Category: District of Columbia

At 16th Street NW, a divisive bus-lane proposal

Posted on by acustis
Along the busy 16th Street corridor, the bus stops are crowded with frustrated riders. Traffic congestion causes frequent delays. When buses do arrive, they often are too full to pick up more passengers.Now riders, smart-growth advocates and Metro officials say the chronic commuting problems in one of the District’s top bus corridors could have a simple solution: a dedicated bus lane.

The concept, popular among transit users, is worrisome to many drivers who use the route and some residents of the corridor, who fear a bus lane, even restricted to rush hours, would reduce already scarce parking.The proposal also puts the District in a tough position as the home of some of the nation’s worst traffic congestion aims to become more transit-centric, pitting the needs of suburban residents who commute to the city by private vehicle against those of the growing number of D.C. resident who rely on public transportation.

Read the original article at Washington Post >>

“Public transportation needs to supersede the convenience of suburban commuters,” said Sarah Spurgeon, an attorney who rides the S Line buses from her home near U Street. “There is just so much traffic coming from the suburbs down 16th . . . we need to focus on good transportation within the city center.”

Residents have sent letters and spoken at public meetings in support of the proposal. They say the city should have bus lanes, just as it has bike lanes, and cite a District Department of Transportation study recommending a bus lane in the corridor. Smart-growth advocates are gathering signatures in support of the effort. And Metro says a bus lane is necessary if it is to provide dependable service.

“Unless you address the congestion problem that the buses are facing, nothing is going to change,” said Kishan Putta, a member of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for Dupont Circle and a bus user who lives near 16th and R streets.

Bus lanes that take away a lane for regular traffic are generally not popular, but transportation officials are increasingly viewing them as critical to comprehensive transit networks. Arlington County and the city of Alexandria are set to open the region’s first bus-only lanes this year. The five-mile stretch connecting the Braddock Road and Crystal City Metro stations will offer traffic-free bus travel, frequent service and off-board payment. Montgomery County is studying an ambitious plan to build a system of express bus lanes. And in the District, Metro and DDOT also are exploring bus-only lanes along H and I streets NW.

Increasing ridership in the 16th Street corridor warrants consideration of a dedicated lane, said Jim Hamre, director of bus planning for Metro.

Metro has added buses to the corridor and in 2009 launched a limited-stop bus route. But as service has increased, so has demand.

Metrobus carries about 50 percent of the people traveling 16th Street from Silver Spring to downtown D.C. each morning, yet buses comprise only 3 percent of the vehicles traveling the roadway, Metro said. They get stuck in traffic, sometimes traveling at speeds of less than 10 miles per hour, according to the agency.

No room for more

By the time the bus arrived at the 16th and U streets stop one morning last week, bodies were squeezed up against the exit doors. A glimpse up 16th Street showed a cluster of buses slowly making its way through heavy traffic.

“You wait a long time and see many, many buses pass by,” Catherine Depret said as she and her 22-month-old son waited at 16th and Corcoran for a bus to get him to day care. On a good morning, they might wait 15 minutes. On a bad day, she is forced to take a cab.

When Depret arrived at the stop at 8:30 a.m., an S4 bus had just left. Three other people were waiting at the stop. At 8:36, an approaching S2 stops a few yards away from the bus shelter, and a woman and a child get off. The bus takes off, leaving behind a dozen people.

By 8:40, four crowded buses have passed by without stopping. One woman starts walking west toward Dupont Circle. A man begins to head south toward the White House.

“When it’s cold or raining, it’s really not fun, especially if you see four, five or even six buses go by,” Depret said.

A fifth bus arrives at 8:46, with limited standing room, and those remaining at the stop crowd on.

Metrobus ridership in the corridor has increased 25 percent in the past four years, Metro said, and the agency expects that trend to continue as people move back to the city, particularly to areas such as Columbia Heights and Dupont Circle. The S Line carries more than 20,000 passengers daily — an average of 4,237 during the morning rush hour alone.

