Category: News

CSG in the News: Metrobus Gets Low Marks For Speed And Schedule Reliability

Posted on July 11, 2019October 21, 2021 by Cheryl Cort

by Jordan Pascale, WAMU | JUL 11.2019

For a month, Metrobus has been under the microscope. MetroHero, an app created by local transit enthusiasts to help track trains and buses, partnered with the Coalition for Smarter Growth to examine routes for speed and reliability. Now the Metrobus Report Card is out and the results are not good. The group gave Metrobus a “D” grade.

CSG in the News: Report: Traffic jams push DC riders off buses, but fixes possible

Posted on July 10, 2019October 21, 2021 by Cheryl Cort

CSG in WTOP:

Report: Traffic jams push DC riders off buses, but fixes possible

by Max Smith | @amaxsmith, July 10, 2019, WTOP

Taking the bus is too frustrating in D.C., and major changes are needed if the city is going to deal with significant problems facing commuters, a new Metrobus report card finds.

Buses are stuck in so much traffic and can be so inconsistent that the number of ride-hailing trips in D.C. through companies such as Uber and Lyft could surpass the number of trips taken on buses this year for the first time.

The report released Wednesday by the Coalition for Smarter Growth and MetroHero reviewed 34 routes on D.C.’s busiest bus corridors.

“The results of this analysis paint a striking picture of the problems Metrobus encounters on a daily basis: on these high-priority routes, service was found to be largely unreliable and unpredictable, with buses regularly arriving much later than scheduled and headways rarely being maintained,” the report said.

Of the 34 routes measured, 18 got F grades, 5 got Ds, 10 got Cs, 1 got a B and none got an A based on speeds and schedule adherence.

The average speed for the routes in May was just 9.5 mph, well short of an 11 mph goal.

The slowest corridor was 14th Street, while the worst schedule adherence was on the 39, X3 and 34.

The report, which also supports the regional Bus Transformation Project that’s meant to make similar recommendations across the region, urges the D.C. and Metro to:

— Add dedicated bus lanes to make trips more consistent and reduce delays (along with associated enforcement of bus lane rules with traffic officers or cameras).

— Allow all-door boarding to reduce time spent waiting at stops, which could include setting up mobile or off-board fare payment procedures.

— Expand transit signal priority and queue jumps that let buses enter an intersection from a stop before other traffic to let buses spend less time waiting at lights.

— More limited-stop routes and consolidate local stops that are very close together.

— Upgrade bus stops for accessibility and amenities.

— Give free transfers between bus and rail, and discount fares for low-income riders….

D.C. has only two miles of bus-only lanes — 1.4 miles of which is only temporary for the summer.

The city has promised 16th Street NW bus lanes in the next year or so, and bus lanes along K Street NW by 2024. But official city plans called for 25 miles of bus lanes to be in place in the 2020s.

The report card calls for 14th Street bus lanes in the near future, followed by bus lanes on U Street NW and Florida Avenue NE by 2024, North Capitol Street bus lanes by 2025, and improvements along M Street SE/SW and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE.

To do that, the report suggests phasing out parking on streets with the highest ridership bus routes to create lanes that serve more people.

Read full WTOP story here.

CSG in the News: New report card gives Metrobus service in the District a failing grade

Posted on July 10, 2019June 2, 2022 by Cheryl Cort

CSG in the Washington Post: New report card gives Metrobus service in the District a failing grade

But an analysis says there’s hope for a better bus system if recommendations are carried out.

by Luz Lazo, Washington Post, July 10, 2019

Despite efforts to improve bus service in the District to make it a more attractive option for travel, it continues to be slow and unreliable, with some saying the situation has reached a crisis point.

A report card to be released Wednesday gives Metrobus a grade of D — barely passing.

“Transit is really in crisis,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which co-sponsored the report along with the MetroHero commute app. “We have been losing riders for quite a few years, and the speed and reliability of the bus just continues to decline.”

Metrobus’s grade was pulled down by some of its biggest — and well-known — problems: buses are commonly stuck in traffic gridlock, they aren’t properly spaced, and they are chronically late.

The good news is the system, which for a long time was an afterthought in a region that prioritizes Metro, is getting some attention….

