Greater Greater Washington

Maryland, Fairfax, Alexandria take steps toward needed WMATA funding

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:26:00 EDT

Maryland and Fairfax County both took promising steps toward providing the needed $73.7 million in contributions to WMATA, and Alexandria officials are likely to follow, but there's still a long way to go.

First, MDOT's proposed budget increases its WMATA contribution by $8.7 million. Under the WMATA funding formula, Maryland's share of overall contributions has increased, meaning most of that added money is not really "added" but just goes to keeping total jurisdictional contributions the same.

However, they also provided some extra, totaling $3.7 million. That's a good start, about one-eighth of the $29.57 million total needed to balance the WMATA budget and avoid service cuts. Keep those letters coming to Maryland state leaders to ask them to come up with the other $25.9 million.

Over in Fairfax County, the Board of Supervisors has voted to advertise a property tax rate 3¢ higher than proposed by the County Manager. About ½¢ of that would need to go to transit to avoid WMATA service cuts, plus a little more to keep the Fairfax Connector running and restore the bicycle coordinator position.

By advertising high enough rates, the Board of Supervisors has kept its options open. Now we need to encourage them to actually exercise this option. Others will be wanting some of that money for other purposes, including schools, affordable housing and more, which are also worthy programs. Ask the Board of Supervisors to dedicate $9.26 million to WMATA, plus restore the Fairfax Connector and the bicycle program.

Alexandria held a budget hearing yesterday, and is likely to advertise high enough tax and fee rates to contribute its share to WMATA. According to Alexandria transit advocate David Kaplan,

Eight people testified about the importance of City funding for transit needs both on DASH and WMATA. Stewart Schwartz testified on behalf of the Transit First Coalition and talked about the importance of transit oriented development to the City's regional competitiveness.
The most poignant testimony came from an elderly woman who lives in the City's Northeast neighborhood and is transit depend ant. She uses a DASH bus route (AT 4), which is slated to lose off-peak and weekend service even after a 25¢ fare increase taking effect in July. This is the only bus that directly serves her building. The speaker called this bus her "chariot" and her connection to the world. Restoring this route would cost about $61,000.
Vice Mayor Kerry Donley said that the City would likely advertise a maximum tax rate that could accommodate additional subsidy for WMATA. The vote is on Saturday. The Vice Mayor also expressed his concern that Metro would not be able to overcome the challenges it faces unless the Commonwealth creates a dedicated funding source to meet Metro's operating needs.
The Vice Mayor had proposed and the City had included in its legislative package this year a bill increasing the gas tax from 2.1 to 4.2 percent within Northern Virginia with revenues being dedicated to funding for WMATA. The bill (HB 269) was carried by Delegate David Englin and failed in the House of Delegates.
Mayor Euille added that he is President of the Virginia Transit Association. The association's board members met recently with the Commonwealth's Secretary of Transportation about the need for dedicated funding for transit operations.
You can watch excerpts here. The Mayor and Vice Mayor's comments regarding transit begin at about 1 hour and 47 minutes into the hearing.

You can also urge Alexandria Councilmembers to actually advertise high enough rates on Saturday and to devote some of that money to transit.

Finally, there's some good news for the WMATA budget. According to WMATA's Matt Brown at this morning's Board meeting, rail ridership for January is up year over year, having finally turned the corner after declines. Expenses are also running a bit below projections, meaning that the budget outlook will likely improve a bit, though tempered by Metro's big losses during the February snowstorm.

This is great news, but doesn't fundamentally change the budget situation. As it stands, even with a large fare increase and painful service cuts, WMATA still needs $40 million from jurisdictions to close the budget, or $74 million to avoid service cuts. If the budget hole shrinks by a couple million, that might mean jurisdictions would need to come up with only $70 million to maintain service, but they still have to pitch in.

Tell your elected officials not to let us get into the "death spiral" and to protect transit.

Comment

Get Metro a fair share (Mar 8, 2010)
Fairfax residents: Call or email your supervisors (Feb 22, 2010)
Arlington opens door to higher WMATA contributions (Feb 22, 2010)
Next stop: Metro funding (Aug 3, 2009)
Metro will hold hearings on service cuts, not fare increases (Mar 26, 2009)

Where's Michael? DC needs active WMATA Board members

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:50:00 EDT

Michael Brown. Photo from the DC Council.

by David Alpert

At this morning's meeting of the WMATA Board Committee on Customer Service, Operations and Safety, DC Councilmember Jim Graham raised a concern resulting from the absence of alternate Board member and at-large Councilmember Michael Brown.

