Category: Virginia

Dulles International Airport Challenges

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

A demand for change at Dulles Airport.

Washington Dulles International Airport, located in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in Virginia, was once surrounded by farmland. An image of the Dulles Airport decorates the seal for the Town of Herndon. Yet Dulles airport is fighting an image problem. Virginia political and business leaders are trying to reverse passenger declines at Dulles Airport, as more passengers travel through Reagan National Airport.

#In 2005, 27 million passengers flew through Dulles; in 2014, the number was 21.6 million. In comparison, 17.8 million passengers flew through Reagan National Airport in 2005. By 2014, that number of Reagan passengers had become 20.8 million. Three times in 15 years, Congress has lifted the 1,250-mile perimeter and added new flight slots at National.

#Some travelers have said Dulles Airport is difficult to navigate through. It has also been getting a bad reputation for luggage issues. Dulles had 1,086 total claims, out of which 331 were approved or settled for a total of $67,952.16 between 2010 and 2014. A USA Today investigation found the TSA is taking a hit for damaged bags, paying out $3-million in claims for lost, broken or stolen items.

#TSA PAID OUT 7.6 claims per million passengers at Washington Dulles International, about two and a half times the number of losses paid at nearby Reagan National and nearly four times more than the airport ranked with fewest complaints among the 30 busiest Airports in America, Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

#In the meantime, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is trying to increase revenue while more passengers are using Reagan National. Dulles is expensive for airlines. Most large airlines fly a “hub-and-spoke” network where they fly almost entirely to and from their hubs. Without a United hub, there are no flights to smaller eastern cities from Dulles, since United depends on connecting passengers to fill them.

#United CEO Jeff Smisek said United is reluctant to expand at Dulles because it is more expensive than other airports. Airports have to be self-sufficient and pay for their facilities and operations through revenue they earn inside the airport (like restaurants, concessions) and fees airlines pay. When an airport wants to build new facilities, it must take on debt that raises the costs for the airlines.

#In January of 2015 Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe unveiled new, large versions of the “Welcome to Virginia” signs at Dulles Airport. In April, a seminar was held at the Sterling AOL Campus, titled Dulles Matters. The event was sponsored by the Committee for Dulles. Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said although Dulles is a key regional asset, the public must be sure leaders are making the smartest choices when it comes to spending taxpayer money.

#A study commissioned by the MWAA showed Dulles generated more than $1.2 billion a year in tax revenue and nearly $10 billion in labor income. More than 19,000 people work at Dulles, but nearly 250,000 jobs are tied to the airport. MWAA operates National and Dulles. “We need to rally and put Dulles and this region onto a positive growth path,” said Keith Meurlin, president of the Washington Airports Task Force and former Washington Dulles International Airport manager.

#Phase 2 of Metro’s new Silver Line will include a station at Dulles, and construction may be complete by 2020. The MWAA may amend its ground transportation policy to allow Uber, Lyft and similar services access to airport property at National and Dulles. The Maryland Aviation Administration, which oversees BWI, studied practices at other airports to develop a “comprehensive review” of its ground transportation service, and plans to update regulations in coming months, officials said.

#Traditional cabs pay a $3-per-fare fee to operate at National, unless it’s a prearranged trip, and they must wait in line to be dispatched. Uber and Lyft drivers can pull up to the curb to collect passengers. “They are popular with a certain segment of the population,” said John Massoud, vice president of M&R Taxi Company, Inc., trading as Arlington Blue Top Cab, which has provided taxi service to Northern Virginia since 1984. A locally owned family business, M&R Taxi Company, Inc. has potential taxi drivers go through a detailed screening process including a drug test, training and an exam. “Only then we do allow someone to drive a Washington Flyer taxi,” said Massoud. Although taxi companies have few worries for the Metro Silver Line, they have expressed specific concerns regarding rider services such as Uber.

#DULLES AIRPORT has been reviewing three potential sites for hotel development including a 2.6-acre site used as employee parking at the east end of the terminal. The other two sites include: a 5.6-acre site behind a daily garage facing the main terminal, near the future Metro station; and a 13.7-acre lakefront site near the existing Dulles Airport Marriott hotel, which has a lease to operate at Dulles through 2027. On-airport hotels have been popular for travelers who have early flights.

