CommuterPageBlog

World Bikesharing Leader Paris Aims for Carsharing Lead Too

In a story out of the Associated Press this week (Paris Eyes Electric Car Sharing Plan, July 28, 2008, by Gaelle Faure) we learn that Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who brought the wildly successful 16,000 count, 200,000 member Velib' bikesharing service to his City, wants to bring carsharing to his City too. And he wants to start with 4,000 electric vehicles no less. Program start in 2009/10. We love this guy!

And the name? Autolib' of course. The service will be run by the City. The plan has it's critics who don't want to see any car use encouraged. But we know that studies show that carsharing actually cuts car use, increases the use of options like transit and encourages people to get rid of cars or forgo buying them altogether. That's exactly what program advocates want - to discourage Parisians who don't have vehicles from even thinking of buying one.

This is one mayor who knows how to fight traffic and pollution.

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

Over or Under... Ground

Those people in Tysons Corner just won't give up on the idea of building a tunnel for the new Metro service there. Good for them. Even at the extra cost the tunnel is clearly the better plan if there is any consideration being paid to making Tysons a walkable and sustainable community in which people will live. Have you ever stood under or near an elevated section of Metro rail when a train is going by? Think of the section that goes over the parking lot at RFK stadium or over the beltway in Bethesda. Those suckers are loud. Now transfer that noise into Tysons Corner where residents, customers and employees are expected to walk through grassy, park-like areas; maybe having a picnic lunch at one of the many tables set up there. Talk about a buzzkill. Are overhead rails, visible out the windows of expensive condo buildings and office buildings, going to convince people and companies to locate there? I think not.

Bringing Metro to Tysons Corner is not a bad idea but it's an idea that really needs to be done right and from the beginning. It needs to be done in a way that will attract new opportunities for residential and business interests. Ugly, noisy overhead heavy rail will get people there and back but it will not convince people that they want to live or work there. And, while I have no memory of the construction plans for either method, I imagine that the impact on vehicle traffic will be even more horrendous for the overhead version. Hey, if planners really want to put rail above the roads then why didn't they consider a monorail system that could take passengers high above the Dulles Toll Road using the existing median rights of way. Oh yeah, that's something that Metro is not familiar with so it can't be done. During the planning process Metro officials were quick to haul out the old "same seat" argument although they never seemed to have an answer for why so many people took Metro bus and then transferred to Metro rail or why so many people take VRE or MARC and still transfer (change seats) to get a bus or onto rail.

The time to build a quality rail system into Tysons Corner is now because no one will be willing to rebuild it later. Instead of spending all their money on lawyer fees and studies maybe those interested in a tunnel should pool their money, have a couple of bake sales if needed, and pay for the difference themselves.  Several of them could afford to pay for it all by themselves. After all, the tunnel will draw people to Tysons and not chase them away like the overhead rail will do.

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Apparently the feds have turned down a chance to make a statement about the hazard of using a cell phone while driving. According to Automotive News, safety advocate Clarence Ditlow proposed the creation of a lockout mechanism that would shut off any communication device that was integrated to the vehicle when a motorist shifted the transmission into drive or reverse. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed that using cell phones while driving is dangerous but refused to act on Ditlow's proposal, which had been made last year. The ruling would have had the biggest impact on General Motors' OnStar service and the Sync system available through Ford. Perhaps it's no coincidence that these are the two largest U.S. automakers but it doesn't take too big a cynic to come to the conclusion that safety might be sacrificed for the sake of profit-making.

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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.

What's a Good Urban Commuter Bike?

My bike was stolen today from Baltimore's Penn Station, where I had ridden it to take the MARC train to D.C. for a business meeting. I'm sure that many readers of this blog have had similar experiences. I'm not writing to whine -- I expected it sooner or later. I  think I got six trips to the train station before it was stolen -- pretty good for Baltimore.

