CommuterPageBlog

Dark Clouds Next Year Over the Nationals Parking Situation?

One of my favorite columnists, Thomas Boswell, had an interesting article earlier this week (Fans Can't Fill Seats If They Can't Find Spots, August 29, 2007; Washington Post) about the potential for "dark clouds" to hang over the Washington Nationals attendance next year if enough parking isn't found to accommodate the fans at their new ballpark.

Mr. Boswell posits that the Nationals need to pack the house if they are going to be able to spend the money it will take to put a competitive team on the field. And packing the house on a nightly basis could mean problems if there aren't enough parking spaces for the fans. According to Boswell, here's the math: At RFK 53% percent of crowds arrive by car. If the same proportion do the same at the new ballpark and it holds 41,000 fans that's 22,000 people by car. At 2.75 people per car that's 8,000 parking spaces. And he says they are having a hard time just finding 6,000 spaces at the moment.

So what's the City (who owns the new ballpark) and the Nationals to do? Boswell mentions that the Nats plan a public education campaign so more fans will take Metro. Great! We applaud the action and happen to know that the Nats, the City and WMATA are all working hard on plans to get as many people as possible to use options to driving (full disclosure: as well as being a Nationals Season Tickets Holder - I take Metro to the games - I have a good friend who works for the Nationals on these issues). Even with a great campaign, the fact remains a significant portion of people are going to arrive by car, and it seems the frustrating thing is there are a number of government agencies within short walking distance of the new ballpark that have huge parking garages but as of yet don't want to let them be utilized in the evenings after their employees go home or on the weekends.

Shouldn't the feds help the City and the neighborhoods out? One only need look north towards Baltimore where the City's office buildings cooperate by keeping their doors open on game nights and weekends to accommodate Orioles fans. Lets hope that all those involved in Washington get together and solve the problem. And if the City and team need some good ideas they can start by reviewing the pages and pages of ideas provided in the Comments section after Mr. Boswell's article.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Virginia Fines: Right or Wrong?

There has been tremendous coverage in the last month regarding Virginia's new fines for reckless driving and other lawbreaking on the roads.
(A list of the exact fines can be found in this Washington Post article)
(More: ABC News story, Marc Fisher column, list of many articles)

Recent articles have all covered the outcry and rage--seemingly unanimous, or at least widespread--over the outrageousness of these fines.  What is much harder to measure, but I believe exists to a great degree, is the support from hundreds of thousands of safe drivers in Virginia.  Let the record state that I support strong fines for reckless driving and other unsafe behavior.  I am not the slightest bit outraged, because I have absolutely no concern that I will ever be subject to one of these fines, and if they serve to keep people focused on their driving behavior, then good. 

I agree that the legislature should look at making improvements to the law.  It ought to include out-of-state drivers, too.  It doesn't make much sense that a speeding VA driver is somehow more dangerous than a speeding Maryland driver who happens to be in Virginia.  Judges should be given a little leeway to make decisions about those (sarcasm alert!) hundreds of pregnant women rushing to hospitals.

Finland has a progressive system in which fines are pegged to income.  There's a certain elegance to this idea, essentially penalizing people with more equal amounts of pain ($300,000/year lawyer fined $3,000; $42,000/year teacher fined $420).  Back in 2004, Dr. Gridlock came out opposed to this idea, and despite its appeal to fairness, I think it would be politically impossible in the US.

Is this how we should fund our transportation improvements?  Probably not, although having the fines go to providing people with safer alternatives to driving is certainly a good place to put the fine dollars.  There's the odd inverse relationship between success (more safe driving) and funding.  If hugely successful at deterring bad driving, the amount of money collected would plummet, and we'd have to go back and figure out something else--something more dependable and regular.  As I mentioned in my post the other day, a more direct relationship between use of the system and funding would be better, i.e., tolls and congestion charges that charge people for using the roads.

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Steve Offutt, Arlington resident and Director - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), Transportation Projects

Bike to Church/Temple/Mosque Day

Mount Olivet United Methodist Church at North 16^th Street and Glebe Road held a “Bike to Church Sunday” on August 19. Despite rainy weather, the church turned out 20 bicyclists and one electric-wheelchair participant for this initial event. Church members distributed bicycle maps, answered questions about routes to the church, and conducted a transportation survey in order to determine how to provide more transportation alternatives for churchgoers attending services and other events.