Under the committee's rules, other members from the jurisdiction (such as Graham) were not allowed to vote in his stead. Graham wanted to have two DC votes on the committee, since it has two DC members.

This year, the Board changed its procedures to create smaller committees. Last year, all members of the Board, principal and alternate members, were members of every committee. Most issues were resolved in committee meetings.

Now, only a few members are on each committee, including some of the alternate members. Anthony Giancola, the alternate member appointed by the DC executive branch, is the Vice-Chair of the committee, and Gordon Linton, the alternate member from Montgomery County, is also a member.

Graham has a reasonable point, but there's a more important point: Some of DC's members don't regularly participate. Michael Brown is almost never at Board meetings. His predecessor as the DC Council's alternate member, Marion Barry, also rarely attended.

Alternate members of the WMATA Board can't vote in the full meetings, but they still have a lot of influence. They can vote in committees, and can debate the issues with others. They can ask questions of staff at meetings and outside them. They have the opportunity to raise issues with the press and the public.

Councilmember Brown is missing a big opportunity to have influence over important policy and get exposure for himself. On the other hand, Councilmembers do have many responsibilities. If he doesn't feel it's a worthwhile use of his time, he should step down and the Council should appoint someone who does.

That seat doesn't have to go to a Councilmember at all. They could appoint a staff member, or a private citizen, the way Anthony Giancola is the alternate member for the administration but isn't actually in the administration. (DC has several great RAC members, for example, several of whom would make good Board members.)

There's also been talk for some time that Neil Albert wants to transition off the Board. He was appointed as the principal member from the executive branch when he was Deputy Mayor, but now he is City Administrator and has many responsibilities.

I've talked with Mr. Albert and he is extremely well versed in the issues facing Metro, and makes a good Board member. However, DC also needs members with the time to actually devote to the Board, and the City Administrator has a lot to manage.

One obvious possibility is Gabe Klein, head of DDOT. Klein's predecessor, Emeka Moneme, was the Board member before he left DDOT to work for WMATA (until the management shakeup). However, Jim Graham, the other voting member from DC, also oversees Klein's agency, potentially creating a problematic dynamic where sometimes Graham is probing decisions of the agency while at the same time they have to vote side by side on WMATA issues.

Another candidate to consider would be Harriet Tregoning, head of the Office of Planning. Tregoning has considerable transportation experience. She chaired the Scenario Study Task Force at TPB which created the bus priority TIGER grant proposal which was recently funded. That job required herding an often-fractious set of local jurisdictions to collaborate in an unprecedented way to create a transportation plan and apply as a single group for funding.

I've also seen Tregoning in NCPC meetings, where she sits on that board. At the meeting in July 2008, for example, she did an excellent job diplomatically representing DC's interests on technical zoning matters (scroll to the bottom). Her demonstrated ability to work with regional and federal partners would make her an excellent representative to represent DC and protect DC's needs while also promoting regional cooperation and a regional view of transportation.

3 comments

WMATA Board approves public hearings (Mar 4, 2010)
Virginia Board members stand up for openness (Jan 29, 2010)
Feds name Mort Downey, Marcel Acosta to WMATA Board (Jan 24, 2010)
New Council structure announced; Wells joins key committee (Dec 24, 2008)
Breaking: Fenty to name Albert to Metro Board (Sep 11, 2008)

Bruce-Monroe to get "temporary urbanism" over parking lot

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:18:57 EDT

Example division of uses on the Bruce-Monroe site. Image from OP.

by David Alpert and Kent Boese

What do you do with vacant land whose developments stall in an economic recession? One option is to turn all empty space into paid parking lots, which generates revenue but brings traffic and little benefit to communities. The other is to find interim uses that serve people rather than cars, also known as "temporary urbanism."

In 2008, the District closed the Bruce-Monroe Elementary school in Park View, with plans to demolish the school and solicit developers to build new mixed-use buildings and a new school.

Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, no developers were interested, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development started planning a parking lot by default.

Neighbors organized against the lot, and successfully persuaded the DC government drop the parking lot plan. On Monday, the Office of Planning presented a set of ideas for temporary urbanism instead.

They divided the 120,000 square foot site into 8 areas, each of which could accommodate a different use. The 3 areas adjacent to Georgia Avenue are zoned commercial (C-2-A) and could accommodate profit-making interim uses such as farmers markets, while those are not allowed in the rest of the site, zoned residential (R-4).

