CommuterPageBlog

Welcome to Sprawl and Crawl on CommuterPage.com

It's been a couple months since I had a chance to write this column and I'm grateful for the opportunity afforded me by the good folks at CommuterPage.com. Many of you might remember me from my years at WTOP Radio and some may have read the column that ran for many years in one of those give away daily papers that are around town. For those who don't know me perhaps it would help to give a brief rundown on where I stand on some of the big issues in Washington transportation.

I'm one of those people who believes that we need a balanced approach to transportation. I think we need some new roads and, at the very least, some improvements to what we already have. I point to the improvements made to the exit from the outer loop of the beltway to the Dulles Toll Road as one of the great examples of reducing congestion by making some simple and relatively low-cost improvements.

We also need more and better transit options...more rail and more bus service would go a long way to reduce congestion and improve the quality of our air. There are also some concerns that projects like Dulles Rail may not do all that it is promised to do and at a great expense. I still believe that bus rapid transit (BRT) options could be better explored as an option in this corridor. I think that exploring the expansion of the Orange Line all the way out to Gainesville makes a lot of sense. The congestion and the demand is there but even that is not easy. For example, what would already full trains coming in from the west do to the passengers already waiting at Vienna and beyond?

I'm mixed about things like hot lanes because I'm not sure they will work. They have been hit or miss, according to transportation reporters I've talked to in the Los Angeles area. I also have to wonder why private companies are so anxious to foot the bill for these projects unless they know how much this will actually end up costing drivers.

The one thing that I really enjoy talking about and I hope you enjoy reading about are the wonderful gadgets and internet tools that are being developed to help us know when the buses are coming or how to get around or how and where to find a parking space. It seems like technology is leading us into some exciting new areas and I plan on highlighting some of the better ones as we go through this journey together.

From time to time or more I will share with you some of my experiences and observations. Yes, I tend to be a bit cynical and wary of things but try to make a case for whatever I'm thinking...sometimes I am more successful than others. I would invite and encourage you to participate as well. Let me know what you are thinking; what you are seeing; what makes you happy about your commute and what you think can be done to make it better. This little slice of cyberspace will be more interesting if we have many voices participating. Send me an email via Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.

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Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.

 

Steve Eldridge's "Sprawl and Crawl" Coming to CommuterPage.com

CommuterPage.com will be hosting Steve Eldridge's "Sprawl and Crawl" column beginning Monday, September 31. Steve is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. Look for new "Sprawl and Crawl" posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on CommuterPage.com.

Cars =/= Cool?

I usually just scan through the Express in the mornings, but today's article about Toyota opening a shopping mall in Japan caught my eye.

The article discusses how the Japanese automaker, poised to become the number one seller of cars in the world, is watching sales in its home country drop due to people's disinterest in vehicle ownership.  While Toyota is worried about its bottom line at home, I read the article from an eco perspective.  Some passages that jumped out at me:

A study last year ... found that some people in their 20s said they didn't want a car, even if it were free [emphasis added].

Japan has excellent public transportation, including trains and subways, and so many feel they don't need a car.

Atsushi Kawai, [an auto analyst,] said, "A car used to symbolize a dream. People used to work hard to buy a car. These days, nobody is saying that. No one thinks a car is cool anymore."

Besides their excellent, far-reaching, and reliable public transportation, what else do you think Japan is doing right to encourage fewer cars?

Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County and a Metro/bike commuter.

Street Smart Safety Enforcement

The following is a Media Advisory from the Arlington County Police Department, a partner of the regional Street Smart Safety Campaign:

"On Wednesday, March 26, 2008, the Arlington County Police Department’s Special Operations Section will conduct a pedestrian safety enforcement detail at four busy intersections. Two of the locations were selected because they are near elementary schools. The other two are along the Columbia Pike corridor which has a lot of vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

"Officers will ticket motorists who speed or do not yield for students and other pedestrians in crosswalks. They will also be on the lookout for walkers and bikers who don’t obey the walk signals and traffic laws, and public service aides will be on hand to distribute safety information.

"The detail is part of the 2008 Street Smart Pedestrian, Driver, and Bicyclist Safety Campaign. In support of the campaign, Arlington officers have stepped up their enforcement and education efforts during the month of March.

"From 3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. tomorrow, officers will be at the intersection of N. Veitch Street and Key Boulevard, near Key Elementary School, and in the 1300 block of S. George Mason Drive, near Randolph Elementary. Then, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., officers will be stationed on Columbia Pike at S. Scott Street and S. Frederick Street. Members of the media are invited to attend to cover the detail."

http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/Police/news/printarticle.asp?ID=539

Contact us for more information about the region's Street Smart campaign or for copies of the useful Safety Tips brochure or Use Crosswalks card. Both are available in many languages.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

Clean your footprint!