It was a fairly nice bike, but I've had it for almost ten years and there were some nagging mechanical problems with it that I couldn't seem to solve. A few months ago, when I began biking to the train station, someone gave me an old Schwinn for free, and I thought I would get that fixed up as a commuter bike. Then I changed my mind -- with bike shops as busy as they are now, I figured I'd end up spending a lot of money and waiting a long time to get my "second" bike fixed up. So, instead, I decided to ride the bike I had until it got stolen. Fate has taken it's course.

So the purpose of this post is to solicit your recommendations for my next bike -- a good urban commuter bike. It has to be pretty rugged. I occasionally ride on unpaved trails like the C&O Canal Trail, and I have occasion to ride across an open, unpaved lot in my neighborhood. But the Baltimore streets between my house and Penn Station are rougher than either of those. Another thing I'm looking for is fairly narrow handlebars -- my last bike seemed too wide, both in the city and on trails.

The theft part makes it interesting. A lot of bike enthusiasts are into expensive equipment. But, the nicer the bike, the more it's a target for theft. So my next bike should be something I can afford to lose, or else I also need good recommendations for defeating potential thieves.

A few details about the theft: When I go in to D.C., I'm not one of the earliest commuters. When I get to Penn Station, the few bike racks are filled up. I've always been able to lock my bike to a lamp post right outside the station, but the lamp posts are too big to use the "U" lock. So I lock it with a cable and padlock. It's a small cable, but it would require bolt cutters to cut it. In the past, I've used the U lock to lock the frame to the back wheel. I figured that would make the bike less desirable. I forgot to do that today, and that might have been crucial. This was a daylight theft in a crowded place. Thieves would still just have to snip the cable to free the bike, but if the U-lock were on it, they'd have to carry the bike away, rather than walk or ride it.

The only larger point I want to make with this post is that providing adequate bike parking is not just a gesture to acknowledge bike riders, and it's not just a convenience. We need good bike parking to avoid losing our bikes.

On the other hand, replacing that bike will cost less than one of my average car-repair bills.

So, who can recommend a good commuter bike?

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Joe Chapline is web manager for Arlington County Commuter Services.

It's Official. Americans Are Ditching the Car and the Far-Flung Suburbs

A few stories converged in the last 24 hours that highlight the effects of the rising price of driving.

Yesterday, CNN said that according to a report released by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May compared with a year earlier (Americans Ditching the Car, July 28, 2008, CNN). The FHA says the drop was the largest ever for May, which usually sees an increase because of the start of the vacation season and the third-largest monthly drop in 66 years since data has been recorded. The local Examiner (Area Drivers Log Few Miles in May, Part of National Trend, July 29, by Taryn Luntz) and Dr. Gridlock (Driving Drops Again, July 28, 2008, WashingtonPost.com) also covered the news. Traffic Volume Trends reports.

And this morning USA Today says (Gas Prices Drive Push to Reinvent America's Suburbs, by Haya El Nasser, July 29, 2008) that the far-flung suburbs are coping with sharp drops in home prices when compared to urban centers and that this trend is causing a movement to rethink the way the nation develops as we prepare to absorb another 100 million people by 2040.

Until now, people were willing to drive increasingly far for a home they could afford. "Drive-till-you-qualify collapsed," David Goldberg President of Smart Growth America says. "It's done. It's not going to work as a housing strategy anymore."

One individual, Donna Nance (pictured here) bemoaned her 40-mile, one-way commute to work in downtown Phoenix. "Gas would now cost her $60 a week, a blow for a single mom who had moved here to get a house at a better price. She considered moving closer, at the risk of giving up her three-bedroom, single-family home and might have done it if Maricopa had not introduced Phoenix-bound commuter buses in April. Nance, 43, now drives 7 miles to the bus stop and enjoys the ride. Even if gas prices keep climbing, Nance says she has no reason to leave."

But even as individuals find ways to cope, USA Today says "the scent of change is in the air in Maricopa (35 miles outside of Phoenix), even in the way city officials talk. Words such as "bedroom community" have become dirty words. "Green," "sustainable," "walkable," "mass transit," "conservation," "open space" and "energy-efficient" punctuate the suburban dialogue."