OP listed four primary functions available for the site:

Arts: public sculpture, outdoor concerts, an art walk
Recreation: basketball, volleyball, mini golf, skate park, climbing sculptures
Education & Community: open air markets, mobile workshops
Open space

Community members received dots of four colors, one per category, to place on the portions of the site where they wanted to see those uses. OP would identify functions the community deemed paramount, and then decide the specific uses at a future time.

Attendees could also tell early on that temporary urbanism was not going to be the only focus of the meeting.

Parents and students from Bruce Monroe. Image by Kent Boese.

Well before the scheduled start time of 6:30 pm, parents, teachers, and students of the Bruce-Monroe @ Park View school started filing into the room with banners, picket signs, and plastic cups taped together with stones inside to make noise.

They were angry, they were frustrated, and they were vocal. They made it clear that an interim use of the site is unacceptable. They want a school, and they want it by 2011.

A cacophony of chanting broke out time and again, frequently being "Build our school." Early attempts to start talking about the interim use of the site were disrupted by frustrated attendees that wanted to see the school move forward. While eventually Ward 1 Community Planner Tarek Bolden was able to make his presentation, it was an uneasy peace that allowed him to move forward.

While it is easy to understand where the representatives of the school are coming from, it was frustrating to hear the District representatives questioned on why a school hasn't started to be built when charter schools are moving forward and a new CVS is being constructed — projects that are not funded by the city the way public schools are.

2 comments

Then and Now: Monroe School auditorium (Sep 29, 2009)
The growing classroom (May 21, 2009)
Could the slowing economy benefit DC schools? (Apr 13, 2009)
Unnecessary parking of the day: Hyde-Addison Elementary (May 21, 2008)
Parking review part 3: Forces against fixing parking (Mar 3, 2008)

Do elevated rails inhibit sustainable, walkable urban places?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:38:43 EDT

An elevated subway line in Queens, NY. Photo by Doug Craig.

by Cavan Wilk

During the design process for the Silver Line, now under construction, a group of citizen activists advocated putting the Tysons Corner portion in a tunnel rather than mostly elevated, as ultimately planned.

There was a vigorous debate about the merits of elevated rail as a planning tool for TOD versus a tunnel. Our existing walkable urban places with elevated Metro stations provide some clues to the intricacies and challenges related to retrofitting a suburban place.

In our region, we have no pure suburban-to-urban retrofits like in Rosslyn-Ballston centered on an elevated Metro station. We do have some walkable urban places that have elevated stations, but they are all legacy places. Regardless, during the 2000's, the elevated Metro stations helped breathe new life into those legacy places.

The King Street and Silver Spring elevated Metro stations provide us with valuable ideas about the challenges related to an elevated rail station in a walkable urban place. Additionally, elevated heavy rail stations in other regions were the primary catalysts in developing new vibrant walkable urban places.

King Street

The King Street Metro station lies at the western edge of the Old Town Alexandria's legacy street grid. There has been a lot of new construction there. It is at the western edge of Old Town because it shares the same legacy right-of-way as the CSX/Amtrak tracks. There hasn't been as much new construction closer into the core of Old Town because of strong historical preservation mechanisms (a good idea, in this instance).

Old Town Alexandria didn't suffer the same magnitude of decline as Silver Spring and downtown Rockville did during the second half of the 20th century. It was still a desirable place with a good social reputation. During the bubble years, it was hard to disentangle how much of the rapid appreciation of properties in Old Town were due to its desirability as a vibrant, safe, walkable urban place or Metro proximity.

View Larger Map

King Street is a different case from the other two examples I'll look at because it wasn't built in a place that desperately needed a new infusion of vibrancy. There is little opportunity for TOD in walking distance to the west of the King Street Metro Station due to a lack of strip malls and difficult existing infrastructure. Perhaps the greatest potential for King Street Metro as a catalyst for dramatic TOD is as an end of a VA-7 rail line, as described by Steve Offutt.

Silver Spring

Silver Spring is a legacy streetcar suburb whose early 20th century urban form is largely intact. It was the end of the Georgia Avenue Streetcar that was dismantled in early 1961.

The right-of-way that the Red Line shares between Silver Spring and Union Station predates Silver Spring. Silver Spring did not have a station on the Metropolitan Branch when it was growing up.

The old Georgia Avenue streetcar had stations near Eastern Avenue and at its terminus at Colesville Road. Consequently, Silver Spring had two separate development centers in its infancy, one on each side of the railroad. Over time, they grew together as a coherent whole, despite the railroad acting as a barrier.