Since the launch of the limited-stop S9, Metro has extended the S9 service from 7 to 9:30 p.m. In 2012, larger buses were added to the night runs to meet the demands of workers who often were passed up by full buses after 10 p.m. Last year, Metro added nine morning S2 trips, starting at Harvard Street, to ease crowding in the southern portion of the corridor. Longer buses have been shifted from the Georgia Avenue Line to increase capacity. And this month, Metro started running emergency buses on the route when people are left behind by crowded buses.

“Bus lanes will help,” Hamre said.

Considering the trade-offs

But some riders say traffic congestion isn’t the problem. They say there simply aren’t enough buses.

“There aren’t enough buses to pick up everyone,” said Ronnie J. Kweller, who lives just south of U Street. “Watching a full bus pass by in a dedicated lane does not help anyone get where they need to go.”

Kweller said she also worries about the possibility of a bus lane taking away parking in an area where it is already tight. “It will be a real hardship to people who have cars and need to park them safely, lawfully and relatively close to home,” she said.

The impact on parking and car lanes will be studied if the city decides to officially consider the idea, said Sam Zimbabwe, associate director for policy and planning at DDOT. The department’s master plan, MoveDC, scheduled for release this spring, is expected to include the transit lane alternative for 16th Street.

“You couldn’t just add a bus lane without any changes. You will need to be taking a car lane or parking. There are some trade-offs in there,” Zimbabwe said. But, he said, “we are probably years away from having a dedicated bus lane on 16th Street.”

The southern portion of the corridor, in particular, presents challenges because of its two- lane configuration. A stretch in the central part of the corridor already has an alternative lane, so during the morning rush three lanes are southbound. If a bus lane were to be designated, the area would still have two lanes for general traffic.

A 2013 DDOT study of the corridor recommends a peak-hour transit lane extending 2.7 miles between Arkansas Avenue and H Street NW. The bus lane has potential to increase transit travel speeds by 30 percent and accommodate up to a 10 percent increase in ridership, the report says. But it also would affect parking, currently permitted on portions of 16th Street NW during peak periods, and could create more vehicular delays at some of the busiest intersections, according to the report.

Drivers dealing with an already bad commute would suffer more with a bus-only lane, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson said.

“Sixteenth Street is a mess, but for them to suggest that it is okay to take a lane and dedicate it to buses . . . is not an acceptable solution,” he said. “I don’t think the cars hold up the buses particularly. Everybody moves along about the same speed. We are all stuck in it together.”

A better solution, Anderson said, would be fast-tracking Metro’s plan for a traffic signal priority program at 16th Street that would allow buses the green light, which could speed bus travel.

Although transit advocates agree the signal initiative is part of the solution, they say freeing the buses from the general traffic will get them moving faster and allow them to make more trips. Metro already has 42 bus trips in the corridor in the 8 a.m. hour. That’s one bus every 85 seconds, more than the minimum required for a successful bus lane, officials say.

“We are seeing folks using all the available space on those buses,” Hamre said. “At the current rate of growth, we need something else.”

 

 

Crowding Prompts Renewed Calls For Rush Hour Bus Lane On 16th Street

Posted on by acustis

If you stand at a bus stop on 16th Street NW south of the U Street intersection after 8 a.m. on a typical weekday, there’s a good chance the next S line bus heading downtown will not stop to pick you up. It’s nothing personal. The driver simply cannot fit any more passengers on board.

The S line carries commuters from Silver Spring downtown.

More buses, same problem

Despite the recent addition of buses to augment service in the busiest part of morning rush hour — more than 40 S line buses travel the route between 8 and 9 a.m. — supply still does not meet demand on 16th St., now the busiest bus corridor in Washington D.C., with more than 21,000 weekday riders. The ridership explosion of 25 percent since 2009 has been fueled by the growing population in Columbia Heights and Dupont Circle, two neighborhoods in a city where forty percent of households are car-free and thus dependent on transit.

The inadequate service is not caused by a lack of buses. Traffic congestion continues to slow down the S line no matter how many more buses Metro adds to the mix (the transit authority currently runs 27 to 42 buses per hour during morning and afternoon rush hour), causing not only crowding but also eliminating spacing between buses. It is now common for commuters to watch two or three buses pass them within seconds of one another.

