Tag: 16th st bus lanes

Bus lanes coming to 16th Street, but it could cost you some parking

Posted on by Jacob Korn

More parking restrictions could be coming to 16th Street NW as part of the ongoing changes to prepare the corridor for rush-hour transit lanes, expected by 2020.

The D.C. Department of Transportation says it is moving to lengthen 22 bus zones along 16th Street to better accommodate articulated buses. In the process, it would remove up to 66 parking spaces.

City planners are studying additional impacts on parking that could result from adding dedicated transit lanes to one of the city’s busiest commuter corridors. Parking now allowed in the off-peak direction during rush hour could be removed to allow for travel in all traffic lanes during the morning and evening commutes.

DDOT also is evaluating a proposal to extend rush-hour parking restrictions along the corridor to ease bus travel. Next week, however, the agency plans to bring back regular rush hours to this and other corridors where the agency extended parking restrictions by 30 minutes to ease congestion during SafeTrack. Metro’s yearlong maintenance program ends Sunday, and parking prohibitions will return to normal: 7 to 9:30 a.m. and 4 to 6:30 p.m.

The ongoing changes could reduce parking availability on 16th Street, but transit advocates say they are necessary to prioritize bus use in the corridor that carries as many as 20,000 commuters on a typical weekday. Some say it is a luxury to have any parking available on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

The bus lane plan has been embraced by bus riders and city residents, who say dedicated lanes could help solve chronic problems on the S-Line, including crowding, bunching and delays.

The improvements would benefit thousands of riders who are often stuck behind traffic traveling at speeds of less than 10 miles per hour. The S-Line transports more people than cars during rush hour, making the corridor an ideal testing ground for the type of improved bus service that transit advocates and riders say would make Metrobus more efficient and attractive to commuters.

“People love their 16th street bus service and they love riding,” said Cheryl Cort, an advocate for bus lanes with the Coalition for Smarter Growth. Without bus lanes, she said, the problems will continue or worsen. Sometimes, buses are so crowded, she said, that four buses pass her before she can board one.

Metro has invested in the line, adding trips and restructuring service to provide extra buses along the southern portion. But as service was added, ridership grew.

DDOT began design work on the lanes last year, along with other enhancements to the road infrastructure, such as adjusting the timing of traffic lights and more frequent buses. Parking restrictions are next in the process, which also calls for the elimination of bus stops and more upgrades to the bus fleet. Plans also call for an off-board payment system and all-door entry on S-Line buses to reduce dwelling times at bus stops.

The bus lanes would run peak-direction during rush hour, from Arkansas Avenue in the upper Northwest area to H Street in downtown.

Earlier plans to extend the center reversible lane from Arkansas Avenue to K Street by installing a fifth lane south of U Street may not be possible because parts of the corridor are 2 to 3 feet short of the 50 feet needed to have five, 10-foot traffic lanes, officials say.

Still, the city said it is moving forward with rush-hour transit lanes throughout the length of the corridor. DDOT will present alternatives for how to do that in the segment that has only four lanes at a meeting next month.

As the project advances, the most controversial part has been the potential elimination of eight bus stops: southbound stops at Newton, Lamont and V streets; and northbound at L, Q, V, Lamont and Newton streets.

Residents and community leaders said at a meeting last week that taking away stops would impact riders, many of them elderly and with young children, who already walk four or five blocks to get to their bus stops.

Kishan Putta, a community activist who has been pushing for the transit lane for the past four years, said the consolidation of bus stops could alienate riders and the time savings is not worth it. Instead, he said, DDOT should consider whether it makes sense to have some buses uses different stops.

As part of the ongoing changes in the corridor, Metro will add more rush-hour trips on the S9 buses starting Sunday. In recent months, the limited-stop route tested transit signal priority, a system that allows the bus extra green time at the light so it can stay on schedule.

City officials say they are still evaluating the program’s success, and whether significant time savings are accomplished, before implementing on the S1, S2 and S4.

