CommuterPageBlog

Public Hearing On NOVA Transportation Projects On Wednesday, November 1

Some (well, 2 or 3 of you anyway) might be wondering how transportation is planned and implemented in Northern Virgina.  Since "Northern Virginia" belongs to a multi-state metropolitan region and is made of of several cities, counties and towns, it is actually a pretty mind-boggling, complex process.  I've been a transportation planner here since 1998 and I am STILL trying to figure it out myself.

But one player in that process is the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB).  You can find out the details on their website (http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/), but in summary, "the CTB allocates highway, rail, public transportation and commuter services funding to specific projects, locates routes and provides funding for airports and seaports."  They are a 17-member Board appointed by the Governor, and they sign off on all state transportation spending statewide. 

On November 1st, they will hold the Northern Virginia public hearing to comment on the state's Fiscal Year 2008-2013 Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP) (similar to a Capital Improvement Program).  The SYIP is the budget for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT).  The public hearing is an opportunity for the public to voice their opinions about what transportation projects are important to them.  It is taxpayer money, after all. 

If you are interested, the public comment portion of the meeting starts at 7 PM at the Fairfax County Government Center.  Details can be found here:   http://www.virginiadot.org/infoservice/news/newsrelease.asp?ID=CO-SYIP-F06  Or, if you can't go this time but want to see the CTB in action, they hold monthly meetings in different areas across the state.  You can find out information about those here:  http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/meetings.asp.

This certainly isn't your only opportunity to comment on transportation policy; I'll try to keep you updated on other opportunities as I work my way through the alphabet soup of transportation agencies.

By Tamara Ashby.

Lights for Bikes Event "Enlightening"

BikeArlington and the Police's "Lights for Bikes" event last night (October 30) between 5:30 - 6:30pm on the Custis Trail in Rosslyn proved to be a success. Yesterday was the first workday after Daylight Savings Time ended, which meant there would be cyclists commuting home in the dark.

Instead of ticketing cyclists who were riding without lights at this event (a $250 fine - ouch!), we gave them both head- and taillights for free and installed the lights on their bikes. Our goal was to create awareness of the necessity for cyclists to use bike lights when riding at dark. It’s the law in Virginia, as well as in Maryland, and DC that cyclists use a front light at night.

We were glad to see that most cyclists commuting past us already were well lit, with both head- and taillights. But there were some who were not lit, and it was these folks that received lights. We assisted 35 cyclists with new lights at the event.

Last year in Arlington there were 45 cycling-related crashes. Many of these crashes were at night. With lights, cyclists are riding safer because they’re seen. Now that's a better way to go!

A special thanks goes to Spokes, Etc. bike shop who provided the bike lights at-cost to us for the Lights for Bikes event.

Posted by Paul DeMaio.

Reflections on Europe #2: Creating places for people to see and be seen

My recent european adventures (http://www.myspace.com/via_jeffe) lead me to many of the great capitals in Europe, and without exception each of these cities were shaped by their modest beginnings as regional city centers created for trade, security and spiritual enlightenment.  Every city I visited had unique places for people to see and be seen, usually around the ancient market areas, but these places also shared many common attributes.  These 'places' even in old europe continue to evolve with the changes in city character, function and available technology. 

One of the main shopping streets in Vienna is called 'Karntner Strasse', now a pedestrian-only and lined with expensive local and international shops.  The Viennese stroll along this street, that links the catherdral to the opera, night and day even window shopping when shops are closed. 

In Copenhagen the shopping street is called "Stroget" and it links the beautiful "Radhuspladsen" (city hall plaza) to other public squares marrying excellent public space with private uses encouraging grand commerce and allowing Copenhagers to meet in comfort and style any time of year.

Rome has too many famous meeting places, but here are a few famous ones: the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and my favourite, the Campo de Fiori.  Each 'place' centers around commerce always with open air markets, and focused around some fantastic work of art.  These places are always crawling with visitors and locals alike, because of their deep sense of history and beauty, they also make for great places to just hang out, or buy cheap shoes..

In Zurich, I witnessed a prosperous and button-downed city temporarily transform many of its swiss plazas into tented Zurich film festival venues, charming filmakers and critics alike.

As Washington, DC areas residents, each of us has our favourite places to go to see and to be seen.  Georgetown, Alexandria and Annapolis draw us to their 'old city' charm.  As our nations captial "Washington" provides us national spaces such as the Mall, Kennedy Center, and White House.  Newer names such as Reston town center, Ballston, and Silver Spring are places attempting to create a modern-contemporary sense of place.

