Posts about DDOT

Some commenters also wondered if the change would save any time, considering congestion at 25th Street and the Whitehurst on-ramp. Overman said,

We tested travel times at different times of day and night and found that the Circulator reached the first stops on Wisconsin Avenue sooner in ALL cases by traveling on lower K versus getting stuck at traffic lights and congestion on M Street westbound. It is a travel time savings for customers heading up Wisconsin and also makes the entire line run smoother by reducing the end-to-end travel times so buses can continue back toward Union Station more quickly.

Why not run on lower K Street in both directions?

If M Street is overserved by all those bus routes running westbound, isn't it overserved in the eastbound direction as well? If serving K Street was intended in part to give employees at Washington Harbour easier transit access to their jobs, why make them walk up the 29th Street hill to catch the bus home?

Furthermore, running one-way routes on separate two-way streets is anything but user friendly. When unfamiliar riders get off a bus on a one-way street, they have an expectation that the return trip will start on a different street. If you get off a bus on a two-way street, on the other hand, most people will expect to board a return bus on the opposite side of the street within one or two blocks.

This will be particularly problematic because Circulator stop flags don't indicate routes and many stops don't have the spinning system maps. Even those that do may not get updated maps for some time.

The only direct answer I got from Overman was this:

The K Street routing was at the request of people/businesses on K Street who had service prior to 2008. The inbound K-outbound M service pattern was in effect since the Circulator began service and was only changed when we began to go up Wisconsin Avenue. People can always transfer at Wisconsin and M if they don't want to walk.

Based on this answer, it seems DDOT has fallen prey to the intractable "the way we've always done it" mistake. Circumstances have changed drastically since the Circulator last ran this route. At that time there was no other Circulator service on M Street. Now it is served in both directions by the the Rosslyn-Dupont route.

Why is there no stop on K Street west of Washington Circle?

Before last weekend, you could catch a Georgetown-bound Circulator at the Northeast corner of Penn and 24th St, or at the triangle park at Penn, 25th and L. With the new changes, the nearest stop in Foggy Bottom/West End is at Penn and 22nd Street. Then the bus shuts its doors and travels 8 blocks to 30th and K before it makes another stop.

There was no need for the Circulator to stop at both 24th and 25th Streets. One of the biggest advantages the Circulator offers over Metrobus is that it stops less frequently, cutting travel times. Still, the new distance between the last stop in Foggy Bottom and the first in Georgetown is now longer than the distance between many downtown Metro stops. But while cutting stops, DDOT should have taken the opportunity to eliminate 21st and Penn while keeping 22nd and Penn.

DDOT officials said that because of the traffic patterns, current parking spaces, and curb cuts it is impossible to have a bus stop on K Street west of Washington Circle. Traffic flow prevents the bus from stopping at the island between the circle and 24th Street. On the other side of 24th street, bus stops require 100 feet of "clear zone," so even if the parallel parking space on the K Street service road were removed, driveways break up the the curb every 50 feet or so. Street trees and shrubs also cause problems because of ADA accessibility guidelines.

There is, however, about 100 feet of curb along K Street just east of 25th street. It's unclear if the parking spaces on this section were removed whether a bus stop could be placed there, though, because about half of that curb is technically in the intersection. Overman said,

The only way to accomplish an accessible, safe stop is to eliminate most if not all of the parking along this section of roadway. If the community and ANC tell us they would rather have a bus stop than parking, DDOT is happy to accomplish this.

I'm unsure why a 100 foot bus stop would require removing most or all parking on a 400 foot block, and not just the 4 spaces nearest the 25th Street intersection. Still, removing any spaces certainly can pose a political problem. If you are a Foggy Bottom or West End resident, contact DDOT and ANC 2A to let them know that you support a new stop along K Street.

DDOT's cycle track installations, which rely on pedestrian signals, paint and flex-posts, have cost approximately $100,000 per mile. By comparison, the Ninth Avenue cycle track in New York, which includes dedicated signals, trees and pedestrian refuge islands, cost approximately $1.5 million per mile.

Remaining design issues

South of K Street, 15th Street carries many 30's line buses that make stops along the route of the planned cycle track. The plan doesn't show any accommodations for these bus stops. Will passengers wait in the cycle track for their buses? At the very least, loading and unloading passengers crossing the cycle track will conflict with cyclists. DDOT has not yet shown how they will address this issue.

