Posts by Matt Johnson

Post-2025 solutions that go with a Rosslyn wye

Without construction in the core, a Rosslyn wye alone can't add any cross-Potomac capacity. Metro could build a second wye at Pentagon, for trains from Vienna and Tysons to cross the 14th Street bridge. However, the 7th Street tunnel, which carries the Green and Yellow Lines through downtown, can't take any more trains.

Wyes at Pentagon and L'Enfant: If Metro builds a total of 3 wyes, at Rosslyn, Pentagon, and L'Enfant Plaza, it could fit a few more trains across the river. Trains from Arlington Cemetery could cross the 14th Street Bridge, then continue east onto the Green Line toward Branch Avenue.

This scenario would let Metro fill unused capacity in the system without building any new trunk lines. However, much of this new capacity would go on the Green Line south of Waterfront station. Customers wanting to get to the downtown area would have to transfer.

It would, however, significantly add service to the growing Waterfront and Capitol Riverfront areas. DC has zoned much of these areas for downtown densities, but instead of the 5 lines that serve downtown or 3 in the Golden Triangle, this area has just one. This option would beef up service there, though many of the people riding there would want to come from downtown, and this doesn't boost that connection.

To absolutely max out capacity, Metro would need to run a line, like the lime-colored line on the map above, from Franconia to Branch Avenue. It's not completely necessary, but it would allow more full use of the capacity.

Unfortunately, this would increase the amount of interlining in the system, because trains would be running across multiple lines. The complex scheduling it would take to run this sort of service pattern might actually lower the total number of trains Metro can run through a tunnel.

This scenario would increase trans-Potomac capacity from 40 to 52 trains per hour, or just to 46 TPH without the Franconia-Branch Avenue Line.

Pentagon wye and separate Yellow Line: Metro has talked about building a separate tunnel for the Yellow Line. It's not clear where it would go yet. It could run north along 9th or 10th Street, or it could run east toward Capitol Hill before turning north.

This subway would separate the Yellow and Green Lines. That would allow Metro to run additional Green Line service between Greenbelt and Branch Avenue, including more service between downtown and the Waterfront/Riverfront areas.

It would also allow more service across the Potomac by decoupling the Green and Yellow Lines. However, since the Yellow Line shares tracks with the Blue south of Pentagon, this new subway would not be used to its full capacity.

Metro could get some additional capacity by routing some trains from Tysons via Arlington Cemetery over the 14th Street Bridge and into the new subway, if it built a wye at Pentagon. This would increase service across the Potomac to 52 TPH. Without the line running from Tysons through Arlington Cemetery, that would drop to 46 TPH.

Splitting Yellow Line service: Another option Metro studied for the Yellow Line is a new tunnel through the Capitol Riverfront, past the Capitol, and north to Union Station. This would increase service at Union Station, a major bottleneck, and give riders two ways to get downtown from the Waterfront/Riverfront area.

However, a lot of the riders in Alexandria and southern Arlington don't want their train to go so far east. They want to get to the 7th Street corridor. Therefore, Metro studied the idea of splitting the Yellow Line, with some trains taking their current path through L'Enfant Plaza and Archives while others would go to Union Station.

This operating plan makes a lot of sense with the Rosslyn wye, because those trains can fill the "gap" left on the 14th Street Bridge by Blue Line trains running north toward Rosslyn. With a new path for some Yellow trains, there would be room to add more Green Line service.

This approach would allow 52 trains per hour to cross the Potomac.

Tomorrow, we'll look at another set of long-term solutions, which Metro might pursue if it builds a new Blue Line terminal and then can send the Blue Line across the river toward Georgetown.

Between downtown and the northern end of the line at Branchville, the streetcar passes through Eckington, Mount Rainier, Hyattsville, Riverdale, and College Park.

It's difficult to determine the exact date of this film because it was posted without a source cited. However, the streetcars are all sporting DC Transit livery. Before July 1956, the system was known as Capital Transit. It also has to be before January 1962, because that's when the streetcar system closed in DC.

We can actually narrow the dates a little more because the 80 (North Capitol Street) and 82 (Rhode Island Avenue) lines were discontinued on September 7, 1958.

Here is a map of the route the streetcar takes in this film:

Image from Google Maps.

There are a few interesting things along the route visible in the video.