The report card unveiled Wednesday concurs with the recommendations by the [Metro-led Bus Transformation] transportation project. Among them are making boarding easier through mobile or offboard payment systems; enhancing affordable options with free transfers between bus and rail and reduced-fare passes for low-income riders; and improving the rider experience with efficient next-bus technology, modern fleets, clear system maps, and safe and accessible bus stops….

The District this summer launched the H and I street NW bus lanes, aimed at speeding travel of about 70 buses an hour in the downtown corridors. Hill said that though the bus lanes are only a pilot, she hopes they will be made permanent. The District is also moving toward construction of a long-planned bus lane on 16th Street NW and a transitway in the congested K Street corridor, which carries a bulk of the routes servicing downtown.

“This is the right direction. These are the things D.C. should be doing,” she [co-author Jennifer Hill] said.

[Poll: Majority of Washington-area residents support bus-only lanes.]

Jeff Marootian, director of the District Department of Transportation, said the recent investments in the downtown bus lanes, along with the other bus priority plans, will make buses more attractive to riders and are part of the city’s strategy to decrease congestion and make the District’s transportation more sustainable.

Read the full Washington Post story here.

RELEASE: DC Bus Service gets a “D” on its Report Card

Posted on July 10, 2019June 2, 2022 by Cheryl Cort

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 10, 2019

CONTACT

Cheryl Cort, Coalition for Smarter Growth

202-675-0016

cheryl@smartergrowth.net

DC Bus Service gets a “D” on its Report Card

Groups highlight how DC buses can be faster and more reliable

D.C. – Today, Coalition for Smarter Growth and MetroHero released a first-ever performance-based DC Bus Report Card. Developed from real-time data collected in May 2019 by MetroHero, the report shows DC’s major bus routes suffer from poor reliability and sluggish speeds, factors that are likely major contributors to the system’s declining ridership. The analysis of the report card can be found here.

“Our analysis shows the challenges Metrobus riders encounter on a daily basis. On the city’s priority corridors with high-ridership routes, we found service to be generally unreliable and unpredictable, with speeds slower than 10 mph,” said Jennifer Hill, Ph.D., Lead Researcher at MetroHero.

“The slow speeds and lack of on-time reliability are contributing factors in declining ridership. But we know how to turn this around: give buses priority on the streets, speed up boarding, balance bus stop spacing, and provide customer-focused service,” said Cheryl Cort, Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

MetroHero analyzed bus performance for 34 routes in DC’s highest ridership corridors in May 2019, focusing on three key factors: adherence to designated headways, adherence to scheduled arrival times, and average travel speed. Bus speeds on these routes averaged just 9.5 mph over the entire month, confirming other data showing that Metrobus speeds across the entire system have been getting slower every year.

“We hope that this report will be a useful tool to inform decision-makers about where DC’s buses need the most help and what solutions will have the greatest impact for riders,” said Hill.

DC and Metro are stepping up to implement improvements to bus service. DC recently implemented pilot bus lanes on H and I Streets downtown, and is planning to run bus lanes on 16^th Street and K Street in the near future. The city has also implemented traffic signal priority and queue jumps on several corridors.

On an average weekday, Metrobuses transport over 200,000 riders around the District of Columbia to and from work, school, doctor appointments, grocery stores, entertainment, and more. Buses offer transit service far beyond the reach of Metrorail.

“This is an important moment for DC’s bus service. Buses are the most efficient use of limited public street space for moving people, and critical if the city is to grow without choking on traffic. We are encouraged by recent city actions, but urge the Bowser administration to make moving buses truly a top priority on our city’s streets,” said Cort.

About the Coalition for Smarter Growth

The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.

About MetroHero

MetroHero (www.dcmetrohero.com), which began as a simple app designed to visualize real-time train positions in the D.C. Metrorail system, has been monitoring and providing performance metrics on WMATA’s trains for over three years. The app has gained popularity with many area commuters, averaging roughly 15,000 unique users every month, largely due to its unique real-time visualizations of the current state of the Metrorail system, from train delays and service outages to user-driven reports of inconveniences such as station crowding and broken intercoms. In September 2018, the MetroHero team extended a number of their train performance tracking algorithms to the Metrobus system, which they used to gather performance data for the report card.

