be out here for 45 minutes waiting for one,” said Emma Kelsy as she stood at the bus stop at 16th St. and Corcoran St. Her commute only takes 20 minutes once she boards a bus.

New calls for bus lane

Commuters’ frustrations are prompting neighborhood representatives and transit advocates to call on the District Department of Transportation to act on the recommendations of the agency’s own studies and implement a rush hour bus lane on 16th Street NW from Columbia Heights all the way downtown, a total of 2.7 miles. DDOT has yet to fully commit to the idea, although agency planners say they will continue to study how the bus lane would work without significantly affecting car traffic or parking.

“Peoples commutes’ are just unpredictable now. They have to wait 5 minutes or 20 minutes or longer for a bus and it’s just becoming untenable for them to get to work,” said Kishan Putta, a Dupont Circle ANC commissioner who has been lobbying DDOT and the District Council since last year. In response to public pressure, most of the D.C. mayoral candidates have come out in support.

One morning this week, Putta asked commuters waiting at bus stops along 16th Street to sign a petition calling on officials to move ahead on the project. As he spoke to this reporter for about 45 minutes in the heart of rush hour, as many buses failed to stop as did stop at 16th and Corcoran. Each one that blew by was bursting with commuters. Some of those left standing on the sidewalk simply gave up and hailed a taxi.

“If you were to add more buses to this already congested route it would just add to the congestion, so we should also have a quicker way for them to get to work. The idea of dedicated bus lanes is new to D.C. but it’s not new in the world or in America,” Putta said.

DDOT study cites benefits and drawbacks

An internal DDOT study completed in 2013 recommended “key immediate next steps” to pursue, including starting the environmental impact process under NEPA, but it remains unclear when the agency will move.

“That study found there were potential benefits to bus lanes going downtown but there were also some big trade-offs. We felt the benefits were worth continuing to pursue. That doesn’t mean we are going to go out tomorrow and start installing them,” said Sam Zimbabwe, DDOT’s associate director for planning, policy and sustainability. “I can tell you it won’t be by the end of this year that we’ll have a dedicated bus lane.”

The internal study said the environmental process should begin after “DDOT’s long range transportation plan confirms high level goals.”

“We are looking at what will take us to the next stage in the process,” Zimbabwe added. “It will take us completing our long-range plan and understanding how this fits in to our priorities city-wide.”

Transit backers to DDOT: get moving

Transit advocates would like to see more urgency at the agency.

“DDOT needs to push. They have looked at this and talked about it for a while, but they need to hear from the public that we need to deliver better transportation service in this corridor,” said Cheryl Cort, the policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “With half of all 16th Street travelers on buses [during rush hour] we need to use these resources more efficiently. We just can’t keep adding more buses.”

According to the internal DDOT study, “Peak-hour Peak-direction Transit lanes are estimated to have the following benefits: increase transit travel speeds by 30-percent; and accommodate up to a 10-percent increase in person demand.”

The study also determined the bus lane could cause an “increase in vehicular delays at critical intersections along the corridor, including U Street, the Columbia/Harvard/Argonne intersections and R Street; and an inability to reduce crossing distances and vehicle exposure for pedestrians.”

The layout of 16th St. south of U St. is another obstacle. Although the road remains the same width (about 50 feet), it narrows from five painted lanes to four. Cort said 16th St. would have to be restriped to allow one bus lane and two lanes of mixed traffic in the rush hour direction (downtown in the morning, uptown in the afternoon), while keeping the off-peak side the same with one lane for traffic and one for parking.

“We don’t have to take away any parking,” Cort said.

Bikes and right-turning vehicles would be allowed in the bus lane, but a more detailed study is necessary to determine if taxis would interfere with operations, Cort added.

Metro supports bus lane

Metro, which has added more and longer buses to meet the demand in the 16th St. corridor, also supports a dedicated bus lane.

“We have recommended a bus lane be considered for implementation, but that is a DDOT decision,” said Jim Hamre, Metro’s director for bus planning and scheduling. “There are some physical challenges, but most of those can be overcome through thoughtful design and the little nip and tuck of a curb line here and there. The biggest challenges we face are policy and pragmatism.”

Meantime, Metro has chosen a contractor to begin testing traffic signal prioritization in five bus corridors in Washington, including 16th Street NW. Woodbury, New York-based Clever Devices is tasked with designing, testing, and implementing technology that will allow buses to keep consecutive traffic signals green. Hamre said the goal is to start implementation by the end of the year in collaboration with DDOT, which has the final word on the schedule.