At 0:48, the streetcar takes a "private right-of-way" between New York Avenue and Eckington Place. Today, this is the Wendy's in "Dave Thomas Circle," at New York and Florida Avenues.

A little farther up the route, at 1:58, you see the T Street "plow pit," where the car changed from using underground conduit to overhead wire. The bridge in the background is the T Street bridge over what is now the WMATA Brentwood Yard.

Starting at 10:18, the line begins to cross the Cafritz property in Riverdale Park. This section of the line will be converted into an extension of the College Park Trolley Trail whenever the site is developed.

At 11:20, the streetcar begins running on what is now the College Park Trolley Trail, and it continues on what is now the trail until the end of the film.

At 12:15, the trolley comes to a grade crossing of a spur of the B&O Railroad which was used to deliver coal to the University of Maryland. That right-of-way is now used for Paint Branch Parkway. Just north of that crossing (at 12:25), the streetcar crosses a tributary of Paint Branch Creek on a bridge that is is still used to carry the Trolley Trail.

At 14:18, the trolley arrives at the Branchville Loop, where Greenbelt Road, Rhode Island Avenue, and University Boulevard intersect. The narrator mentions that the line used to run further north along what is now Rhode Island Avenue. As late as 1948, the 82 line was still running as far north as Beltsville. However, the line used to run all the way to Main Street in Laurel, at the far northern end of Prince George's County.

What else do you notice in the film?

Metro has to juggle service at Rosslyn, where the Orange and Blue lines merge entering the District from the west, because it faces a structural limit to the number of trains per hour (TPH) that any given section of track is capable of handling. That limit is 26 TPH, or about one train every 2.3 minutes.

The reason for Rush Plus last year was to deal with capacity issues at Rosslyn without undertaking any capital projects. Essentially, Rush Plus was a stopgap measure to get a little more capacity out of Metro. But Rush Plus hurt many Blue Line riders, and without major changes at Rosslyn, even Rush Plus won't be enough.

As ridership increases, Metro has to either find creative ways to move more people throughout the system, without crossing 26 TPH on any segment of track, or expand capacity.

Before Rush Plus

Before Rush Plus started, during peak periods, exactly 26 TPH (the maximum) passed through Rosslyn. Those 26 TPH consisted of 10 Blue and 16 Orange trains.

At Pentagon, those same 10 Blue trains were passing through in addition to 10 Yellow trains. In total, 36 TPH were entering the District from Virginia during the morning rush via Rosslyn and Pentagon combined.

But this left some capacity unused. The Yellow Line bridge was carrying only about 40% of the trains it could carry. As you can see in the diagram below, there was also extra capacity in the Yellow and Green Line tunnel.

This map shows the frequency of service for every line during the peak period. Every track segment is the same width, corresponding to 26 TPH. If 26 TPH pass through at peak, it's "full" with colored lines; if there are fewer trains, there is black space.

After Rush Plus

Once Rush Plus took effect, those numbers increased slightly. At Rosslyn, the numbers are now 19 Orange and 7 Blue, which is still 26 trains per hour. But at Pentagon, in addition to the 7 Blue trains running via Rosslyn, there are now 13 Yellow trains. That means a total of 39 TPH are entering the District from Virginia during the morning rush.

Since the number of trains is the same at Rosslyn as it was before, Metro could have kept the number of Blue and Orange trains the same, and just added new Yellow trains. But adding trains from Virginia was only part of the equation. Metro was also attempting to address the severe crowding on the Orange Line and paving the way for the Silver Line. As a result, Metro traded some Blue Line trains for Orange ones.

When the Silver Line begins operating, some of the Orange trains will have to become Silver trains, in order to keep the total number passing through Rosslyn at 26 TPH.

Cross-Potomac capacity will be maxed out

One of the biggest constraints with Metro is getting trains between Virginia and DC. There are 2 Metro crossings of the Potomac: a tunnel for the Blue/Orange lines and a bridge for the Yellow Line.

Each of these crossings has a capacity of 26 trains per hour, for a total of 52. However, because the Yellow shares with the Green Line, the Yellow Line bridge can only carry 26 TPH minus however many trains per hour are running on the Green Line (at present, 12 TPH).