You can do the same at your house of worship. For copies of the free Arlington Bike Map and bike bells, contact me below.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

Google Maps Credited With Increase in Duluth's Transit Ridership

More good stuff from our new friends at the Permanent Campaign Consulting blog. They report that according to the SubwayBlogger that bus ridership in Duluth, Minnesota has increased 12% since they put the online Google Trip Planner on their website. The transit planner not only shows the routes but the transfer points and schedule too. They also report that the Google Transit Trip Planner shows you businesses within a block or two of your stop. Very cool.

We agree that anything we can do to get more and better information in as many different formats that people will use is a good thing.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Mary Peters: The Folly of Higher Gas Taxes

Today's (Saturday, August 25) Washington Post included an op-ed by US Dept. of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters (who was just mentioned for other reasons on this blog the other day).  Her key point is that raising gas taxes to improve transportation infrastructure (which has been raised in the public's consciousness since the bridge collapse in Minnesota) is the wrong strategy.  She cites a couple of reasons:

1)  Because the money is deposited into a federal trust fund, its allocation becomes politicized, and Congress is apt to skew the priorities for its use.  I would tend to agree with this point.

2)  It does little or nothing to reduce traffic congestion, because it does not dissuade people from driving during congested times or on congested roadways.  I partially agree.  Large gas taxes would push people towards smaller cars and also get them to think about using them less, but it wouldn't necessarily affect congestion.  Small increases in the gas tax would probably make little difference.

I am in favor of raising gas prices, but for different reasons and in a different way.  Burning gasoline creates environmental damage.  Gas taxes could be used more appropriately to offset the damage caused by their use by being used for environmental protection.  A better strategy in my mind is that gas taxes could replace wage taxes.  The taxes collected would be used to reduce wage taxes.  This works well for progressivity of tax policy, because rich tend to buy more gas and poor pay more in wage taxes.

Her key point is that we currently provide virtually all of our roadways for free.  Any free good will tend to be overutilized.  The infrastructure itself should be priced rather than the gas.  I completely agree with this point.  If people and businesses were charged for the use of the roads--more during congested times; possibly more for larger, more damaging vehicles--then they would start to make decisions based on their use.  That's the idea behind congestion pricing (another recent blog): charge people for their use.  If we tolled every road then a lot more people would choose to take the train or bus or ride their bike or otherwise think a bit harder before hopping in their car and driving.
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Steve Offutt, Arlington resident and Director - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), Transportation Projects

Our new hybrid - update #2

As I mentioned in my June post, Arlington County passed a tax break for residents who own hybrid vehicles.  I am pleased to report that we have received our personal property tax bill for this year and--just as hoped for--our bill was reduced by $750 because of the break.  What would have been a $898 tax bill is only $148.

I must admit that this is an unexpected windfall.  At the time we bought the car we were not aware that the county was considering this idea.  We are, of course, happy about it.

EPA has now updated their www.fueleconomy.gov website to include the new MPG ratings, which are more representative of real-world driving.  It shows our Camry as 34 MPG combined, which is much closer to our experience, instead of the official 39.

Here are the revised fuel efficiency ratings for the cars that qualify for the tax break.

And here are some of the highest mileage 2007 model year cars for comparison (2008 data are not all available yet).  Hybrids that qualify are bolded.

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Steve Offutt, Arlington resident and Director - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), Transportation Projects

Flexible Carpooling - Coffee Included - Coming to the States?

Back in May we brought you a story (Is a More Formalized Slugging in Our Future?, May 3, 2007) from a company in New Zealand called Trip Convergence that was marketing a new carpooling service in an effort to combat congestion that they called HOVER (High Occupancy Vehicles in Express Routes). Now comes word that they are trying to get the concept off the ground in New York City through their test web site called Less Cars in New York.

Thank goodness they dropped the acronym HOVER as a name for their concept and settled on "Flexible Carpooling." This seems way more consumer-friendly. For those who don't remember the concept is about a membership based system where drivers go to a carpooling park (garage) and park in areas with folks who are heading to the same destinations downtown. Who drives and who rides is flexible. As soon as there are at least 3 people the car leaves. So the system is more flexible than traditional carpool assignments and more akin to slugging.

