Author: Cheryl Cort

CSG in the News: New report card gives Metrobus service in the District a failing grade

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

CSG in the Washington Post: New report card gives Metrobus service in the District a failing grade

But an analysis says there’s hope for a better bus system if recommendations are carried out.

by Luz Lazo, Washington Post, July 10, 2019

Despite efforts to improve bus service in the District to make it a more attractive option for travel, it continues to be slow and unreliable, with some saying the situation has reached a crisis point.

A report card to be released Wednesday gives Metrobus a grade of D — barely passing.

“Transit is really in crisis,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which co-sponsored the report along with the MetroHero commute app. “We have been losing riders for quite a few years, and the speed and reliability of the bus just continues to decline.”

Metrobus’s grade was pulled down by some of its biggest — and well-known — problems: buses are commonly stuck in traffic gridlock, they aren’t properly spaced, and they are chronically late.

The good news is the system, which for a long time was an afterthought in a region that prioritizes Metro, is getting some attention….

The report card unveiled Wednesday concurs with the recommendations by the  [Metro-led Bus Transformation] transportation project. Among them are making boarding easier through mobile or offboard payment systems; enhancing affordable options with free transfers between bus and rail and reduced-fare passes for low-income riders; and improving the rider experience with efficient next-bus technology, modern fleets, clear system maps, and safe and accessible bus stops….

The District this summer launched the H and I street NW bus lanes, aimed at speeding travel of about 70 buses an hour in the downtown corridors. Hill said that though the bus lanes are only a pilot, she hopes they will be made permanent. The District is also moving toward construction of a long-planned bus lane on 16th Street NW and a transitway in the congested K Street corridor, which carries a bulk of the routes servicing downtown.

“This is the right direction. These are the things D.C. should be doing,” she [co-author Jennifer Hill] said.

[Poll: Majority of Washington-area residents support bus-only lanes.]

Jeff Marootian, director of the District Department of Transportation, said the recent investments in the downtown bus lanes, along with the other bus priority plans, will make buses more attractive to riders and are part of the city’s strategy to decrease congestion and make the District’s transportation more sustainable.

Read the full Washington Post story here.

RELEASE: DC Bus Service gets a “D” on its Report Card

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

       

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 10, 2019

CONTACT

Cheryl Cort, Coalition for Smarter Growth

202-675-0016

cheryl@smartergrowth.net

 

DC Bus Service gets a “D” on its Report Card

Groups highlight how DC buses can be faster and more reliable

D.C. – Today, Coalition for Smarter Growth and MetroHero released a first-ever performance-based DC Bus Report Card. Developed from real-time data collected in May 2019 by MetroHero, the report shows DC’s major bus routes suffer from poor reliability and sluggish speeds, factors that are likely major contributors to the system’s declining ridership. The analysis of the report card can be found here.

“Our analysis shows the challenges Metrobus riders encounter on a daily basis. On the city’s priority corridors with high-ridership routes, we found service to be generally unreliable and unpredictable, with speeds slower than 10 mph,” said Jennifer Hill, Ph.D., Lead Researcher at MetroHero.

“The slow speeds and lack of on-time reliability are contributing factors in declining ridership. But we know how to turn this around: give buses priority on the streets, speed up boarding, balance bus stop spacing, and provide customer-focused service,” said Cheryl Cort, Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

MetroHero analyzed bus performance for 34 routes in DC’s highest ridership corridors in May 2019, focusing on three key factors: adherence to designated headways, adherence to scheduled arrival times, and average travel speed. Bus speeds on these routes averaged just 9.5 mph over the entire month, confirming other data showing that Metrobus speeds across the entire system have been getting slower every year.

“We hope that this report will be a useful tool to inform decision-makers about where DC’s buses need the most help and what solutions will have the greatest impact for riders,” said Hill.

DC and Metro are stepping up to implement improvements to bus service. DC recently implemented pilot bus lanes on H and I Streets downtown, and is planning to run bus lanes on 16th Street and K Street in the near future. The city has also implemented traffic signal priority and queue jumps on several corridors.

On an average weekday, Metrobuses transport over 200,000 riders around the District of Columbia to and from work, school, doctor appointments, grocery stores, entertainment, and more. Buses offer transit service far beyond the reach of Metrorail.

“This is an important moment for DC’s bus service. Buses are the most efficient use of limited public street space for moving people, and critical if the city is to grow without choking on traffic. We are encouraged by recent city actions, but urge the Bowser administration to make moving buses truly a top priority on our city’s streets,” said Cort.

