WTOP, Sept. 27, 2018:

Advocates for pedestrian safety contested that D.C. officials routinely prioritize drivers over those who opt for other modes of transportation.

“You may not state it publicly, but your actions as a council and as a city demonstrate that your allegiance is to that constituency, not to the people who walk, bike or take transit on the roads that you control,” said Alex Baca, engagement director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

Baca and other speakers argued that the “Vision Zero” tactic of enforcement and education through ticketing and fines doesn’t effectively curb dangerous driving behavior.

“You don’t change behavior by asking everyone to be nice to each other,” Baca said.

Read more here.

Washingtonian, Sept. 9, 2018:

“During the time they’ve been in the north end of downtown Seattle, both Amazon and the city have been able to maximize the number of people taking transit, walking, and biking and to minimize the number of auto trips. It’s good if they come here, if we continue to invest in transit in the region and in expanding transit. Also if it’s sited in a way that creates a good, walkable urban environment and has not just Metro access but a really strong transit network around it.

“We certainly made a very strong commitment—a historic commitment—this year with the $500 million in dedicated Metro funding. But it’s a bit of a mixed picture in terms of the level of commitment to transit beyond that. Looking at the glass half full, I’m hoping that if they announce for here, it will be a huge spur to doubling our efforts on transit in the region.”

Read more here.

1. In terms of livability and mobility, DC has changed dramatically over the past decade. What are the three changes you like?

One of my favorite changes is the emergence of bikeshare—when I moved to DC, SmartBike (the predecessor to Capital Bikeshare) was getting underway, but CaBi itself really opened up so much more of the city to me, as someone living without a car. And in the past year, dockless bikeshare has opened things up even more—to me, and to people who never felt bicycling or Capital Bikeshare was for them. I especially love the e-assist JUMP bikes… so much so, that I’m thinking about buying a pedal-assist bike!

This one is definitely livability not mobility, but it’s still really relevant. The food scene in our region has really exploded in the past ten years. I can’t imagine DC having Michelin-starred restaurants when I moved here in 2008! I go to other cities now, and I’m often underwhelmed by their food scenes, because we’ve gotten so spoiled so fast in DC… not just fine dining, but also great fast casual (with some homegrown DC chains really knocking it out of the park) and everything in between. I try to eat healthy and eat at home as much as I can, but my busy schedule means eating out a few times a week, and in DC it’s always a pleasure.

Over the past ten years, I also think our collective consciousness about DC as a city has changed and matured a bit. Policy-wise, we’ve done a bunch of the low-hanging fruit (installing bike lanes where it’s easy, adopting Vision Zero and Sustainable DC, implemented inclusionary zoning) and it’s had a real impact on my day-to-day life. Now we’re on to much more politically-fraught changes (like taking away parking for bus-only or bike lanes), but even so, general consciousness of transportation and land use among residents is as high as I’ve ever seen it. When I talk to people at parties, they really “get it” how important things like a strong Metro system and bicycle infrastructure are to everyone’s day-to-day life.

2. And three changes you don’t like?

The decline of Metro service and reliability is the biggest one. But honestly, local residents have nobody to blame but ourselves—we as a region have neglected to take care of the system, and now we’re paying the price. It’s really painful, though, that transit-dependent people are the ones most hurt by this.

Because, on the flip side, the rise of TNCs (like Uber and Lyft) has been a boon to personal convenience, but at the cost of public attention to transportation options that actually make our cities cleaner, more livable, and more pleasant, like transit, bicycling, and walking. According to a recent study, something like over 50% of Uber/Lyft trips would NOT have otherwise been in a taxi or private vehicle… in other words, more than half of Uber/Lyft trips are putting people into cars. That’s more congestion on our roads and more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. It’s a real tragedy of the commons situation, in that as an individual it’s often the easiest choice (if you can afford it), but when everybody takes Uber/Lyft, it has real negative consequences for our cities.

Finally, just as our collective consciousness about DC has matured a bit, so have our problems. Affordability of housing is the biggest problem (in my opinion) on the horizon, not just in DC but many cities… and while it’s easy to think of transportation and housing as two totally different realms, in reality they’re so closely intertwined. If you can live close to the things you need, it cuts down on congestion, makes it easy to get where you’re going, and gives you back time in your life you’d have otherwise spent getting from A to B. We must, must, must turn our collective attention to finding solutions that allow everyone to have safe, affordable homes with reasonable access to the jobs, services, and other amenities that we need in our day-to-day lives.

