CommuterPageBlog

We Have To Make Better Use of the Transportation Networks Already In Place

Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton says the solutions are slim for the area's traffic problem so "the approach is going to have to be one that makes better use of transportation networks that are already in place" (Secretary: Solutions slim for area traffic boon, November 14, 2011, by Adam Tuss, WTOP). He goes on to say "I don't have the physical ability to expand the system anymore." And he's right. So shouldn't localities, the region, State and Federal Governments put more emphasis and money into TDM (transportation demand management), which according to an increasing body of evidence would indeed make better use of the transportation network we have today? The answer of course is yes.

TDM is the most cost-effective way to deliver transportation benefits for the dollar, getting maximum use of existing infrastructure by shifting drivers into transit, carpools, vanpools, walking, biking, and avoiding trips through telework. Yet ironically, the economic downturn has resulted in a shortage of resources for TDM that could help to fill the gap when little infrastructure can be built to deal with growing congestion.

Over the coming weeks and months we'll highlight some TDM programs and services that research shows are having a big impact on reducing congestion and speculate on how expanding these programs and trying some new demand side innovations or low-cost infrastructure can have even more impact for our region and State. And visit our new think tank on the subject at MobilityLab.org.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesTransportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Follow me at Twitter @ChrisRHamilton.

Gas Spending Teetotalers = Arlington & DC

 
 
The good folks at The Consumerist bring us a fun chart on the monthly gas spending habits of American cities from Mint.com. Guzzling cities include the car-dependant places you'd expect like San Jose ($216 monthly), Birmingham ($212), Jacksonville ($203) and Phoenix ($202). Teetotalers included places that are easier to get around without a car such as New York City ($102), Washington, D.C ($112), Arlington, VA ($129) and Seattle ($138). I was kinda surprised to see Baltimore make the Teetotalers list at $138. Way to go Hon! But how did Alexandria, VA get into the Gulpers category? Hmmmm... The national average was $177.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesTransportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Carsharing Is Pro Transit, Bike and Walk

People often ask me why a local government like Arlington would support a private sector company like Zipcar with its carsharing program. I tell them that research shows when people sign up for carsharing, they walk, bike and take transit more, and they often, over time, go car free. And that for every carshare vehicle we can save about 15 parking spaces. And all of this is good for our quality of life and business climate. That's why we do it. Well here's more proof from the City of Baltimore. 

One year after launching their program in Baltimore (Hon), Zipcar found:

• 14% bike more
• 21% walk more
• 11% use public transit more
• 18% have sold their vehicle
• 46% put off buying a vehicle

According to FastCompany, the Zipcar's impact on how people use cars is enormous. Here's the money quote from FastCompany:

"These aren't just good stats for the recently public company to show that people love their service. It shows that car sharing--by Zipcar or others--can have a strong effect on a city's car ownership rates and public-transit use. That means less traffic, easier parking, and a generally more pleasant living experience for all citizens. As the benefits of taking cars off the roads start to become more clear, expect more and more municipalities to start working with car-sharing programs, or even launching their own."

Enough said. Oh, if you want to see some of our own studies on the subject visit our carshare page and read our initial reports or visit our Research site and check out the studies done by us and MWCOG.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesTransportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

 

Hi Boston. Welcome to Our Bixi Family.

Congrats to the City of Boston as their new bike sharing program called Hubway launched today (Hubway Bikesharing Gets Rolling, by Kimberly Adams, 90.9WBUR, Boston's NPR Station). The cool thing about Boston's new 61-station service is that it will look and feel very familiar to CaBi (Capital Bikeshare) members here in the District and Arlington. That's because they are using the same Bixi hardware (bikes and stations) that we are. Bixi was developed by our good friends in the city of Montreal and also powers the systems in Minneapolis (Nice Ride), London (Barclays Cycle Hire), and Melbourne (Melbourne Bike Share). I still think our little red bikes are the smartest looking of the family - or any other bikeshare system for that matter. Our hope is that someday if you are traveling to one of these great cities that you can use your CaBi key to access the systems in our sister cities. Wouldn't that be a nice bonus. 

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

 

CaBi Fosters Culture of Urban Chivalry

 
I was struck by this morning's Washington Times story (D.C. bike-sharing program crippled by own success, by Luke Rosiak, July 28, 2011) about CaBi's (Capital Bikeshare) struggles brought on by its own popularity. With 16,000+ annual and 30-day members combined with 12,000 casual (24-hour) members per month using a 1,100 bike system, at certain times of day at some stations it can be hard to find a bike or hard to find a place to park it. I've encountered this at times myself in hopping to and from my neighborhood in Le Droit to fun places from 14th Street to H Street to Nats Ballpark. But as frustrating as this can be to users, reporter Luke Rosiak picked up on something we hoped would happen when we built the system. People have embraced CaBi as their own and are looking out for one another and the system. Says Luke in his story:

"...Despite such frustration, an unexpected side effect is emerging: A culture of urban chivalry, where peddlers go out of their way to look out for one another and synchronize handoffs. "My parent's generation had this thing where everyone who had a VW bug would wave at each other when they passed," Tim Holland says as he drops a bike off at an otherwise-vacant station. "This is our equivalent."

