Posts about H Street

Adjust rates regularly

The most important element of making any performance parking zone succeed is actually adjusting the meter rates up or down depending on demand. It took some time for DDOT to get data on occupancy rates in the existing performance parking zones, but even then, they didn't adjust meter rates very quickly or very often.

Performance parking depends on actual market-rate meter rates to succeed. It's not just a strategy to charge more money, but gives drivers a promise in return: You'll be able to find a space, even if it's more expensive.

DDOT Director Terry Bellamy argued at last year's oversight hearing that the ballpark district isn't the best place to try performance parking. Demand fluctuates so greatly around the baseball schedule. In Columbia Heights, Harvey argued against making any changes until streetscape construction concluded.

On H Street, the streetscape is done and demand is less dependent on specific events, so this is a good opportunity for DDOT to demonstrate that it can, and will, actually make a performance parking zone work by truly adjusting meter rates to match demand.

Charge for non-resident parking on neighborhood streets

DDOT can make the pilot work even better with one more simple change: Let people park on the neighborhood streets, but charge non-residents for the privilege.

A major objective of performance parking is to reduce circling. Just park at the meter for a few bucks instead of driving around looking for free spaces. But as long as one side of every street remains free for visitors to park, and both sides of streets more than a block away from H Street, many people will still try to find a spot in the neighborhood.

Now that DDOT has very successful pay-by-phone technology, they can easily put up signs on residential streets saying, "Drivers without Zone 6 stickers must pay with ParkMobile." Set a rate on the side streets that, like on H itself, ensures that every single space doesn't fill up.

With this, DDOT can apply such a restriction to both sides of the street, not just one. Residents will enjoy a high likelihood of finding spaces near their homes, and the neighborhood can raise extra revenue to pay for more improvements like more Capital Bikeshare stations, trash compactors, or maybe real-time screens.

Who's a resident?

Restricting parking on one side of each street to "residents" further exacerbates the silly effects of the current, large parking zones. A resident who lives 2½ miles away in Southwest Waterfront or Shaw will be able to park on residential blocks of H Street for free, while a resident of southeast Trinidad might be prohibited from parking 2 blocks from home.

Georgetown currently restricts parking to Zone 2 residents only on certain blocks for the O and P Street reconstruction. That made it really easy for me to park there one day I drove to Georgetown, but giving Dupont or Logan residents special privileges is not the point. If a policy is supposed to help residents park near their homes, then it should only apply to actual residents of the area.

It's long past time to set up zones that match actual neighborhoods, rather than the arbitrary and too-large ward boundaries. The Mayor's Parking Taskforce (that's Mayor Williams) recommended doing this 8 years ago (section 4.4.1).

An H street performance parking zone presents a great opportunity for DDOT, to demonstrate that it can capably manage a performance parking zone and achieve the policy objectives of ensuring some availability and reducing circling. Its stewardship of the other two zones has disappointed, but this zone lacks many of the obstacles of previous zones.

Given DDOT's reluctance in recent years to actually follow through on implementing its performance parking policies, it would be helpful for area residents and supporters of performance parking to attend the meeting tonight. It's at Sherwood Recreation Center, 640 10th Street, NE, from 6:30-8 pm.

One of the main challenges in convincing people to switch to transit is the unpredictability of bus arrivals. If every stop featured a digital screen displaying the number of minutes until each bus arrived, more people would be willing to take the bus.

Outdoor screens, however, are expensive to install, which is why we created this indoor alternative at a fraction of the cost. For the past few months I have been working with Andy Chosak and David Alpert at the Mobility Lab in Arlington to bring this low-cost alternative to fruition.

Every 20 seconds, our web server queries each transit agency for the arrival predictions for the stops near both test sites, then relays the data to the screens. The actual unit inside the shops is just a low-cost, barebones Linux system connected to a standard computer monitor and the business's own Wi-Fi and power. We've configured the box to automatically load up the screen when it starts, so there's no need to log in or launch an app after the unit is plugged in.

We are continuing to build the system so it can be deployed quickly and cheaply throughout the region at participating shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants. Ultimately, a business will be able to sign up, type in their address, and get a screen automatically customized with the nearest bus stops, Metro station, and Capital Bikeshare station. And someone with their own computer connected to a standard computer monitor will be able to set up their own screen for free.