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CSG in the News: Why local affordable housing orgs want to expand accessory apartments in Montgomery County

Posted on June 21, 2019July 1, 2019 by Jane Lyons

Why local affordable housing orgs want to expand accessory apartments in Montgomery County

By John Paukstis, Jane Lyons, Greater Greater Washington

Like much of the United States, Montgomery County is facing a critical housing shortage. Finding healthy, affordable housing near jobs and transit is extremely difficult for many people at varying income levels.

Earlier this year, Councilmember Hans Riemer introduced Zoning Text Amendment 19-01, which is aimed at making it easier for county homeowners to build accessory apartments (also known as Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs) on their properties. Accessory apartments are separate apartments either within, attached to, or detached from a main unit—think English basements, garage apartments, and small backyard cottages.

Accessory apartments allow homeowners to flexibly use their largest asset, their home, as their family’s needs change. Accessory apartments also provide important economic, social, and environmental benefits including:

Providing critical rental revenue to a senior living on fixed income and looking to age in place
Utilizing existing infrastructure to provide additional housing without increasing sprawl
Increasing housing opportunities around transit, near jobs, and in desirable communities
Providing opportunities for multigenerational living while maintaining independence for all parties
Habitat for Humanity could build accessory apartments for low- to moderate-income residents or for adults with disabilities

Importantly, accessory apartments provide opportunities for families who cannot afford to buy a home, to access housing in areas of the county which are generally inaccessible to them otherwise. Much of Montgomery County is zoned for single family, detached homes. With an average home value of $450,000, many potential homebuyers are priced out of the market and unable to save a down payment due to the high cost of rent and living.

Accessory apartments offer an opportunity to expand housing options in highly desired neighborhoods, helping make our communities more diverse, no matter socioeconomic status, race, or ethnic identity. While we cannot guarantee that accessory apartments will be rented at or below market, studies from areas with large numbers of accessory apartments show that many units are rented below market rate and are affordable to families with modest incomes.

Moreover, accessory apartment size restrictions will limit the amount of rent that can be charged. Either way, renting an accessory apartment is more accessible to families than buying a home in the same neighborhood.

We believe that ZTA 19-01, with amendments unanimously approved by the Planning, Housing, and Economic Development committee, balances the desire of homeowners to build accessory apartments with concerns from the community around short-term rentals, parking, and storm water management.

Short-term rentals, including Airbnb, are explicitly prohibited and homeowners are required to live in either the main unit or the accessory apartment. Both units cannot be rented at once.
The amendments recommend waiving the additional parking requirement within one mile of a metro station. That said, additional off street parking is still required outside of the one mile metro radius at the same level as is currently required.
Under the ZTA, detached accessory apartments continue to be treated as accessory structures and must comply with the same lot coverage ratios deemed acceptable, in terms of storm water management, for a garage or shed.

The expansion of accessory apartments will not solve the affordable housing crisis, but we believe it is a critical tool in providing increased housing opportunities in desirable neighborhoods. That’s why the Montgomery Housing Alliance Action in Montgomery, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Habitat for Humanity Metro Maryland, Housing Opportunities Commission, Interfaith Works, Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, Montgomery Housing Partnership, Rebuilding Together, and Victory Housing all strongly encourage residents and councilmembers to support ZTA 19-01.

Join Habitat for Humanity and the Coalition for Smarter Growth to voice your support for accessory apartments in Montgomery County!

—

You can read the full Greater Greater Washington post here.

CSG in the News: ADUs gaining in popularity across the country

Posted on June 6, 2019October 21, 2021 by Cheryl Cort

Cities’ interest in granny flats at ‘fever pitch’ amid U.S. housing crisis

by Carey L. Biron, MAY 20, 2019, Reuters

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The U.S. capital is one of the most expensive cities in the country, but Derek Wright hopes to cover his housing costs with a novel strategy that local officials are keen to foster: He is becoming a small-scale landlord.

Very small-scale, that is. Wright is applying for a permit to turn his townhouse’s basement into a separate home, the rent from which he expects will cover more than half of his mortgage.

These types of projects are technically known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), but are also called “granny flats”, “mother-in-law suites” or “English basements”….

And they are gaining popularity around the country, said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the non-profit Coalition for Smarter Growth, as policymakers in expensive cities look to them as a way to boost affordable housing.

Granny flats offer a low-cost housing solution because the land is already paid for, she said, and they are often built in more central parts of the city.

They have long been allowed in Washington, but in 2016 city officials tweaked the application rules with the aim of making the process easier, said Cort.