But what makes our favourite places? Are we looking for commerce, security and enlightenment?  What makes them work well?  And what truly distinguishes one great place from another?

Reflections on Europe #1: Welcome to Stuttgart - Free Transit Pass.

By Jeff Price.

Arlingtonians Asked To Participate In Online Transportation Survey

Arlington County Transportation folks conducted a transportation survey via phone this summer and are following up with an Internet survey that is available for Arlington residents to take at www.commuterpage.com/survey. Through the telephone survey researchers were able to find some general trends, a sneak preview of which were found in our October 12 blog post (Studies Say Arlington is a Commuter Friendly Community, Oct. 12) and this County Press Release (Arlington County Ranks High for Smart Growth, Multiple Transit Options in US Census and County surveys, Oct. 12). The Internet survey's goal is to get enough responses in some sub-categories, such as the walking, biking, and transit travel modes to have a valid sample for each and thus be able to provide a more in-depth analysis than the phone survey provided. It is anticipated that results of each will be combined and released for public consumption in late November, early December.

More iRide - Teen Transit Follow-up

On October 10 we posted a story about iRide - Arlington's Teen Transit Initiative and because it has generated a lot of interest, this is just a little update on what's happened since then.

In yesterday's Washington Post, reporter Jerry Markon writes a great story (County Steers Teens Toward Public Transit, Oct. 26, 2006) tracing the progress of the initiative. On October 18, Afroza Hassain and Jessica Chillen of the Teen Transit Advisory Board, gave the County Board - that's them pictured with the board in the picture on the top left - a PowerPoint Presentation Download iRIDEpresentationtoCoBoard101806.ppt  introducing iRide.   iRide is the name the teens have given to their campaign to promote public transit to their peers.

On October 14, the Teen Transit Advisory Board (pictured at left) provided a sneak peak of iRide to about 300 teens attending the 5th Annual AIM Expo by providing T-Shirts and Frisbees with the iRide logo and web address www.commuterpage.com/iride.

For more information about the initiative contact Bobbi Greenberg, ACCS Marketing Manager.

Reflections on Europe #1: Welcome to Stuttgart - Free Transit Pass

My recent european adventures (http://www.myspace.com/via_jeffe) lead me to the prosperous German city of Stuttgart near the Black Forest, and home of Mercedes-Benz.  IMO, Stuttgart is another shining example of German city planning with excellent transit and beautiful public spaces that most of our American cities can only aspire to.  Stuttgart is even more impressive considering the major rebuilding that was required after the bombings of WWII.  Information on the city of Stuttgart can be found at: http://www.stgt.com/stuttgart/homee.htm

While staying with friends, who were living a carfree lifestyle in a downtown loft, I met a young couple from St. Louis who had just moved to Germany.  Although they were required to register as new residents, they were rewarded and welcomed to the city with customized new arrival  information on city services (not always in English) and free use of the city's comprehensive transit system (including bus, U-Bahn and S-Bahn systems) for the first month or so.

Providing free transit to these new arrivals is a smart policy three main advantages.  First you are helping promote use and understanding of the excellent transit systems, which also encourages  walking and biking.  Secondly, you are initially keeping new arrivals off roads and highways, (We could use that in DC!) Thirdly, this program delays, or at best, prevents new arrivals from purchasing, parking and polluting with their personal motorized vehicles, saving people a lot of money in both the short-term and long-term (while in europe gas was at $5/gallon USD).

New arrivals to our cities, whether it  be tourists,  business travellers, or new residents should be a major target for our public transit initiatives including subsidized transit passes.  We must also lower the barriers to transit use that these users encouter, including language barriers.  Finally, transit servces need to address commuter needs, but also visitor destinations including service to: train stations, bus station, airports and major tourist destinations.

Next post:  creating a places for people to see and be seen

By Jeff Price.

My Commute is Nuts!

Prepare yourself -- you're about to turn green with envy.

I walk to work.

Yes, after years of hellish commutes, I now walk to work. Since moving to Clarendon last year, I now have a picturesque, easy walk from Clarendon to my office at Courthouse. It's about a 10-15 minute walk. Some people could probably walk it in 5, but my legs aren't that long!