“Three S1s will pass by and I will be out here for 45 minutes waiting for one,” said Emma Kelsy as she stood at the bus stop at 16th St. and Corcoran St. Her commute only takes 20 minutes once she boards a bus.

New calls for bus lane

Commuters’ frustrations are prompting neighborhood representatives and transit advocates to call on the District Department of Transportation to act on the recommendations of the agency’s own studies and implement a rush hour bus lane on 16th Street NW from Columbia Heights all the way downtown, a total of 2.7 miles. DDOT has yet to fully commit to the idea, although agency planners say they will continue to study how the bus lane would work without significantly affecting car traffic or parking.

“Peoples commutes’ are just unpredictable now. They have to wait 5 minutes or 20 minutes or longer for a bus and it’s just becoming untenable for them to get to work,” said Kishan Putta, a Dupont Circle ANC commissioner who has been lobbying DDOT and the District Council since last year. In response to public pressure, most of the D.C. mayoral candidates have come out in support.

One morning this week, Putta asked commuters waiting at bus stops along 16th Street to sign a petition calling on officials to move ahead on the project. As he spoke to this reporter for about 45 minutes in the heart of rush hour, as many buses failed to stop as did stop at 16th and Corcoran. Each one that blew by was bursting with commuters. Some of those left standing on the sidewalk simply gave up and hailed a taxi.

“If you were to add more buses to this already congested route it would just add to the congestion, so we should also have a quicker way for them to get to work. The idea of dedicated bus lanes is new to D.C. but it’s not new in the world or in America,” Putta said.

DDOT study cites benefits and drawbacks

An internal DDOT study completed in 2013 recommended “key immediate next steps” to pursue, including starting the environmental impact process under NEPA, but it remains unclear when the agency will move.

“That study found there were potential benefits to bus lanes going downtown but there were also some big trade-offs. We felt the benefits were worth continuing to pursue. That doesn’t mean we are going to go out tomorrow and start installing them,” said Sam Zimbabwe, DDOT’s associate director for planning, policy and sustainability. “I can tell you it won’t be by the end of this year that we’ll have a dedicated bus lane.”

The internal study said the environmental process should begin after “DDOT’s long range transportation plan confirms high level goals.”

“We are looking at what will take us to the next stage in the process,” Zimbabwe added. “It will take us completing our long-range plan and understanding how this fits in to our priorities city-wide.”

Transit backers to DDOT: get moving

Transit advocates would like to see more urgency at the agency.

“DDOT needs to push. They have looked at this and talked about it for a while, but they need to hear from the public that we need to deliver better transportation service in this corridor,” said Cheryl Cort, the policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “With half of all 16th Street travelers on buses [during rush hour] we need to use these resources more efficiently. We just can’t keep adding more buses.”

According to the internal DDOT study, “Peak-hour Peak-direction Transit lanes are estimated to have the following benefits: increase transit travel speeds by 30-percent; and accommodate up to a 10-percent increase in person demand.”

The study also determined the bus lane could cause an “increase in vehicular delays at critical intersections along the corridor, including U Street, the Columbia/Harvard/Argonne intersections and R Street; and an inability to reduce crossing distances and vehicle exposure for pedestrians.”

The layout of 16th St. south of U St. is another obstacle. Although the road remains the same width (about 50 feet), it narrows from five painted lanes to four. Cort said 16th St. would have to be restriped to allow one bus lane and two lanes of mixed traffic in the rush hour direction (downtown in the morning, uptown in the afternoon), while keeping the off-peak side the same with one lane for traffic and one for parking.

“We don’t have to take away any parking,” Cort said.

Bikes and right-turning vehicles would be allowed in the bus lane, but a more detailed study is necessary to determine if taxis would interfere with operations, Cort added.

Metro supports bus lane

Metro, which has added more and longer buses to meet the demand in the 16th St. corridor, also supports a dedicated bus lane.

