Breakfast links: Build it at a Metro station

by Steven Yates • March 11, 2013 8:49 am

Photo by Ukenaut on Flickr.

FBI not near Metro?: Congress could drop the requirement that the FBI locate near Metro and the Beltway. This would open up cheaper sites such as in Loudoun, but at great intangible cost. ... Montgomery bowed out of the competition and will support Greenbelt. (WBJ, City Paper)

Hospital at Largo?: Prince George's officials are trying to work out a deal to put the planned hospital at Largo Town Center. Residents at a meeting strongly supported it, and it's near a Metro station, unlike the 2 other top contenders, Landover Mall and Woodmore. (WBJ)

WMATA has 11 more in mind: WMATA is trying to lease land around 11 stations for development. Any project will have to replace 100% of the parking spaces, kiss-and-rides, etc. which could hold some of the sites back. (Post)

Less for transportation: The House has cut funding for transit, New Starts, and highway safety, backing off of funding promises made when the latest transportation bill was passed. And it doesn't look like the Senate will fix it. (Streetsblog)

It's a "collision," not an "accident," in New York: The NYPD will start investigating crashes that seriously injure pedestrians and cyclists, in addition to fatal ones. Also, the department is going to start calling them "collisions" or "crashes" and avoid the term "accident" with its inherent connotation of no fault. (NYT)

FTC is pro-Uber: The Federal Trade Commission opposes Colorado regulations that would have stopped services like Uber from helping people get rides in many areas. (Transportation Nation) ... Does this bode poorly for efforts to stop Uber in DC?

Urbanism isn't new in SimCity: Beyond programs logging onto the new SimCity, it only simulates 1950s car-dependent forms. Density depends on the size of roads, there's no subway or bike lanes, and streetcars have to be in medians. (Streetsblog)

And...: Metro's Accessibility Advisory Committee is looking for new members. (Post) ... Fairfax County may soon add 911 texting. (WTOP) ... Volvos can now detect and avoid cyclists in the path of a car. (BBC, Andrew Schmadel) ... Kojo talks bikes today.

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

25 comments

Tags: links

Steven Yates grew up in Indiana before moving to DC in 2002 to attend college at American University. He currently lives in Southwest DC.

Comments
Add a comment »

Regarding FBI to Prince George's:

Prince George's also plans to tap $160 million in tax increment financing the county previously approved for development of the Greenbelt Metro site.

Is that new information?

I can imagine that having quite a few unintended negative consequences...

by selxic on Mar 11, 2013 9:01 am • link • report

the department is going to start calling them "collisions" or "crashes" and avoid the term "accident" with its inherent connotation of no fault.

Excellent. It might seem trivial, but I believe this is a big step in the right direction.

Does this bode poorly for efforts to stop Uber in DC?

Wow. Could you at least pretend to be unbiased?

by movement on Mar 11, 2013 9:43 am • link • report

Can somebody explain to me why WMATA is requiring 100% replacement of parking?

by CityBeautiful21 on Mar 11, 2013 9:54 am • link • report

In the last sim city I never built highways because they always took up too much room.

by drumz on Mar 11, 2013 10:07 am • link • report

Can somebody explain to me why WMATA is requiring 100% replacement of parking?

So the development doesn't negatively effect existing riders, which greatly reduces the chance of community opposition. In economics it's called a "pareto improvement" -- one in which some folks are made better off without anyone being worse off.

by Falls Church on Mar 11, 2013 10:15 am • link • report

I don't know if WMATA is even authorized to remove existing spaces without permission of the local jurisdiction, and I don't know who else.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 11, 2013 10:24 am • link • report

PG ought to get the FBI complex. Virginia has had it's share of government cheese and Montgomery County dosn't need hand outs. With gentrifying DC, a lot of the poorer citizens are moving into PG. With FBI at least it mixes it up a bit.

by Thayer-D on Mar 11, 2013 10:38 am • link • report

Can somebody explain to me why WMATA is requiring 100% replacement of parking?