A similar problem crops up south of E Street, where food and souvenir vendors have set up shop in the right-hand lane. The plan published online does not extend south of E Street, but it remains an issue to be addressed as DDOT extends the cycle track to Constitution Avenue.

Another new element is green paint in select areas. This will both make the lane more visible to turning motorists and clarify its function as a bike lane. This is an improvement many DC cyclists have long been anticipating, and an indication that federal interests such as the Commission of Fine Arts may be willing to be more flexible with DDOT on this project than they were with the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes.

Notably absent from the plans posted online are designs for the cycle track between G and H Streets. DDOT has indicated that their preferred route is along Pennsylvania Avenue and Madison Place near the White House. There are outstanding issues to be resolved between DDOT, the Secret Service, the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service and other federal agencies over this section, which will likely receive treatments more akin to signage than to a cycle track. The exact nature of these issues was not explained by NCPC staff, although staff from NPS and NCPC have suggested that DDOT route the cycle track on H and 15th Streets instead of its current proposal along Lafayette Park.

Despite these remaining issues, progress already made, such as the relocation of the White House delivery queue lane from 15th Street to E Street, provides hope for a resolution. Also redacted from the plans posted online are designs for how the cycle track will interface with the complex intersection of W Street and New Hampshire Avenue.

Success of the existing cycle track

Since DDOT installed the cycle track, motorists have not been speeding as much on 15th Street. The 85th percentile speed was reduced from 35 mph in July 2009 to 28 mph in July 2010, and the percentage of motorists traveling above 25 mph has decreased from 66 percent to 26 percent.

As part of its assessment of the existing facility, DDOT surveyed cycle track users. While respondents ranked the yellow flex-post bollards as effective, they also view them as ugly. Flex-post on the planned cycle track will be installed at wider intervals than currently seen along the existing cycle track. DDOT Bicycle Program Manager Jim Sebastian has expressed confidence that fewer-and-far-between use of flex-post will be enough to keep out vehicles on this section.

In its presentation, DDOT indicated that while flex-post would be used in the short term for cycle track protection, long term goals include replacement of the flex-post with curbs, as is common in Montreal, or other permanent separation. DDOT has committed to NCPC that it will re-evaluate the effectiveness of flex-posts in one year and consult with NCPC and CFA in the search for alternatives.

With the new plan, it also looks like the 15th Street sharrows are on the way out, since they garnered mixed reviews among both cyclists and motorists. More than half of survey respondents said that removal of northbound sharrows would make driving on 15th Street "safer and/or more comfortable," while just under half of cyclists reported not feeling safe riding in the northbound sharrow lane.

In fact, 44 percent of cyclists said that they sometimes ride the wrong way in the cycle track, where they feel safer. DDOT observations showed that at a given moment 14 percent of all cycle track users are wrong-way cyclists. 81 percent of respondents supported conversion of the cycle track to two-way operation.

Since the installation of the existing cycle track, 33 percent of survey respondents report riding more and seven percent report using a bicycle for transportation when they had not done so before. DDOT observations at 15th and T have shown a 40 percent increase in the number of cyclists since the lane was installed and that 146 cyclists use the southbound lane during morning rush hours each day.

Cycle tracks have provided similar benefits to other cities around the world and within the United States. In New York, for example, cycle tracks have reduced injuries to pedestrians by up to 40 percent and injuries to cyclists by up to 57 percent, while seeing a 50 percent increase in the number of cyclists. We can expect similar gains along the length of 15th Street after the project is built this fall, and throughout much of downtown as cycle tracks are installed along M and L Streets later this year.

NCPC approved the 15th Street cycle track plans at its meeting on Thursday. The next hurdle for the proposal is review by CFA on September 12.

The above images show Q Street approaching 17th, and the other on 17th itself. Note that the right photo shows 17th and Q where right turns are actually not possible, so the line should remain solid, but it's the same at 17th and Church, where there are right turns. I meant to get a picture of that corner but didn't get the chance.

Hopefully it's not too late for the contractor to go back and take out pieces of the striping.

Last week there was a brief outreach campaign centered around various websites and blogs notifying riders that the Blue Bus would become a Circulator. Some of these articles included the Georgetown-Union Station route changes as a footnote, while others failed to mention it altogether. The DDOT press release falls into the former category.

