Morning links: Non-electoral winners and losers

by David Alpert and Thaddeus Bell • November 7, 2012 10:17 am

Photo by rjs1322 on Flickr.

Green Line grows: 6 of the 10 Metro stations with the most ridership growth over the last 5 years are on the Green Line in DC. The only 2 outside DC are Pentagon and Morgan Boulevard; NoMA is #1. (PlanItMetro)

Last call for millennials?: Might cities have just a few more years to attract millennials? This cohort, which has clustered in cities like DC, may be mostly settled within a decade, as millennials get older and raise families. (Governing)

Philly zoning update crippled: A Philadelphia City Council committee rolled back much of the city's zoning update, which would have allowed smaller units and relaxed parking minimums. Councilmembers meddle too much in zoning in their own districts. (NAC)

Civic group vs. ANC in Bloomingdale: Unhappy that one Ward 5 ANC supported McMillan development, the civic association will hold a "vote of no confidence" and hopes other groups will do the same. (City Paper)

Draw boundaries around poverty?: Poorer children are mostly found in a few schools in Arlington. Should new boundaries strive to deconcentrate poverty? (WAMU)

"Idiot" drives on sidewalk: A Cleveland woman drove up on the sidewalk—repeatedly—to pass a stopped school bus. She got caught, and now has to wear an "idiot" sign in public for 2 hours. (Plus, the court suspended her license). (NPR, Matt')

Phoenix aims to save pedestrians: Like Chicago, Phoenix has set a target of 10% fewer pedestrian deaths each year, down to 0 by 2020. But it has a long way to go: with a low rate of walking, 42% of traffic fatalities are now pedestrians. (Streetsblog)

And...: How many official transit maps have laughing volcanoes? (Transit Maps) ... Metro really should explain why it got Daylight Saving Time wrong. (Post) ... The Libertarian Party wins ballot access in DC.

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13 comments

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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The Morgan Boulevard rider increase is likely all due to the Camden apartments right next to the station that opened in the last few years. There's no new bus service, the 600-space parking lot is full. The WMATA rail rider survey data should be released later this year and will shed light on how much of growth at MB is due to walk access.

Parenthesis -- the Camden project at Morgan is an actual TOD project that seems to be succeeding in Prince George's. It's not a sexy mixed use town center or "on" Metro property, but it's a walkable residential project next door to Metro. Prince George's and others should take this project and the ridership data and start trumpeting it more on the nothing succeeds like success principle.

by jnb on Nov 7, 2012 10:34 am • link • report

So if I'm not mistaken, the Bloomingdale civic association doesn't actually have any authority. So basically they're just telling the ANC that they're mad. But it sounds important because its a no confidence vote.

Ok.

by drumz on Nov 7, 2012 10:45 am • link • report

There is quite a bit planned near Morgan Boulevard. There have already been quite a few townhomes added as well.

by selxic on Nov 7, 2012 10:55 am • link • report

To be fair, it'd be difficult for Morgan Boulevard to lose riders. I'm pretty sure there are bus stops that are more popular than that station.

by andrew on Nov 7, 2012 10:57 am • link • report

Morgan Blvd was about 1400 or 1500 riders a day before the reported increase. It's always amazed me MB got that many -- the parking lot is 600 spaces.

by jnb on Nov 7, 2012 11:05 am • link • report

Libertarian Party: These are protest votes against the Eleanor Holmes Norton stasis. I voted against her because she bobbled the best chance of getting voting representation in Congress I have seen in my lifetime, for the sake of political posturing. The Republicans provided no opponent to her, likewise underscoring their inability to come to terms with full Congressional Representation.

The latent dissatisfaction on this issue provided an opening to whomever had the guts to run against an icon. The Libertarians played this very well.

by goldfish on Nov 7, 2012 11:14 am • link • report

Metro Top station by "absolute" increase in ridership: Ok, so what are these numbers? Net change in Average number of passengers per weekday, delta in number of thousands over the month of May, average number over the course of the week? What?

Anyway, regardless of the what units the numbers are in, shows that the completion of the Green Line 10+ years ago is resulting in development and population growth around those stations. If PlanitMetro does this again in 2-3 years, other than the Phase 1 Silver Line stations, thoughts on other stations that could be candidates to show up on the "top 10" ridership growth list as new residential projects are completed? Navy Yard?

by AlanF on Nov 7, 2012 11:28 am • link • report

Morgan Blvd was about 1400 or 1500 riders a day before the reported increase. It's always amazed me MB got that many -- the parking lot is 600 spaces.

Don't forget MB gets riders from 8 redskins home games plus other random events at Fedex throughout the year. That's got to be good for like 100k riders per year.

by Falls Church on Nov 7, 2012 11:46 am • link • report

Some follow up on the Metro time change fiasco is definitely in order. They're being awfully secretive about it and it's a pretty massive screw-up. I understand one or two people getting mixed up. (Every year, I mix up which part of the year is "EDT" and which is "EST.") But, not one Station Manager, Police Officer, or Train Operator said, "Hey, aren't we supposed to be open another hour?" when they were told to go home? I find that hard to believe. If objections weren't raised, that says a lot about the culture at Metro generally, and doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that low-level employees would bring more serious concerns to the attention of management. If objections were raised and ignored, that creates serious questions about the judgment of the individual who decided to proceed with the shutdown.

Also, GGW might want to consider a FOIA request to find out if employees got paid for that missing hour...

by Jimmy on Nov 7, 2012 12:20 pm • link • report

Well, average weekday ridership would only count riders on the weekdays, so probably lots of FedEx events wouldn't count.

There are 600 spaces, likely some of those cars have 2 multiple people in them, people are dropped off, some take the bus, and some walk/bike.

On page 66 of this pdf there is a table of stations with daily ridership by access mode, you can see the split is about 35% park, 30% bus, 20% drop-off, and 15% walk/bike:
http://www.wmata.com/pdfs/planning/Station%20Access/SSAPM.pdf

by MLD on Nov 7, 2012 12:31 pm • link • report

@goldfish

I voted against her because she bobbled the best chance of getting voting representation in Congress I have seen in my lifetime, for the sake of political posturing.

While I don't necessarily agree with you, even as a protest vote I find it hard to even stomach voting for Majors, who is so reprehensible and vile that I believe he is the only person against whom I'd endorse Marion Barry were they running in opposition to each other.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/08/25/115515/bruce-majors-profile/

by Circle Thomas on Nov 7, 2012 5:51 pm • link • report

@Circle Thomas: Chutzpah got my vote -- you have to admire going against someone even Republicans could not manage a candidate. Otherwise I would have left it blank.

by goldfish on Nov 7, 2012 7:13 pm • link • report

Morgan Blvd and several other stations are just simple designed with no regard to the area. They are put in the most horrible spots.

1 Why do no Metrobuses go to Morgan Blvd; if one of the buses from Addison Rd or Largo Station was rerouted to also stop at Morgan Blvd you would probably double the ridership of the station. Every other station has either buses stopping there or buses stopping within 2-3 blocks away Morgan has neither.

2 Why was that site chosen besides the Stadium, would have been better directly on Addison RD or south on Ritchie Rd, the only reason someone would even drive on Morgan Blvd not on a game is that you're either going to someones house/apartment there or you're trying to get to Landover or Sheriff RD

by kk on Nov 8, 2012 12:58 am • link • report