Can somebody explain to me why they aren't being required to provide ADDITIONAL parking? The Orange Line lots fill up EVERY DAY from downtown to Vienna Fairfax, and when they are full, no more Metro Riders. I thought you wanted to ENCOURAGE ridership? Do you think those people turn around and go home when the lots are full? We have a great resource, it's running at 25% of capacity off hours, and it won't be fully utilized if there is nowhere to park.

by Jim on Mar 11, 2013 12:35 pm • link • report

@Jim

I agree in principal. The fact that Vienna fills up at 8:00am kind of defeats the purpose. The fact that park and ride lots on 95 fill up at 7:00am is ABSOLUTELY MADDENING. Every car in a park and ride lot is one less on the road.

With that said, to expand parking at Vienna is incredibly expensive. Estimates range in the neighborhood of $20,000-$30,000 for above ground multi-story garages, and $50,000 for underground lots. Paving surface lots is a non-starter, as there just isn't any space.

So even if the space was available, to add 1,000 spots costs $20,000,000. To me, that money is spent much more intelligently expanding bus service to increase access to Vienna Metro etc. Going back to the park and ride lots on 95 though, there is CERTAINLY space to build surface lots down there (or even just gravel lots) so the fact that park and ride lots are unavailable is absolute negligence.

by Kyle-W on Mar 11, 2013 12:43 pm • link • report

@ Falls Church

So ridership wont drop like a rock at some of the stations. i can think of a few stations that if you got rid of parking there would almost be no one going there aside from a few who take the bus.

When the apartments were being built at Rhode Island Ave Station the station was less used which could be clearly seen throughout the day and even now with the garage and apartments finished that garage never gets as filled as the lot there did. I bet a portion of the people who parked there are now split between Ft Totten, West Hyattsville, Deanwood and Cheverly the closest stations with parking.

by kk on Mar 11, 2013 12:53 pm • link • report

@Kyle-W:The fact that Vienna fills up at 8:00am kind of defeats the purpose. The fact that park and ride lots on 95 fill up at 7:00am is ABSOLUTELY MADDENING. Every car in a park and ride lot is one less on the road.

Excellent arguments to extend the Orange and Blue Lines.

by Jasper on Mar 11, 2013 12:54 pm • link • report

kyle

Is it possible that parking at metro garages is not priced correctly? IIUC there is a standard price for WMATA parking - but it would make more sense to price higher at places like Vienna, and to either use that money to build more garages at Vienna, or put it into a fund for extension - to build the parking on the Orange line to Vienna - of course that extension will bring more residences within walking/biking/bus sheds of the Orange line.

Another idea, if the Orange line is overcrowded at rush hour, and underutilized at midday, would be to hold some spots empty till after 10 AM say.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 11, 2013 12:56 pm • link • report

pardon "to build the parking on the orange line to Centreville"

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 11, 2013 12:57 pm • link • report

@Jasper

I agree. I think those arguments, as well as the daily gridlock on 66 just as you get to Vienna Metro heading west, are excellent reasons to extend the orange line two more stops to 50.

@AWITC

Is there a benefit to spots being open at 10am, at the expense of less ridership during rush hour? I would argue no. They do already price the "reserved" spots such that you are guaranteed a spot. I think it winds up being another $80/month or so, so they are already paying $8.50/daily to park in Vienna. Could you go to $10, I suppose. Even if you raise the 4,000 spots $2/day, that only raises another $2,000,000/year. I think if you can extend the line two more stops, any parking issues disappear instantly.

by Kyle-W on Mar 11, 2013 1:08 pm • link • report

the line is very crowded at rush hour, IIUC, even with Rush Plus. And there is more development coming in the RB corridor.

extending the line and building more garages in order to relieve congestion on I66, when the line could be used to accommodate more people in North Arlington who walk, bike or bus to the metro, is not obviously the preferred solution. It may make sense to extend the orange line (esp if combined with a new tunnel into DC) but thats going to be very costly. Anyway, the extenionsion wont happend till after 2017 at the earliest. I'm not sure why we would top out the parking charge at, say, $10, if the garages fill up at that price.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 11, 2013 1:17 pm • link • report