3. What’s the most important thing you’re working on right now?

We just finished up a successful campaign to secure dedicated Metro funding… it’s probably the most important thing I’ve ever worked on. Locals love to hate how Metro service has declined over the past several years. The system definitely needs reforms, but without a long-term funding source, Metro hasn’t been able to plan for long-term preventative maintenance, so it’s really no surprise that things have declined. Imagine if you never did preventative maintenance on your car—never got the oil changed! Things would be pretty messed up after a while. While real changes need to be made, the system also needs enough consistent funding to fix the decay that decades of neglect have caused. As a region, we have nobody to blame but our elected officials (and by extension, ourselves) for letting things get as bad as they have. It’s going to take years of public pressure, reform, and repair to get Metro back to a world-class system.

4. Two recent bicyclist deaths on DC streets highlight the dangers of commuting in the DC area. What’s the most important step the transit community can take in mitigating these dangers?

We have to demand better-designed infrastructure. Most unsafe conditions can be mitigated by design. Paint is not enough—we need dedicated infrastructure for various modes, we need complete streets, we need curb separation where safety calls for it—not just when it’s easy for departments of transportation to build it. And while we keep up and amplify the drumbeat for better infrastructure, we also have to keep up political pressure for enforcement—whether that’s traffic enforcement, ticketing, red light cameras, whatever it takes.

5. How did you get involved in transit?

Cities have been important to me since I first moved to a city—New Orleans, in 2003, for college. I studied political science and architecture, and found (though I couldn’t have described it as such at the time) the urban fabric to really have an impact on my day-to-day life and happiness. I was living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, and during the aftermath and rebuilding. That’s what got me interested in public policy, and environmental policy seemed a natural fit. When I moved to DC for grad school, I took an entry-level job at a transit-related non-profit because, I reasoned, it was environmentally-friendly. Within a few years, I’d gotten involved in the urbanism/smart growth community in DC, and the rest of my transit advocacy career is history!

6. Tell us about your commute. Metro, bus, walk, bike … or a mixture of everything? How long does it take you to get from door-to-door?

My commute really varies depending on the time of year, and what I have going on that day and after work. I live ~2 miles from my office, and it’s an almost-straight shot through DC from Dupont Circle to the Coalition for Smarter Growth offices just east of Union Station. My favorite way to get to work (and most consistent, recently), is to grab a JUMP e-assist bikeshare, and take the 15th St cycletrack down to Pennsylvania Avenue, then pedal up through the US Capitol grounds to the office (20 minutes).

Depending on how hot it is, sometimes I’ll grab a Capital Bikeshare bike instead (30 minutes)… and other days, I’ll hop on Metro and take the Red Line to Union Station (20-25 min). Finally, when the weather’s perfect, it’s almost exactly an hour to walk straight up Massachusetts Avenue, door-to-door. If I wake up early enough, or don’t have anything going on after work, I love the walk. It’s very zen and a great time to catch up on podcasts.

7. What are your three most essential pieces of commuting gear?

I’m pretty low-maintenance… I don’t own any specialty commuting gear. That said, my three biggest essentials are headphones (podcasts or music!), messenger bag (I almost always have either my laptop or camera with me), and my prescription sunglasses (days that I walk or bike).

8. We hear you’re also a wedding photographer. What are your top 2 transit-related venues to photograph?

Yes, I am! It’s been very fun over the past ~6 years to have photographed many people in the local transit-bicycling-urbanism community. One of my go-to favorite places to photograph couples in our region is Union Station. Both the inside and outside are so beautiful and iconic, and unlike so many places in DC, you don’t need a photography permit! My all-time favorite related photography adventures, though, was photographing a surprise-marriage-proposal-bike-ride-and-party for two members of the DC bike community. You really have to see their crazy-amazing celebration for yourself—there’s no way it won’t make you smile.

Read the full article here.

We all share a passion for this city and we want it to succeed for everyone’s benefit. In fact, our organization, the Partnership for Smarter Growth, fully supports the revitalization of the 10-block area north of Broad, relative to the old Coliseum, into a walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood, with restored street connections. We also support tax increment financing (TIF) districts in principle.

If we want to make smart choices, the best way is through an inclusive and transparent public process. Top business leaders and city staff don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. In fact, the closed-door approach to city public land deals — with a rushed public process after the deal is cooked — doesn’t exactly have a great track record in Richmond.

Our city is blessed with a diverse, smart, and creative population that has spearheaded so much positive change. Why not tap all this talent when making decisions about 10-plus blocks in the heart of our downtown?

We credit Mayor Levar Stoney for insisting that a Request for Proposal (RFP) be issued, that affordable housing be a part of the project, and for saying he won’t take a deal that’s not good for the city. However, a number of things are troubling about the process to date.

In many jurisdictions, the city engages the public and private sectors ahead of time to create a small area plan for such an important part of the community — capturing the vision, ideas, and needs of the community, while also accounting for market-related financing. This didn’t happen in this case, and we are still waiting for such a process for Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard. With the plan in place, a streamlined rezoning process could be used for private proposals designed in accordance with the community plan.

The city could have consulted with the public prior to drafting the RFP. Subsequently, the city outsourced public outreach entirely to the developer without any involvement or public briefings by city staff. This is very unusual, and particularly so when talking about disposition of publicly owned land.

The Partnership shared the city’s RFP with some of the most successful mixed-use development firms working in Washington, D.C. All declined to bid, citing their assessment that there wasn’t enough economic value in the 10-block area to fund the new Coliseum and other public benefits sought by the city. Not being local, they also may have felt that the odds were against them with such a connected set of local business leaders out of the gate first.

The D.C. firms may also not have known that the city would consider throwing two more very valuable parcels into the mix — the blocks between 6th and 7th at Grace and Franklin, and at Broad. Or that the TIF district might be extended to encompass such a vast area, including Dominion’s two office towers. This calls into question whether there has been a level playing field.

Then of course there are the important questions being raised about the TIF district. In earmarking the increment in tax revenues over today’s baseline, the city will be diverting revenues to this project that would otherwise go to the general fund for schools, public safety, transit, and other infrastructure. This is a pivotal choice and the cost-benefit analysis must be rigorous and transparent. What is the net value of directing Richmond’s tax dollars to the Coliseum versus other investments we could make?

It’s hard to have a public discussion when most of the critical information isn’t public. If it weren’t for the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s intrepid reporter Mark Robinson filing a Freedom of Information Act request, we’d be even more in the dark.

Looking ahead, if we have just one public hearing before the Planning Commission and one before City Council following release of a fully-baked agreement, this won’t cut it. Fortunately, the council is calling for the time it needs and may commission its own consultants. But in the interim, we need public briefings and community input sessions hosted by the city, not the developer, to include review of the financials, the design, the affordable-housing commitments, and alternative approaches to the redevelopment of downtown.

Let’s keep in mind that today’s most successful cities fully engage their residents in planning for the future of their communities, and no longer plan behind closed doors with a small group of business people.

Read the full story here.

Dive Brief:

• In an open letter, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, DC Sierra Club, DC Sustainable Transportation, Greater Greater Washington and Washington Area Bicyclist Association have called on Washington, DC leaders to bring 20,000 shared bikes and scooters to the city.
• The local advocacy groups implore Mayor Muriel Bowser and District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Jeff Marootian to conceive and plan for a 20,000-vehicle system that is safe, equitable and includes “regulations primarily around the future we want to build, and not only short-term administrative considerations.” The letter cites that the city currently permits each dockless company to have 400 vehicles, in addition to approximately 2,500 Capital Bikeshare bikes.
• The petition comes shortly after two dockless bike-share companies, ofo and Mobike, abandoned operations in the District, citing onerous city regulations.

Dive Insight:

The petition from the advocacy groups to DDOT suggests that Washington, DC follow in Seattle’s footsteps, a city that recently passed legislation to bring 20,000 dockless bikes to the city and add more bike lanes to downtown. The groups also cite the Institute for Development and Transportation’s (ITDP) recommendations for 10-30 bikes per 1,000 citizens, and the city’s goal of 25% of all commutes take place by walking or biking by 2032, as reason enough for DC legislators to take “bold action” and expand the bike and scooter fleets.

However, expansive planning will be required to avoid haphazard placement of more bikes and scooters in the nation’s capital. In DC and around the country the same bike-share concerns continue to arise, which are listed in the open letter: parking, safety and maintenance of bikes, equity, troubleshooting, data sharing, bike and scooter lanes. The groups do not lay out concrete plans for how to deal with these concerns, leaving the DDOT to develop the specifics of any and all policy solutions.

According to Marootian, the District extended its dockless bike-share pilot program through August in the hopes that continued analysis will help find a “sustainable way forward.” Now might be the time to pounce on expansive bike-share planning as ofo and Mobike’s abandonment of operations in DC quells some competition concerns and legislators can look to Seattle for clues on how to regulate the industry.

Read the full story here.