View Larger Map

The Metropolitan Branch in Silver Spring

When the suburbanization era hit, Silver Spring declined fairly uniformly. During the 2000's, Silver Spring revitalized very quickly and dramatically. The Ellsworth Avenue development worked as a Bright Shiny Object to bring people to Silver Spring to check it out. The Metro station in Silver Spring was the key as many new shoppers and restaurant-goers took transit to the legacy transit-oriented place.

However, the revitalization has not been as uniform on both sides of the railroad (now shared with the Red Line) as the decline was. Unlike in future Tysons, the Red Line right of way is at grade in Silver Spring, except for the elevated tracks that include the station itself.

While the residences and businesses to the west of the Metro station and along East-West Highway have obtained a higher profile in recent years, the businesses south of the railroad on Georgia Avenue have not. Quite simply, they are on the wrong side of the tracks and also up to a 15 minute walk from the Metro. For visitors from outside of Silver Spring, the walk feels longer than it actually is.

Regardless, the Metro was the unquestionably the key to Silver Spring's dramatic revitalization. The southern part would be best addressed by replacing the infrastructure that it grew up around: a streetcar. Hopefully Montgomery County/Maryland will be able to extend the District's Georgia Avenue streetcar in the future.

While Silver Spring clearly shows that an elevated rail station can used as a catalyst for revitalizing a legacy walkable urban place that didn't grow up around the rail station, it doesn't really answer the question about new development or redevelopment. For examples of elevated rail and new development, we need to look outside of our region since all of our elevated Metro stations are in legacy railroad rights of way.

Queens, NY

When we think of the New York City Subway, we often think of claustrophobic, low-ceilinged stations beneath the streets of Manhattan. However, the Subway is often elevated above a major boulevard in the boroughs. (The boroughs can be thought of as comparable to the neighborhoods that are north of Florida Avenue that were in Washington County before 1871; they were the earliest "suburbs," though not to be confused with the car-dependent post-war suburbs.) The map below is of Queens Boulevard, a major urban boulevard in Queens, NY.

View Larger Map

The number 7 line of the New York City Subway operates on this elevated line. Since the Silver Line is planned to run above VA-7 throughout much of Tysons, the arrangement is Queens would have much in common with the future Silver Line.

New York City, outside of Lower Manhattan, grew up around its subway, as we can see from this 1915 New York Times article. That was decades before we started building car-dependent places and calling them "suburbs." However, good traditional, walkable urban planning principles are timeless.

While we have planning tools like zoning and parking minimums to hammer out, the fundamental condition where many people are enthusiastic about paying good money for proximate fixed rail transit access that's connected to their work and play still holds true.

Conclusion

There was much vigorous debate about whether the Silver Line in Tysons Corner should be underground or elevated. In the end, Virginia was absolutely correct to plan for an elevated Silver Line in exchange for FTA funding. While a Tysons Tunnel would be ideal, our experience in Silver Spring and the boroughs of New York City show that vibrant, sustainable, transit-oriented walkable urbanism is very possible with an elevated rail line. I am a firm believer in not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

While it is obvious that an underground Orange Line was excellent for the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, it wouldn't have been impossible to achieve similar results with an elevated line. The key was timing. When Rosslyn-Ballston was being planned and built, traditional walkable urban development was very much out of fashion and viewed as extremely risky by both banks and developers.

While we can't know for sure, I believe the level of walkable urban vibrance we see today would have taken decades linger with an elevated line, However, the perceptions of the real estate market in the late 20th century would have caused the delay, not the infrastructure itself.

Our attitudes about building traditional, sustainable, walkable urban towns have come a long way since the 1970's and '80s when Rosslyn-Ballston was in its infancy. Walkable urban places no longer have the stigma they once did in the later 20th century. Today, the money is the more important motivator, as would make sense in our regulated capitalist economic system. There are plenty of honest business opportunities that coincide with doing the right thing for both municipal budgets and the environment with TOD related to elevated rails.

It is very possible that our current period of austerity will last a number of years. Even so, we will still need new infrastructure that is appropriate for building and sustaining human-scale walkable urban places. Our environmental and fiscal challenges related to car-dependence will not change because of a sluggish economy.

As we look towards more fixed rail infrastructure, we should be very open to elevated rail. It will be much better than nothing. While a tunnel is clearly ideal, it is not the only solution that addresses our challenges. Sometimes the cost-effectiveness of elevated rails makes it the better choice in aggregate, especially when it's that or nothing.