Read original article here.

 

Transportation overhaul: New scoring system for project funding nearly set

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

The Commonwealth Transportation Board is slated to vote Wednesday on the key details of a new scoring system that will be used to decide what new road projects get funding around the state.

The board is expected to weight various scoring categories in the formula, which will be used to judge all future projects. Projects expected to reduce congestion will score high in Hampton Roads, particularly if a change that the Virginia Department of Transportation has suggested wins board approval.

When the scoring criteria were rolled out in March, the plan was to figure 35 percent of a project’s score in Hampton Roads based on congestion mitigation. The new recommendation is 45 percent.

Board members said they’re not sure whether the change has the votes to pass Wednesday, and two said they’d prefer a compromise of 40 percent. That, they said, would allow increases to at least one other category that they believe has a longer-term effect on congestion relief than the congestion mitigation category itself.

The basics of the new scoring system were laid out last year in House Bill 2, which called for an overhaul of the state’s road-funding process. Supporters on both sides of the aisle, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, said they wanted to replace an often political process with something more objective and transparent.

Projects will be scored, those scores will be posted online, and if the Commonwealth Transportation Board deviates from those scores when it picks projects, people will notice, supporters said.

There are six scoring categories: Congestion mitigation, economic development, accessibility, safety, environmental quality and land use. VDOT was tasked with deciding how much to weight each category.

Weightings will differ around the state. In rural areas, safety improvement projects will score better. In Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, congestion mitigation will reign supreme.

But environmental and smart growth advocates said Tuesday that just because a project scores well on mitigation, as opposed to accessibility and land use, doesn’t mean it will have the biggest long-term effect on traffic. Adding lanes addresses issues in the short term, but can discourage people from car pooling, taking mass transit and scheduling travel at off-peak times, said Stewart Schwartz, executive director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

Accessibility scores, on the other hand, judge how much a project helps people get to and from work, and it includes a transit component. Land use is based on how transportation projects support efficient development.

Accessibility shrunk in importance by 15 percentage points to increase congestion mitigation’s effect in Hampton Roads, and to up land use’s by 5 points. Marty Williams, a former Newport News city councilman and Peninsula state senator who sits now on the state transportation board, said he’d like to see accessibility bumped back up about 5 points before the formula is finalized.

Both Williams and John Malbon, who represents Hampton Roads on the CTB, said they’d be comfortable with congestion mitigation at 40 percent. They noted that the old system – the one in place before House Bill 2 – probably put congestion mitigation at about 80 percent, though projects weren’t formally scored that way.

Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne said Tuesday that there was some push, from legislators and others, to crank congestion mitigation up as high as 70 percent. Local officials were more likely to prefer the 35 percent VDOT originally suggested, he said.

“I don’t think anybody is really happy with it (at 45 percent),” Layne said. “Which probably means we pushed it about as far as we could.”

Camelia Ravanbakht, who, as interim executive director of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, is heavily involved in suggesting projects for funding, said she was surprised Tuesday to hear about the increase proposal. Her group didn’t request the change, and she said it’s too early to know how it would affect specific projects planned in the region.

“I wish I did (know),” she said. “It’s very project-specific. You cannot really generalize it.”

Nick Donohue, the deputy transportation secretary who spearheaded the lengthy process that led to these weighting formula recommendations, told board members Tuesday that there will be some trial and error in the coming years. The state will probably want to tweak the formula “at least every few rounds.”

Local officials will submit projects for funding, but the project-by-project scoring will be done by the state. Donohue said that process hasn’t been set, but will be in the coming months. It’s possible that multiple teams will score projects so that at least some of the projects scored in each round are reviewed by separate teams, he said.

Fain can be reached by phone at 757-525-1759.

Read the original article here.

VDOT Plan to Add Tolls to I-66 Gets Tough Reception

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

The plans developed for a 25-year upgrade of Interstate 66 inside the Beltway by the Virginia Department of Transportation were presented at a heavily-attended public meeting at the Henderson Middle School in Falls Church Tuesday night, and left the audience more than a little unsettled, based on the comments and grumblings from many there.