This means that there are 14 slots available for the Yellow Line to cross the Potomac. Right now, the Yellow Line is taking 13 of those slots during rush hour: 10 for trains running between Huntington and Mount Vernon Square and 3 for trains running between Franconia and Greenbelt.

When the Silver Line opens, Metro's plan will be to redirect one more Franconia train to Greenbelt. This will mean cross-Potomac capacity will be maxed out at 26 TPH through the Rosslyn tunnel and 14 TPH over the Yellow Line bridge, for a total of 40 TPH between Virginia and DC.

Through 2025, those 40 trains are probably enough. But there's another problem: now there aren't enough trains running between Pentagon and Rosslyn. Riders from south Arlington, Alexandria, and southern Fairfax have long waits to get a train to Rosslyn, the Orange and Silver corridors, or to reach stations like Foggy Bottom without a transfer.

How can Metro fix Rosslyn?

Metro wants to address the Rosslyn chokepoint soon. It's one of 7 capital items in the "Metro 2025 recommendations of the Momentum plan.

Planners haven't decided on a specific solution yet, but are studying 2 options. One would build a "wye" at Rosslyn, a track connection so that trains from Tysons or Vienna could turn south and head for Arlington Cemetery, and vice versa. The other option is to build a new station at Rosslyn with separate platforms for the Blue Line.

The wye at Rosslyn would also let Metro add rail service between the Blue-Yellow corridor and the Orange-Silver corridor. Some trains going through Arlington Cemetery would go toward downtown, as the Blue Line does today, while some trains would turn west and run through Ballston and Tysons.

This approach would likely mean a good deal of disruption for Orange and Silver line riders, since Metro would need to build new underground connections to the line between Rosslyn and Court House. It would also permanently limit the number of trains between Court House and downtown DC, because some of those slots would go to the Blue Line and the new north-south all-Virginia line.

But this would also give riders a one-seat ride from Tysons to Pentagon and points south. It would also build a little more redundancy into the system, allowing trains to divert to the south in the case of track work, a disabled train, or other disruptions.

The real issue, though, is that this project only allows for a small increase in the number of trains, and does not increase the number of trains between Virginia and the District. It also would mean that some trains wouldn't stop at Rosslyn, forcing those actually heading there to wait for a later train or transfer.

Under the wye scenario, the service pattern would probably look something like this: 14 Yellow trains crossing the 14th Street Bridge (4 of them from Franconia) each hour during the peak; 5 TPH on the Blue Line between Franconia and Largo via Rosslyn; 10 TPH on the Orange Line from Vienna into DC; and 11 TPH on the Silver Line from Tysons. This still adds up to 40 TPH between Virginia and DC. In addition, the wye would enable 5 completely new TPH between Pentagon and Court House.

A new Blue Line terminal at Rosslyn involves building new, separate tracks at Rosslyn, possibly in a new station next to the old one, that would become the new end of the Blue Line. Blue Line trains could stop and turn around without interfering with the Orange and Silver trains going to Foggy Bottom, and Blue Line riders could transfer to either direction of those trains at Rosslyn.

A new Blue Line station at Rosslyn would allow even more trains between Pentagon and north Arlington—12 TPH, compared to 10 for the wye.

It would require passengers to transfer to the Orange or Silver lines to get to downtown or west toward Ballston and Tysons. But it would also form the first step toward a separated Blue Line through downtown. If and when Metro is able to build that, it could simply extend the new tunnel under the Potomac and beyond. If WMATA thinks a separate Blue Line will be the long-term approach, this solution might be more attractive.

Another advantage to a Blue station at Rosslyn is that it reduces the amount of interlining in the system. That should have a positive effect on reliability, because a delay on the Blue Line won't affect the Orange or Silver lines, or vice versa.

Note that we don't know which trains will go to Franconia or Huntington under this or any other future plan, or how many and which trains will go to New Carrollton vs. Largo vs. turn at Stadium-Armory. Since all trains to those destinations come from the same track, it's not an operational issue, just a question of balancing simplicity with convenience and being fair to riders on each branch.

Transferring can be painless

If Metro does go with the new Blue Line station at Rosslyn, they can help make transferring painless by getting the design of the new station right.

Cross-platform transfers are more commonplace in some cities. Montreal, for example, has 2 in their Metro system, Lionel-Groulx and Snowdon. New York has many, especially between local and express services on each line.