26 comments

The last mile in Tysons Corner, part 1: The problem (Mar 3, 2010)
2010 wish list for transit (Dec 23, 2009)
New Post columnist suggests circumferential Metro (Jun 24, 2009)
The other Purple Line fight: Wayne Avenue (Jun 8, 2009)
2009 wish list for transit (Dec 29, 2008)

Breakfast links: Semi-secret plans

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:08:00 EDT

Photo by Mr. T in DC.

by David Alpert

Whitehurst teardown back?: Foggy Bottom Association President Asher Corson says COG is again studying removing the Whitehurst Freeway. FBA opposes the idea, as it did last time.

Secret plan to fix Metro today: Today's WMATA Board meeting will include David Gunn's assessment of the problems with Metro, but given in secret as we discussed earlier. Some Board members say they hope to be able to share Gunn's findings following the report. (Get There)

Even more bike lane details: The Post gets more details on the Pennsylvania Avenue and I and L bike lanes: On I and L, cyclists will mix with left-turning traffic near intersections; on Penn, cyclists will turn on green while drivers will wait for left arrows. Thankfully, the Post assigned Ashley Halsey and not Lisa Rein to write the article, yielding many facts and little alarmism.

Know any great candidates?: The Montgomery County Council has extended the application deadline to try to get more candidates for Planning Board chairman. Know anyone? Joe Alfandre, Planning Board member and New Urbanist Kentlands developer, has been good on the Board so far and did apply. (Post)

Gaithersbungle looms: Decision time is coming up for Gaithersburg West. Johns Hopkins released renderings of their plans, and opponents are ramping up. The cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg both oppose the plan as presented. To recap, it has way too many grade-separated interchanges and dubious transit mode share in a "neverland" fake-city that won't really be walkable. (WBJ, Examiner, MPW)

2 hours isn't enough: John Kelly's readers are finding 2-hour parking limits problematic as DC extends meter hours into the evening. That's a good argument for a real performance parking system instead of arbitrary limits. Kelly also gets on board with more credit card meters. (Post, Michael P)

More food for all: There's going to be a new community garden in Shaw, behind Bread for the City. They're looking for volunteers to help prepare the land on Saturday. (DC Food For All)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

31 comments

M Street bike lane details emerge (Dec 1, 2009)
Gaithersbungle, part 8: They know it's a turkey (Sep 14, 2009)
Breaking: Fenty to name Albert to Metro Board (Sep 11, 2008)
MoCoCo picks developer over transit-oriented activist (Jun 26, 2008)
Scott Stringer supports moving MSG (Jun 3, 2006)

Should Chinatown be Times Square?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:12:00 EDT

Neon signs at Gallery Place. Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

by Dan M.

New York's Times Square is the tourist heart of that city. It is filled with bright lights, chain restaurants, and professional entertainment that draws visitors from all over the world.

230 miles south of Times Square is Gallery Place. Since the MCI Center opened in 1997, it has been (after the National Mall) the tourist heart of Washington, DC. It is filled with bright lights, chain restaurants, and professional entertainment.

Gallery Place/Chinatown is smaller and quieter than Times Square. DC is a smaller city. The entertainment also centers around sports rather theater. But on the whole, the two districts are of a kind. They are both the heart of commercialized tourism in their respective cities. They are where suburbanites go to experience life "downtown".

And if it's true that the hyper-commercialization of such districts can be garish, it's also true that such garishness is unique, interesting and something that a lot of people simply like. It's not just that places like Times Square and Gallery Place are busy with excitement and color because people flock to them. People flock to these places precisely because they are busy with excitement and color, and not very many places are like that.

So when I hear there is a proposal to add even more video billboards to Gallery Place, I think that's awesome. The more the merrier. The main reason I ever go to Chinatown in the first place is that it isn't Georgetown or Capitol Hill. I want Chinatown to be as colorful and bright and fun as possible.

Naturally, someone disagrees. The launch of StopTheBillboard.org has been widely reported this week in the blogosphere. The first paragraph of their home page reads:

"Giant color video signs are not what anyone has in mind when they think of Washington, D.C. But unless we stop them, these huge, moving-picture billboards will make cherished parts of our beautiful city look more like Times Square... If we allow these signs to be installed permanently at the corner of 7th and G Street NW, not only would an important downtown neighborhood become blighted, but it would be just a matter of time before video billboards would pop up all over the capital."