The plans include the introduction of tolls for all vehicles carrying less than three passengers during rush hours in the morning and the evening, and going both ways.

The presentation faced a lot of angry criticism from the public that spoke up Tuesday night, including from Falls Church Vice Mayor David Snyder, who, even though he welcomed the audience on behalf of the City, issued a statement that exemplified the sharp criticism that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and other planning officials were subjected to.

Snyder criticized the “lack of clarity and assurance” in the proposals, including “whether people will actually pay the tolls on avoid them and further clog already congested roads such as Route 7 and 29…The only long-term solutions lie in alternatives to more lanes to serve single occupancy vehicles.”
Others assailed what they called “a money grab” and “holding Falls Church and Fairfax hostage to tolls.” Whereas the comprehensive plan is not slated to be completed until 2040, the tolling will come in the first phase set to go by 2017, according to the planners Tuesday.
The overall purpose of the plan, officially called the “I-66 Multimodal Project,” is three-fold: to move more people, “enhance connectivity” between travel modes, and to provide new travel options.
Its benefits, according to VDOT and its partner in this project, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), are to “move more people and enhance connectivity in the I-66 corridor, provide congestion relief and new travel choices, manage demand and ensure congestion-free travel, provide a seamless connection to nearly 40 miles of express lanes in the region, create a ‘carpool culture’ on I-66 by providing free, faster, more reliable trips for HOV-3, van pools and buses, and provide support for multimodal improvements in the corridor or on surrounding roadways that benefit mobility on I-66.”
It is not related to another plan which calls for the widening of I-66 west of the Beltway, although they interface and of course are on the same highway.
The more specific data many citizens demanded Tuesday night will be forthcoming in the fall, insisted VDOT officials. The studies of various components of the plan for more precise numbers will be coming over the next months.
Snyder’s concern for the spill-over effect onto side roads, like Routes 7 and 29 that criss-cross the City of Falls Church, was expressed at a Falls Church City Council work session Monday night, and was the concern of a number of those who spoke Tuesday.

However, in comments e-mailed to the News-Press following Tuesday’s meeting, Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth wrote, “We are generally supportive of the VDOT proposal. It is a viable alternative to widening which would do more harm to homes, neighborhoods, parks, schools and the highly utilized commuter bike trail.”

He added that “peak hour congestion pricing in both directions will ensure the road works effectively and with HOV and expanded transit could carry far more people per hour,” and would “certainly help to address the current severe congestion in the ‘reverse commute’ direction.”

Pending more data, he added, the “diversion of traffic…might turn out to be no more than the diversions prompted by the current traffic congestion on I-66,” and “is counterbalanced by the fact that currently single occupancy vehicles are barred from I-66 for the peak hours and have been using parallel roads. With the option to pay for a free moving facility as compared to navigating local arterials with stoplights, the toll option could help local streets.”

Robert Puentes, a planner and former member of the Falls Church Planning Commission, wrote online at FCNP.com that “The VDOT plan is the right one to deal with the intractable problems in the I-66 corridor. There’s a long way to go to refine the proposal and the devil’s in the details but the general plan is a good one.”

In an anonymous response to Puentes on FCNP.com, a commenter complained that “reverse commuters face no restrictions now and in fact some have considered this in establishing their places or residence.”

He argued, “We need a comprehensive and robust mass transit solution to the traffic quagmire…We could focus on making Northern Virginia a showplace for light rail and bus networks designed so that people actually could use them instead of cars.”

Read the original article here.

Letter of Support to US DOT for Potomac Yard Metro

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

I am writing to express our strongest possible support for the City of Alexandria’s application under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FY 2015 National Infrastructure Investments discretionary grant program (formerly “TIGER”) for the Potomac Yard Metrorail Station. The project involves construction of an infill station on the Blue and Yellow Metrorail lines in the City of Alexandria, which is one of the core jurisdictions in the Metropolitan Washington region. The station would serve a major redevelopment site within five miles of downtown Washington, DC.