This project is only possible thanks to open data from our transit agencies. We can only pull bus and train predictions as well as the status of each CaBi station because the agencies behind these systems have wisely chosen to provide stop locations, route information, and real-time arrival predictions to outside software developers.

If you run a businesses are interested in finding out more about purchasing one of these screens for your location, let us know at screens@mobilitylab.org.

What do you think? What's the best way to make sure bikes and streetcars can coexist in a lively commercial street safely and happily?

A zoning overlay creates 3 distinct sections in the neighborhood. The area between 2nd and 7th Streets NE is designated for "urban living," 7th Street to 12th Street encompasses retail shopping, and 12th to 15th Street is an arts and entertainment district.

In the corridor, over fifty new businesses, including many bars, have opened in the midst of the economic downturn. Streetcar tracks and stations have been installed. It is this development that has sparked apprehension that the neighborhood might become a single-use nightlife district.

In order to diversify the businesses, the city is now looking to support small businesses through a grant program called the H Street NE Retail Priority Area Project. The grant program, exclusively for businesses with H Street frontage, will provide awards up to $85,000 each to foster growth of small businesses. Service businesses such as restaurants, bars, liquor stores, hair salons, and barber shops are ineligible for the grant.

Its intent is to develop businesses such as home furnishings, apparel, books, art, groceries, and general merchandise goods to specialized customers. Successful applicants can use the funds to improve the property or purchase equipment, but not to purchase inventory.

Bars are being actively discouraged. The local ANCs, 6A and 6C, are considering a moratorium on liquor licenses.

Wells discussed new financial disincentives for vacant properties. The Vacant Property Disincentivization Amendment Act of 2010 went into effect October 1 of last year. It enabled the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) to tax vacant properties at rates of either $5 per $100 of assessed value. Those that are literally falling apart will be billed at $10 per $100 of assessed value (the "blighted value"). There are currently 11 properties with an H Street NE address on the vacant properties list.

The newly constructed streetscape features planter boxes, Capital Bikeshare stations, and bike racks. The bike infrastructure is already insufficient for nighttime demand. A performance parking zone was recently created to better handle the high demand for parking on nights and weekends.

The new residents and entertainment venues of H Street are attracting other business. In the urban living zone, the impending development will include a new "urban model" Giant on the north side of H Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.

H Street is trying to balance recent and future development with the existing historic character of the built environment and social fabric of this neighborhood, before moving forward with the next stages of development. The most significant challenge for this development strategy is reclaiming vacant property and opening the corridor's streetcar line.

According to Councilmember Wells, the streetcar won't happen until 2013. While the wait is disappointing, perhaps it will give the neighborhood a chance to come to terms with this first wave of new development.

Correction: ANC 6C previously considered a moratorium but rejected the proposal. 6A, which represents the eastern half of H Street, will be discussing a moratorium this fall.

Rather than attempt to communicate the entire route network, a spider map only shows the routes that serve stops within walking distance. Like London's famous Tube map, it also forgoes the geographic accuracy of a street map for a simplified diagram of connections and destinations. It answers the questions "where can I go from here?" and "what bus do I take to get there?" without adding unnecessary information.

When I lived in South London, with no car and a long walk from the Tube, I moved across the city by bus using spider maps. They gave me a clear mental image of the destinations I could travel to from my regular neighborhoods. I also knew that if I found myself someplace new, I could use these maps to easily find a bus home without pre-planning my trip.

After moving to DC a year ago, still with no car, I've yet to figure out where a bus can take me from my own neighborhood. For many trips, I'd be happy to take a bus, but because of the effort it takes to figure out the system, it's usually easier not to bother.

The Mobility Lab is hoping to develop a program to generate user-customized spider maps, and will work on it at Saturday's hack day. In anticipation of this project, and to demystify one corner of the bus network, I've designed this modified version of a London spider map for the H Street NE area, designed to fit in poster slots at bus shelters.

Consider your challenges if you're a new bus rider in this neighborhood. Some stops have no information at all beyond the route number. If you're not already a regular on this route, you're out of luck. Many stops have a small route map on the sign post:

There's some useful street information in there if you can find it, but it's far from ideal. How do you know where you are this map? If this bus doesn't take you where you want to go, is there a nearby bus that will?