A 4-track stacked Rosslyn station would allow passengers from an inbound Blue Line train to simply walk across the platform to board an inbound Orange or Silver train. To transfer from an inbound to an outbound, the passenger would just have to go downstairs or upstairs.

The station could look something like this:

A Rosslyn design with cross-platform transfers. Graphic by the author.

It would be more expensive, but in terms of simplifying riders' ability to transfer, it could be worth it to build a new Rosslyn station with 4 tracks.

On the other hand, such a station would cost more, and would disrupt all service through Rosslyn during construction, just as the wye would, while a separate station could avoid interfering with Orange and Silver service.

But any new station will be there a long time, and riders may regret making it more difficult to transfer. After all, many riders still suffer from the lack of a direct connection between Farragut North and Farragut West (a tunnel that Metro proposes to complete as part of their 2025 plan).

It's somewhat troubling that O'Malley hasn't yet decided whether or not it's worth fighting for these two major transit projects, both of which have been decades in the making. The state is on track (or perhaps, off-track) to run out of transportation money in 2017 for roads and transit.

O'Malley cannot increase transportation funding on his own. No, he'll need the legislature to also agree. But O'Malley has demonstrated his ability to get things done. In the 2011 session, gay marriage narrowly failed in the House of Delegates. But this year, with the charismatic support of the governor, the bill made it through both chambers.

If Governor O'Malley stands on the sidelines during the transportation funding debate, he might have doomed it, and the Red and Purple Lines, to defeat. But on the other hand, his support could be the crucial factor that makes a deal possible.

Gas tax has mostly declined since 1933

The real problem is that Maryland last raised its gas tax since 1992. Since that time, inflation has driven down the value of the 23.5¢ tax by 36%. In fact, the gas tax has been decreasing ever since it's high point in 1933, except for periodic raises in the tax rate. In 1933, the value of the tax was 3 times what it is today.

What could Maryland do?

It's not entirely clear what proposal the legislature will put forward this year.

Last year, the proposal was to do away with the exemption on gas sales from the state's 6% sales tax. The current 23.5¢ tax on gasoline is an excise tax—it's 23.5¢ on each gallon. The 6% sales tax is a 6¢ tax on each dollar spent.

The current average price of a gallon of gas in Maryland is $3.26. If gas were subject to Maryland's sales tax, the cost would increase by 20¢. This would basically double the tax on gasoline. As a result, last year, the proposal called for phasing in the sales tax on gasoline by 2¢ every year for 3 years.

This would bring in a good deal of money for transportation. Another positive impact of this would be to index the gas tax to inflation, meaning that it will lose less value over time.

Another approach that the state is considering is raising the state's sales tax to 7% and earmarking the increase for transportation. It's not immediately clear how much revenue this will bring in.

Maryland must act

Doing nothing is not an option. If Maryland does not raise revenues to pay for transportation, the state will be unable to build important infrastructure. For years, O'Malley's plan to improve MARC has sat on the back burner. Now, the state's inaction on transportation funding is threatening two more of the governor's priorities: light rail lines in Baltimore and the Washington suburbs.

Both of these rail lines have the ability to be transformative in their communities. Local officials and citizens have been working since the 1970s to plan for the Purple Line. It would be such a waste for O'Malley's inaction to condemn this project to the dustbin of history.

And that's why Montgomery County officials are considering asking the state to give it the authority to levy its own gas tax. The county is concerned that the state legislature will continue to punt on the issue, and they're not willing to take the risk that one of the most important transportation projects in the region will die on the vine.

This is the time for O'Malley to step up and push the legislature to do the right thing on funding. It will move Maryland forward. And perhaps more persuasive to the governor, it will further bolster his reputation as a doer. Something clearly important for O'Malley's presidential ambitions.

Which stations' balance has changed the most since 1995?

A station's balance is the ratio of the entries to exits, with the greater number divided by the lesser. This chart plots each station's balance in 1995 against its balance today. The closer to the bottom a station is, the more balanced it is now; the farther to the left, the more balanced it was in 1995.

Stations right on the blue diagonal line had no change in their balance or imbalance level, while stations farthest from the line have shifted the most in balance. Overall, Metro's stations were less well balanced in 1995, as you can see from the way most stations fall below the line.