I appreciate the desire for quiet in one's home neighborhood, but what planet is the author of that paragraph from? Actually, giant color video signs are exactly what I have in mind when I think of Chinatown, which is a cherished and important downtown neighborhood in our beautiful city precisely because of the unique role it fills as a place for brightness, color, and electronic 21st Century fun.

I don't want the entire city to look like Times Square, but I don't want the entire city to look like the street from Leave it to Beaver either. I want to live in a city that has stately, beautifully dignified places like Dupont Circle and 16th Street, and places like Times Square. When I think of Washington, DC, I don't think it should be a city with any one character imposed throughout.

The bright lights part of Chinatown is a mere three blocks long. That's three blocks in our entire gargantuan metropolitan area where we've collectively decided to have some fun with colorful nightlife. As much as I love marble and granite (and I do), I think it is entirely justified to take three tiny little blocks in one corner of the city and give those blocks a neon character.

On the other hand, just as I don't think it's reasonable to move next to an airport and then complain about noise from airplanes, I don't think it's reasonable to move to Chinatown and complain about bright lights. If we don't put them in Chinatown, where they are completely appropriate given the existing context, where do we put them? Nowhere? How is that the less draconian option?

What do you think?

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

60 comments

Capitol Hill may get a town square (Jul 30, 2008)
Where to put the noise? (Mar 27, 2008)
Making streetcars work (Feb 3, 2008)
Evans bill encourages entertainment in downtown DC (Dec 15, 2007)
Two plans for Times Square (Jun 13, 2005)

Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track slated for May

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:34:00 EDT

Portland cycle track. Photo by BikePortland.org.

by David Alpert

Cycle tracks on M Street SE/SW may be a gleam in Tommy Wells' eye right now, but DDOT is hoping to move forward aggressively to build cycle tracks on several roads in downtown DC including Pennsylvania Avenue, a road Congressman Earl Blumenauer is eager to see get the cycle treatment.

According to DDOT's announcement, in addition to Pennsylvania, they plan to install the lanes on I, L, and 9th Streets, as well as extending the 15th Street lane downtown.

DDOT is keeping the drawings under wraps until the public meeting on Thursday, March 18th, but a few details have leaked out.

For Pennsylvania Avenue, according to a source, the lanes will run in the center of the street from 15th to 3rd Streets NW. Some intersections will get bicycle signals with leading intervals so cyclists can start before turning cars enter the intersection. Plastic bollards will separate the lanes from general traffic where appropriate.

DDOT hopes to build the lanes by Bike to Work Month in May. The lanes require approval from NCPC and the Commission on Fine Arts (CFA), making this an aggressive timetable.

On I and L, the lanes will run on the left side of the one-way streets, opposite the buses. There are some places where pedestrians get a leading interval; in those places, signs will direct cyclists to cross with the pedestrians to take advantage of that.

As WashCycle reported, some have been asking why use I street instead of M; lanes on M could extend farther to the planned lanes on 9th Street and on-street bike lanes on 5th rather than ending at New York Avenue between 10th and 11th.

If DDOT sticks with I, they should also factor in buses into the analysis. H and I Streets have some of the heaviest bus traffic in the city, and also some of the greatest delays. They should have a dedicated bus lane during peak periods and parking off-peak.

Such lanes could save the District government significant amounts in WMATA contributions by reducing bus delays and the consequent labor expenses as well as rider frustration. If DDOT is already studying the streets, they should identify the best way to do that as well as install a cycle track.

12 comments

Where's the 15th Street contraflow lane? (Aug 6, 2009)
Bike news (Jul 3, 2009)
DDOT proposes new option with cycle track for 15th Street (Nov 10, 2008)
Are protected bike lanes actually more dangerous? (Jan 14, 2008)
DDOT may restore two-way traffic on 15th Street (Jan 10, 2008)

Church Street church could rise from 1970 ashes

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:53:00 EDT

by David Alpert

The St. Thomas Episcopal Church at 18th and Church Streets, NW hopes to build a new church on its property, which was destroyed by arson in 1970. The property is currently a park.

Photos of the original church. From St. Thomas.

The church was burned on August 24, 1970 and, according to a presentation from St. Thomas, the shell later ordered razed.

Left: The church after the arson. Photo from St. Thomas.
Right: The property today. Photo by joseph a on Flickr.

After the fire, St. Thomas's attendance declined by half. But the remaining members kept the congregation alive, and especially with their openness to gays and lesbians, grew substantially in the 1990s. In 2005, the growing congregation began exploring the possibility of rebuilding the church.