Yes, it's that time! Spring cleaning time.  Although it's still a little chilly, it is indeed spring and the perfect time to clean out the closets and basements... and also your footprint- your carbon footprint. 

In the latest issue of Self there was a piece entitled, "Cleaning up your act," in which the author, Gayle Forman saved every piece of trash that she created in order to find ways to reduce her waste and "clean" her carbon footprint. 

Forman started her day with a trip to the grocery store and brought her own bag.  The  article notes that "if every American BYOB'd (bring your own bag for those like me who are acronym challenged!), we'd nix 36.5 billion sacks a year!"  The author also completed her day with a coffee run, buying water and ordering take out.  She notes that good ways to slim your footprint are to carry a reusable mug or bottle, recycle when necessary and try to cook more!

One big step is just being aware of your consumption so you can make little changes that not only help the environment, but also your own health. What quick ways do you use to "clean" up your step? 

Carly Nider

Bike to Work Day, meet Facebook.

If you've ever had to compete for time on your friends' busy calendars, this post is for you.  We've made a Facebook event page for Bike to Work Day, so users of Facebook can easily invite their coworkers and friends to bike in on Friday, May 16th, and then easily keep track of who's coming. 

Facebook users can find the event here (or just search events for "Bike to Work Day"), and you can add the event to your calendar under the BikeArlington logo on the right.  RSVP as attending, and then invite your other Facebook friends and post the event to your profile.  Whether you ride together or meet up at Gateway Plaza, letting them know via Facebook will make it a whole lot easier to organize.

Feel free to suggest other sites we should be using in the comments!

Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County and a Metro/bike commuter.

Ciclovia en Bogota

I was pointed to this excellent video about the ciclovia movement in Bogota, which if you haven't heard of, is well worth reading up on.  The city closes many of the main streets for most of the day on Sundays and they are instead used for walking, biking, skating, as well as just communities gathering together.  The healthier lifestyle that comes with this activity (encouraged by the free dance and workout classes offered during each week's ciclovia) has inspired other cities throughout South America and the rest of the world to adopt similar measures.

You can see the video at Streetsblog; it's the third in a three-part series (here are the links to the first, which is about the ciclovia itself, and the second, which is about the city's bus rapid-transit system).  They're all worth a few minutes of your time to watch, but I especially liked the focus on the impact the ciclovias have had on bike- and pedestrian-friendliness in the third.  It makes you wonder what we could do in this country if only our cities had the political will.

Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County and a Metro/bike commuter.

An Awareness Test

This video comes to us from across the pond, and can be found here, but for the sake of one-stop shopping, I'm including its YouTube counterpart below.

Though I'm sad these sorts of ads are needed, I'm glad someone is being creative with them.  I think a lot of PSA-type announcements go unnoticed by the general population because, frankly, they're pretty boring.  This is a fantastic example of something a viewer will actually remember.

Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County and a Metro/bike commuter.

Step your way to a smaller footprint

Yes, that's step your way to a smaller carbon footprint- unfortunately, not a smaller shoe size!  A carbon footprint measures the impact of your activities (i.e. commuting, electric usage, ect) on the environment, specifically, the amount of emitted green house gases. Click here to calculate your footprint.

Last night I was relaxing while reading Fitness Magazine.  To my delight, the issue contained many "green" articles about eating green, little ways to make an environmental difference, and how walking reduces your carbon footprint.  Here are some interesting stats from Fitness on the difference walking makes in your health and the environment:

• About 15% of trips in the U.S. are shorter than 1 mile and more than half of those short trips are made by car!  Drive only 10 less miles each week and you can help reduce pollution by more than 500 pounds a year.
• If Americans walked 30 minutes each day instead of driving, approximately 8.4 billion gallons of gasoline a year would be saved and carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 82 million tons.
• If you walk just 3 miles a day (less than the recommended 10,000 steps a day which equals 5 miles), you'll burn about 240 calories.

Something to think about the next time you reach for the car keys when you need to run a few quick errands... why not just walk and get in some exercise while doing something good for the environment? 

Carly Nider, Arlington Transportation Partners

Blue Line Reroute and Communication

There have been several articles recently about rerouting some blue line trains so that they will run between Franconia/Springfield and Greenbelt, using the bridge over the Potomac rather than the Rosslyn tunnel.  I'll have to defer to Metro regarding how this improves capacity (I suspect it does), but my key point is that these cannot be called "blue line" trains.  In fact, from what I can tell, these trains would spend more time on green line tracks than blue anyway.  As I have ranted about in a previous post, how we identify our buses and trains can either make things easier or harder on riders.  I agree with this Dr. Gridlock letter writer that when this new route is introduced it needs to have its own identifying color.  Calling it a "Blue Line B" or something will only serve to confuse riders.
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Steve Offutt, Arlington