Obviously we've got a long way to go until American's really ditch their cars, but at least people are looking at alternatives. Likewise ditching the far-flung suburbs might be a bit pre-mature but individuals and officials are beginning to rethink the old ways of developing, and that's a good thing.

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

The Psychology of Speed

Look, despite the officious-sounding title above, I really have no idea why people drive as fast or as slow as they do. Out on the road it used to seem like the cautious drivers, those driving at speeds below the limit, were simply afraid to be out there. On the other hand those who drive too fast seem reckless and ignorant because of it. That's why I am curious to see what happens with this new experiment being conducted down at the Wilson Bridge beginning today.

Officials will be using computers to set a speed limit that will change depending on congestion. That means that the speed limit could be different every time you drive through the area. On Monday at 2 p.m. it could be 35 MPH because one of the lanes has been closed and traffic is backing up. On Friday night at 11 p.m. the speed limit could be back up to 50 or 55 MPH because the volume of traffic is light enough that a lane closure isn't having an impact on congestion.

I only wonder about the ability of police to write tickets. Will it be possible that an officer could be writing a ticket for someone who has been caught going 55 in a 35 MPH zone at the same time that the speed limit has been increased? Is there going to be a way of documenting what the actual speed limit is or was at a particular time? I hope so because it could be rather messy without it at least from a legal sense.

This isn't totally new at least in concept. Speed limits have been changed during construction periods for many years. This was done because of the anticipated congestion that would occur in a work zone but also as a way to make things safer for those actually doing the work. Those changes were for fixed periods of time and that is where this experiment differs. Speed limits can change without notice although once set they will remain in place for at least 20 minutes. It will be interesting to see if this works to relieve congestion in an area that needs it badly. I'm also curious to see how long it takes transportation officials to figure out the best way to make use of this technology to keep traffic moving.

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A few days ago somebody posted a comment asking for my thoughts on a return to the 55 MPH speed limit. My first reaction was: "No, that would be a return to the bad old days of Presidents Ford and Carter." But the more I think about it, the more it seems like, if we Americans can't control our own driving behavior based on the price of gasoline then maybe the government should step in. There is a big problem as I see it however and that it that there are fewer police available to actually enforce the speed limit. You rarely see cops out on the interstates anymore checking speeds. It's the local police on the secondary roads that are hard at work. Some people say it's the role that state police have to play in homeland security that draws them away and others say it is slashed budgets that have led to a reduction in forces.

The other consideration is whether a 55 MPH speed limit will have much of an impact on consumption of fuel. Cars these days are so superior to those built in the 1970's when it comes to fuel usage and emissions. There was a reasonable case made back then that I'm not sure can be made today. After all, in most areas the reduction would only be from 65 MPH to 55 MPH. I'm certain that there are people out there a lot more fluent in these calculations and I'd like to hear from them. The gas crisis of the 1970's opened up the U.S. market to companies like Honda, Datsun (Nissan) and many others that produced small, fuel-efficient cars. Maybe this latest go-round will lead to the growth of some new technology.  After all, we've been powering our transportation vehicles with internal combustion engines for more than a hundred years. Why hasn't something new and better come down the pike?

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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.

The Free Ride Isn't Worth It

On days when the air quality is forecast to be "code red" by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), many bus systems in the D.C. area offer free rides. Good idea, right? Encourage people to ride the bus who otherwise would drive.

The problem is, it's very difficult to communicate how the program works. If the communication is successful, people who take advantage of it save $1.35 each time they ride the bus on the few (two so far this summer) code red days. That's if the bus drivers get the word -- many didn't on the first code red day this year.

If the communication fails, you've got people, perhaps trying the bus for the first time, who expect a free ride and don't get it. Even people that don't really mind paying the $1.35 are likely to be annoyed with the bus system, especially after they've been standing at a bus stop in the hot sun on a day that's over 90 degrees.

So what's so difficult to communicate? I wish it were just one thing.