Williams: Parks planning needs public input

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

A recent study of planning theory and practice … suggests that the ineffectiveness of city planning results from two key factors: the tendency of planners to be pulled along by the prevailing political currents and the consistent refusal to formulate a notion of the ‘Good City’ that draws upon the widest possible base of support.”

— Christopher Silver, “Twentieth-Century Richmond: Planning, Politics and Race”

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, thought Richmond had turned the corner on planning.

He and his wife had moved here the year before, and the public engagement surrounding the Downtown Master Plan “was absolutely inspirational,” he recalled.

But a half-dozen years after that plan’s approval, the 20th century described more than 30 years ago by Silver, a former professor of urban studies and planning at Virginia Commonwealth University, sounds a lot like Richmond in the 21st century.

Last week’s forwarding of the proposed Kanawha Plaza makeover by the Planning Commission had all the traits of Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ approach to public projects — a blitzkrieg of lobbying and behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing, a dearth of public say, and a fast-track product guaranteed to leave folks asking, “What just happened?”
From the Stone brewery to the Shockoe ballpark plan to the pro football training center, there has been dissatisfaction over the level of transparency and public engagement.

The $6 million Kanawha Plaza renovation — to be bankrolled mostly by the corporate sector — will execute a plan produced in part by a design firm hired by Dominion Resources. The rehab could be completed in time for the bike race in September.

So much for the concerns of the Urban Design Committee, which were pretty much ignored as the mayor’s team pushed through a plan that calls for a large lawn at the center of the park, a stage like structure, a food truck area, retention of the plaza’s fountain and other grading and landscaping improvements.

At least one planner questioned what would be the lack of shade at the plaza during summer months; another was critical of the “disjointed” process and the lack of input from people who live downtown.

Even with the time crunch, it shouldn’t have come down to this.
Rachel Flynn, former director of planning and development for Richmond and now director of planning and building for Oakland, Calif., noted that numerous cities have forged public-private partnerships to address the design of public spaces, citing Bryant Park and the linear High Line Park in New York and Post Office Square in Boston as successful examples.

“The key was the hiring of excellent landscape architecture firms with very strong track records in creating beautiful public spaces, that are highly popular,” she said in an email last week. “If the city wanted to turn public responsibility over to the private sector, then they should have required the highest design standards.
“The hired firm, KEI Architects, is not a landscape architecture firm — and therefore doesn’t have the experience in designing successful public spaces,” like the aforementioned parks, she said. “Richmond deserved the best landscape architects for this project and the best design for its citizens. What a missed opportunity.”

While Flynn questioned the design, Schwartz lamented the process that led to it.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth has urged Richmond to have a more inclusive planning process, greater transparency and public involvement in the economic development process, and more sharing of information on the city’s website.

“We have a lot of creative talent in this city that we should tap. You get better decisions and outcomes in this city when you bring everyone to the table and tap their ideas,” Schwartz said.

He observed that there’s significantly more public involvement as a routine part of the planning process in Northern Virginia. And he lauded the Sacramento region’s Blueprint along with Envision Utah as broad outreach planning that we would do well to emulate. A byproduct of Envision Utah was a deeply conservative state’s construction of two light rail lines in Salt Lake City.

If that can happen there as a result of collaboration for the greater good, what can’t we accomplish here? For us to be not just a good city, but the best city we can be, we need broader involvement and fewer political power plays.

Or as Schwartz said, “We’ve got to turn away from the old way of doing things where just a few people make decisions about the future of our diverse city.”

A city guided by prevailing political currents, rather than transparency and inclusiveness, is guaranteed to stray off course.

Read the original article here.

Searching For Transit In I-66 Expansion Plans; Public Funds Give Virginia Options

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

Virginia is thinking about taking a different approach to toll roads.

After ceding future toll revenue on the I-495 and I-95 Express Lanes to the private-sector firm that built those highways in Northern Virginia, officials announced on Tuesday the results of an internal analysis on whether planned toll lanes on I-66 from the Beltway to Haymarket should remain under state control.

By fronting up to $600 million in public money for the estimated $2.1 billion project to build 25 miles of high-speed toll and carpool lanes on I-66 outside the Beltway, the state could reap hundreds of millions in toll revenue over the next 40 years to pay for other transportation improvements, said Aubrey Layne, Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation.