(Note that a station might have grown or shrunk in overall ridership tremendously, but not move on this particular graph, because it just looks at the balance, not the absolute ridership numbers for the station.)

The biggest permanent loss of balance is at Medical Center. (Federal Center SW has an inflated balance for 1995 because the east entrance to L'Enfant Plaza was temporarily closed at that time.) Here we see the effect of post-9/11 security—closing the NIH campus to the public severely curtailed pedestrian and bus access to the Metro station.

What happened to the most balanced stations?

The stations Matt identified as most unbalanced were similarly unbalanced then—in fact, the very worst balance was at the same station, Federal Triangle, in both years. But most of the stations that are well balanced today looked very different 17 years ago.

Overall, Metro's stations were less well balanced in 1995. Only six stations in 1995 had balance ratios below 1.31, the threshold to make the top ten in 2012. Only two, Union Station and Waterfront, are in 2012 top ten. The other four were Rosslyn (1.07) Eisenhower Ave. (1.10), Medical Center (1.13), and National Airport (1.28).

11 of these 14 stations have shifted in the direction of more exits—that is, relatively greater use of the station as a work destination. The only stations in these top lists that have become more entry-oriented are Crystal City and Waterfront, which both lost major government employment centers, and Eisenhower Avenue, which had a lot of new residential construction.

At some stations, like Mt. Vernon Square, King Street, and National Airport, new construction is an obvious explanation for the rise in arrivals at work, but the shift has been substantial even where the mix of uses has not changed much. Clearly, a lot more people are using Metro to reach job sites outside the downtown DC core. The particularly sharp rise in exits at Pentagon, Medical Center, Brookland, and Tenleytown suggests that the trend is strongest among students and government employees.

Circle area size represents AM peak ridership.

The data for Ballston are particularly interesting. Fewer people are entering that station in the morning today than 17 years ago. Population in the area has increased, although more slowly than in the rest of the Orange Line corridor.

A more likely explanation is, again, the growing popularity of reverse commuting. Two decades ago, you got an apartment in Ballston to take Metro into DC for work; today, the attraction is the ease of getting into DC in the evening, and you're more likely to commute by car to Tysons or Reston.

Some other close-in stations in largely residential areas have seen similar stagnation or even decline in entries in the AM peak. Cleveland Park, for example, has been essentially flat, with 2,321 morning entries in 1995 and 2,329 in 2012. Brookland's AM peak entries have fallen from 2,172 to 2,075. But these stations, unlike Ballston, have lost population within walking distance, so it's hard to judge what role reverse auto commuting played.

One of the biggest changes since 1995 is, of course, in the number of stations. Branch Avenue, Columbia Heights, Congress Heights, Franconia-Springfield, Georgia Ave/Petworth, Glenmont, Largo, Morgan Boulevard, NoMa (New York Avenue), Southern Avenue, and Suitland all don't appear in the 1995 data set because they weren't yet open at the time.

Morning peak ridership

The AM peak is the "purest" ridership period for measuring commuting. The vast majority of trips at that time of day are from home to work, so we can most easily attribute changes in a station's ridership in the AM peak to changes in commuting patterns.

Overall, AM peak ridership has gone up 40% since 1995, from 169,000 to 236,000 trips for the average weekday.

How has ridership changed at the busiest stations?

The most obvious changes in entries are due to line extensions that allowed riders to park or get off the bus closer to home. Anacostia lost riders to Branch Avenue; Pentagon to Franconia/Springfield. Silver Spring lost many riders when Glenmont opened, but residential growth made up for that.

Also noteworthy is the rapid growth of West Falls Church, fed by buses and cars coming in from the Dulles Corridor, and Union Station, where riders transfer from MARC and VRE. The growth at West Falls Church indicates the potential for Silver Line ridership.

What stands out here is the eastward expansion of downtown. Exits at Gallery Place more than tripled, from 3,101 to 10,682, and Navy Yard, although not in the top 10, exploded from 322 to 3,772. Stations in the older areas of downtown and government offices, where there has been little new construction, saw growth in the 15-20% range. (Note that 2012 figures for Farragut North and Dupont Circle are distorted by the closing of the south entrance at Dupont.)

Want to run your own analyses of the 1995 data? You can download the scanned pages with all of the 1995 ridership numbers by station and time period (unfortunately, that's the format we have it in) or AM peak ridership spreadsheet we typed in.

