CommuterPageBlog

Save Two Birds With One Starbucks - Fixing Washington's Traffic

Last week was a tough week for Washingtonians as we experienced Metro's saddest crash in the agency's history and all of the transport-related consequences, including major delays throughout the Metrorail system; a newfound wariness about using the system, and even some commuters getting into their cars, thereby creating and experiencing more congested streets. It's a vicious cycle time and time again: lack of sufficient funding for transport options, problems, traffic congestion, time wasted, everyone's stressed.

I’m writing with a proposal which would both improve downtown D.C.'s congested streets and the regional corridors that lead to them, while providing more funding for transit, cycling, walking, and streets through better management of our collective resources. How to do this? Through congestion charging and using the revenues to improve downtown D.C.-based commuting options throughout the region.

Congestion charging is a fee that motorists would pay to enter downtown D.C. (not inner adjacent neighborhoods in D.C.) during the work day. Whereas a toll is at one location on a street, such as at a bridge, a cordon congestion charging plan, which is what I'm proposing, would create a boundary around D.C.'s Central Business District (map). All motor vehicles entering this zone during the work day would pay the charge, regardless of which state they live in - VA, MD, or DC.

The purpose of this fee is to limit downtown traffic congestion while encouraging use of transit, carpooling, vanpooling, telework, and biking; and limit greenhouse gases. For a few dollars to enter downtown D.C. during weekdays 6AM - 7PM, the revenues generated by such a fee could be regionally applied towards improving and creating new transit service before the congestion charge begins, constructing improved bikeways, and improving the region's streets. Jurisdictions from the inner to the outer suburbs and D.C. too would each see a piece of the pie. Motorists would save lots of time and stress due to the improved traffic flow. Stanchions placed on streets along the boundary of the zone would read license plates to see who has entered the zone. Motorists could then pay the charge either on-line or at downtown D.C.’s multispace parking meters.

The charge amount would be a reasonable fee which would discourage auto trips into downtown D.C., and encourage transit, carpooling, vanpooling, telework, and cycling. The charge, let's say in the $3 - $5 range, would be the price of a Starbucks coffee, hardly a large fee when considering all the time commuters would save with better flowing traffic.

Congestion charging is being used in cities like London, Stockholm, and Singapore. A report by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute on London's congestion charging program states, "During the program's first few months automobile traffic declined about 20% (a reduction of about 20,000 vehicles per day)." Also, "[t]his has significantly increased traffic speeds within the zone. Average traffic speed during charging days (including time stopped at intersections) increased 37%, from 8 miles-per-hour (13 km/hr) prior to the charge up to 11 miles-per-hour (17 kms/hr) after pricing was introduced. Peak period congestion delays declined about 30%, and bus congestion delays declined 50%. Bus ridership increased 14% and subway ridership about 1%."

Is this idea pie-in-the-sky? Yes, if you don't like pie. But who wouldn't want to pay the cost of one Starbucks coffee to fight less traffic, save money on gas, decrease your personal stress level, and get home earlier every day to spend more time with family and friends?

I’ll take the pie.

by Paul DeMaio

image credit: DCist

Well Done Transit Pays Off. Can Alexandria Do It?

Two of our favorite local bloggers have articles worth a read. Matthew Yglesias at ThinkProgress.org says there's no way around the high cost of well-done mass transit (TOD Pays, June 3, 2009). He's says its expensive but worth it. Says Matt:

"In the DC area, we have a great example of the difference as the Orange Line goes out in Virginia. In distant Fairfax County they built Metro on the cheap, in the I-66 median, and wound up with what amount to park-and-ride venues for a commuter rail network. That’s a useful asset for the county, but it’s nothing compared to what they got in Arlington County where they buried Metro beneath Wilson Boulevard and built a series of relatively close-packed stations, creating an extended corridor of walkable neighborhoods."

Hey cites Greater Greater Washington blogger Dave Alpert saying: “Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor covers only 7.6% of the county’s land area, but generated 33% of its tax revenue.” Thus worth the investment in many different ways.

Alpert informs us that Alexandria is considering alternatives for potential locations of a new Potomac Yard Metrorail station between National Airport and Braddock Road (Alexandria Weighing Metro Station Alternatives, June 3, 2009). The alternatives range from building the Station along the existing track where it would serve less people and generate less development to building more costly options that would actually move the track to the center of the new community where it would generate more development and serve more people. Alexandria made the mistake 30 years ago, like Fairfax County, of taking the path of least resistance for it's Metrorail stations. It will be interesting to see if they've got the political will to do the more costly but more worthwhile option of moving the tracks. Let's hope they do.

If Alexandria officials need some inspiration they need look no further than this video documentary about "Arlington's Smart Growth Journey."

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

The Bike is King (and Queen) in The Netherlands

Following up on my earlier post "Making Cycling Easy - the Dutch Experience", I wanted to share more of my experience biking in The Netherlands. The Dutch have created their bike-friendly culture through years of prioritization of the bicycle as a mode of transport and accordingly have invested time and funding in this philosophy to make it a reality. The same can happen here in Arlington. Building the cycle tracks, bike lanes, 4-story bike parking garages, etc. is the easy part. The hard part is changing the mindset to allow it to exist.