In 2008, they selected parishioner and Swiss-educated architect Matthew Jarvis. Jarvis studied under Swiss architect Peter Zumthor before moving here and working for David Jameson Architects, where he worked on many glassy and rectangular buildings.

Jarvis cites the Dutch Glaspaleis as inspiration for this project, which he says "has long outlived its then young author, 36-year old Architect Frits Peutz.

Tonight, St. Thomas will present a design for a new church to the community at the Dupont Circle ANC meeting.

Images from St. Thomas.

Jarvis says,

The design of the building embddies the vision of St. Thomas over many decades. It is a jewel box, in the sense that it is a place to keep things safe. We will express this idea in its truest sense: by a wall that wraps around you; by a strong roof that covers you; by a large glass window that, like a tent opening, says, "this is shelter." It is a place to come in out of the rain.

I live very near this place, and therefore I'm going to withhold any aesthetic opinions until I hear from you. While the park is a nice amenity, it's not public property. The congregation once had a church on this site, and they should be able to have one again. What about the design? What do you think?

After you answer the poll, share in the comments what in particular you like/dislike about the design. I'll pass the feedback on to the architect at the ANC meeting tonight.

39 comments

Then and Now: New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (Mar 9, 2010)
Lost Washington: Carbery House (Aug 7, 2009)
Then and now: Congolese chancery (Jun 2, 2009)
Preservation very different up the coast (Dec 2, 2008)
HPRB landmarks Third Church (Dec 11, 2007)

Wells wants to "complete" M Street SE/SW with cycle tracks

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:43:00 EDT

Image from Jacqueline Dupree.

by David C. and Erik W.

At the public meeting on M Street SE/SW, the subject that CouncilMember Tommy Wells wanted to discuss most was change: a changing neighborhood, a changing population, a changing idea of transportation in the city and most of all a changed M Street.

While many people were enthusiastic about the proposal, ANC commissioners and leaders of other neighborhood groups were the most likely to express fear about the impact on traffic and parking.

The proposal, by Toole Design, would create separated bike lanes the length of M Street, with bus stops on the left side of the bike lane. Cyclists would cross with the pedestrian signals.

A narrow, concrete median would give crossing pedestrians some refuge, where now they have none. M Street would retain left turn lanes. The project could happen within one year, for under $300,000, and paid for with revenue from the performance parking pilot program.

Concept sketch for M Street. Photo by volcrano of diagram by Toole Design.

The current M Street is a six-lane roadway that serves about 10,000 cars per day on the east side of South Capitol and 20,000 on the west side. According to DDOT, it only takes two lanes to carry 10,000, and four lanes to carry 25,000, so the road is overbuilt. An overbuilt road invites speeding. In addition, a road that wide is harder to safely cross. Instead of being a highway, M street should be a neighborhood street.

Wells suggested taking the extra capacity and converting it into something more useful, and more beneficial, before the expected 25,000 new employees and 10,000 new residents move into the area over the next several years.If things don't change, they'll expect parking and traffic lanes instead of high-quality transit, sidewalks, bike lanes and negotiable street crossings.

Wells calls Near SE/SW the most multi-modal neighborhood in America. Within blocks you can find Metro, Metrobus, Circulator, major roads, a water taxi dock, a helipad, carriage horses (stabled under the freeway), and more. What's missing is high-quality infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.

The groundwork is already laid on the edges of Southwest. People are biking over the 14th Street and Case bridges to and from the District, and they need a way to connect to Southwest and Southeast. Down the road, the Nationals ballpark has the highest transit ridership of any baseball stadium in the country. A streetcar is coming, and adding bike lanes now will get people used to the idea of fewer lanes. Fewer lanes will make the road safer and more friendly.

Adam Goldberg of AARP said they support complete streets for an aging community because they help create livable communities. Older adults are over-represented in all road fatalities, but especially among pedestrian fatalities, where they make up 19% of pedestrian deaths. America is getting older, and older people walk more, bike more and drive less.

According to Goldberg, surveys have shown than many paratransit riders would prefer to ride fixed-route transit but find it difficult because their bus-stops, sidewalks and neighborhoods are not accessible. It costs roughly $38,000 per year to provide paratransit service to someone, but only $8,000 to fix the accessibility of a bus stop.

Supportive members of the audience referred to experiences in Europe or the success with 8th Street SE, which lost a lane but is more walkable and successful as a result without backing up traffic. One cyclist who hates riding on M Street spoke of the signed bike route that instructs cyclists to use the sidewalk, where they mix with pedestrians.