@AWITC

I agree, they can certainly raise the price. The point is, only 4,000 cars can park there. There is clearly more demand than that. Vienna isn't like downtown, where if people don't park, they won't drive. There needs to be better connections to the metro, and more investments put into 8-car trains, as well as further efforts put into continually improving the amount of trains that can be run per hour. Ultimately, the issue is not enough capacity. People riding metro during morning rush is good, we need to figure out how to get more people to do it.

by Kyle-W on Mar 11, 2013 2:39 pm • link • report

If parking prices were increased there would be even less incentive to use Metro.

by selxic on Mar 11, 2013 2:51 pm • link • report

There are only so many parking spots in the existing garages - if prices are raised and someone stops going, someone else will take the spot - ultimately the price of spots will help to justify building more.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 11, 2013 2:59 pm • link • report

@AWITC

Even if they are charging $10/day, there are better uses for that land/money.

Spending $20,000,000 to build 1,000 parking spots on valuable land near a metro is as foolish as they come. Put the 20,000,000 towards building one more station, and the parking issue at Vienna disappears anyways.

by Kyle-W on Mar 11, 2013 4:04 pm • link • report

Do you think everyone who drives into Vienna to park will walk/bike/transit to a station on an extension? I assume the main thing that will happen with an extension is building more spots on land near the further out metro stops.

Whether its worth it to build the extension (and to accelerate when we need the extra tunnel, since the 8 car trains are not expected to add enough capacity for very long) seems to me to be an open question. Getting more people onto metro is a good thing, but its not an infinite good, and there are many ways to do it. And finite resources.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Mar 11, 2013 4:16 pm • link • report

Another embarrassing face-plant by MoCo. Way to go guys.

by Chris S. on Mar 11, 2013 4:29 pm • link • report

@AWITC

Of course not. Do I think that at least 1/3 of the people currently using Vienna would use the further out station? Yes. The traffic I mentioned above on 66 West once you get past Vienna indicate I am correct. I see a lot of cars getting onto 66 from the Metro Access road between Oakton HS and Nutley tell me that. Would these people use the new extended metro station if they could avoid that jam? I assume in most cases yes.

Whether we should extend the orange line due to core capacity constraints is another issue. I am of the mindset that the only way it is going to happen is when it is at capacity. We aren't *quite* there yet, but once it gets past capacity, it will be necessary. Adding more stations on the orange will accelerate this process imo.

by Kyle-W on Mar 11, 2013 4:34 pm • link • report

RE: FBI

"Congress could drop the requirement that the FBI locate near Metro and the Beltway. This would open up cheaper sites such as in Loudoun, but at great intangible cost."

House Republicans are idiots. What else is new? As I've mentioned before, with the current Beltway/Metro proximity requirement as it is Loudoun doesn't have a chance.

"... Montgomery bowed out of the competition and will support Greenbelt"

Shocker here. I've repeatedly predicted as much. Aside from Montgomery's inability to attract anything jobs-related to the county, the fact that they have absolutely NO viable sites made the proposal a poorly thought out knee jerk reaction. A location somewhere near the huge HHS hq complex near Twinbrook Metro Sta would be the closest to a plausible site, but it would be way too far outside the Beltway.

RE: PGC Hospital

"Prince George's officials are trying to work out a deal to put the planned hospital at Largo Town Center"

...because it makes the most sense by far (despite some on here backing Morgan Blvd). Put the hospital at LTC and the FBI at Greenbelt.

RE: SimCity

I haven't played the newly released edition (which the author in the link incorrectly refers to as SimCity 5), but SimCity 4 has plenty of transit options from monorails, to buses, to HSR, subway, rail, light rail, etc. It also has pedestrian plazas, but no bike lanes. The new one is garbage anyway (as are most other once-great EA franchises) since it is literally unplayable (google search to see what i mean).

by King Terrapin on Mar 11, 2013 4:34 pm • link • report

@ King Terrapin

Sim City 4 never had HSR or lightrail built into the game; the game had buses, rail, elevated rail and subways anything else was third party and not made by Maxis or EA

by kk on Mar 11, 2013 9:06 pm • link • report

@kk

Ok they're not technically in the game, but can easily be added by installing the popular NAM add-on.

by King Terrapin on Mar 11, 2013 9:10 pm • link • report