You might try to get a bigger picture with the Metrobus service map available online and posted at some bus shelters. It shows all services on a street map of the entire District, which is much more information than you need, and it's quite difficult to decipher. Here's the H Street area:

To figure out which of those red lines connect to which other red lines, you'll have to try to connect the dots between labels, and in many cases it's just a guess. The Metrorail red line looks like a bus line. The B2 is green because it goes to Maryland, which is helpful if that's where you're headed, but doesn't really matter to you if your destination is on the other 95% of the route. Downtown is removed in a separate inset. Figuring out how you can get across town will require patience and determination. (The older version of the map actually used more colors, but Metro changed to this more confusing version in 2009.)

A few shelters offer an improvement on this map that highlights only the routes from that particular stop. This is the right idea, and it's an easy way to quickly improve legibility. But it still simultaneously gives the H Street rider too much information (a street map of Tenleytown, for example) and too little.

Some maps would be more useful if they showed additional routes nearby (top left). Others (bottom) show two services equally, even though one only runs on weekday mornings. At a stop on Bladensburg Road, the map (top right) says that the X2 down Benning Road stops there, but it's actually across the street.

By this point, you've probably given up and are taking a cab. It's a shame when transit is under-utilized because of poor information.

The spider map makes bus service more visible and understandable by focusing on the only the information relevant to your current options. Its focus area is more than a single stop, but less than the entire system. Within the focus area, it shows clearly where each stop is and which line it serves:

Outside the neighborhood, each separate route has a separate line. The diagram gives the names of all major streets and neighborhoods these routes serve, but it doesn't add clutter with a full street map. It shows all Metrorail connections, but not the bus routes outside the focus area.

My design makes a few modifications to London's in adapting the style to DC For example, in London, you can expect most buses to run with reasonable frequency throughout normal operating hours. This is far from true in Washington. If you see the X3 on a map and think it will be a convenient trip from the Atlas District to U Street, it will be very important for you to figure out that you can only make that trip on weekday mornings. My design gives limited service routes a different graphical treatment and a clear label.

I also include a table of approximate service frequencies. (Riders would ideally check their route's detailed timetable at that route's particular stop.) Metro's current stop-specific maps offer this table, but not for the nearby services that may provide better options.

In addition, London's maps generally cover a smaller area, perhaps a major intersection or the roads surrounding a rail station. I could have created two separate maps for this area (one around 8th Street and one for the Starburst intersection at the eastern end of H Street), but these intersections have fewer routes than the equivalent in London. In Washington, there's a greater likelihood that you'll have to walk farther to get the bus you need, so I use an expanded area.

This map shows the bus routes through the central street map, whereas London omits the route lines and directs riders to the appropriate stop using a system of letters. In part, this is to avoid the spaghetti mess that would result in showing routes through intersections like these:

It's also necessary because in London, adjacent stops may serve different routes on the same street, and the letter system helps riders identify the stop they need. It's true that the exact routing is unimportant; all the rider needs to know is where the stop is, and where the bus will go. But the DC routes are straightforward enough to show, and with only a few exceptions, every bus serves every stop it passes. (The exceptions are made clear with symbols on each individual line.)

Finally, while the spider map style favors graphic economy over geographic accuracy, I've included more geographic clues than London maps do. These include the rivers, the Mall, the District boundary, and the quadrants. London's labyrinthine streets are famously difficult to navigate or conceptualize, but the L'Enfant grid is a coherent orientation tool for most Washingtonians. I take advantage of those mental reference points by maintaining some diagonal angles, showing most major turns, and placing all stops in their correct quadrant. This level of fidelity means the map doesn't get quite the spatial compression of London maps, but it still saves space and removes noise from the full-scale District map.

One modification worth considering is adding information on bus transfers. London buses offer better point-to-point service, but in Washington you may want to know what other routes you can pick up. For simplicity's sake, I've omitted them here, but a better design decision would be based on data on the frequency of bus-to-bus transfers.

The spider map is not a standalone solution. It works best with complementary signage, sign-post maps, and timetables that are stop- or route-specific. Personalized tools and mobile applications are critical rider resources as well, and the Mobility Lab's projects hope to add real value here. My bet is that a system of spider maps—not cheap to create, but cheaper than expanded service or capital improvement projects—would increase ridership simply by making the bus less of a mystery.

The concept phase is early planning, including alternatives analysis and environmental clearance. Design is the engineering phase, including Preliminary Engineering (PE). For projects in this phase, conceptual details have been finalized and detailed construction plans are being prepared.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.