That's pretty cool to see people helping each other. And we see this in other ways. At public meetings I've attended and in online feedback on our social media/web places, even when customers tell us of their frustrations, they do so civilly and with the genuine hope of helping CaBi out and making it better. It's amazing to see how quickly and how hard folks in the area have fallen in love with our little red CaBi bikes. And that love is reciprocated by all the staff that works on and with CaBi.

And help is on the way. With CaBi adding 32 new and expanding 18 existing stations in the District and adding another 30 new stations in Arlington, there will soon be more capacity for everyone. And there are tools you can use now. Members can plan ahead by using Spotcycle on the web or your phone, Bixou on your phone or the web tool that CaBi Balancing staff uses in the field O'Brien's Bikeshare Station Map. And rest assured that DDOT, Arlington and Alta continue to explore ways to better balance the bikes and we're open to suggestions.  Together with our customers we can make CaBi a great part of our city.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesTransportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Lifetime Bus Pass If You Trade In Your Car

 
We learned on Fast Company's blog that if you live in Murcia, Spain that you can trade in your car and receive a lifetime of free transit (Trade Your Car For A Free Lifetime Bus Pass (If You Live In Murcia), by Morgan Clendaniel, July 12, 2011). That's right. Free. Forever! That's how bad congestion and parking is there. Quite innovative. Which city in North America might be the first to try this approach?

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesTransportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Our streets are for everyone

Yesterday's regular Morning Poll in ARLnow asked are you "Pro-Car or Pro-Ped/Bike?"and it generated lots of thoughtful reader comments. The poll was sparked by a post (Let's Make Our Cities More Livable for People, Not Cars; June 27, 2011) here Monday about a Sunday New York Times article about how Europeans were reversing policies that favored drivers over pedestrians and as a result were successfully making their cities even more livable and thriving places (Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Alternatives, Elisabeth Rosenthal, June 26, 2011, New York Times). A few themes emerged from the ARLnow discussion that are worth exploring further. The first couple of which I'll address today.

Last I looked, 63% of the poll's nearly 900 respondents voted Pro Bike and Pedestrian vs. 37% for Pro Car. That's good, but lots of people said the dichotomy was artificial because we need to accommodate all modes. I agree 100%. As several commenter's put it. "Can't we all just get along?"

Since we don't have the room to build more roads, as Arlington grows (projections show 40,000 more residents and 60,000 more workers by 2030) we'll need to accommodate more people within the existing infrastructure. In order to do that we'll need to make it easy for more people to chose walking, transit, biking and shared rides. How do we do that? One way, as Arlington's Master Transportation Plan calls for, is by providing "complete streets" that are "safe and comfortable for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and motorists." In other words, our streets in Arlington are for everyone.

There were also a lot of safety concerns voiced in the comments too. As our streets are made friendlier and safer to accommodate additional transit riders, pedestrians and bicyclists we all need to obey traffic rules and signs; be considerate of other users; and to stay alert. Here's some safety tips for walkers, tips for sharing the roads in Arlington, and some bicycle safety tips from Walk Arlington and Bike Arlington. Also visit BeStreetSmart.net for more safety info.

Research shows that Arlington's a great place to live, work and play in good part because we have a transportation system that provides options and that makes it easy to get around (in any mode). It's Arlington's competitive advantage versus other places. By better accommodating increasing numbers of transit users, walkers and bicyclists, in addition to cars, we'll ensure our economic prosperity and quality of life. It isn't an either or choice. We're all in this together.

I hope we'll continue the good discussion...

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesTransportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Let's Make Our Cities More Livable for People, Not Cars

A great article in yesterday's New York Times (Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Alternatives, Elisabeth Rosenthal, June 26, 2011, New York Times) shows how Europe has reversed the trend of more people wanting to own more cars by reversing policies that favored drivers and re-conquering space for pedestrians. Some of the tools include: providing good public transit, including bikesharing; making it harder and more costly to park; providing more bicycle parking; capping the number of parking spaces in new buildings rather than providing minimums; slowing cars down and closing streets to cars altogether and creating pedestrian plazas; synchronizing signal priority for people and transit, not cars; and giving people on foot the right to cross a street anywhere they like. All of these things together have reduced traffic and the number of cars in cities and helped create places that are more livable for people. And contrary to retailers concern, foot traffic increases where cars were banned.

We've been doing good recently in the core of our region in starting to reverse policies that favor cars over people. What this article points out is that we still have a very long way to go and that by following these examples we can make the Washington, DC region an even greater place to live.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Transportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from the LeDroit Park neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

NYC Leads the Way on Reusing Streets for People

NYC shows how you can use your streets to improve quality of life and the economic and environmental health of your city by shifting the focus from looking at streets in a car-oriented way to a people-oriented way. And they've done it quickly. In just the last three years. We all can learn much from the leadership shown in New York.

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

The Metro Song

Remy's back with the Metro Song. Enjoy.

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