DDOT is close to beginning construction on a dedicated bus lane on another congested corridor in Northwest: Georgia Avenue from Florida Avenue to Barry Place. The lane would be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Construction is expected to begin late this year. The 70 bus line carries more than 21,000 weekday riders, the second busiest bus corridor in D.C. behind the S line on 16th Street.

 Read the original article on WAMU >>

D.C. digs itself out from latest snowstorm and deals with icy roads

D.C. digs itself out from latest snowstorm and deals with icy roads

Washington was in motion again Tuesday, one day after an icy snowstorm shut down the region, but many drivers inched along many minimally plowed neighborhood streets and pedestrians did the slip and slide on miles of sidewalks untouched by shovels.

Mother Nature may play out the hand she dealt Monday, trumping snow and ice with warmer weather that’s forecast to arrive Wednesday and continue through the weekend. A major melting should start by Friday, with high temperatures near or above 50 expected for five consecutive days, according to forecasts.

A combination of factors made snow removal challenging in the aftermath of the storm and into Tuesday. Roads normally treated before the first snowfall were left bare Monday because the rain that fell first would have washed the treatment away. The freezing rain that fell next left a crust of ice once the plows cleared the snow. Overnight and into the morning, frigid weather — with temperatures in the single digits most places — inhibited salt’s ability to chew through that ice.

“With the temperatures being so cold, and especially last night, we had a refreeze,” said Carol Terry, a spokeswoman with Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation. “Some of those areas refroze. So it takes a little more plowing than usual. After it gets so cold, the salt doesn’t even work. We are hoping that it warms up.”

She said that the county’s major roads were in good shape but that residential roads still needed plowing.

Late Tuesday afternoon in the neighborhoods around Catholic University in the District, plow operations had shifted into the “mop up stage” as veteran driver Michael Miller steered his 40,000-pound truck onto the roads. His target was the narrow residential streets. He and other drivers were hoping to clear leftover snow and treat the roads, cleared but still slick,with salt before it refroze overnight, causing even more problems.

It was Miller’s second 12-hour shift. On Monday, he started clearing major roads — Michigan Avenue, North Capitol near and around the university and streets at nearby Washington Hospital Center — at noon, when snowfall and roads were at their worst. Still, Miller, who’s been doing the job for almost three decades, said he’d seen worse. Way worse.

“The main thing is the temperature,” he said. “It got dicey [Monday] evening, when everything that was treated froze up.”

Joan Morris of the Virginia Department of Transportation said that patches of snow and ice remained on the shoulders and turn lanes of some major roadways on Tuesday.

“Typically, we could knock that out in one day,” she said, but when temperatures fell below 20 degrees, salt no longer worked as well to melt ice.

VDOT, which is responsible for all roads and neighborhood streets in Northern Virginia, hoped to clear a path through every subdivision road by the end of the day Tuesday. Curb-to-curb plowing in those neighborhoods, Morris said, would “take them forever.”

Sharon Bulova (D), chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who has been critical of VDOT’s snow removal in the past, said: “This winter, they’ve done a much better job than they’ve ever done before. In the past, there was a lot that we’ve criticized them for. This time, there was nothing to complain about. VDOT has improved their performance in clearing the roads of snow just incredibly.”

Bulova also said that federal and local governments in the region have taken steps to improve the situation by communicating closures the night before and allowing more government employees to work from home, keeping more cars off the road. Federal agencies, in particular, learned an important lesson after a massive traffic jam last year when the government released all of its workers early, at the same time, and drivers spent several hours trying to get home, she said.

The gusty wind that came in with the snow and ice also hindered cleanup operations, officials said.

“Strong winds kept blowing snow back onto roads, requiring crews to repeatedly clear main and emergency routes before plowing neighborhoods,” said Montgomery County spokeswoman Esther Bowring.

This was the 25th storm in Montgomery this winter, which has had a total of 50 inches of ice and snow so far, Bowring said.

“There is that hard, crusty layer that is impossible to remove with just one plow,” she said. “We have been able to get into all the neighborhoods, but we realize that a lot of the neighborhood streets are very packed. So now the crews are going back out and trying to do more to try to make them more passable.”

Loudoun County officials issued an alert Tuesday warning drivers that the roads were still dangerous “because the snow’s consistency is more like ice than powder” and because low temperatures will keep refreezing the surface for several days.

Icy or unshoveled sidewalks posed a particular problem in many places.

“There is no sensible way of clearing snow from sidewalks,” said Akshay Birla, 26, a Columbia Heights resident. “D.C. is such a heavy commuter city, in terms of public transit and walking, as opposed to driving, that it makes sense to have some sort of strategy to make sure that people can get to work.”

Even walking a block from his home to the Giant grocery store on Park Road on Monday was impossible, he said.

Cheryl Cort, the policy director with the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said the region as a whole should look at creating a more comprehensive policy for clearing ice and snow from sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

“We put a lot of resources into clearing roads, but it is left up to individuals to clear sidewalks and intersections to cross. There needs to be more attention to prioritizing pedestrian routes. It’s got to be more than asking property owners to clear the sidewalks.”

Manassas residents face some of the region’s strictest sidewalk-shoveling policies, while just across the city border in Prince William County, there is no law mandating that residents shovel their walks at all.

Manassas residents have 12 hours to shovel their sidewalks once the snow stops — during the day. (For snow that stops overnight, homeowners have until 5 p.m. the next day.) Now that the 12-hour period is over for this storm, city officials are busy leaving notices at homes with snowy walks. There is no fine for failure to comply with the rules, but if residents fail to shovel after receiving a written warning, the city will do it for them — at a cost, Street Maintenance Manager Russ Graham said.

Graham recalled one homeowner’s association that received a bill for almost $1,000 when the city cleared all its sidewalks several years ago. He said that the city has not had to bill an individual homeowner in recent years, though. A warning is usually enough.

Prince George’s officials said they were receiving complaints about icy sidewalks. Inspectors were out Tuesday to warn property owners to clear sidewalks by 3 p.m. Wednesday, said Gary Cunningham, deputy director of the county’s department of permitting, inspections and enforcement.

Read the original article on the Washington Post >>

Drop In Driving Prompts Questions On Transportation Funding Priorities

Anyone who gets stuck in traffic every day may find this hard to believe, but the amount of miles people are driving is dropping.

An axiom of U.S. transportation policy since the construction of the interstate highway system — to relieve congestion build more lanes — may be giving way to the realization that states cannot pave their way out of the problem.

People are driving less as measured by vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and the enormous cost of expanding lanes may be seen as prohibitive. But the shift in thinking is far from complete, as Maryland recently opened the $2 billion Intercounty Connector (ICC) and Virginia opened the 495 Express Lanes on the Beltway, which were built mostly with private capital. Critics contend both toll roads are lightly used by motorists at great cost to the treasury and the environment.

The drop in driving has transit and smart growth advocates calling on policy makers to reassess their states’ priorities before committing to spending billions more on highway projects that may have minimal long-term benefits. A report in The Atlantic Cities said Maryland transportation officials, after projecting VMT growth for decades to come, changed their forecasts, noting “a return to strong annual VMT growth is unlikely.”

While the Maryland Department of Transportation’s official policy is to tackle congestion relief through road and transit projects, the department’s data shows VMT has been flat for the past decade. When population growth is taken into consideration, VMT per capita has dropped significantly, from 10,041 in 2007 to 9,541 in 2013.

Advocates of road building say despite the decline in driving most trips in the Washington metropolitan area are taken still by the single-occupant vehicle, necessitating large investments to relieve bottlenecks on the roads.

“You wouldn’t stop building roads any more than you would stop building schools,” said Bob Chase, the president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.

For years Chase has called on officials in both Virginia and Maryland to agree to build a new crossing over the Potomac connecting the two states west of the congested American Legion Bridge.

“We have more people commuting and traveling between jurisdictions in the metropolitan Washington area than in any other part of the country. Our economy — our lifestyle — is dependent upon moving goods and services between states, so you need to focus on the framework that connects the economy,” Chase said.

While Virginia continues to study whether a new bridge is necessary, Maryland remains uninterested in such a project.

The long-running contention over a new Potomac bridge reflects the debate happening across the region between supporters of highway expansions and smart growth advocates: which projects are the right projects?

“Bob’s approach is what got us into this mess in the first place,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “The effort to try to keep saving time by widening every road has meant we have spread out more and more, forcing people to drive longer and longer distances.”

Schwartz said the region’s anticipated population growth does not necessarily have to translate into worse congestion.

“D.C. has added 83,000 people and seen a decline in car ownership, vehicle registrations, and driver’s licenses in the city. So the more communities we are building in the D.C. area that are close to transit, are walkable, have a mix of jobs, housing, retail and other services, the less people have to drive,” he said.

“It is a product of a number of things: retiring, down-sizing baby boomers and young adults looking for urban living and wanting to drive less, the impact of high oil prices, and the lasting effect of the internet which has led to a huge jump in telecommuting and internet shopping,” Schwartz added. “All are contributing to less driving and merit re-evaluating our state transportation programs.”

Per capita VMT figures nationally have dropped significantly since peaking in 2005. But to Chase, the statistics do not prove more roads are unnecessary.

“VMT really is a bogus measure,” he said. “It’s a very hard thing to calculate and it is not how people make decisions. People make decisions on the basis of time, and the real measure of how well a transportation system is working and how we ought to make our investments is: how long does it take people to get places?”

The relatively few drivers who use the ICC or 495 Express Lanes on a regular basis are saving time. Both toll roads are congestion free, and supporters say the projects have improved traffic flow on nearby roads (or lanes, in the case of the Express Lanes) by drawing away vehicles from them.

To opponents of the expensive highway expansions like Schwartz, the costs will never justify the benefits.

“That is what this is about,” Schwartz said. “Trying to avoid wasting our scarce tax dollars by selecting our projects more wisely, focusing on fixing our existing infrastructure first, and also recognizing the significance of these [driving] trends. How they are tied to the types of communities people want to live in where they can drive less.”

photo credit via Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pooniesphotos/4498385541/

read the original article on WAMU >>

RECAP: Silver Spring Rapid Transit Open House

On Wednesday, February 26, Communities for Transit and the Coalition for Smarter Growth debuted a new public meeting format during our Silver Spring Rapid Transit Open House. The meeting, attended by 44 local residents, contained a short presentation with videos to show different road treatment options and station features.  Following the presentation, attendees were invited to visit different kiosks around the room, where eight large information boards were placed, in order to learn more and ask questions about the matters of RTS that were most important to them. The Seventh State blogger, David Lublin, describes his take on the Open House and the RTS plan, including our new RTS Map, designed like the WMATA Metro Map.

To read original article, please click here. 

Photo courtesy of Communities for Transit.

ANCs Push for 16th Street Bus Lanes

An effort is underway to have local Advisory Neigbhorhood Commissions (ANCs) pass nearly identical resolutions urging more progress on proposed dedicated bus lanes on 16th Street NW.

ANC 2B/Dupont Circle passed the resolution (available here) at its last meeting on February 17th, by a vote of 6-0 with one abstention. On February 20th, the Transportation Committee of ANC1B/U Street voted to recommend the full ANC approve a similar resolution. The recommendation was passed by a voice vote with no audible objections. ANC1B will probably vote on the resolution at its next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 6, at the Reeves Center (14th and U Streets).

ANC2B Commissioner Kishan Putta (district 04) and Cheryl Cort, Policy Director of theCoalition for Smarter Growth, appeared before the ANC1B Transportation Committee to urge they endorse the resolution. Cort said the purpose of the resolution was to urge the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to move forward on the long series of public consultations and studies (e.g., air quality approval, environmental assessment) necessary before the lanes can become a reality.

“We’d like them to go through the whole process,” Cort said.

The committee discussed the exact definition of a dedicated bus lane. Such a lane, in this case, would also allow bicycles and right-turning cars and taxis.  If not turning right, taxis would be forbidden from the bus lanes.

ANC1B Chair James Turner (district 09), although not a member of the Transportation Committee, was present at the meeting. He said he wouldn’t support the resolution, because it does nothing to address the congestion problems of buses that pass through his district, for example, buses that travel on 14th Street, 11th Street, and Georgia Avenue. Cort replied improved 16th Street service would draw off riders currently taking 14th Street buses, relieving congestion.

The ANC1B version of the resolution will have some additional language in it pointing out that bus demand has exceeded capacity on both 14th Street and Georgia Avenue buses as well.

Putta has been campaigning vigorously to get the bus lanes moving forward, most recently testifying at a D.C. Council hearing on February 20.

He has also been working hard to inject the issue into the April 1 D.C. primary elections, often asking candidates for their views at public events.

Putta says D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser (Ward Four) has declared herself in favor of the bus lanes, after initially expressing skepticism about the proposal. Other candidates from the city council — Jack Evans (Ward Two) and Tommy Wells (Ward Six) — have also expressed their support. In addition, both candidates in the Ward One City Council primary — Jim Graham and Brianne Nadeau — have told Putta they support the proposal.

“DDOT itself did a study last year recommending a rush-hour bus lane.  Now they need to make it formal and implement it,” Putta said.

The 2013 DDOT study found that bus lanes could reduce commute time by 30%, Putta said.  They could also increase total bus capacity by 10% because buses could be reused faster.

Read the original post on SALM >>

Planners approve transportation priorities for D.C. region

People who represent the fragmented jurisdictions across the D.C. region agreed Wednesday on a set of priorities for transportation planners.

The plan adopted unanimously by the Transportation Planning Board urges local governments to think regionally in selecting projects, emphasize ones that fix the road and transit network we already have, strengthen public confidence in their decisions and give people more options about how to travel.

The Regional Transportation Priorities Plan attempts to shape planners’ thinking in choosing projects, but it doesn’t name any projects to advance. The lack of specificity frustrates some transportation advocates, including Bob Chase, the president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance. He refers to it as an Alice’s Restaurant “You can get anything you want” approach to planning.

Supporters, including Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, see progress in the fact that a planning panel is willing to set regional priorities. Virginia, the District and Maryland have their separate systems for selecting and advancing projects. They are more responsive to local interests than to regional needs. While Schwartz has criticized aspects of the plan, he has supported its emphasis on fixing things first, and on improving the efficiency of the existing road and rail network.

The priorities plan doesn’t affect the underlying structure of local planning. but the formal regional support for its goals could influence upcoming decisions. The power of the Transportation Planning Board lies in the legal need for the jurisdictions to incorporate their projects in the region’s Constrained Long-Range Transportation Plan.

The priorities plan now becomes a policy guide for local and state leaders who want to get their projects into the regional long-range plan. Local travelers naturally remain more focused on how they’re going to get home tonight rather than on what the transportation network will look like in a decade or two. But as they back up on the Beltway or squeeze aboard crowded Metro trains, many do wonder if there is any connection between their plight and the planning process.

The plan approved Wednesday is one of those rare documents dedicated to the lateRonald F. Kirby, who as director of transportation planning for the board, guided the development of the document. The dedication says in part: “This plan, which Ron worked tirelessly to develop, is a reflection of his innovative yet pragmatic approach to improving the region’s transportation system and making the region a better place.”

The plan’s priorities are grouped into three areas.

Meet existing obligations. Maintain the region’s existing transportation system. For example: Fix Metro and maintain it in a state of good repair.

Strengthen public confidence and ensure fairness. Pursue greater accountability, efficiency and access to transportation for everyone.

Move more people, more efficiently. Make strategic decisions to lessen crowding and congestion on the region’s roadways and transit system to accommodate growth.

Use this link to see the Regional Transportation Priorities Plan.

Todd Turner, a Bowie city council member and chairman of the priority plan task force, said the existence of such a plan, underpinned by a survey that sought public opinion on these priorities, will help restore public confidence in transportation planning. “But people have to take leadership in their own communities,” he said. In effect, addressing his local government colleagues across the region, he added: “We’re giving you the guidance. It’s up to you to do it.”

Read the original article at Washington Post >>

Photo Credit: Gerald Marineau

Ten Things I Learned at TransportationCamp

TransportationCamp DC ‘14, organized by Mobility Lab, Open Plans, Conveyal, Young Professionals in Transportation, the Transportation Research Board, and the George Mason University School of Public Policy, took place Saturday.

With more than 400 registered attendees (totally sold out), the third-annual conference in D.C. (it happens in other places like Atlanta and San Francisco as well) contained more information than one person could process, and innumerable lessons as well. Still, I’ve managed to enumerate 10 of them, in no particular order:

1. The importance of being an “unconference.” TransportationCamp, as a user-driven conference (or “unconference”), has a collaborative and empowering feel unlike most other typical conferences. As Paul Mackie, my friend and colleague at Mobility Lab, said, “At most conferences, you simply sit and listen to speaker after speaker. TransportationCamp offers inspiration on some aspect of your work that you are currently trying to complete. There will no doubt be tons of apps and products that will result from the networking there.”

2. TransportationCamp = technology. The event – with a Collaboration Site and whose attendees and organizers undoubtedly put stress on Twitter’s and Google Docs’ servers (tweets from the event can be seen at the Twitter hash tag #transpo) – uses technology in ways other organizations can and should emulate.

3. Collaborate, don’t compete. The vibe at the conference was one of tremendous collaboration, unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Mackie concurs, stating, “One small and simple example came from the excellent marketing session. A signup sheet was passed around so that transit marketers can start a listserv to work together towards getting more people educated and excited about transportation options that don’t involve driving alone.”

4. Open up data, and transform organizations. The emphasis on collaboration and opening up datasets is built in to the DNA of the participants at TransportationCamp, who seem determined to transform the old guard of transportation agencies as well. WMATA and DOT (and many others from around the country) were represented at the Camp, boding well for the future of these organizations.

5. “It’s all about the share.” That line was used by one participant at a breakout session I attended on mobility management. The future of transportation is all about the sharing economy: for example, bike sharing, car sharing, and information sharing.

6. Our industry is underfunded. The bang-for-your-buck produced by “transportation demand management” (for example) isn’t a secret, yet I ran across many transportation professionals whose full-time jobs are unrelated to this industry, or who are only part-time employed in our field. We need to lobby harder for funding.

7. We are passionate and idealistic. The fact that many of us at the Camp were essentially unfunded underlines another important issue: we are people who believe in our industry, who are passionate about transportation and technology. And as cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

8. Marketing is essential but not well understood. The marketing session I attended, led by, among others, Alex Baca, communications coordinator of the Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA), brought home the issue that while many of us know how important marketing is, we’re a little in the dark as to how to engage in it. Aimee Custis, communications manager of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, shared some of her valuable experience (among others: include people in photos of transportation), and the above-referenced listserv means members of that break-out group are going to share insights post-Camp as well.

9. Infrastructure is important. Mobility Lab Contributor Kurt Raschke, one of the developers of the OneBusAway infrastructure on display at the event, explained this takeaway to me: “People are far more interested in end results than the elegance of the underlying infrastructure. Our challenge is to make infrastructure something that the average person sees as important and values, because it has a huge long-term impact on sustainability.” Rashke’s infrastructure is one that’s truly open, available as an API for free to developers.

10. Equity issues can be tackled with ingenuity. The intersection between land use and transportation and the way these affect equity and access are issues that keep coming up, but more and more are being addressed by people passionate about the issue. Capital Bikeshare of D.C., for example, is extending memberships to low-income and homeless residents of the city via a partnership with Back on My Feet.

Read the original article at Mobility Lab >>

Photo Credit: M.V. Jantzen

Group appeals 460 plan

Representatives from nine groups opposed to the new Route 460 have put their names on a letter to governor-elect Terry McAuliffe, calling on him to halt the project immediately.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club-Virginia Chapter, Virginia Conservation Network, The Piedmont Environmental Council, The Coalition for Smarter Growth, Blackwater Nottoway Riverkeeper Program, Partnership for Smarter Growth and Wetlands Watch sent the letter to McAuliffe on Dec. 18.

“The proposed new U.S. Route 460 is one project that does not make sense economically or environmentally, and we agree with your recent statements about the wisdom of halting further spending on this project pending careful consideration of its merits,” the groups wrote.

“We believe the new Route 460 proposal is clearly not in the best interests of the commonwealth, and therefore urge you to take the further step of terminating this project.”

The groups claim the limited-access toll road would run parallel to an existing 460 that is underutilized to begin with, and note the $1.4-billion cost hits taxpayers for almost $1.2 billion while the rest comes from tolls.

Taxpayers will have to pay to maintain both new and existing roads, they say, and the project “would cause significant environmental harm, yet it would do little to address the critical transportation needs of the Hampton Roads region.”

Money earmarked for the project would be better spent on upgrading the existing Route 460, rail in the 460 corridor, Interstate 64 or U.S. Route 58, building the I-564 to I-664 connector, or extending light rail to Virginia Beach, they say.

Also, transportation officials should consider “buying down” the cost of coming tolls on the Midtown and Downtown tunnels, the groups write.

The letter goes on to cite a recent sizeable expansion in estimated wetlands impacts, describing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ concerns regarding the environmental cost versus public benefit, as well as mentioning impacts on farms and open space, habitat of endangered species, and air and water quality.

The project would “spur inefficient development along its lengthy route,” the groups wrote.

Arguments for the project proffered by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the outgoing Gov. Bob McDonnell, including freight and economic development, traffic and safety, hurricane evacuation and military connectivity, are criticized in the letter.

“Every one of the justifications for the proposed new Route 460 can be more effectively accomplished at lower cost to taxpayers by investing in other alternatives,” the groups state.

Finally, the groups call upon McAuliffe to request the McDonnell administration halt work on the project both ongoing and planned, including engineering, design, and right-of-way acquisition.

“We hope you will agree that this project is unnecessary and would waste scarce resources that should instead be invested in projects that can do far more to address Hampton Roads’ critical transportation needs,” the letter concludes.

 Read the original at the Suffolk News Herald >>