The system's owner's say that providing a membership system allows for greater safety through a screening process that includes references and checks on driving and criminal records. The membership also allows for tracking participation and providing members with a ride credits system that allows riders to compensate drivers.

One of the fun perks of the system is that you can have a standing coffee order. As your car enters the facility and acknowledges you are there, the coffee barrista is told you've arrived and they make your order. It is then handed to you as you leave with the cost put on your membership. How cool is that?

At this point the system's proponents are asking people in the New York area to register and say that they'd use the system if it becomes available. It seems like they are trying to get New York officials to consider this program as part of a greater congestion fighting program the city is putting together. Questions can be addressed to Paul Minett at paulminett@tripconvergence.co.nz. Here's wishing them luck.

Perhaps someone in this area is willing to try to fund something similar? Would it get more people to carpool?

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Are Printed Transit Information Materials a Significant Barrier to Transit Use?

That was the question that the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) tackled in a recent study, the results of which were published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Public Transportation. First thanks go out to a fairly new and very interesting blog called Permanent Campaigns Consulting.  The blog is dedicated to a narrow specialty area of transit communications but for those interested in the subject or how we can increase transit use in general it looks to be like a go-to resource. It was from a story entitled Study: Teaching Nonriders How Transit Works Turns Them Into Riders (August 20, 2007) that we learned about the research on transit information.

So back to the question. Are printed transit information materials a significant barrier to transit use? While the nearly 20-page report offers a lot of advice for transit agencies and those of us charged with helping people choose to take the bus the short answer to the question is no.

The study found that only a little more than half (52.5%) of the sample participants from Tampa Bay - transit and non-transit riders alike - were able to successfully plan a transit trip using printed map and schedule information. (Perhaps the low success rate has something to do with where the sample was collected? Hmmmm.) Given this, they asked whether these difficulties would have an effect on transit usage. However the findings of the study suggested that this wasn't the real problem as none of the nontransit users cited lack of transit trip-planning ability as their main reason for not using transit. Their reasons were more obvious like their car was more convenient, the service wasn't available or convenient to them, etc. In fact, despite the difficulty it seems that many of the participants had in using the schedules, it was still by far the most commonly used method of trip planning.

One of the more interesting tid-bits from this research - as Permanent Campaigns Consulting blogger Dan Johnson-Weinberg notes - is that as a result of going through this exercise approximately two thirds of the participants stated that they had increased their level of confidence in using printed transit information materials. Further 20% of nonriders said they planned to ride in the future and 1/3 of the infrequent transit riders said they'd use it more. The study's author concludes: "Perhaps providing instruction or training in the correct use of the materials would be an effective way to improve trip-planning confidence and overall comprehension." And perhaps this would lead to increased transit use.

Those of us in the biz will take a closer look.

Related posts: Information, Information, Information (March 28, 2007); Transportation Information Everywhere, All the Time (December 4, 2006)

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

WABA Seeks Events/Program Manager

We don't normally post jobs on the CommuterPageBlog, however, this position as an Events/Program Manager for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) will be assistsing BikeArlington with the 4th annual Arlington & Alexandria Community Bike Ride, so we'll make a tiny exception.

The position involves special events, member outreach, and bicycle advocacy. For the complete job listing, contact Eric Gilliland at gill@waba.org.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

Ridesharing 2.0 Revisted - GoLoco!

Back in April CommuterPageBlogger Kevin Beekman brought us news of a news of a new Ridematching service called GoLoco (Ride-sharing 2.0, April 25, 2007). In this morning's Examiner, Sprawl & Crawl Columnist Steve Eldridge provides more information on the service and informs us the GoLoco people (who brought us Zipcar) have teamed up with Facebook.com (Web Social Networking Takes the Carpool Lane, August 22, 2007) in what sounds like a great mash-up of Web 2.0 technologies. Mr. Eldridge points out that "the D.C. area does very well in terms of sharing the ride when compared with the national average of roughly 80 percent, but three out of four of us are still making the trip alone." (See State of the Commuter #1: D.C Region's Drive Alone Rate Goes Down! July 18, 2007 for stats.)

We're glad GoLoco is added to the mix of ridematching options which include CommuterConnections and NuRide too. We have a lot of faith in founders Mark and Robin Chase who did such a great job helping to launch Zipcar. So lets hope folks find this service useful and more people can find a way to share the ride.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.