Posts about Scott Kubly

With so many projects at critical junctures at DDOT, the prospect of a brain drain is a major challenge for new permanent director Terry Bellamy, new chair of the DC Council Transportation Committee Mary Cheh, and ultimately, Mayor Gray.

In any sector, the best talent is attracted not just by the compensation and responsibilities of a job, but also by the opportunity to work on impactful, cutting-edge projects. When employers create an exciting vision, it attracts talent.

Do talented transportation executives no longer view DDOT as a good place to shape the future of urban transportation in America?

Kubly says he's been thinking of leaving DDOT for some time. He considered leaving after Adrian Fenty lost the primary, but stayed partly because of his admiration for Bellamy and amid encouragement from many quarters to finish the streetcar job he started.

However, he cited a general malaise at DDOT that has grown in recent months. Working for the DC government is not seen as positively today as it was a year or two ago. He said that people now say something like, "I'm sorry," when they hear he works for DC, following the many scandals that have recently plagued the government.

Will more talented people leave DDOT? Will the city be able to attract talented and energetic people to the many now-open positions at the agency? They need to hire (or promote from within) a deputy director to fill Bellamy's previous job, a head of planning to succeed Ricks, a head of finance to replace Treat, and now a head of mass transit for Kubly's job.

In addition, there are several key new positions created at DDOT in the budget, including ward planners and, perhaps most importantly, a parking czar.

These questions are no doubt weighing on Bellamy. DDOT is well-funded in the new budget. But funding positions isn't enough if a bad reputation for DC and low morale at DDOT dissuades talented people from applying.

Ultimately, DDOT is much more than Kubly, Ricks, Treat, Klein and Bellamy. There are scores of excellent, visionary, dedicated public servants working in the trenches, spending long nights reassuring nervous residents, crunching numbers, and designing innovative projects.

Instead of prompting accusations, these departures can and should be a turning point, an opportunity to reassure DDOT employees and rebuild any morale problems that may exist.

Mayor Gray and Director Bellamy need to reach out to DDOT's remaining talented planners, engineers, and analysts. They should give personal assurances that they are still committed to a vision for transportation that transcends politics. They should praise and reward those who take risks to effect change, and perhaps apologize for the way political scandals have dampened the mood at DDOT.

We owe that much to the dedicated planners whose work goes largely unnoticed by most DC residents, yet whose dedication is critical to making Washington a great city.

H Street's streetscape project, in which the streetcar was just one element, will be "significantly complete" by June 30. At that time, all sidewalks, road lanes, and parking spaces will be open.

The streetcar, however, is another matter. Though the District owns a set of streetcars, DDOT is still working out an agreement with Amtrak for access to the old H Street tunnel under the rail yard at Union Station. This tunnel (schematic below) will serve as the western terminus and connection to Union Station until the city rebuilds the Hopscotch Bridge (H Street) in 2015 with the new tracks on the bridge deck.

When the line first opens, the streetcars traveling westbound on H Street NE will enter a new portal in the middle of the bridge Hopscotch Bridge and continue at-grade on a single track toward the old tunnel under the railyard. The Union Station stop will be a single platform just before the tunnel's western portal (yet to be reopened) at 1st St NE.

Mr. Kubly stated that the District and Amtrak are working out details such as how to accommodate Amtrak's current use of the tunnel for employee parking and access under and across the wide railyard.

Though Mr. Kubly was confident the city could reach an agreement with Amtrak for the tunnel, he said the current approved funding plan budgets for contingencies in the unlikely case the agency is unable to route the streetcar under the railyard. The two parties must reach an agreement this summer in order to keep the late-2012 opening date.

When the Union Station terminus opens in late 2012, passengers will walk a short distance down 1st Street NE to Union Station's side entrance.

After the stop opens, DDOT will start construction on a pedestrian passageway to connect the western terminus to the Union Station Metro mezzanine.

The streetcar stop will also include elevators to connect passengers to the Circulator stop two levels up at the bridge deck.

In 2015, DDOT will start reconstruction of the Hopscotch Bridge with the goal of carrying the streetcar line onto the deck of the bridge permanently. The elevators will then ferry passengers down from the streetcar stop to the passageway to the Metro mezzanine. The original track will become a non-revenue access track to the storage and maintenance facility that will remain under the bridge's western approach.

The streetcar system will borrow features of other transit systems in the area. It will run the same hours as Metrorail and will charge the same fares as the Circulator and will accept SmarTrip payments.

When the line opens in late 2012, five cars will be devoted to the H-Benning segment in order to provide 10-minutes headways. Bus service will remain the same.

DDOT is finishing up its RFP to private companies to run and maintain the system. Mr. Kubly stated that they are writing in performance guarantees to ensure the operator provides a basic level of service. For instance, the city will require that the operator tow a broken-down streetcar in a timely manner so the system can keep operating.