“We have recommended a bus lane be considered for implementation, but that is a DDOT decision,” said Jim Hamre, Metro’s director for bus planning and scheduling. “There are some physical challenges, but most of those can be overcome through thoughtful design and the little nip and tuck of a curb line here and there. The biggest challenges we face are policy and pragmatism.”

Meantime, Metro has chosen a contractor to begin testing traffic signal prioritization in five bus corridors in Washington, including 16th Street NW. Woodbury, New York-based Clever Devices is tasked with designing, testing, and implementing technology that will allow buses to keep consecutive traffic signals green. Hamre said the goal is to start implementation by the end of the year in collaboration with DDOT, which has the final word on the schedule.

DDOT is close to beginning construction on a dedicated bus lane on another congested corridor in Northwest: Georgia Avenue from Florida Avenue to Barry Place. The lane would be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Construction is expected to begin late this year. The 70 bus line carries more than 21,000 weekday riders, the second busiest bus corridor in D.C. behind the S line on 16th Street.

 Read the original article on WAMU >>

D.C. digs itself out from latest snowstorm and deals with icy roads

D.C. digs itself out from latest snowstorm and deals with icy roads

Posted on by Max Potter

Washington was in motion again Tuesday, one day after an icy snowstorm shut down the region, but many drivers inched along many minimally plowed neighborhood streets and pedestrians did the slip and slide on miles of sidewalks untouched by shovels.

Mother Nature may play out the hand she dealt Monday, trumping snow and ice with warmer weather that’s forecast to arrive Wednesday and continue through the weekend. A major melting should start by Friday, with high temperatures near or above 50 expected for five consecutive days, according to forecasts.

A combination of factors made snow removal challenging in the aftermath of the storm and into Tuesday. Roads normally treated before the first snowfall were left bare Monday because the rain that fell first would have washed the treatment away. The freezing rain that fell next left a crust of ice once the plows cleared the snow. Overnight and into the morning, frigid weather — with temperatures in the single digits most places — inhibited salt’s ability to chew through that ice.

“With the temperatures being so cold, and especially last night, we had a refreeze,” said Carol Terry, a spokeswoman with Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation. “Some of those areas refroze. So it takes a little more plowing than usual. After it gets so cold, the salt doesn’t even work. We are hoping that it warms up.”

She said that the county’s major roads were in good shape but that residential roads still needed plowing.

Late Tuesday afternoon in the neighborhoods around Catholic University in the District, plow operations had shifted into the “mop up stage” as veteran driver Michael Miller steered his 40,000-pound truck onto the roads. His target was the narrow residential streets. He and other drivers were hoping to clear leftover snow and treat the roads, cleared but still slick,with salt before it refroze overnight, causing even more problems.

It was Miller’s second 12-hour shift. On Monday, he started clearing major roads — Michigan Avenue, North Capitol near and around the university and streets at nearby Washington Hospital Center — at noon, when snowfall and roads were at their worst. Still, Miller, who’s been doing the job for almost three decades, said he’d seen worse. Way worse.

“The main thing is the temperature,” he said. “It got dicey [Monday] evening, when everything that was treated froze up.”

Joan Morris of the Virginia Department of Transportation said that patches of snow and ice remained on the shoulders and turn lanes of some major roadways on Tuesday.

“Typically, we could knock that out in one day,” she said, but when temperatures fell below 20 degrees, salt no longer worked as well to melt ice.

VDOT, which is responsible for all roads and neighborhood streets in Northern Virginia, hoped to clear a path through every subdivision road by the end of the day Tuesday. Curb-to-curb plowing in those neighborhoods, Morris said, would “take them forever.”

Sharon Bulova (D), chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who has been critical of VDOT’s snow removal in the past, said: “This winter, they’ve done a much better job than they’ve ever done before. In the past, there was a lot that we’ve criticized them for. This time, there was nothing to complain about. VDOT has improved their performance in clearing the roads of snow just incredibly.”