Today when DDOT tweeted a reminder about the new route but failed to put a "." in front of @DCCirculator, meaning only followers of DDOTDC who also follow DCCirculator will have seen the tweet. In fairness to DDOT, Twitter doesn't make this behavior very discoverable and many people aren't aware of it.

Meanwhile, there is no indication of the route changes on the actual Circulator website. DDOT added the new Rosslyn-Georgetown-Dupont route to DCCirculator.com under the individual route list, but as of this writing, the system map had neither any of the Georgetown-Union Station route changes nor the new route marked on it. The last post under "Latest News" is for a June 28th service change. The Circulator mobile site has neither the new route nor the new changes on the other routes.

DDOT posted new Circulator stop flags along M and L streets for the Dupont Circle-Georgetown segment of the new route, yet didn't remove the stop flags from the three stops on Pennsylvania where there would no longer be any Circulator service. As of Monday evening, this was the only notice at Penn and 24th that the Circulator no longer stopped there:

Can't see it? It's the small piece of paper taped to the front of the schedule holder. From the sidewalk, it practically unnoticeable despite its bright pink color. To read it you actually have to step into the street. Even if you do read it, it doesn't offer any advice about a rider's alternatives.

Now that you've told me my bus stop is no longer served, the next thing you should tell me is my next best option. Tell riders that they can take a 32, 34 or 36 — but make sure to notify them it will cost $0.50 more — or tell them they can walk to 22nd and Pennsylvania to catch the Wisconsin-bound route.

At an agency that has so meticulously groomed its branding and communication styles, where are the official fliers, the planned outreach? For all we know even, these pink papers were printed by a fellow rider who was frustrated by the lack of communication. What happened?

Connecting activity centers in DC: While Metrorail and Metrobus do a good job getting riders into and out of the city, we don't have direct, efficient transit between many activity centers in DC.

This was the original goal of the Circulator. However, most Circulator routes go through downtown, so there's lots of potential to directly connect more activity centers.

What this would mean: This goal could mean more routes connecting Activity Centers, including local routes (like the Dupont-Georgetown-Rosslyn route starting Sept 1) and cross-town routes (connecting major NW activity centers with NE/SE activity centers such as Catholic University, H Street, Minnesota Avenue, and DHS/St Elizabeths). Local routes could use smaller buses. As more activity centers develop throughout the city, Circulator routes can be added to support and manage density growth in those areas.

Getting tourists off the Mall: Tourists want to see monuments that are far away from each other, and they want to see more of our city than the Mall, but are faced with a subway that provides underground views or a MetroBus service that can be confusing for the uninitiated. Like the goal of connecting activity centers, connecting tourist centers to each other and to other parts of the city is of particular interest to DC residents interested in economic development and reduced congestion and smog. Furthermore, the only solution to the land grab on the Mall is to connect the Mall to other activity centers that could host future monuments and museums.

What this would mean: This goal could mean more promotion of Circulator service in hotels, subway stops and tourist locations, as well as a possible takeover of the tourist bus contract with the National Park Service.

Make buses an attractive option to boost bus ridership: The Circulator has attracted many riders who would otherwise have never taken the bus. This is good for everyone. DDOT has accomplished this with the convenience of 10 minute headways, routes that are easy to remember because they connect activity centers (and are named as such), comfortable buses, allowing unfolded strollers, pleasant drivers and good marketing.

What this would mean: This goal could mean extended hours of operation, improved marketing for older residents and to families with young children, investment in comfortable bus stops with bus bulb-outs and bus rapid transit initiatives (see below).

Leverage DDOT's management of the streetscape to deliver faster buses: It's difficult for Metrobus to deliver faster service, because they are not in control of the intersection signaling, dedicated lane creation and enforcement, bus bulb-outs and other streetscape features that expedite bus traffic. DDOT can more easily push for this in its routes because all the streetscape decisions and bus decisions are made under the same roof, though they could also work more closely with WMATA to speed existing Metrobus routes.

Currently, only one of the Circulator routes, the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan/Columbia Heights/McPherson Square route, is a limited stop route, with stops at activity centers only. This goal would also lower Circulator costs to maintain 10-minute headways significantly.

What this would mean: This goal could mean dedicated bus lanes with enforcement along Circulator routes, intersection signal prioritization along Circulator routes and limited stops along all Circulator routes.

These obviously aren't mutually exclusive, and this list is just the beginning. So, what are your ideas for the Circulator?