If you type in any more data, please post a link to it in the comments so others can use the data as well, and if you come up with any useful conclusions or visualizations, please send them along so we can share them with everyone!

Sunnyside Avenue is a short street connecting Route 1 in the west with Edmonston Road (the northern extension of Kenilworth Avenue) in the east. Between Route 1 and the CSX railroad tracks, the road is 4 lanes wide. East of the tracks, though, the road narrows to 2 lanes and crosses the undeveloped Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.

The road crosses Indian Creek on a bridge that is only 2 lanes wide, and which does not have room for sidewalks or bike lanes. Additionally, its height is actually below the 2-year flood level, which means it's frequently closed by high water.

The $13.5 million project will reconfigure Sunnyside all the way from the railroad tracks to Edmonston Road. It will raise and lengthen the bridge so that it is clear of the 50-year flood level. It will also add bike lanes and sidewalks between Edmonston Road and the tracks.

Image from the Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation.

The county should be commended for including bike and pedestrian infrastructure in this project. It's refreshing to see that Prince George's does seem to be serious about allocating road space to users other than just motorists.

But in a somewhat troubling development, the reconstruction includes full-width shoulders to the entire length of the project. This means the roadway will be 4 lanes wide, although initially, at least, the road will only be striped for 2 lanes.

Image from the Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation.

If the county decides to widen Sunnyside to 4 lanes, after this project all it will take is some repainting. In fact, the county could decide to just stripe the bridge for 4 lanes during construction if they wanted.

But according to Susan Hubbard, a PIO with the county's Department of Public Works and Transportation, the county doesn't plan to make the road 4 lanes wide. It's not going to be built to 4 lanes, and it's not going to be widened to 4-lanes. Based on the email exchange I had with Ms. Hubbard, it doesn't even sound like anyone in the department has even considered widening the road. One wonders if she doth protest too much.

It's quite strange that the county is making the road so wide, but doesn't seem to even be willing to admit that they might want to use the shoulders for lanes in the future. Perhaps they're afraid doing so will bring out opposition.

But it will be so easy to widen the road in the future, since it will only take line paint and a few hours. If the county wants to "widen" the road in the future, will they even need to ask the community?

Why widen?

According to Hubbard, the road needs to be so wide because of the construction phasing. First, the county will construct a new 2-lane bridge north of the existing bridge, and move the cars there. Then the county will tear out the old bridge, and widen the northern span to take up the space where the current bridge is.

It's not clear why Prince George's thinks all this extra concrete is necessary in the end. Hubbard claims that reducing the width of the bridge won't reduce the cost, however. Besides, she says, the county has already spent the money to design this concept, and it will cost money to redesign the bridge (eating up the savings).

The area between the railroad and Edmonston Road is not going to develop. The land is owned by the Department of Agriculture and is environmentally sensitive. Additionally, while Maryland hopes to widen 2-lane Edmonston Road, that project has no funding and many in the area oppose it.

While Hubbard contends that 2 lanes of concrete will cost the same as 4 lanes of it, I'm not sure that argument holds water.

I'd much rather see the money for the 2 additional lanes across the bridge be spent completing the sidewalks on the western section, or on any number of other bicycle, pedestrian, or transit projects in the county.

Regardless, if the county rebuilds Sunnyside Avenue as planned, with 2 extra (unused) lanes, it will surely be tempting for engineers in the future to widen. It would be great if the county would make assurances that such a widening will not happen without a public process.

Mornings

During the AM peak period, the most balanced station is Bethesda. Almost exactly the same number of people enter the station as exit. Pentagon, Brookland, King Street, and Mount Vernon Square round out the top five.

On Monday, we looked at stations based on how many riders boarded and exited in the AM peak. Union Station and Pentagon are the only stations that appear on both top 10 lists. This indicates that they are fairly balanced, with people riding to and from them at similar levels. Pentagon is the 2nd most balanced station, and Union Station is number 9.

Why is balance important? Balance can be an indicator that land use around the station is fairly well mixed.

At Bethesda, for example, many people live near the station, and walk there to get on trains headed downtown (or to other destinations). At the same time, many other commuters are headed to one of the many workplaces around the Bethesda stop.