Bulova also said that federal and local governments in the region have taken steps to improve the situation by communicating closures the night before and allowing more government employees to work from home, keeping more cars off the road. Federal agencies, in particular, learned an important lesson after a massive traffic jam last year when the government released all of its workers early, at the same time, and drivers spent several hours trying to get home, she said.

The gusty wind that came in with the snow and ice also hindered cleanup operations, officials said.

“Strong winds kept blowing snow back onto roads, requiring crews to repeatedly clear main and emergency routes before plowing neighborhoods,” said Montgomery County spokeswoman Esther Bowring.

This was the 25th storm in Montgomery this winter, which has had a total of 50 inches of ice and snow so far, Bowring said.

“There is that hard, crusty layer that is impossible to remove with just one plow,” she said. “We have been able to get into all the neighborhoods, but we realize that a lot of the neighborhood streets are very packed. So now the crews are going back out and trying to do more to try to make them more passable.”

Loudoun County officials issued an alert Tuesday warning drivers that the roads were still dangerous “because the snow’s consistency is more like ice than powder” and because low temperatures will keep refreezing the surface for several days.

Icy or unshoveled sidewalks posed a particular problem in many places.

“There is no sensible way of clearing snow from sidewalks,” said Akshay Birla, 26, a Columbia Heights resident. “D.C. is such a heavy commuter city, in terms of public transit and walking, as opposed to driving, that it makes sense to have some sort of strategy to make sure that people can get to work.”

Even walking a block from his home to the Giant grocery store on Park Road on Monday was impossible, he said.

Cheryl Cort, the policy director with the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said the region as a whole should look at creating a more comprehensive policy for clearing ice and snow from sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

“We put a lot of resources into clearing roads, but it is left up to individuals to clear sidewalks and intersections to cross. There needs to be more attention to prioritizing pedestrian routes. It’s got to be more than asking property owners to clear the sidewalks.”

Manassas residents face some of the region’s strictest sidewalk-shoveling policies, while just across the city border in Prince William County, there is no law mandating that residents shovel their walks at all.

Manassas residents have 12 hours to shovel their sidewalks once the snow stops — during the day. (For snow that stops overnight, homeowners have until 5 p.m. the next day.) Now that the 12-hour period is over for this storm, city officials are busy leaving notices at homes with snowy walks. There is no fine for failure to comply with the rules, but if residents fail to shovel after receiving a written warning, the city will do it for them — at a cost, Street Maintenance Manager Russ Graham said.

Graham recalled one homeowner’s association that received a bill for almost $1,000 when the city cleared all its sidewalks several years ago. He said that the city has not had to bill an individual homeowner in recent years, though. A warning is usually enough.

Prince George’s officials said they were receiving complaints about icy sidewalks. Inspectors were out Tuesday to warn property owners to clear sidewalks by 3 p.m. Wednesday, said Gary Cunningham, deputy director of the county’s department of permitting, inspections and enforcement.

Read the original article on the Washington Post >>

ANCs Push for 16th Street Bus Lanes

Posted on by acustis

An effort is underway to have local Advisory Neigbhorhood Commissions (ANCs) pass nearly identical resolutions urging more progress on proposed dedicated bus lanes on 16th Street NW.

ANC 2B/Dupont Circle passed the resolution (available here) at its last meeting on February 17th, by a vote of 6-0 with one abstention. On February 20th, the Transportation Committee of ANC1B/U Street voted to recommend the full ANC approve a similar resolution. The recommendation was passed by a voice vote with no audible objections. ANC1B will probably vote on the resolution at its next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 6, at the Reeves Center (14th and U Streets).

ANC2B Commissioner Kishan Putta (district 04) and Cheryl Cort, Policy Director of theCoalition for Smarter Growth, appeared before the ANC1B Transportation Committee to urge they endorse the resolution. Cort said the purpose of the resolution was to urge the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to move forward on the long series of public consultations and studies (e.g., air quality approval, environmental assessment) necessary before the lanes can become a reality.

“We’d like them to go through the whole process,” Cort said.