The city struck down various prohibitions and made it so “a homeowner can build one as a matter of right, for the most part,” she added.

Ileana Schinder, the architect who worked with Fazio and Wright on the designs and city approvals for their projects, said she has overseen the construction of about 20 granny flats in Washington over the past few years — and interest is climbing.

Many of Schinder’s prospective clients have been young families looking for additional income so they can stay in the city, as well as older people who need the financial boost to continue living in their homes….

View full story here.

WaPo: ‘These lanes are for buses only’: Enforcement of new downtown bus lanes begins

Posted on June 5, 2019October 21, 2021 by Cheryl Cort

‘These lanes are for buses only’: Enforcement of new downtown bus lanes begins

by Luz Lazo, Washington Post, June 3, 2019

New bus lanes on H and I streets NW go live this morning, and that means new traffic patterns for thousands of drivers who travel along two of the District’s busiest corridors.

The new rush-hour-only lanes have been distinctively marked with red paint, have “Bus Only” markings on them and signs on each block detailing the hours of operation to make it clear to motorists to stay out of them during the morning and afternoon rush…..

“Enforcement is obviously key,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which has been advocating for bus lanes. “We need to make sure the rules are clear and understandable, and we need to get to full compliance.”

View the whole story here.

The Fund It Fix It coalition of 22 non-profit organizations hailed the announcement today of the Metro Safety and Accountability Act of 2019 by the region’s Senate delegation

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Jane Lyons

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: May 23, 2019

Contact: Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, CSG, 703-599-6437

Josh Tulkin, Director, Sierra Club – Maryland, 240-764-5307 (o), 650-722-3171 (c)

Fund it Fix it!

The Fund it Fix it coalition of 22 non-profit organizations hailed the announcement today of the Metro Safety and Accountability Act of 2019 by the region’s Senate delegation

The members of the Fund It Fix It non-profit coalition applauded the federal Metro funding bill announced today by Senators Warner, Kaine, Cardin and Van Hollen. The legislation would reauthorize federal (“PRIIA”) funding for an additional 10 years, FY 2020 – FY 2029, at an annual level of $150 million, and include an additional $50 million per year in federal funding that is not subject to local match, but requires specific safety, oversight and governance measures.

The $150 million matches $50 million each from DC, Maryland and Virginia. The additional $50 million would include $45 million for financing capital and preventative maintenance projects and $5 million for the Inspector General, contingent on nonfederal match of $5 million, for total of $10 million.

“In 2017 and 2018, the Fund it Fix it coalition campaigned hard, and teamed with the business community (MetroNow) and other stakeholders, including labor, to win the $500 million in dedicated funding for WMATA, and we will be urging Congress to approve the critical federal contribution to restoring our Metro system to world-class status,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“Metro is the critical transportation backbone for the region’s economy and the federal workforce. The PRIIA investment not only leverages billions in state and local funding, it leverages economic development, accessibility to jobs, and environmental sustainability more than any other investment the federal government could make in this region,” said Schwartz.

“We have just 10 years to make major cuts in our greenhouse gas emissions so investing in high-capacity transit that supports compact walkable development must be the top transportation priority of our federal government,” said Josh Tulkin, Director, Sierra Club – Maryland. “We applaud this dedicated federal funding and urge Congress to make transit funding the top priority of the nation’s entire transportation program.”

The Fund it Fix it coalition will be reaching out to partners across the country to urge their support for this federal funding for WMATA.

“Metro has long been known as the ‘nation’s subway’ and one that Americans from across the country take pride in,” said Schwartz. “We are proud to be part of this nonprofit coalition and are committed to winning the funding WMATA needs.”

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The Fund It Fix It coalition includes 22 non-profit groups working in Virginia, DC, and Maryland for dedicated funding for Metro: Coalition for Smarter Growth, League of Women Voters chapters, Sierra Club state chapters and local groups, Action Committee for Transit, Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, Virginia Conservation Network, Piedmont Environmental Council, Clean Water Action, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, Friends of White Flint, Smart Growth Maryland, Maryland Center on Economic Policy, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Greater Greater Washington.

CSG partnering with MetroHero on “Report card” to determine if D.C. Metrobus service makes the grade

Posted on May 9, 2019June 2, 2022 by Cheryl Cort

“Report card” will determine if D.C. Metrobus service makes the grade

May 9, 2019 — The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) is partnering with MetroHero to release a report card on Metrobus service in D.C. The report card will grade bus service on speed and reliability.