Younger people generally supported the new design. One woman said she sold her car when she moved to DC because she could. Another person talked of how South Capital separates neighborhoods and how this project could connect them.

But, as with any plan to reduce road capacity, many people, especially ANC commissioners, were concerned about traffic. "You will cause M St SW to lose all hope of moving cars for hours and hours and hours," said one attendee. Wells pointed out that when Constitution Avenue ended one-way rush hour operation traffic did not back up to Maryland as some claimed it would. If you remove lanes, Wells argued, traffic will go away as drivers find other ways to move around.

One commissioner was concerned that slowing down traffic will also slow down bus transit. "If this appears to be a conspiracy to slow down traffic, it is. Traffic is slower on Barracks Row, but it isn't gridlock", Wells said. There is rampant speeding on M Street, so the goal is not to make traffic crawl, but to go the speed limit. A safer street will serve bus riders as well. One commissioner thought that complete streets are great "in a perfect world", but what about when there are crashes or an evacuation.

Some expressed concern that there isn't enough parking in the area and this will only make it worse, even though Wells pointed out that it wouldn't remove any parking. "Why not build central parking garages?" Wells noted that there is more parking in new buildings and that even though the new Arena Stage won't add any parking, it will be sharing parking with those buildings. The area actually has more surface parking than most.

One ANC commissioner was not opposed to a complete street design on M, but only if it came after a more through traffic study of the area.

Then there were the people who just don't like cyclists. One particularly angry woman asked "Who are these bike lanes for? Who uses a bike to drop off their kids at school? Who brings home groceries for a family of four on a bicycle?" But after each question several hands went up from people who did those very things. To that, she responded sarcastically each time, "Congratulations, you must be real proud of yourself." After the school question, she added, "You're an irresponsible parent."

She continued, "Older people don't even bike. This is elitist. These bike lanes are elitist and they only serve a few people. They don't service the whole community." She failed to note that in a city where less than half of all people drive, much of the roadway doesn't serve the whole community either.

Another woman complained that cyclists don't follow the law, and asked how to protect pedestrians from cyclists. Wells avoid the question a bit, but noted that "we have sidewalks for pedestrians and roads designed for cars and we want to make space for bikes. But it isn't just about bikes."

Though the street is overbuilt and Tommy Wells and other residents clearly want to repurpose the unused capacity, this project is unlikely to move forward without support from the ANC. Consequently, it might be a long time before we really see bike lanes on M Street SE/SW.

JDLand has another summary of the meeting and a copy of Wells' slides. Crossposted at TheWashCycle.

24 comments

Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track slated for May (Mar 10, 2010)
M Street bike lane details emerge (Dec 1, 2009)
DDOT to start 15th Street contraflow bike lane next week (Oct 23, 2009)
DDOT may restore two-way traffic on 15th Street (Jan 10, 2008)
Smart transportation policy from Tommy Wells (Jan 10, 2008)

Google Maps launches bike directions

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:55:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Google has added a long-awaited feature to Google Maps: bike directions.

There's also a new "bicycling" layer that shows bike lanes and trails. It appears if you ask for bicycle directions, or you can activate it by clicking on "More..." in the upper right of a Google map.

How does this compare with Ride the City for you? Chris B. says Ride the City came out on top for his commute (Ride the City map, Google map.

Ride the City also has the nice feature that you can determine how far out of your way to go to use bike lanes and paths. Google Maps doesn't appear to be aware yet of the 15th Street bike lane, and it will route you through Arlington Cemetery heading westbound in ways that aren't allowed. But the data quality will surely improve with time, and I'd rather have a beta to play with now than have Google keep it under wraps for years until everything's perfect.

Speaking of Arlington Cemetery, WashCycle has a detailed explanation of how cyclists can use the cemetery, along with some history of bicycle access.

Thanks to Gavin, Steve S., Denis B., and Chris B. who all sent in the tip.

Update: Rob Pegoraro identifies a more comprehensive list of data errors, including missing the Metropolitan Branch Trail, the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, and Matthew Henson Trail.

12 comments

Ride the District (and surroundings) (Feb 1, 2010)
Arlington collecting bicycle and pedestrian traffic data (Feb 3, 2009)
Transit and bicycling Google maps that Washington still lacks (Jun 10, 2008)
DC tops "most improved" bicycling list (May 8, 2008)
Google Maps: Bike There (Mar 6, 2008)