The committee discussed the exact definition of a dedicated bus lane. Such a lane, in this case, would also allow bicycles and right-turning cars and taxis.  If not turning right, taxis would be forbidden from the bus lanes.

ANC1B Chair James Turner (district 09), although not a member of the Transportation Committee, was present at the meeting. He said he wouldn’t support the resolution, because it does nothing to address the congestion problems of buses that pass through his district, for example, buses that travel on 14th Street, 11th Street, and Georgia Avenue. Cort replied improved 16th Street service would draw off riders currently taking 14th Street buses, relieving congestion.

The ANC1B version of the resolution will have some additional language in it pointing out that bus demand has exceeded capacity on both 14th Street and Georgia Avenue buses as well.

Putta has been campaigning vigorously to get the bus lanes moving forward, most recently testifying at a D.C. Council hearing on February 20.

He has also been working hard to inject the issue into the April 1 D.C. primary elections, often asking candidates for their views at public events.

Putta says D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser (Ward Four) has declared herself in favor of the bus lanes, after initially expressing skepticism about the proposal. Other candidates from the city council — Jack Evans (Ward Two) and Tommy Wells (Ward Six) — have also expressed their support. In addition, both candidates in the Ward One City Council primary — Jim Graham and Brianne Nadeau — have told Putta they support the proposal.

“DDOT itself did a study last year recommending a rush-hour bus lane.  Now they need to make it formal and implement it,” Putta said.

The 2013 DDOT study found that bus lanes could reduce commute time by 30%, Putta said.  They could also increase total bus capacity by 10% because buses could be reused faster.

Read the original post on SALM >>

Testimony to the Committee on Economic Development and Housing on DHCD and DMPED Performance Oversight

Posted on by Peter Gorman

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG). 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.

RELEASE: Advocates urge Prince George’s County and state to target funds to transportation projects supporting smart growth

Posted on by Max Potter

Prince George’s County and regional smart growth advocates sent a letter today to Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker urging him to rethink transportation priorities to fulfill the County’s efforts to foster transit-oriented economic development.

Planners approve transportation priorities for D.C. region

Posted on by Max Potter

People who represent the fragmented jurisdictions across the D.C. region agreed Wednesday on a set of priorities for transportation planners.

The plan adopted unanimously by the Transportation Planning Board urges local governments to think regionally in selecting projects, emphasize ones that fix the road and transit network we already have, strengthen public confidence in their decisions and give people more options about how to travel.

The Regional Transportation Priorities Plan attempts to shape planners’ thinking in choosing projects, but it doesn’t name any projects to advance. The lack of specificity frustrates some transportation advocates, including Bob Chase, the president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance. He refers to it as an Alice’s Restaurant “You can get anything you want” approach to planning.

Supporters, including Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, see progress in the fact that a planning panel is willing to set regional priorities. Virginia, the District and Maryland have their separate systems for selecting and advancing projects. They are more responsive to local interests than to regional needs. While Schwartz has criticized aspects of the plan, he has supported its emphasis on fixing things first, and on improving the efficiency of the existing road and rail network.

The priorities plan doesn’t affect the underlying structure of local planning. but the formal regional support for its goals could influence upcoming decisions. The power of the Transportation Planning Board lies in the legal need for the jurisdictions to incorporate their projects in the region’s Constrained Long-Range Transportation Plan.

The priorities plan now becomes a policy guide for local and state leaders who want to get their projects into the regional long-range plan. Local travelers naturally remain more focused on how they’re going to get home tonight rather than on what the transportation network will look like in a decade or two. But as they back up on the Beltway or squeeze aboard crowded Metro trains, many do wonder if there is any connection between their plight and the planning process.

The plan approved Wednesday is one of those rare documents dedicated to the lateRonald F. Kirby, who as director of transportation planning for the board, guided the development of the document. The dedication says in part: “This plan, which Ron worked tirelessly to develop, is a reflection of his innovative yet pragmatic approach to improving the region’s transportation system and making the region a better place.”

The plan’s priorities are grouped into three areas.

Meet existing obligations. Maintain the region’s existing transportation system. For example: Fix Metro and maintain it in a state of good repair.