About the Coalition for Smarter Growth

The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.

About MetroHero

MetroHero (www.dcmetrohero.com), which began as a simple app designed to visualize real-time train positions in the D.C. Metrorail system, has been monitoring and providing performance metrics on WMATA’s trains for over three years. The app has gained popularity with many area commuters, averaging roughly 15,000 unique users every month, largely due to its unique real-time visualizations of the current state of the Metrorail system, from train delays and service outages to user-driven reports of inconveniences such as station crowding and broken intercoms. In September 2018, the MetroHero team extended a number of their train performance tracking algorithms to the Metrobus system, which they used to gather performance data for the report card.

 

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CSG support for Prince George’s Countywide Sectional Map Amendment

Posted on by Cheryl Cort
CSG Support of Prince George’s County Council advancing SMA

July 2, 2019
The Honorable Todd Turner, Chairman
Committee of the Whole
Prince George’s County Council
RE: Support for:
CB-011-2019, An Ordinance Concerning the Countywide Sectional Map Amendment;
CR-026-2019, A Resolution Concerning the Countywide Sectional Map Amendment;
CR-027-2019, A Resolution Concerning Preparation of a Countywide Sectional Map Amendment and Approval of Goals, Concepts, and Guidelines; and Public Participation Program
Dear Chair Turner and members of the committee:
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization working locally in the Washington, DC metropolitan region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish.
We wish to express our support for initiating the countywide sectional map amendment to advance the implementation of the zoning rewrite enacted by this Council in the fall of 2018. This zoning rewrite is a significant advance for the county. We appreciate that this is an important change for the county, and we commend the level of public engagement required to implement the countywide sectional map amendment.
This change is worth the effort because it replaces the county’s current obsolete and cumbersome zoning regulations which are holding back the county. Here are some of the ways the zoning and subdivision process will improve:
  • Design and building form standards: the document establishes transit-oriented zones at the local and regional scales to support the goals of walkable urbanism, creating walkable, and bikable areas that are well-connected to transit;
  • Parking standards for urban and transit-oriented areas: the zoning rewrite reduces excessive minimum parking requirements in transit-oriented centers in order to support more multimodal designs and uses.
  • Street designs: the revisions require interconnected streets, shorter blocks, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. It implements newly adopted urban street design standards that support walk and bike friendly streets.
  • Transportation demand management: the regulations also establish progressive traffic reduction measures that emphasize encouraging more people to ride transit if available, bicycle, share rides and walk.
  • Ease of use: The zoning and subdivision regulations are presented in a more readable format providing tables and graphic illustrations to better understand and visualize the standards.
  • Ending perpetual approvals: The proposed rules establish limits on approvals after a number of years. Today, approvals are allowed to live on forever, despite significant changes that may occur after initially projected conditions. While some of the provisions seem overly generous, setting the proposed limits would be a big step forward for the county.
Adopt this critical reform
We believe implementation of the zoning and subdivision rewrite is a tremendous improvement for the county and the community. It is a once in a generation opportunity. We urge the Council to vote to initiate the countywide sectional map amendment process in order to keep the zoning rewrite timeline on track. The countywide sectional map amendment is the next essential step to ensuring the timely implementation of the county’s modernized zoning and subdivision regulations.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Cort
Policy Director
CSG Support of PGC advancing SMA

Tell Councilmember Todd you support flexible commute options!

Posted on by Cheryl Cort
 We’ve got to convince Councilmember Todd to vote for flexible commuter benefits

For several years, we’ve been working on a bill at the D.C. Council for flexible commuter benefits. The bill would let anyone who gets a parking benefit from their employer to put the equivalent value towards their biking, bus, Metro, or walking commute. It’s a change that would give D.C. workers more flexibility and take cars off the road – at no additional cost to employers.

We are now at a political crossroads. To advance the bill out of the Council committee, we need one more vote – either Councilmember McDuffie or Todd (we’ve already got Councilmembers Cheh and Allen). Please help us encourage these Councilmembers to support the bill. Show your Councilmember that his constituents are paying attention and want flexible commuter benefits!

Click here to let Councilmember Todd know that you support this important bill.

What’s in the bill?

The Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act 2019 Bill 23-148 builds on the existing pre-tax transit benefit employers offer to employees at no cost. This bill requires that if an employee turns down a parking space offered by their employer, they would be provided the equivalent value for an alternative commute benefit – like riding transit, walking or bicycling.

B23-148 is largely the same as last year’s bill, applying to employers with 20 or more employees that choose to subsidize employee car parking. One change in the reintroduced bill exempts employers that own their parking spaces. While the Coalition for Smarter Growth is disappointed in this provision, overall, B23-148 is an important bill to reduce traffic and pollution, encourage more sustainable commuting, and give employees better transportation choices.

Email your councilmember today.

To win this groundbreaking commuter benefits bill, we need you! As a constituent of Ward 4 Councilmember Todd, let him know that you to support this bill.

Want to do more? Call Councilmember Todd‘s office 202-724-8052 and politely tell their staff (or leave a voicemail) that you support the commuter benefits bill (Bill 23-148).

Have questions on the policy, the details, or what else we have to say on flexible commuter benefits? Check out our factsheet here, and our issue page here, or reply to this email with your question!

 

Photo/credit Womanonbike_KevinKovaleskiDDOT_wordpress

CSG in the News: ADUs gaining in popularity across the country

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Cities’ interest in granny flats at ‘fever pitch’ amid U.S. housing crisis

by Carey L. Biron, MAY 20, 2019, Reuters

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The U.S. capital is one of the most expensive cities in the country, but Derek Wright hopes to cover his housing costs with a novel strategy that local officials are keen to foster: He is becoming a small-scale landlord.

Very small-scale, that is. Wright is applying for a permit to turn his townhouse’s basement into a separate home, the rent from which he expects will cover more than half of his mortgage.

These types of projects are technically known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), but are also called “granny flats”, “mother-in-law suites” or “English basements”….

And they are gaining popularity around the country, said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the non-profit Coalition for Smarter Growth, as policymakers in expensive cities look to them as a way to boost affordable housing.

Granny flats offer a low-cost housing solution because the land is already paid for, she said, and they are often built in more central parts of the city.

They have long been allowed in Washington, but in 2016 city officials tweaked the application rules with the aim of making the process easier, said Cort.

The city struck down various prohibitions and made it so “a homeowner can build one as a matter of right, for the most part,” she added.

Ileana Schinder, the architect who worked with Fazio and Wright on the designs and city approvals for their projects, said she has overseen the construction of about 20 granny flats in Washington over the past few years — and interest is climbing.

Many of Schinder’s prospective clients have been young families looking for additional income so they can stay in the city, as well as older people who need the financial boost to continue living in their homes….

View full story here.

WaPo: ‘These lanes are for buses only’: Enforcement of new downtown bus lanes begins

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

‘These lanes are for buses only’: Enforcement of new downtown bus lanes begins

by Luz Lazo, Washington Post, June 3, 2019

New bus lanes on H and I streets NW go live this morning, and that means new traffic patterns for thousands of drivers who travel along two of the District’s busiest corridors.

The new rush-hour-only lanes have been distinctively marked with red paint, have “Bus Only” markings on them and signs on each block detailing the hours of operation to make it clear to motorists to stay out of them during the morning and afternoon rush…..

“Enforcement is obviously key,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which has been advocating for bus lanes. “We need to make sure the rules are clear and understandable, and we need to get to full compliance.”

View the whole story here.

Stop Gov. Hogan’s Toll Lanes at the MD Board of Public Works

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Protect MD taxpayers by putting the brakes on a rushed Beltway/I-270 P3 deal

Governor Hogan and MDOT Secretary Rahn are bulldozing ahead with their proposal for massive toll lane expansion on the Capital Beltway and I-270 – four new lanes on each highway at an estimated cost of $9 billion to $11 billion dollars. There are so many things wrong with this deal we won’t be able to tell you all of them.

A crucial vote will take place Wednesday, June 5, 2019, at the Maryland Board of Public Works: whether to authorize this for a Public-Private Partnership (P3) deal. This powerful body can say yes, no, or pull it off the agenda to allow for further review. Only the Governor, State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, and State Comptroller Peter Franchot sit on the Board, and Peter Franchot is the swing vote.

Take Action: Email Comptroller Franchot today and urge him to join Treasurer Kopp in putting the brakes on this project.