The street scene below of a typical rural neighborhood in The Netherlands depicts this philosophy quite well. The street is narrow so it's designed to allow for bike lanes (in red and striped) on the outer portions of the street with one lane in the center for motor vehicle traffic. With the two bike lanes and one motor vehicle lane, it's a strong statement towards who gets priority on this street.

When two motor vehicles approach each other, they pass each other by both driving with half their vehicle in the center lane and the other half in the bike lane on their side of the street. However, when a cyclist is in a bike lane and two motor vehicles are approaching each other, the motorist moving in the same direction as the cyclist must wait behind the cyclist until the other motor vehicle has passed. Then the motorist may pass the cyclist in the center lane.

The suburban street below is wider and has more traffic of both motor vehicles and cyclists. By separating the cyclists from the motorists with a green buffer, it's creating an environment that most individuals on a bike would feel comfortable with as they don't have the noise, heat, dust, and fear of a motorist passing close to them at 30 mph. Below, cyclists are protected from motor vehicles with a soft buffer filled with trees and grasses.

We can learn a lot about how to recreate our transport networks in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas from the Dutch. We can also create healthier communities, limit obesity, and decrease carbon emissions at the same time.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

Efficiency Good: Hyperbole Bad

The Monday, April 20 Washington Post included an 8-page "advertorial" insert called Environmental Leadership--presumably in anticipation of Earth Day (not available on-line). It included about a dozen guest articles on a wide array of environmental topics. Great! (although one of the advertising supporters is the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which promotes the oxymoron "clean coal." You can read more about my opinion of carbon capture and storage here.)

One of the guest writers is Nancy Sutley, the new Obama administation Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Her column, "Now is the Time to Switch to a Clean Energy Economy" runs the gamut, touching on a wide array of environmental issues--the normal rhetoric one would expect.  But I stopped when I read this line: "We plan to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road, dramatically increasing the fuel efficiency of our nation's fleet of vehicles with batteries built in the U.S."

"Dramatically increasing?" Let's do a quick back of the envelope. In 2006 there were 234 million cars and light trucks on the road representing an average fuel economy of 20.30 mpg.

Let's make some optimistic assumptions:
- Plug-in hybrids are the equivalent of 100 mpg
- All 1,000,000 new hybrids replace SUVs (average 18 mpg)

If we use 2006 as a proxy, replacing 1,000,000 SUVs with plug-in hybrids, then the new fleet economy rises to 20.38 mpg, an minuscule increase of .08 miles per gallon. Or put another way, an increase of about 425 feet per gallon.  Another way to achieve the exact same reduction in fuel consumption would be to reduce the distance each car drives by about 50 miles per year--a 0.4% decrease.

Now don't get me wrong: I am totally in favor of transforming our economy to more environmentally sustainable technologies and systems, but I think a hyperbolic statement like this sugarcoats the magnitude of the challenge in front of us and overstates the benefits.

Let's put those million vehicles out there, but it's just a down payment. I think it would have been much better to say, ""We plan to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road, a small but important first step in transforming our nation's fleet of automobiles"
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Steve Offutt - Arlington

Transit Cuts Meet Facebook Era

As a fan of transit AND Facebook, it was heartening to see how the social media web site is being expertly used to take on WMATA, Alexandria and Arlington officials in an effort to save beloved Metrobus and DASH bus service. Alexandria resident, Kim Herter Kaplan started the Facebook Group page to champion the cause of the Metrobus 10A, which according to the page says the City of Alexandria is proposing to eliminate evening trips after 9pm and trips on the weekend or 120 weekly trips in all. Says Ms. Kaplan: "The 10A bus provides a vital link between the Pentagon, Pentagon City, Pentagon Row, and Crystal City in South Arlington and Arlandria, Del Ray, Old Town, and Hunting Towers in Alexandria." The City proposed the cuts to help close budget gaps. The Facebook group also takes on DASH budget cuts.

As of this writing, there are 85 members of the page and among the ranks of joiners are Council Members Krupicka, Wilson and Gains. One group member reports that the City has indicated that perhaps someday DASH bus service could pick up some of the lost trips but not right away. I've lived in the neighborhood since 1994 and can attest to the fact that the Metrobus 10 buses are always crowded. Seven days a week. Rush and non-rush hour. It's just nuts that the City would cut the service back like this. And having DASH fill in some of the service someday isn't good enough either.

We are building vibrant, urban, transit-oriented communities in places like Alexandria and encouraging people to live, work and play without use of a car. And that isn't just for commuting. People need to do things (including work) after 9pm and on weekends too. Its good for our economy, our environment and our quality and life when people choose to take transit. Taking away that choice is the kind of backward thinking I'd expect of other communities, not the smart, progressive community I call home.

Lets hope new media tools like Facebook can help the average Joe (or Kim) bus rider take on City Hall and win!