First, it depends on the forecast. Air quality on a given day may actually get into the code red range, and you may hear that on the radio or get an email from MWCOG's alert system. But that doesn't trigger the free ride program. It's the FORECAST that counts, not actual air quality. But wait, there's more. MWCOG provides air quality forecasts several days in advance. A code red day may be forecast several days out, but still no free ride. It has to be forecast the day before. But not anytime the day before, it has to be the last forecast, which comes out in the late afternoon. Confused yet?

Second, the program is not uniform across the region. Northern Virginia has their act together pretty well, thanks to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. I think they pay for the free rides. Whether that's true or not, all local bus systems and all Metrobus routes in Northern Virginia offer free rides when a code red day is forecast. (With the caveats given in the previous paragraph.) D.C. does not participate, so Metrobus routes within D.C. are not free. Metrobus routes operating between D.C. and Montgomery County or Prince Georges County are free. Metro doesn't get into trying to explain which routes these are. The best anyone can seem to come up with is "if the farebox is covered, the ride is free." But by the time you're looking at the farebox, you're pretty much committed to riding the bus already. The situation is the same with many local bus systems in Maryland. Some offer free rides, but most of them don't say anything about it on their websites. So there's no way to know until you're getting on the bus.

Third, the program changes from year to year. Last year, free rides were offered in Northern Virginia when the forecast was code red or code orange. This year, it's just code red. Websites can be updated (although it was more trouble than you might think) but old bus schedules and other print materials are still out there.

So I suggest dropping the free ride program. We can still encourage people to ride the bus and take other extra measures to avoid polluting when the air quality is bad. Does the bus fare really make that much of a difference in whether people will do it?

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Joe Chapline is web manager for Arlington County Commuter Services.

Can Other Cities Have What Portland Has?

That's the question posed to Mia Birk, Portland's first Bike Coordinator by CBS Sunday Morning reporter Serena Altschul after spending some time there. Says Birk:

"I'll just challenge your viewers to think about substituting one trip a week that they normally take by car, try it on a bike," Birk said. "Try a short trip that's 2 miles or less." According to a recent federal study, that's 40% of all urban trips in America. "See how much easier it is than you think it is," Birk said. "Just try it."

The excellent 10-minute plus story spends some time with Portland's Mayor-elect Sam Adams, who is said to have "rode to victory on a bicycle platform." In the last ten years the number of trips made by bike in Portland is up 150% and is now six percent of all trip.

"And it makes me proud because, you know, imagine all the smog we're not producing with these bikes trips. Imagine all the health improvements" says the Mayor-elect.

Can any city catch up with Portland? Let's give it a try here!

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

Live Chat with Eric Gilliland of WABA

I just learned via WashCycle that Eric Gilliland, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, will be online with the Washington Post at noon today to answer questions about bicycle safety.  You can submit questions before or during the discussion, or check out the transcript afterward.

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

Online Directions for Bikes, Peds and Transit Coming Soon?

A few articles/posts last week bring us information that with the high cost of gasoline, and more people looking for options to driving, that people are looking for 'how to get there from here' map information for walking, biking and transit just like they've been getting for driving for years.

On Yahoo a story out of Philadelphia (Bikers, Pedestrians Seeking Better Better Web Maps, July 25, 2008, by Patrick Walters, AP), which also appeared in this morning's Express, says that Google, MapQuest and others are experimenting and working with groups or cities to solve the technical issues with overlaying detailed information for biking and walking onto existing map systems. Apparently not always that easy. Walkers and bikers can go places cars can't and this complicates matters. Therefore mapmakers are more reliant on community knowledge than they've been with driving directions.

Over at the Google Maps 'Bike There' blog, whose mission is to prod the Google Maps team to work on adding bike directions, we find a Beta "Ride The City" (NYC) site that tries to help bicyclists get riding directions using Google maps data.

The Google Lat Long Blog says that beginning on July 22 Google Maps lets you tell it that you want walking directions (Pound the Pavement, July 22, 2008). This is a Beta version and I couldn't get either the Directions by Public Transit or Walking when I put in local information. But it is working in Seattle. Figures.