This sort of contractual performance guarantee is similar to what DDOT and Arlington require of Alta, the private company that maintains Capital Bikeshare. The District assesses penalties to Alta if any station remains entirely full or empty for more than three hours.

On one issue, though, Mr. Kubly's answer disappoints. The local X buses, which stop nearly every block on H Street, will frequently hold up tailing streetcars since streetcars will only stop every few blocks. Since the buses will stop in the shared rail lane, there will be no way for a streetcar to maneuver around a stopped X bus while passengers slowly board, alight and pay.

One should be skeptical of Mr. Kubly's explanation that these cases won't happen that frequently as any frequent bus rider knows that vehicles bunch up quite often. Ideally, DDOT will work out an agreement with WMATA so that when a bus driver notices that he will delay a streetcar, he will pull aside to let the vehicle pass.

DDOT is also working on adding transit signal prioritization to the traffic lights on H Street. Such a system holds green lights for approaching buses and streetcars to prioritize their movement along a given street. Mr. Kubly stated that Councilmember Tommy Wells (D - Ward 6) has been pushing hard for prioritization along H Street NE.

The lack of signal prioritization is painfully obvious on Portland's streetcar, which frequently approaches traffic lights just as they turn red. It looks as though DC won't repeat Portland's mistake.

As for data openness, Mr. Kubly promised to release all data to the public for integration into custom applications such as real-time maps, arrival predictions, and performance measurement. This is a stark contrast to WMATA's foot-dragging on Google Transit integration.

Residents near H Street NE are happy that the street reconstruction is nearly finished. When the streetcar opens late next year, the final act of the street's physical transformation will be complete.

Thomas touted a soon-to-be-unveiled program where people can apply to be awarded a $50 SmarTrip as encouragement to use public transit more often. He also announced that a formal application had been made to change the name of the New York Avenue/Florida Avenue/Gallaudet University Metro station to NoMa.

WMATA Senior Bus Planner Jim Hamre reviewed bus operation changes that took effect in December, many of which have been discussed at length here, and discussed present and future planning processes.

The average age of the Metrobus fleet is as low as it has ever been, Hamre touted, with the agency having introduced "some of the best buses in America" over the past two years. He also discussed investments that have been made in WMATA's largest bus garage, the Bladensburg Road facility. That facility now houses 226 buses, including the entire compressed natural gas-powered fleet.

Hamre announced the following work that WMATA is undertaking:

• A route 99 express bus will be implemented in 2012, making limited stops along the 90 route between Anacostia Metro and Dupont Circle (diverting from the 90 route at 18th and U Streets NW via Florida Avenue).

• A just-completed study of route B2 (Anacostia to Mount Rainier via Bladensburg Road) recommended that the route be split in half at Stadium-Armory to improve timekeeping. (Interestingly, an X6 bus once ran between Minnesota Avenue Metro and the National Arboretum in an effort to provide better access to the Arboretum, but suffered poor ridership and a funding cut.)

• The E-series crosstown buses are now being analyzed, with public workshops soon to be announced.

• Major service enhancement is planned for the P-series (Anacostia to Rhode Island Avenue Metro via downtown), possibly including the elimination of route P1 or a reroute of P2 to cover more of the P6 route.

• Future studies will focus on route 80, 82 and G8. The 80 route study will consider a new route that would follow North Capitol Street and Blair Road all the way from Union Station to Takoma.

• Beginning in June, WMATA will undertake a two-year program to replace all the bus stop flags in the system with ones that have reflective coating, larger type, and show the stop ID number and the NextBus phone number and website on the flag.

Other areas WMATA is investigating include improving bus connections to three of the four future DC Walmart locations, expanding bus capacity at Fort Totten Metro, and improving the movement of buses along New York Avenue (the way most buses get from the Bladensburg garage to their assigned routes). For all future bus improvements, Hamre reminded the audience, local funding is key.

DDOT Progressive Transportation Services Director Scott Kubly reviewed his division's progress towards meeting the goal of doubling Capital Bikeshare's reach within two years. He announced that CaBi just broke 9,000 members, and is now the most well-used bikeshare system in the world on a per-bicycle basis: 3,000 daily trips are made on CaBi, more than half the number who ride Arlington County's ART bus system every day.

Finally, Kubly touched on efforts to improve pedestrian and bicycle access to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station, including the construction of a bike/pedestrian bridge over the CSX railroad tracks to connect to the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

During the question-and-answer session, attendees unleashed complaints about their difficulties getting around on transit. An Edgewood resident says she now drives to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station to get to work downtown rather than wait for the unreliable and slow G8 or D8 buses. A Trinidad resident asked what could be done to calm speeding traffic on Florida Avenue NE. There were numerous complaints of bus bunching and NextBus's unreliability.