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

Let's End Air Travel of Less Than 500 Miles

So says Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell speaking to the 2050 American Conference in NYC last week (Ed Rendell: Let's END Air Travel of Less Than 500 Miles, April 17, 2009). We learn this from our good friends at the always informative Greater Greater Washington, who pointed us in the direction of a very cool new site called The Infrastructurist - American Under Construction.

What an interesting idea. Of course he advocates that in order to replace short haul airline trips we'd need to build out a modern passenger rail system in the U.S. Something that is very much needed. Good for Governor Rendell. Enjoy the article and the interesting new site.

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

Street Widening Ad Infinitum

Put your thinking caps on kids, because today's lesson in transportation planning is brought to you by the letter I and number 6.

A new report by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute titled Generated Traffic and Induced Travel - Implications for Transport Planning is about something called "generated traffic". Forgive the geeky transport talk, but according to the paper:

"Traffic congestion tends to maintain equilibrium. Congestion reaches a point at which it constrains further growth in peak-period [i.e., rush hour] trips. If road capacity increases, the number of peak-period trips also increases until congestion again limits further traffic growth. The additional travel is called “generated traffic.” Generated traffic consists of diverted traffic (trips shifted in time, route and destination), and induced vehicle travel (shifts from other modes, longer trips and new vehicle trips). Research indicates that generated traffic often fills a significant portion of capacity added to congested urban road."

After years of street widening construction, the street is much better to drive on because it's wider and traffic moves. But then have you ever noticed that a short time later, maybe just a couple of years, the street gets so congested again and traffic is nearly as bad as it was before the widening. What gives?! This is because others figured out the street was less congested and started driving on it too. But there were too many of them who did this. What to do? Expand it again! Then again! And again (ad infinitum)! It's only money and more congestion we're talking about. The benefits of widening I-66, or the "spot improvements" misnomer the project has been given, would only last a short time.

There's a choice and it's making itself clearer than ever before. Transportation demand management looks at lowering the demand for a street, not increasing its supply by widening it. Lowering the demand of a street includes providing increased transit service, creating bike and walk infrastructure so people have safe places to ride and walk, telework, and downtown congestion charging. These could be less expensive to do than street widening with the results lasting much longer.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

County Official Caught In the Act

I witnessed it literally moments ago... I spotted Arlington County Board Vice Chair Jay Fisette commuting to work... on his bike!

Mr. Fisette is a huge supporter of biking, and of our walkable/bikeable community in general. He's an ardent champion of our Fresh AIRE (Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions) program... and he's promoting green efforts across the Commonwealth, in a campaign he launched: "Go Green Virginia."

Ain't it great when elected leaders walk the talk?! Check out our Car-Free Diet to learn how you can occasionally use alternate ways to get around.

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Diana Sun is Director of Communications for Arlington County, a walking commuter, bicylist, and happy resident of the urban village of Clarendon.

The Future: It's About Connecting Land-Use and Transportation Planning

So says Virginia Governor Tim Kaine who has pushed new regulations through the State's Commonwealth Transportation Board requiring that all new subdivisions must have through streets linking them with neighboring subdivisions, schools and shopping if they want the streets to be built and maintained by the State. Great idea and good for the Governor. The always thoughtful Eric Weiss details what this all means  (In Virginia, Vision of Suburbia at a Crossroads, March 22, 2009) for the future of development patterns in the cul-de-sac crazy suburbs, where one is wastefully forced to drive miles on congested main roads for milk, in a page one story in today's Washington Post.

Mr. Weiss explains the State reasoning as follows: "The new regulations will improve safety and accessibility and save money. No more single entrances and exists onto clogged secondary roads. Quicker responses by emergency vehicles. Lower road maintenance costs for governments." But this is the mindset the State is up against. From the article:

"Cul-de-sacs are the safest places in America to live," said Mike Toalson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia, which opposes the new rules. "The first lots sold are often on the cul-de-sacs because they are safe." As for developments with single entrances and exits, Toalson said, such configurations ensure that all traffic is local, neighbors watch out for each other and speeds are kept down. "Crooks look for multiple exits."

OMG! Where does one begin to pick apart such last century thinking. Think of the children! Crooks! Come on now. Really? Thank goodness our progressive Governor is having none of it. Now we need to think about how we can reconnect all those subdivisions that are already built. The article is well worth the read and gives some hope for a better future.

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

 

Obama's Task Force Goes Car Free (well, some, anyway)

I'm not certain  if they're familiar with the Car-Free Diet, but a couple of Obama's key appointees do not own cars as reported in this article in the Washington Post, which was also picked up by some blogs, including  DemConWatch and Kicking Tires.  Carol Browner, President Obama's Energy and Environment Czarina and Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, were reported to not own cars at all.  That's two out of the six high level appointees this article reported on.  Also, one of the ten aides on the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry also reported not owning a car.  That's three out of sixteen.  Clearly these individuals are making a conscious choice not to own a car, since I presume they could afford one if they wanted.  The article did not go into the reasons why they choose not to own a car, but one might guess that they just find it more convenient and cost effective to not have one--same as Arlington's Car-Free Diet.

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Steve Offutt, Arlington