As Comptroller, Franchot has a responsibility to Maryland taxpayers and Franchot should vote to delay the vote pending more in-depth and independent review. The Pre-Solicitation Report includes clauses that put taxpayers at risk:

  1. If the toll road developer defaults on its commitments, and Maryland wishes to terminate – the state will still have to pay partial compensation to the developer’s lenders.
  2. If a court issues a ruling that blocks the project (such as for environmental impacts) the toll road developer must be compensated.
  3. Lawyers working for the state have hatched a complex scheme called the “MDTA notes” to get around legal obstacles that could impede the financing of the toll lanes. Not enough has been disclosed about this scheme for outsiders to judge whether it will work, whether it will put state taxpayers at risk, or whether it is even legal.

This proposed deal bears all the hallmarks of Virginia’s early disastrous P-3 deals, which included paying $300 million for a highway never built, and a tunnel deal with exorbitant tolls that required state payments to reduce the tolls. The main argument for doing a P3 per P3 supporters is to shift the risk to the private sector. That’s not happening here. See this critical report on the Virginia issues.

Take Action: Email Comptroller Franchot today and urge him to join Treasurer Kopp in putting the brakes on this project.

Meanwhile, Franchot shouldn’t take the Washington Post’s portrayal of its poll as indicating widespread support for the toll lanes. While 61% support the toll road at first, when people are next asked about their concerns, those concerns are overwhelming and very real:

  • 73% of people are very or somewhat concerned about the loss of homes
  • 69% of people very or somewhat concerned that the road will be too expensive to use
  • 68% of people very or somewhat concerned that the road will not reduce congestion

The Post never asked the important follow-up question – something like: “Upon reflection, if these issues are indeed the case, do you support or oppose the toll lanes?”

Secretary Rahn’s is playing on the real frustration with congestion. But new and expanded highways in metropolitan areas fill up in as little as five years. The general-purpose lanes will fill up again. In fact, the toll road operator depends on general-purpose lanes staying congested, and increasing capacity on the Beltway and I-270 will also lead to more congestion on connecting roads.

It’s never a good idea to start with your conclusion and then bias the whole process. But that’s what’s happening here and happened with Virginia’s early P3 deals. The Governor and Secretary have:

  1. Refused to study a smart growth alternative
  2. Rejected all transit alternatives
  3. Refused to complete the environmental and community impact analysis before they plan to solicit bids from toll road companies
  4. Failed to be transparent to our legislators and the public, blocking legislation that would protect the public and the environment

The most effective long-term response to traffic is smart growth – creating more walkable, transit-oriented communities (building out our Metro stations in Prince George’s and Montgomery), combined with more transit (Purple Line, MARC, Metro, Bus Rapid Transit), and demand management incentives like expanded transit benefits. This is the only way to handle our population growth without more traffic. The Council of Government’s Long-Range Transportation Plan study (see Phase II Executive Summary Table E3) showed that Balanced Land Use, Demand Management, Bus Rapid Transit networks, and Metro all performed better than toll lanes as regional solutions.

It’s time to stop the headlong rush into a bad decision and a bad deal.

Email Comptroller Franchot today!

Thank you,

Stewart Schwartz

Executive Director

Together, we saved the D.C. Affordable Housing Preservation Fund

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

D.C. Council restores money to the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund!

On May 28, 2019, the D.C. Council voted to allocate $11.5 million for the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund  – one of D.C.’s critical tools to preserve affordable housing and prevent displacement. When we contacted you on Friday asking you to take action, it was because the D.C. Council had amended the Mayor’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget and reduced the funding for the Preservation Fund from $15 million to zero.

Nearly 100 of CSG activists rose to the challenge, and thanks to your letters and comments, by the time the Council reconvened on Tuesday, they had restored $7.5 million to the Preservation Fund! In a final switch, the D.C. Council voted to take $4 million out of the Housing Production Trust Fund and put it into the Preservation Fund, resulting in a final allocation of $11.5 million. Restoring funding was a huge lift and we could not have done it without you!

While CSG is disappointed that this additional funding came from the Housing Production Trust Fund, which helps to fund the production and rehabilitation of affordable units, the Preservation Fund provides the money for the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and District Opportunity to Purchase Act (DOPA). Giving tenants an opportunity to purchase their homes is a critical tool to prevent displacement, and we are confident this money will be put to good use. Last year, the Preservation Fund saved nearly 900 affordable homes across the entire city.

We are so grateful to everyone for taking action in the run up to a long weekend to ensure that this critical fund continues to support tenants and the District as they seek to buy buildings and preserve them as affordable housing.