Google Transit is coming to more and more cities, but still isn't in our area. Despite strong interest by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, WMATA, and some local agencies it seems that the hold-up is the agreements between Google and these folks. Google wants to make it clear to the public that the information they supply is only as good as the data they get from the transit agencies. For some reason this gives the agencies pause. Meanwhile the traveling public waits. Come on guys lets get this going!

Bottom line, "The easier you make it for people...the more they're going to do it" says Joe Minott, Executive Director of Philly's Clean Air Council in reference to why these new maps are needed. I couldn't have said it better. Maybe in a couple years when you go to Google Maps or MapQuest, and you ask for directions, it will automatically ask you if you'd like walking, biking and transit directions as well as by car. Let's hope this day comes soon.

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

Bored by the Board

Does it seem strange to anyone else that the person who will have a major impact on the operation of Metro is a former District Department of Transportation head? Again? It wasn't too long ago that Dan Tangherlini left his job as DDOT Director to be Metro's General Manager for little more than a cup of coffee before heeding the call of the District's new mayor. In the short period of time Tangherlini wasn't able to make any significant changes in the way Metro operated although people say he sure had a lot of ideas. What he did do was bring in to key positions a whole lot of employees from the District government. Many of them were overpaid and not fully qualified. Many of them left Metro when Tangherlini left.

Now, Metro is hiring Emeka Moneme, the District's current Director of DDOT, to be its Chief Administrative Officer. Not only did Moneme work for the District, he also was Tangherlini's Chief of Staff and is currently a member of the Board of Directors. This guy has insight into the internal workings of Metro and the District government. Why is that such a plus? Are former District officials the only ones that Metro finds acceptable? Doesn't this give the District an unfair advantage over the other jurisdictions because of the added insight into the way things work on both sides?

Would other jurisdictions do this? Why does the board allow this form of board incest? The only situation that seems similar was the appointment of Peter Benjamin to Metro's Board after serving the agency for 20 or so years in a variety of positions including Chief Financial Officer.

It's bad enough the there are elected officials on Metro's board. I have always felt that too many votes placed by board members who are also watching the polls are made for the wrong reasons. The argument in favor of using elected officials is that these individuals will make sure that they represent their jurisdiction. The problem is when an issue of the wallet comes before the board such as a fare increase these elected officials tend to focus more on the unhappiness of the voters than of the continued solvency of the system. Anything that clouds a board member from making a decision that is in the best interest of the agency is a bad thing and that leads us back to the voters on whom the elected official depends on his or her livelihood.

Which brings us back to the rhetorical question: Does the District have an unfair advantage on the board because of the former city employees now working for Metro or the former Metro employees now working in key positions in the District government?

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Have you seen those television sets on the top of gas pumps? What do you think about them? Are they entertaining or are they just another example of crass commercialism? A recent story by the Associated Press (primarily a news wire that provides stories to newspapers and broadcasting outlets) touts the advantages of these devices. The whole premise of the story is that watching short news and information provides a distraction to high gas prices.

Here's a question: Would you go to a gas station just because you can watch three minutes of "news?"  I doubt that these devices are anything more than a vehicle on which to run 30-second commercials over and over. If stations want to attract my business maybe they could hand out glasses or dinner plates with every 8-gallon purchase. Maybe they could return to the day of S&H Green Stamps and those little booklets in which to stick them. Or maybe they could actually have an employee come out with a little squirter bottle to wash my windows or check the oil or the inflation of the tires. Or perhaps the best way to get me to buy gas at one station over the other is to charge about a dollar a gallon less or to provide a shuttle to the closest Metro station.

The thing I found most interesting about this particular story as it ran in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade is that, when mentioning the companies that program the information for these services, they make no mention of the fact that the Associated Press is one of the programmers.  When that kind of thing happens it makes one wonder whether the whole point of the story was to simply promote a product and that's not what a wire service should be doing.

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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.