Depending on the route I choose, I walk by a cute little park (so peaceful!), or down the lively pedestrian-friendly Clarendon Boulevard. I always know when the good sales are on at The Container Store! (The shelving sale ends soon.) Just last week, I walked by the friendly folks at the Washington Sports Club, who gave me a free visit and I took a fitness class. Couldn't have done that if I'd been zipping by in my car!

This week, I walked to a local blood drive, gave up a pint of blood (there's always a blood shortage, folks, please consider giving!) and got to eat my reward: the most delicious, 100%-guilt-free Oreos. On my walk to the office, I passed by Java Shack -- gotta stop in for a cuppa (decaf) joe! A humongous cup is $2, what a bargain!

Which brings me to the nuts. If you haven't noticed, the oak trees are going CRAZY right now. Horticulturists call it "masting" -- i.e., producing more seeds (in this case, acorns) than the pests and predators can possibly eat, thus ensuring procreation. On my daily walks, I am seeing not only enormous quantities of acorns, but also acorns on steroids! Take a look at the size of these acorns -- I added a quarter for a size reference. How in the world is a squirrel going to handle these behemoths?

Yet another thing that I never would have experienced if I'd been zipping by in my car.

By Diana Sun.

Not Enough Density at Proposed Takoma Metro Project?

There's a must read post today by Richard Lyman on the excellent Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space blog about the proposed development at the Takoma Metro Station. The post is in the form of a thoughtful letter from the Citizens Planning Coalition to WMATA saying "The proposed development at Takoma Metro offers incredible opportunities that appear, for the most part, to be wasted, according to the plans that have been submitted by the developer, plans that WMATA appears to find worthy of approval."

The proposal by EYA for 90 2-car garage townhomes on land directly adjacent to the station does indeed seem short-sited. The coalition asks the question, why not build more units at a higher density and why not even build units for people who don't own cars since 40% of households in the District don't own cars anyway. And I'd add why not consider carsharing  as an alternative to providing so much space for private parking too. There's a lot of good stuff in this lengthy and though-provoking letter that make it worthwhile reading. Let's hope WMATA takes this into account in making a decision about the worthiness of the project - especially since this is on land owned by the authority.

It should be noted that the City of Takoma Park Council strongly opposes the development on similar grounds and has a web page full of documents and information. Here's some Metro docments too.

By Chris Hamilton.

Web Info For Crystal City/Potomac Yard Transit Improvements

There's a new web site that is housing a ton of information about the Crystal City/Potomac Yard Transit Improvements Implementation Project. The project is about providing high-capacity and high-quality bus transit services in the five-mile corridor between the Pentagon and Pentagon City in Arlington County and the Braddock Road Metrorail Station in the City of Alexandria. The proposed project improvements are geared towards providing transit capacity (currently the Metrobus 9S)in the near-term to support the rapid growth that is occurring in the corridor, and setting the stage for long-term improvements that will be implemented in the future. The near-term improvements include the construction of bus-only lanes in both Arlington and Alexandria, more frequent bus service, environmentally friendly buses, and enhanced bus stops will be introduced along the entire corridor. The web site indicates that in the long term, a BRT or Light Rail service in the corridor would utilize the busway and stops constructed as part of the initial service. It goes on to say that there is the additional possibility of construction of an infill Metrorail station on the Blue and Yellow lines in Potomac Yard, at the site of the proposed Potomac Yard Town Center.

Three... Two... One!

I am feeling particularly brilliant these days.

My husband and I moved to Clarendon last year... just before gas prices hit $3. We used to live in Fairfax, where we owned three cars for just the two of us. Yes, yes, it's embarassing, but we each had one car, then my mom moved out of her single-family home and we inherited her car... it was a small wagon and it was really handy... well, anyway, you see what happens.

So we moved to Clarendon and sold the wagon. We had purchased an extra parking space in our condo building, so we could park both cars. Well, we've lived there a year now, and we sold another car about two months ago. With everything being so close, and transit being so easy, we found we were having to make a special effort to keep the car batteries charged! So now we rent out the second spot and are enjoying the extra monthly income -- that income will buy a lot of half-price burgers at Whitlow's!

So now we have just one car -- a zippy Celica convertible. We just signed up with Zipcar "just in case" we need a bigger car, or if we should happen to both need to drive somewhere. It hasn't happened yet. One tank of gas lasts us about a month -- brilliant! Tell us of your experience.

By Diana Sun.