The MetroHero team will be monitoring activity on 34 major bus routes in D.C.’s priority corridor network throughout the month of May, evaluating each route based on metrics such as average travel speed, spacing between buses, and how closely the buses keep to their scheduled arrival times. The results will be publicized in a digital “report card” which will assign grades to each of the routes based on their performance in each of these different areas, inspired by a similar project by the Bus Turnaround Coalition in New York City. The resulting analysis will form the basis of a public report written by CSG and MetroHero that will identify the greatest problems faced by D.C.’s priority bus routes today and make recommendations for how to improve their performance in the future.

The reports will be made available to the public in June.

MetroHero (www.dcmetrohero.com), which began as a simple app designed to visualize real-time train positions in the D.C. Metrorail system, has been monitoring and providing performance metrics on WMATA’s trains for over three years. The app has gained popularity with many area commuters, averaging roughly 15,000 unique users every month, largely due to its unique real-time visualizations of the current state of the Metrorail system, from train delays and service outages to user-driven reports of inconveniences such as station crowding and broken intercoms. In September 2018, the MetroHero team extended a number of their train performance tracking algorithms to the Metrobus system, which will be used to gather performance data for the report card.

CSG (www.smartergrowth.net) is the leading organization in the Washington, D.C. region dedicated to making the case for smart growth — promoting walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies to make those communities flourish. In 2017 and 2018, CSG organized non-profits and partnered with the business community in the MetroNow campaign to win $500 million per year in dedicated funding for Metro. CSG serves on the Bus Transformation Study executive committee, previously led and won an 81-mile bus rapid transit plan for Montgomery County, Maryland, and has led other campaigns for improved transit.

Supporting a new approach to automated traffic enforcement with DDOT to achieve Vision Zero & bus lanes that work

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Cheryl Cort

Supporting a new approach to automated traffic enforcement with DDOT to achieve Vision Zero & bus lanes that work

May 3, 2019

Dear Chairman Mendelson:

We understand that Councilmember Cheh has reservations about transferring automated traffic enforcement from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to DC Department of Transportation (DDOT). While DDOT can be frustrating, everyone agrees that photo enforcement is not optimally managed right now. Given that 30+ people die each year on our streets, we should not turn down an opportunity to improve the use of photo enforcement by putting DDOT in charge of it. DDOT is lead on Vision Zero and implementation of dedicated transit lanes (coming to H & I, 16th St & K Street soon). It makes sense to enable DDOT integrate automated traffic enforcement into these programs.

This is how other leading jurisdictions have approached it, such as New York City and Chicago, where their Departments of Transportation are in charge on automated traffic enforcement. See NYC DOT report on automated traffic enforcement here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/speed-camera-report-june2017.pdf. DDOT’s management of photo enforcement poses not legal issues, as some have claimed. The Mayor currently has authority to use the “photograph” as Prima Facie evidence of a violation. Currently, and whether administered by MPD, DDOT, DPW, or another agency, the use of photographs to detect violations are legally treated as non-moving. The penalty is a fine – no points on the license – it’s all still associated with the registered vehicle, not the driver.

How the D.C. Council can make the most of this opportunity: WABA recommends tying photo enforcement to action by DDOT. DC Council could require DDOT to act to fix problem areas detected by traffic cameras as a part of their management of the cameras program. From WABA’s report:

Fix infrastructure at high revenue traffic safety cameras
The goal of the automated traffic safety camera program is safety, not revenue. In places where an automated traffic camera generates a disproportionate amount of money, the underlying street design should be changed immediately, using the tactical design process described above. Traffic calming techniques should be employed to encourage safe driving through better street design.

Without putting DDOT in charge, we are greatly concerned that developing new applications for photo enforcement, such as bus lane compliance, bike lane compliance, and other new uses, will be slow and ineffective. We need to put DDOT in charge in order to more effectively use this tool. DDOT is the agency that is most focused on and responsible for achieving our city’s transportation system’s efficient use and safety.

We all agree that the goal is compliance with the rules of the road, not ticket and revenue generation. DDOT offers an important opportunity to greatly improve on the use of this powerful tool for safety and manage a more efficient transportation system.

Thank you for your consideration on this issue.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Cort

Policy Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth