Category: CSG in the News

Some of the best travel apps to help holiday travelers this season

Posted on by acustis

Need to book a hotel at the last minute? Want to find cheap gas?

Just in time for the holiday travel season, we thought we’d recommend some apps that could make your trip — whether it’s by plane, train, car or bike — a little less stressful. We consulted with travel experts, including the folks at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and our own app expert, Hayley Tsukayama (be sure to catch her app recommendations each Sunday in The Washington Post’s Business section). Thanks, too, to Aimee Custis, communications director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

We’ve tried to focus on free apps, organized by mode of travel. If there are apps out there that you love, please feel free to share them with us.

(Note: Unless otherwise noted, all apps listed are available for iOS and Android devices.)

Driving

Travelers will fill the nation’s highways this holiday season. According to AAA, 86 million people are expected to drive to their holiday destination.

Headed to see relatives? RoadNinja could make that trip a little easier (and save you some money). RoadNinja tracks your location and lets you know the price of gas at stations at upcoming exits. It also lets you know what’s at exits in the opposite direction just in case gas is cheaper going that way. The app also will tell you which restaurants, shops and other attractions are just down the road.

If your travels take you through Virginia, the Virginia Department of Transportation has its VDOT 511 app. When you switch on this app, the first thing you’ll see is the following warning: “DO NOT USE THIS APP WHILE DRIVING.” It’s a straightforward app, without a lot of fancy doodads or graphics. It gives you travel times for the state’s major routes tied to your current location. The “Basic map” tab will show you a color-coded map that helps spot delays. There’s also a link to VDOT Twitter messages grouped by region.

If your travels take you beyond Virginia, think about downloading the INRIX app, which offers just about everything a commuter or road warrior might want. There’s traffic news and a traffic map. When I set my location, I also got screenshots from VDOT’s traffic cameras. With one click, you can text or e-mail your arrival time to family and friends. The app will note construction or congestion with small icons along your planned route and places a little checkered flag icon at your destination.

Parking

 

If you’re big-city bound, you may need to find a place to park once you arrive.

SpotHero is a parking app that allows you to find, reserve and pay for available spaces at nearby lots. Enter the time and date you need parking and the interface will show you a map of available garages and lots, complete with the cost for the time period selected. It will give you a description of the garage or lot complete with photo and directions for where to enter. It also will tell you how far the garage is from your destination. (In some cases you’ll need to print your reservation and hand it to the valet.) SpotHero is available in Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Newark and New York City.

Along those same lines, ParkWhiz helps you find available spaces — in some cases with a discount — and reserve and pay for them online. It offers you a description of the lot and a handy Google map of the location. We found it worked on garages in Washington and around the region, in such towns as Rockville and Ballston.

 

Flying

 

According to AAA, about 5.5 million holiday travelers will be flying to their destination. Frequent fliers recommend downloading the app for the airline that you’re using.

There are lots of apps that will help you track your flights, but here are two recommended by our frequent fliers:

The FlightAware app will allow you to track your flight (or that of your loved one). You can check individual airports for delays. A map will show you the flights arriving and departing into the airport of your choice. As a reporter who writes about airports, theFlightAware Web site is indispensable.

The free version of Flight Tracker operates much the same as FlightAware. Input your flight information and it will tell you what type of aircraft you’ll be flying, advise you of any delays and tell you the gate from which you’ll be departing. It also gives you a weather forecast for your destination. A minor quibble: I wish the app had the same pull-down menu of airlines that FlightAware offers.

If you get stuck or perhaps you’re looking for an escape from all that family togetherness,Hotel Tonight offers same-night reservations of hotels close to where you are. We love the ranking system, which includes categories such as “luxe,” “solid,” “basic” and “hip.” The gold bed next to your selection is the “high roller” category.

Train

Amtrak ’s mobile app offers all the basics: It will allow you to book tickets and check schedules and train status. The welcome screen has a lovely shot of a train against a scenic background. (A second app offers Amtrak’s glossy on-train magazine, Arrive). It gets pretty good reviews from users, though one said he wished service alerts were available directly from the app, noting that it’s not always convenient to go to the Web site.

Weather

Part of traveling is knowing what the weather will be at your destination. Some folks are perfectly happy with the weather app that’s packaged with their phone, but many want a bit more.

The newest AccuWeather app version offers some fresh features, including forecasts that refresh every five minutes and options that allow you to get more detail. You can easily add cities by name or by Zip code. A fun feature takes the forecast and offers advice on whether it’s good weather for, say, a barbecue or a trip to the beach. The health tab ranks the risk for particular medical conditions, such as the flu or migraines. The app also has a video and news feed.

Another favorite among weather watchers is WeatherBug . There’s a lot to like here, with all of the weather data plus the chance to share your weather photos with others. The app also features Spark, an exclusive feature that will tell you about potential lightning activity in your area. There’s also a pollen counter and footage from weather cameras in your area.

Read the original article at Washington Post >>

Transportation Forecasts Suggests Reducing Car Dependency A Must

Posted on by acustis

As the Washington region’s population and employment grow, traffic congestion will worsen and the percentage of all daily trips taken using transit will remain at seven percent through 2040, according to a forecast by transportation planners at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG).

But the “financially constrained” forecast is based on the possibility Congress will not continue to fund Metro’s rehabilitation, maintenance, and expansion beyond 2020, leading transit advocates to label it a technical analysis rather than a vision of what policy makers want for the region.

The long range transportation forecast combines travel data from three regions: the regional core of D.C., Alexandria, and Arlington; the inner suburbs of Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties; and the outer suburbs of Charles, Frederick, Loudoun, and Prince William Counties.

Inevitable congestion?
The forecast seems to indicate congestion-weary commuters are doomed to a future of gridlock, especially those living in the suburbs, but the Council’s mass transit proponents and smart growth advocates say the report fails to take into account the rise of transit-oriented development.

Without substantial investments in mass transit, including Metro’s move to using only eight-car trains during rush hours, the number of roadway lane miles that will be congested during the morning commute will increase by 71 percent, the forecast said. The increase in demand on the region’s roadways is expected to outpace the supply of new lanes.

“It is an open question. That’s the point. Those are choices that we make,” said Chris Zimmerman, an Arlington County board member and longtime transit advocate who also sits on the Council’s board. “We can choose not to do things that will make our lives better.”

Metro’s 10-year, $3 billion funding program expires in 2020. MWCOG’s transportation planners say Congress should begin planning to reauthorize the funding now. When this possible financial constraint is lifted from the forecast, there is an increase of 32,000 daily transit work trips by 2040, bringing the commuting mode share for transit up from 24 to 25 percent.

“The problem is getting the financial commitments by the state, local, and federal governments to maintain the Metrorail system, and allow the expansion to eight-car trains and additional station improvements,” said Robert Griffiths, the acting co-director of transportation planning at MWCOG.

Without additional railcars beyond those currently funded, all Metro lines entering the regional core will become congested by 2040, the forecast said. The report assumes only 50 percent of trains will have eight cars instead of six during morning rush hour by 2040.

Commuters want choices
Where commuters have choices, car dependency shrinks and mode shifting away from the automobile is expected to grow. In the regional core 43 percent of all trips are walking, biking, or transit. By 2040 that figure is expected to grow to 47 percent. In the outer suburbs, however, only eight percent of all trips currently are walking, biking, or transit, and the forecast predicts that figure will rise to ten percent.

“The data show how effective the planning in Arlington, Alexandria, and D.C. has been in terms of reducing the number of auto trips,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “The long range forecast in the region’s transportation plan doesn’t show enough gains for transit between now and 2040. That is because [MWCOG planners] are not recognizing and modeling enough of the same types of changes in the suburbs of Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George’s that we have already seen in Arlington, Alexandria, and the District. But more of that is coming.”

“You have 15 Metro stations at Prince George’s ripe for development right now. And every person who lives and works in a transit-oriented center is a transportation solution for our region,” Schwartz added.

The Council’s Griffiths said areas that saw a combination of improvements experienced less bumper-to-bumper traffic.

“We did see in the analysis of the plan there were segments of I-270, I-66, and the Dulles Toll Road where we actually had reductions in congestion. And those were places where we had multi-modal improvements. It was some highway improvements, some HOV lanes, and also transit.”

Follow the money
If the decisions of commercial real estate developers are any indication of where the region’s future lies, transit advocates may be right. “Land use is a transportation strategy. In the Washington metropolitan area with five million square feet of [commercial] development under construction right now, 84 percent of that is… within one-quarter mile of a Metro station,” Zimmerman said.

The forecast suggests reducing car dependency in the Washington metro area must remain a priority. Under current financial constraints, the Council’s forecast predicts the accessibility to jobs by transit will increase, but will stay significantly lower than by car. The average number of jobs accessible within 45 minutes by transit is expected to grow from 412 million to 516 million by 2040.

Read the original story on WAMU >>

Prince William’s reexamination of the Bi-County Parkway comes at important moment

Posted on by acustis

Prince William County’s Dec. 3 decision to reexamine its position on the Bi-County Parkway comes at an important moment in the long, contentious debate over whether the road should be built, opponents say.

The parkway, a controversial 10-mile road that would connect Interstate 66 in Prince William and Route 50 in Loudoun County, faces several hurdles in the coming months, said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which opposes the project.

Federal transportation authorities are examining the parkway proposal, but the final outcome probably rests with the administration of Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe (D), Schwartz said. McAuliffe said during his campaign that he would study the issue, and it’s unclear whether his administration would push the Bi-County Parkway when his term begins Jan. 11.

Schwartz said he hopes that state and federal transportation officials consider the board’s recent decision. “The new governor will hopefully ask for a major reevaluation,” Schwartz said. “The views of local elected officials . . . can carry weight.”

In a 7 to 1 vote, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors agreed to conduct a $100,000 study of the project to determine whether it should remain part of the county’s Comprehensive Plan, it’s long-term planning document. Supervisor W.S. Covington III (R-Brentsville), a supporter of the parkway, was the only vote against the move.

It’s unclear whether the board’s study will have any effect on the process. Supervisor Peter K. Candland (R-Gainesville) said supervisors should hold a simple up or down vote on the parkway itself.

The Bi-County Parkway has been the subject of much heated discussion over the past year. Supporters say the road is necessary to bolster economic development and connect two of the fastest-growing counties in the country. Opponents — particularly those who live in the path of the proposed route — say that the road would affect their property and way of life, as well as the county’s federally protected Rural Crescent and the historic Civil War grounds near Manassas National Battlefield Park.

Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, which supports the road, told supervisors before the vote that nothing has changed despite the ongoing debate. Northern Virginia is growing, and new transportation infrastructure is needed for traffic and job growth, he said.

“As John Adams said, facts are stubborn things,” Chase told the board. “There are certainly a lot of wishes, inclinations, surrounding these issues. . . . The need for the Bi-County Parkway is well documented.”

Candland, a vocal road opponent, said supervisors chose the easy way out by appearing to take action without actually staking out their position. Because the vote was technically on a study to determine whether the parkway should be removed from the county’s Comprehensive Plan, Candland said the action meant little.

“Certain individuals don’t want to take a straight up-or-down vote on the Bi-County Parkway,” Candland said. “Enough is enough. We’ve talked about this issue ad nauseam.”

Candland said time is of the essence because the Virginia Department of Transportation is moving forward on an agreement with federal transportation authorities, upon whose approval the project is contingent. Once that agreement is signed, supervisors may no longer have a voice on the issue, Candland said.

Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles) said supervisors might have more time than they think as McAuliffe considers his position on the subject.

County staff members plan to study the parkway and other area roads in a comprehensive traffic, road and land-use analysis. That study would then go to the Prince William County Planning Commission, and supervisors would have a final vote on the Bi-County Parkway and other area improvements, a process expected to take about a year.

 Read the original article on Washington Post >>

Traffic Board: More Compromise Needed in King Street Bike Lane Proposal

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

Plans for bike lanes in a short segment of King Street between Russell Road and Janney’s Lane are on hold after Alexandria’s Traffic and Parking Board deferred action of the city’s proposal Monday night.

The majority of speakers at the hearing expressed support for the plan, but many residents along the stretch of King Street said they did not believe the narrowing of travel lanes and the removal of 27 on-street parking spaces to create buffers and install bike lanes would improve safety on the busy roadway.

Speeding in that stretch of King Street is a frequent problem and 30 vehicular crashes have been recorded in the last five years.

The Traffic and Parking Board recommended city staff implement pedestrian improvements of the proposal but come back with a plan for traffic calming and bicycle access that includes more compromise.

“It needs some more work and it needs some meat on it,” Commission Chairman Jay Johnson said of the proposal, which has previously been revised following community input.

Hillary Poole, the city’s Complete Streets coordinator, said the stretch of King is “a critical missing link” in the city’s bicycle facilities network. After hearing concerns from residents, an initial plan that called for the removal of all 37 on-street parking spaces along the stretch was amended to keep 10 spaces and install bicycle sharrows next to the parking.

“We really do feel this plan improves safety when compared to the current conditions,” Poole said. “As professional planners who design these facilities, we do feel like this is safe.”

Poole said the narrowing of the lanes would force traffic to slow down. The changes are in-line with city goals, she said.

Some residents said they believed the plan would actually make the roadway increasingly unsafe by reducing space for vehicles, eliminating the buffer created by parked cars and adding more cyclists into the traffic mix. Some questioned how deliveries and repair personnel could access their homes, while others lamented the loss of some convenient on-street parking for guests.

Parking counts from city staff determined the vast majority of the on-street spaces go unused.

Cyclists from across the city as well as representatives from theWashington Area Bicycle Association and the Coalition for Smarter Growth spoke of a need for bicycle lanes to increase road accessibility for cyclists and to create more transit connections. Several cyclists said they reluctantly bike on the sidewalks on King Street because the roadway poses too many problems.

T.C. Williams science teacher Patrick Earle said the proposed lanes would create a safer passage for students who currently feel it’s unsafe to bike to school.

The Taylor Run Citizens Association advised the board to recommend more work on the proposal with hope of finding a “true compromise.”

Commissioner William Schuyler said it wasn’t the board’s job to pick between two “wildly competing” and “winner-take-all” positions.

Jerry King, president of Alexandria’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, said he wasn’t sure the commission weighed Monday’s three hours of testimony in their decision.

“We felt the board had predetermined the outcome of tonight’s hearing,” he said. “There were 38 speakers supporting the proposal and 18 against. That’s two-thirds expressing support for the proposal. … We’ll continue to push because the city has to move forward. We’re not done.”

The feud between residents and cyclists intensified in recent weeks after Frank H. Buckley, a law professor and King Street resident who has called the proposal “anti-car owner” and “anti-homeowner,” penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about the issue. Buckley’s “bike wars” column inspired a news segment from NBC Washington and drew critical responses on cycling advocacy blog Wash Cycle and DC Streets Blog.

Photo courtesy of Drew Hansen. Click here to read the original story. 

Intercounty Connector toll revenue falls short of early forecasts

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

Maryland officials have said repeatedly that traffic on the Intercounty Connector matches state projections, even as motorists say the controversial toll road continues to feel remarkably underused two years after it opened.

Tolls collected on the highway, between Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, do align with state forecasts, but only because those projections were adjusted downward, according to internal state reports obtained under a public records request.

The ICC took in $39.6 million in the past fiscal year — almost dead-on the latest projection but $10 million to $32 million less than forecasts that Maryland lawmakers had in 2005, when they agreed tosignificantly increase the Maryland Transportation Authority’s debt to build it.

“They lowered the bar so now they can step over it,” said Montgomery County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), a longtime ICC critic. “When you merge onto the ICC, it doesn’t feel like a highway. It feels like an airport runway.”

How many vehicles are using the ICC matters to motorists across Maryland. The $2.5 billion highway, which was hotly debated for decades because of its cost and environmental and community impacts, was the most expensive ever built in the state.

Maryland lawmakers agreed to pay for it by greatly increasing the authority’s debt, including $1 billion worth of bonds and a federal loan backed by all state toll revenue. The state committed to raise tolls statewide, if necessary, to pay them off.

The highway’s massive construction debt also prevents the state from lowering ICC toll rates — $8 for a passenger car making an end-to-end round trip during rush hours — to attract more motorists. Doing so, a recent study found, would lower the 18.8-mile highway’s revenue, requiring motorists statewide to subsidize even more of its costs.

Transportation Authority officials say the ICC is a success. They point to a recent study done by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments that found that ICC motorists cut their travel time in half and that traffic on nearby roads had dropped by 5 percent to 10 percent. ICC traffic is growing by an average of 2.6 percent a month, officials said.

Earlier toll revenue estimates were “ballpark” projections made before ICC toll rates were set, state officials said. The projections also didn’t always reflect the need for a three-year “ramp-up” period for motorists to absorb the new road into their travel habits, officials said.

The state’s consultant, Wilbur Smith Associates, lowered ICC revenue projections significantly for the last time in 2010 — by $7 million annually — to reflect the effects of a global recession and rising gas prices, according to the reports.

Even so, state officials said, the ICC’s true financial impact won’t be known for five to 10 years, after traffic has stabilized. The last segment, between Interstate 95 and Route 1, is scheduled to open next year.

“The fact is, you always have [roads] built for a 30-year time frame,” said Bruce Gartner, the authority’s executive secretary. “You don’t build them for day one.”

State, federal subsidies

Motorists on Maryland’s seven other toll highways, bridges and tunnels have faced two toll increases in the past two years, in part to pay off mounting construction debt from the ICC and express toll lanes being built on I-95 north of Baltimore. On some facilities, such as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, tolls more than doubled.

In the past fiscal year, about $1.8 million in toll revenue collected from motorists statewide helped cover the shortfall between the ICC’s toll collections and its annual debt service and operating and maintenance expenses.

ICC debt service also consumed $87.5 million in federal highway funds — 15 percent of Maryland’s total federal highway allotment in the past fiscal year.

“What other dangerous roads or bridges in the state aren’t getting fixed because they’re blowing all this money on the ICC?” said Greg Smith, an anti-ICC activist. “That’s a big question.”

Gartner, of the Transportation Authority, said the agency always intended to subsidize the ICC’s construction debt with toll revenue from across the state. The authority pools toll collections and directs the money to where it’s most needed, whether to build the ICC or repaint the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Robert L. Flanagan, who was state transportation secretary under then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) when the ICC financing plan was approved, said Maryland could not afford the road without using statewide toll revenue and borrowing against future federal highway allotments. For decades, he said, planners had recommended building a highway outside the Capital Beltway to connect Montgomery’s I-270 jobs corridor with I-95 and, beyond that, Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport.

In setting the ICC tolls, Flanagan said, “I think there probably was a decision to maximize revenues rather than maximize the [traffic] flow. . . . That remains a choice. You could reduce the tolls and maximize the flow, but somewhere, somehow you have to pay for those bonds you issued.”

Speed enforcement

AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson, a longtime ICC advocate, said the roadway is “underutilized” because motorists unaccustomed to paying tolls were scared off by the ICC’s high rates and visible police patrols. The ICC’s initial speed limit, 55 mph, was raised in March to 60 mph, but Anderson said motorists complain that it’s still too low to pay extra for.

“They had a low speed limit and police swarming it to ticket people who dared exceed that limit,” Anderson said. “People felt like they were paying a lot for the privilege of getting a ticket.”

Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), an ICC supporter who reviewed the financial plan in 2005, said lawmakers were well aware that paying off the ICC’s construction debt would require subsidies from statewide toll revenue and federal highway funds for 10 to 15 years.

“It was not supposed to be self-sustaining,” Madaleno said of the ICC. “If it had to be self-sustaining, the tolls would have to be so high, the project would be a failure.”

But Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and a longtime ICC critic, questioned the validity of the toll revenue estimates that lawmakers saw when they agreed to build the road.

State transportation officials “may have been trying to sell the project despite its high costs and significant environmental and community impacts,” Schwartz said. “We shouldn’t be making multibillion-dollar decisions based on wrong data.”

Schwartz said the earlier forecasts missed the fact that the Internet revolution, with its online shopping and videoconferencing, would reduce the need to drive.

Some motorists might save time on the ICC, Schwartz said, “but is it enough people? Clearly there aren’t enough people traveling on it to justify the expenditure.”

Anderson, of AAA, said he believes that the use of the ICC will pick up as the economy recovers.

“I think its time will come,” he said, “but perhaps not as quickly as we thought it would.”

Photo courtesy of Dan Gross. Click here to read the original story.

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.

Plans for express bus system in the works for eastern Montgomery County

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

Plans are in the works for bus rapid transit along U.S. 29, but officials say it will be at least five years before construction begins.

About 50 people attended a Coalition for Smarter Growth meeting on Nov. 13 at the White Oak Community Recreation Center to learn about the plans for U.S. 29, which are part of a larger plan to improve accessibility and mobility throughout the county. At the meeting, the group updated residents about the county’s current transit corridors functional master plan.

“It definitely doesn’t happen overnight,” said Larry Cole, transportation planner for the Montgomery County Department of Planning.

Cole said major construction on U.S. 29 won’t begin before important steps are taken, such as public outreach, and enough study in each location where the 60-foot-long buses will run.

The plan is to have public transportation with fewer stops and with its own lane in the highway.

Ten corridors, dedicated express highway lanes that serve to minimize travel time and move more people, are included at the rapid transit corridor map.

A Burtonsville station would serve as terminal for U.S. 29, with bus routes from Burtonsville to the Washington, D.C., line and 11 stations along the way among them: Burtonsville’s Park and Ride; Briggs Chaney’s Park and Ride; White Oak Transit Center; U.S. 29 and Fairland Road; U.S. 29 and Tech Road; Lockwood Drive and Oak Leaf Drive; Route 29 and Hillwood Drive; U.S. 29 and MD 193; U.S 29 and Franklin Street; U.S. 29 and Fenton Street and the Silver Spring Transit Center.

The station in Burtonsville would be at Briggs Chaney Road within walking distance from the Eastern Regional Service Center. “The important thing is that the master plan organizes and sees how all these [stops] work together,” Cole said.

According to Chuck Lattuca, manager for the Rapid Transit System Development, officials are studying the layout of highways, corridor lanes, number of stations, and where each station will be in the corridor.

Lattuca said the costs are still unknown, but the rapid transit will “definitely be a lot less expensive than light rail.”

Out of 81 miles dedicated to buses from the proposed rapid transit system, 70 percent will be in dedicated lanes and “the rest will be in some kind of mix traffic,” Lattuca said.

Mark Winston, a member of the Rapid Transit Task Force, said a lot of work needs to be done before construction begins.

“This functional plan is just the beginning. … This is a project that will benefit the community … as people learn more about this they become more comfortable,” Winston said.

According to Cole, it is important that the community understand the timeline of the bus rapid transit project. He said there will be future opportunities for residents to express their concerns and opinions.

“From our perspective as an organization, U.S. 29 should be a top priority in implementing the county’s bus rapid transit plan. The corridor has some of the highest density tracts in the county, [and] has some of the highest concentrations of poverty,” Kelly Blynn of the Coalition for Smarter Growth wrote in an email to The Gazette.

The Montgomery County Council will meet and possibly vote on the proposed Bus Rapid Transit project on Nov. 26.

Click here to read the original story.

Express lane future paved with gold?

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

During a meeting last month in Falmouth, a Virginia Department of Transportation official was asked a probing question about the Interstate 95 express-lanes project.

Rupert Farley of Spotsylvania County wanted to know what would happen if the high-occupancy toll lanes attract so many vehicles that are allowed to use them free that the company building them doesn’t recoup the money it expects.

“Maybe you can refresh my memory on a point that you did not bring up tonight,” started Rupert Farley, a Spotsylvania resident well known in transportation circles. “If this project is so widely successful that it gets used …by HOV free [traffic], that means Fluor[–Transurban] doesn’t get any income and they start losing money.“At that point, do the taxpayers of Virginia have to start kicking in out of their pockets to subsidize the project?” asked Farley, who is a member of the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Area Planning Organization’s Transportation Advisory Group.

“No,” said Toymeika Braithwaite, VDOT Megaproject’s express lanes public affairs manager.

“That’s not what I’ve been told,” said Farley, who is also a member of the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Area Planning Organization’s Transportation Advisory Group.

“If Transurban doesn’t make the money they want to make, it is not up to Virginia taxpayers to subsidize that,” said Toymeika Braithwaite, VDOT Megaproject’s express-lanes public affairs manager.

However, the public–private project contract signed with Transurban Group and Fluor Corp. includes stipulations that could force Virginians to pay the companies if non-toll-paying HOV traffic reach certain thresholds.

The threshold is based on a complicated formula comparing the percentage of free HOV traffic to toll-paying drivers. If the HOV traffic reaches the threshold, the state has to pay the companies 70 percent of the toll rate.

That agreement is no secret; it’s in the contract, which has been online since the summer of 2012.

But those details have flown under the radar since the state struck the deal with Transurban and Fluor on the massive I–95 express-lanes project. And those who attended that October meeting in Stafford County likely had no idea about that part of the contract, which is what Farley was alluding to.

Under the agreement, the companies are paying for most of the nearly $1 billion project, which will extend the current HOV lanes in the median of I–95 to Garrisonville.

State officials have said that without the agreement the express lanes wouldn’t have been built because the state funds weren’t available.

The same has been said of the Interstate 495 express lanes, which have been open for more than a year. The state has the same deal with Transurban and Fluor on those new lanes.

The I–95 express lanes are on target to open by early 2015.

Like the I–495 express lanes, the new I–95 lanes will be electronically tolled. Buses, motorcycles and vehicles carrying at least three people will be able to use them for free.

The companies hope to take in the toll revenues from other motorists and use them first to pay off loans used to build the projects.

After that, the companies hope to ring up profits. The state eventually would also get a percentage of any profits.

Usage of the lanes is no guarantee, though.

The I–495 express lanes, for instance, haven’t drawn much traffic so far. While it was expected to take up to three years for traffic to consistently use the I–495 lanes, thus far they haven’t produced the traffic, or revenue, Transurban expected.

With constant congestion problems on I–95, it’s a good bet drivers who don’t qualify to use free HOV lanes will be open to paying a toll in order to move.

Still, there could be a significant amount of HOV commuter traffic using the lanes. And the more free traffic there is on the express lanes, the lower the profit.

VDOT doesn’t think there will be a problem.

Tamara Rollison, VDOT’s division administrator of communications, said in an email that the companies bear the “risk of traffic volume and revenue. VDOT is not responsible for making up any shortfall that may occur if traffic volume and revenue are below 95 Express’ forecasts.”

She acknowledged the agreement on the HOV threshold, but said it is unlikely to be met.

“Should that happen—VDOT is prepared to compensate 95 Express Lanes LLC,” she said. “While we expect HOV use to grow over time, we don’t think it will climb to the point that the threshold will be exceeded, triggering compensation.”

If HOV traffic does exceed the threshold, Rollison said that would mean the lanes would be “moving tremendously more people than ever expected, which would greatly help ease congestion on the general purpose lanes.”

Another part of the I–95 express-lanes project includes the expansion of bus service and the addition of 3,000 new commuter parking spaces along the corridor.

Despite the benefits of the project, there are still critics of the public–private deals for the express lanes.

Farley is a fan of toll roads, especially those that manage congestion like the express lanes are designed to do.

But he thinks the state got a raw deal.

“It’s unconscionable that they’d sign a contract so one-sided,” he said.

Stewart Schwartz, executive director for Coalition for Smarter Growth, also doesn’t like the express lane deals.

“We have long argued that the closed-door deals by VDOT under the Public–Private Transportation Act for the HOT lanes have compromised good planning, prevented effective analysis of alternatives, and failed to evaluate all of the impacts,” he said in an email. “In addition, the requirement that the taxpayer reimburse the private toll road operator for too many HOV users is counter to the goal we should have of moving more people in the peak hour. In fact, instead of encouraging HOV use, at a certain point VDOT will now have an incentive to discourage HOV use.”

Peter Samuel, who writes for the website TollRoadsNews.com, doesn’t see the express lanes as such a bad deal.

“I don’t think it’s too risky,” he said. “I doubt there’s going to be a huge increase in carpooling.”

He believes the companies are taking the bulk of the risk. If the express lanes aren’t profitable, they lose, not the state.

Transurban has already experienced failure with another Virginia toll road.

The Australia-based company lost more than $100 million on the Pocahontas Parkway, Interstate 895, according to TollRoadsNews and other reports.

The toll road failed to generate enough money to cover Transurban’s debt, and earlier this year a consortium of European banks holding that debt became the state’s new partner with the toll road.

Officials said the change wouldn’t affect the toll-road operations.

Regardless of the Pocahontas Parkway problems, Samuel says the I–95 express lanes will be a “good thing for motorists.”

“It gives them another option,” he said. “How well it’ll work out for the investors is another question.”

The same could be said for Virginia taxpayers.

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Will Terry McCauliffe Sign Off on a Notorious Sprawl Project in NoVa?

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

With Terry McAuliffe about to move in to the Virginia governor’s mansion, it’s unclear what will become of one of the state’s most contested transportation proposals — the Bi-County Parkway, a $440 million highway in the outer D.C. suburbs.

Though it seems likely the current administration of Republican Governor Bob McDonnell will make a forceful push to get approvals sealed before the end of the year, the timeline is tight. Then there’s the big question of how McAuliffe, a Democrat, will manage the controversial proposal.

As planned, the four-lane divided highway would run 10.4 miles north-south between Route 50 and Route 66, two notoriously clogged commuter roads into D.C.

Critics of the Bi-County Parkway — who have been varied and outspoken — warn that the new highway would do little to ease congestion, and would in fact create even more traffic in this mixed region of farmland, cul-de-sacs, and Civil War landmarks. Smart growth advocates see the developers salivating over the project and predict that the road will simply perpetuate the trend of isolating housing from jobs.

“From what we see, all it’s going to encourage is more residential development in an area that lacks sufficient infrastructure,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “It’s putting more cars on top of the funnel.”

The proposal is at a critical juncture now, with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) aiming to submit a final environmental impact statement to the feds by the end of the year — before McDonnell leaves.

McDonnell has aggressively pushed the Bi-County Parkway, even going so far as to hire a public relations firm to pitch the project.

“He has fast-tracked the planning and approvals and all that,” said James Bacon of Bacon’s Rebellion, a Virginia public policy blog. “He clearly made it a priority.”

And though several aspects of the project are still tied up in negotiation — particularly due to the government shutdown — many believe McDonnell will make an all-out effort to get Federal Highway Administration sign-off before 2014.

“The McDonnell Administration is flooring the gas pedal… hoping to get final approval before their time runs out,” wrote Morgan Butler, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, in an email. “The administration has downplayed (or ignored outright) major community and environmental impacts and given short shrift to alternatives, as they try to get their pet projects to a point of no return before they leave office.”

A study published by SELC and other smart growth and environmental groups this summer, “Rethinking the Bi-County Parkway,” argues that the project won’t help the region’s biggest transportation problem — east-west travel — and will undermine preservation goals for Manassas National Battlefield Park. Instead of the highway, the report recommends transit improvements like extensions for Metro and VRE and an express bus on Route 50. VDOT has not formally analyzed any of those other options.

Critics of the Bi-County Parkway have also worried the project will help resurrect old plans for other roads, like a 45-mile “north-south corridor of significance,” and even a larger “Outer Beltway,” which VDOT has denied.

VDOT’s pitch is that the new highway will ease congestion by increasing connectivity between Loudon and Prince William counties and replacing a route through the battlefield park. Supporters have also said the highway will spur more air cargo activity at Dulles Airport, though a researcher at George Mason University disputed that claim.

So far there’s no definitive indication of how the next administration will deal with the Bi-County Parkway. When the topic came up during election debates, McAuliffe avoided taking a firm stand, saying he needed more facts. McAuliffe’s Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli, was more forthright in opposing the proposal, though he expressed support for some type of north-south connector.

For some voters, the issue was enough to bring them over to the “Democrats for Cuccinelli” camp, said Charlie Grymes, chair of the Prince William Conservation Alliance. Even more interesting, he said, was the way it forced some Virginia delegates to mark their positions. Bacon’s Rebellion also noted the unusual camaraderie the issue forged between populist conservatives and liberal smart-growth advocates.

While Cuccinelli’s stance stemmed from his fiscal conservatism, McAuliffe has made it clear that he intends to pour big bucks into transportation. As Politico notes, his campaign played up his support for Virginia’s new law to raise $1.4 billion for infrastructure through increased sales taxes and other fees.

To Bacon, that may make McAuliffe more inclined to support wasteful projects like the Bi-County Parkway.

But The Washington Post also notes that McAuliffe’s platform highlighted “elements that appeal to advocates of livable, walkable communities.”

Schwartz sees the new administration as a fresh opportunity to examine alternatives. With McAuliffe “walking into a transportation agency which enjoys significantly higher levels of funding,” he said, it’s going to be “incumbent to look at how we can spend funds more wisely.”

Also critical will be McAuliffe’s decisions about transportation leadership. Many view the Bi-County Parkway as a pet project of Sean Connaughton, the current transportation secretary.

“Once he’s gone, the project’s going to lose a big backer,” said Bacon. “On the other hand, the political constellation around it won’t disappear.”

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BRT Advocates Urge Council to Make Friendship Heights Connection

Posted on by Mitch Margolis

The Coalition for Smarter Growth says the County Council needs to extend a bus rapid transit route planned for Wisconsin Avenue south to Friendship Heights.

The proposal took a big hit on Friday, when the Planning Department, which included the BRT line all the way to the D.C. line in its master plan, reversed course and agreed with Council staff that it should stop at a planned Bethesda Metro entrance on Elm Street.

The three-member Transportation Committee was split, producing a 1-1-1 vote for keeping the section of BRT to Friendship Heights, getting rid of it entirely and drawing it as a dotted line to indicate the county would study it if and when D.C. looked at transit of its own for Wisconsin Avenue.

The Coalition, a D.C. based nonprofit advocating for bus rapid transit, put out a press release on Monday urging the full Council to reconsider:

Stopping the route at Bethesda, instead of connecting it an additional 1.5 miles to the D.C. border could shortchange the area and the county in several ways, supporters said.

“With traffic congestion rising and the possibility of local Metro stations shut down for extensive repairs, residents in our area are seeking more options for getting north to Bethesda and beyond, or to Friendship Heights and D.C.” said Chevy Chase resident Ronit Dancis. “BRT would be a great new option for our neighborhoods.”

Residents in the Chevy Chase West neighborhood are opposed to BRT south of Bradley Lane because of safety issues and because they think it would make it more difficult to turn in and out of the neighborhood. Council staff analyst Glenn Orlin dismissed those fears, but said he was against extending BRT into Chevy Chase because he didn’t see who would use it.

The Coalition for Smarter Growth’s release cites developers JBG and the Chevy Chase Land Company as supporters of extending BRT south. Both developers have properties in downtown Bethesda and Friendship Heights. Other supporters include the Friendship Heights Transportation Management District Advisory Committee, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce and Ward 3 Vision, a partner group of the Coalition for Smarter Growth that operates in D.C.

“Cutting short this key route would sever an important transit connection between Montgomery County and D.C., putting more cars on the road and make both Bethesda and Friendship Heights less competitive locations for business,” the Coalition of Smarter Growth’s Kelly Blynn said in the release. “Extending the route has few downsides. The plan proposes wider sidewalks and an improved pedestrian environment, while recommending no changes to the median or street width.

“Connecting the Montgomery Rapid Transit to Friendship Heights will enhance transit connections with D.C and its extensive bus network and the city’s own growing express network. The BRT link on 355 between Bethesda and Friendship Heights is a critical connection that needs to be made,” Blynn said.

The Transportation Committee will host two more worksessions on BRT on Tuesday.

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