The measure of balance isn't perfect, though. The #2 most balanced station is Pentagon, which is just about as far from being a livable community as a place can get. Many riders are headed to jobs at the Pentagon. But they're balanced out by a large number of riders changing from bus to rail at the massive bus hub there.

What about the other end of the spectrum? Here are the 10 least-balanced stations.

Federal Triangle is by far the least balanced. For every 1 person entering the station during the AM peak, 31.5 people are exiting. That's almost twice as lopsided as the 84th and 85th ranked stations, Glenmont and Smithsonian.

Also of note, in the bottom 10 we can find several of the top stations for AM peak boardings and alightings. Vienna (entry #2), is the 10th-least balanced station; Huntington (entry #7) is the 8th least-balanced station. Farragut North, by far the busiest station for exits in the AM peak, is the 6th least-balanced station.

While these stations may have many passengers boarding or exiting in the morning rush, they're far from balanced.

Blue is the proportion of entries. Orange is the proportion of exits.

Overall, the average balance factor for the AM Peak is 5.8. That's the most imbalanced of any of the periods. The station with the balance factor closest to the average is Benning Road, with a balance of 5.8.

PM Peak
On average, the PM Peak period is more balanced than the AM Peak. The average balance factor for the afternoon rush hour is 3.1. The station closest to the average is West Hyattsville, with a balance factor of 3.2.

The imbalances during this period aren't as strong as they are during the morning. This is probably due to some riders from the suburbs coming into the city to attend entertainment venues or sporting events balancing out commuters.

While the order moves around a bit, 6 of the top 10 morning peak stations also appear on the top 10 most-balanced PM peak stations. The stations in both top 10s are: Bethesda, Pentagon, Brookland, Tenleytown, Ballston, and Union Station.

Similarly, 6 stations from the bottom 10 AM peak stations are on the afternoon peak bottom 10. In both periods, Federal Triangle is the 86th most-balanced station, the bottom rank. However, it's a good deal more balanced in the PM peak than it was during the morning rush.

The other 5 stations appearing in both bottom 10 lists are: Vienna, Branch Avenue, Huntington, Judiciary Square, and Glenmont.

Midday

The midday period is not as polarized as the peak periods. In fact, the midday period is the most balanced period, with an average balance factor of 1.2. The closest station to the average balance factor is Morgan Boulevard, with a factor of 1.2.

The least-balanced station, Smithsonian, has twice as many exits as entries during this period. That's a far cry from the 31-fold difference at Federal Triangle during the morning peak.

This makes a good deal of sense, too. With the peak periods, people tend to be making complementary trips in the opposite peak. But in the midday period, many of those trips happen in both directions during the same period.

For example, someone running to lunch might take the train from Farragut North to Union Station and back, with the return trip balancing the first. A commuter on the other hand, might go from Vienna to McPherson Square in the morning, wouldn't return until the PM peak.

The least balanced midday stations aren't that imbalanced.

Evenings

Evenings are not as balanced as middays, but they are more balanced than either peak period.

The average balance factor for the evening period is 2.8. Capitol South, with a balance factor of 2.8, is the closest to the average balance factor.

The least balanced evening stations range from a balance factor of 4.8 to 8.9. However, Arlington Cemetery station is at the bottom at least partially due to the station's early closure, and the fact that the Cemetery, the only thing within walking distance of the station, closes early, too.

What are your thoughts about the station balance numbers?

Mornings

During the weekday morning rush period, many people are entering the Metro system to get to work. The busiest stations for entering customers fall all across the region.

Here's a table of the top 10:

Half of these stations are end-of-line stations with large park-and-ride lots. Pentagon and West Falls Church are both major bus hubs, as is Silver Spring. Union Station, of course, is at the top because it's where many commuter rail riders enter the Metro system.

The entries at these 10 stations account for 30.7% of all entries during the AM peak across the system.

And where are these riders going? The busiest stations for exits are all in the region's core. Here's the top 10:

Of all the people who exit the Metro system during the morning peak period, 50.3% of them exit at one of the top 10 stations. These 10 stations account for more exits than all the other stations combined, with 118,757 people exiting these stations on average each morning.

Also of note, the 2 Farragut Square stations combined handle more than twice as many exits as the third place station, Metro Center. Without the objection of the National Park Service, the Farragut stations would have been one station, and a crowded one at that.