Strengthen public confidence and ensure fairness. Pursue greater accountability, efficiency and access to transportation for everyone.

Move more people, more efficiently. Make strategic decisions to lessen crowding and congestion on the region’s roadways and transit system to accommodate growth.

Use this link to see the Regional Transportation Priorities Plan.

Todd Turner, a Bowie city council member and chairman of the priority plan task force, said the existence of such a plan, underpinned by a survey that sought public opinion on these priorities, will help restore public confidence in transportation planning. “But people have to take leadership in their own communities,” he said. In effect, addressing his local government colleagues across the region, he added: “We’re giving you the guidance. It’s up to you to do it.”

Read the original article at Washington Post >>

Photo Credit: Gerald Marineau

McDuffie Bill Would Require Affordable Housing in Public-Land Development

Posted on by acustis

The city has taken a couple of stabs at solutions to the increasing unaffordability of housing in the District. Mayor Vince Gray pledged last monthto spend $187 million on affordable housing projects—a move in the right direction, but not one that will make new private developments any more affordable. The city’s inclusionary zoning policy requires new developments above a certain size to set aside some of their units for low-income residents, but there are plenty of exceptions and the program has been slow to take off.

Leave the 1950s Behind: Curtailing the Harm of Minimum Parking Requirements

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

One of the most effective ways to reduce traffic, pollution, and housing costs is to encourage a shift to more sustainable transportation modes through reforming parking requirements. Through smarter management and reduced subsidies and requirements for parking, people can better choose if they want to drive and park, or opt for a more sustainable mode of transportation. For over fifty years, the D.C. zoning code has required almost all new construction in the city to include off-street parking even when unnecessary. The 1958 zoning code’s automobile-oriented vision of the city’s needs is no longer appropriate in today’s world of high costs for housing and car ownership, congested roads, and global warming.  In contrast to the 1950s view of the future where riding transit would be replaced by driving, and car ownership would be nearly universal, we live in a different reality today.  Since the 2000s, the country and D.C. have experienced a pronounced drop in the amount that people drive, after decades of increase. While low car ownership rates are associated with lower incomes, car-less by choice is also increasing among households who could afford a car. Today, 38% of D.C. households are car free. Car free living by necessity or choice offers a more affordable option for a large share of D.C. households. Our zoning regulations should recognize this.

Demand for urban living is being reshaped by the desire of the largest American generation, Millennials (born 1983-2000), who are seeking to live in more urban and less automobile dependent places. The revolution in mobile Internet-connected technologies and social networking are making transportation alternatives to not owning a personal vehicle more convenient, allowing a larger share of households to adopt for car free and car-light lifestyles with dramatically reduced rates of driving and individual car ownership. Baby boomers too are seeking more convenient, urbane places as empty nesters and retirees downsize. D.C. has benefited from these trends as our population has grown since 2000, and shot up in the last two years when we added over 30,000 new residents, more than the total added over the last decade. D.C. can accommodate more people living and working in the city, but if they all brought cars, our streets would not be able handle the added traffic.

Evidence of long term trends show declining demand for driving and car ownership, and accelerated demand for living and working in transit-rich, walkable, bikable urban neighborhoods and business districts.  To ensure that D.C. successfully manages its turnaround from a shrinking to growing city, it needs to build on the strengths that are retaining and attracting residents. At the heart of D.C.’s success is its acclaimed walkability, supported by an extensive transit system. Neighborhoods with the greatest walkability and accessibility are attracting most of D.C.’s new residents. Updating the zoning code to better accommodate this demand, will help make housing more affordable, and foster the trend away from individual car ownership and its associated driving and traffic congestion.

Testimony to DC Council Committee on Finance and Revenue: Support for the Truth in Affordability Reporting Act of 2013

Posted on by acustis

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. We are a regional organization based in the District of Columbia focused on ensuring transportation and development decisions are made with genuine community involvement and accommodate growth while revitalizing communities, providing more housing and travel choices, and conserving our natural and historic areas.