“The private sector is going to build this road. The private sector is probably going to operate this road. I’m not sure if the private sector is going to finance this road,” Layne said in remarks to reporters.

If the state decides to publicly finance the widening of I-66 to 10 lanes (five in each direction: two HOT lanes and three regular purpose lanes), it would mark a significant departure from the policy of previous administrations.

In the multibillion-dollar deals that built the Express Lanes on I-495 and I-95, the state’s financial commitment was small; the international road-builder Transurban took on the risk by financing the projects through a combination of private capital and federal loans. Thus, Transurban received concessions from the state to collect almost all the toll revenue on I-495 and I-95 for the next 70 years.

Such an arrangement is known as a public-private partnership, or P3, and Layne would not rule out another P3 for I-66.

‘We didn’t get transit’

“We didn’t get transit,” Layne said. “We might have made a different decision or the public might have weighed in differently had they known the project would have been different.”
Although the two toll roads may be helping drive-alone commuters and carpoolers, Layne said the benefit is coming at the expense of something else.

Only a fraction of the thousands of vehicles in the I-495 and I-95 Express Lanes are commuter buses. Transurban has little incentive to increase their number because buses do not pay Express Lanes tolls.

The 95 Express Lanes averaged 304 bus trips per day and the 495 Express Lanes averaged 177 in the most recent quarter ending March 31, according to data released by Transurban. These figures include school buses and charter buses.

Ridership remains relatively low on the new bus routes on I-495. OmniRide’s route from Woodbridge to Tysons Corner started in Nov. 2012. Fairfax County Connector launched express bus service to Tysons from Burke in January 2013 and added routes from Lorton and Springfield added two months later.

Two and a half years after opening to the public, 11 percent of all traffic on the 495 Express Lanes was either HOV-3 or otherwise exempt from paying toll (buses or emergency vehicles) during the most recent quarter, up from 8 percent in the April 2013 quarter, according to Transurban.

The future of I-66: buses, trains?

The McAuliffe administration would like to see a larger public transit share on I-66, although it is unclear what shape it would take.

The internal analysis unveiled by Layne before the Commonwealth Transportation Board on Tuesday “demonstrated that of the several available options for procuring the project, a publicly-financed design-build project may save taxpayers between $300 million and $600 million and provide for up to $500 million to be used for future transportation improvements in Northern Virginia,” according to a VDOT statement.

Transit advocates favor public ownership of future tolls on I-66.

“Our community is not going to support any project that does not put transit upfront as a major investment that we need in the I-66 corridor. Public ownership of the tolls may allow us to do that,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and critic of the prior Express Lanes concessions.

“We’ve been disappointed that they failed to look at a transit-first alternative, simply looking at transit, transit-oriented development, rural land conservation, measures to reduce the driving demand overall and to shape land use to encourage more transit use in the corridor,” he added.

State officials are expected to make a decision on the I-66 procurement process this summer.

Updated 8:30 a.m., May 20.

Read the original article here.

Partnership for Smarter Growth puts focus on eastern Henrico

Posted on by Claire Zippel

State Route 5 in eastern Henrico County was turned into a main attraction Saturday afternoon by the Partnership for Smarter Growth. The organization hosted the seventh River City Saunter to display tourist attractions, historic elements, natural resources and other economic assets to the region to county officials and residents.

Feedback on Potomac Yard Metro: WMATA hosts public forum near proposed Metro station

Posted on by Claire Zippel

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) took the Potomac Yard Metro Station discussion outside of City Hall and into the affected neighborhood for the April 30 public hearing at the Corra Kelly Recreation Center. The project had as many detractors in the crowd of local citizens as it did supporters.

Virginia to Congress: Stop approving new flights out of Reagan National Airport

Posted on by Claire Zippel

Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said taxpayers already have invested billions in the Dulles Access Road, Dulles Toll Road, Routes 606 and 28, and the Silver Line.

“Now the Dulles folks are seeking billions more for another round of highways,” Schwartz said. “Before we jump into that approach let’s first recognize the challenges that Dulles faces include the fact that they have over projected growth amid the boom in the mid-2000s and they took on too much debt.”