Afternoon rush

We can see similar patterns during the evening rush hour.

The top 10 evening entry stations are all in the regional core, with just one, Rosslyn, outside downtown Washington. The only station in the AM peak top 10 exit list that is not in the evening entry list is Pentagon (which is 13th place). It's been replaced by Smithsonian (which is 14th in the AM exits list).

The top 10 entry stations for the PM peak represent 45.7% of all PM peak entries systemwide, a slightly smaller share than the share of the top 10 morning exit stations.

And where are these evening commuters headed?

The evening exits top 10 looks a lot like the morning entries top 10. But Huntington and Franconia-Springfield, which are the #7 and #9 top entry stations in the morning have dropped to #12 and #11, respectively. In their place are 2 central stations, Gallery Place and Dupont Circle.

This difference can probably be attributed to the entertainment venues and restaurants near these stations. Dupont Circle and Gallery Place are known for their nightlife opportunities, and passengers headed there probably drive the numbers up a bit.

The top 10 PM peak exit stations account for 28.3% of all exiting passengers systemwide on average.

Midday

The time between the morning and evening rush hours is what Metro calls the midday period. It's probably marked not just by people running errands or going to lunch, but also by workers who commute slightly later in the morning or earlier in the afternoon than most or who have jobs that don't have 9-5 hours.

I think the fact that the top 3 midday entry stations are the same as the top 3 exit stations is interesting. Union Station makes a lot of sense, considering its role as an intermodal hub. The reasons for Gallery Place and Metro Center are less clear. Keep in mind that people changing trains aren't counted; only people leaving or entering the faregates appear in these numbers.

Additionally, 9 stations are in both lists. Rosslyn, #10 in the midday entries list does not appear in the exits list because it has fallen to #12. Instead, Smithsonian appears in 5th place on the exits list. This is probably because many people (especially tourists) are headed to see the monuments or museums in the vicinity. Few are leaving the Mall area yet, though, perhaps accounting for Smithsonian's absence from the top entry stations list (it's 16th).

Evenings

The period after the PM rush is the evening period. Note that these numbers do not include the average ridership for the after midnight service provided on Fridays.

As expected, Gallery Place and Dupont Circle, major nightlife areas, appear in both the evening entry and exit top 10. Most of the other entry stations are in the core. Navy Yard comes in at number 8, perhaps due to Nats games during May, when the data were collected.

Shady Grove, Vienna, and Silver Spring are all major suburban hubs, and their presence in the top 10 exit list isn't surprising. Columbia Heights and Fort Totten are both stations that haven't appeared in other top 10 counts, so their inclusion is somewhat surprising.

What surprises you about these numbers?

Westlake "sharrow serpentine". Photo by Matt Johnson.

Portland employs a similar technique where one of its bike lanes crosses streetcar tracks:

Portland curved bike lane. Photo by Ritch Viola.

Portland also does some interesting things with streetcar stops. Lovejoy Street has a bike lane parallel to streetcar tracks, immediately to the tracks' right. With the bike lane between the tracks and the curb, something had to be done at stations. So they routed the bike lane onto the sidewalk, behind the streetcar stop.

Lovejoy sidepath. Photo by Matt Johnson.

Portland's solution for Lovejoy Street isn't perfect, because despite pavement markings the passengers waiting for the streetcar occasionally stand in the bikeway. But it certainly beats the alternative of forcing cyclists to merge into the streetcar lane to go through stations.

Seattle will take this idea one step further on its soon-to-be-built First Hill streetcar, which will share Broadway with a cycle track located behind the streetcar stops.

Broadway cycle track. Photo by the City of Seattle.

Closer to home, Arlington is designing its Columbia Pike streetcar with new bikeways on adjacent parallel streets. Instead of finding ways to mix bikes and streetcars safely, they'll put the bikeways one block over.

Arlington's parallel bikeways will be "bike boulevards," which are common on the west coast but will be the first local example in the Washington region. Bike boulevards are streets that cars and bikes share, but on which car traffic is calmed in order to optimize the street for bikes.

Portland's MLK bike boulevard, which allows bikes to go straight but forces cars to turn. Photo by BikePortland.org on Flickr.

Do you know of other solutions for mixing bikes and streetcars? Surely there must be some interesting examples from Europe. Please share your photos and ideas in the comments.