With regards to parking, DDOT spokesman Terry Owens said the city plans to begin work with Advisory Neighborhood Commissions on the parking spaces that will be removed to make bus zones longer. He said the minimum length of a bus zone on an articulated bus route is 110 feet. Twenty-two bus zones don’t meet that guideline and will be lengthened by 40 to 60 feet, which means two to three parking spaces at some locations.

DDOT’s project timeline puts bus lane in the corridor by 2020. Under DDOT’s proposal, buses would have a southbound dedicated lane from 7 to 10 a.m. and a northbound one from 4 to 7:30 p.m.

The lane could save nearly six minutes of travel time during the morning commute for some southbound buses and the same for the northbound traffic in the evening, but general traffic would see modest increases in travel time, according to a DDOT study.

Click here to read the original story.

Transit advocate backs bus-only lane as traffic solution for D.C.’s busy 16th Street route

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

A prominent advocacy group for smart growth and transit challenges the views that a letter-writer and I expressed about the future of bus service on one of the District’s busiest commuter routes.

Sixteenth Street buses are squeezing out all the capacity they can under current conditions. There’s no more room to add additional capacity for cars to the road without harming neighborhoods adjacent to 16th Street NW (nor is driving an option for many residents along 16th Street anyway).

Yet our region continues to grow, and more people need to commute to downtown D.C. from D.C. and Silver Spring neighborhoods all along the corridor. What are we going to do to address that?

The 16th Street bus lanes proposal, in which the current reversible rush-hour lane from Arkansas Avenue NW to downtown would be transformed into a dedicated bus lane, is our best option. With the rush-hour bus lane, we would increase our capacity to move the greatest number of people through this important corridor and with the least disruption to commuters using different transportation modes.

A 2013 feasibility study for the District Department of Transportation showed that creating a bus lane in that stretch of 16th Street would still leave two lanes for cars and only slightly increase delays. Meanwhile, buses, which move half of rush-hour travelers on 16th Street, would move 30 percent faster with a dedicated lane and, most important, would increase capacity for [moving people through the corridor] by 10 percent.

All of this can be done without sacrificing any parking spaces or narrowing 16th Street to one lane for cars in the peak direction south of U Street NW, as the letter-writer in your column suggests.

The same 50-foot right-of-way along this corridor has sufficient room south of U Street to be restriped for three travel lanes in the peak direction during rush hour, and to allow the non-peak direction to remain as it is — with one parking lane and one travel lane. Traffic volume is not as high south of U Street as it is to the north, where street parking isn’t allowed during rush hour in either direction.

As to your other points about bringing signal prioritization to the corridor and increasing the number of Metro supervisors along 16th Street to improve the efficiency of bus spacing, we agree, but it’s not enough.

Buses get stuck in traffic and are thrown off their schedules for two big reasons: They are stopped at red lights, and they are held back from moving through intersections because there are a bunch of cars in front of them.

Dedicated bus lanes free up buses from being stuck behind a line of cars trying to get through an intersection, and signal priority gets the bus through the intersection. Together, bus lanes and signal priority do more than the benefits they offer individually to get buses moving.

When we can do this with a marginal effect on traffic congestion, but a real increase in overall capacity, it’s a win for everyone.

What should be our next move? Do the detailed evaluations, approvals and plans to assess and implement a bus lane. DDOT should also expedite implementation of transit-signal priority, which is scheduled to be operating in the next two years.

The current status of the bottled-up transit service on 16th Street leaves more than half of the corridor’s commuters with a substandard option that is not only unacceptable, but also fixable. Why would we be so biased against effective solutions to make a corridor work for a majority of its travelers?

Cheryl Cort, policy director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

DG: A woman who lived at 16th and U streets in the late 1980s told me the Metrobuses were referred to as the “Banana Bus Lines,” because they always arrived in bunches. Many of today’s riders who try to board in the Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights neighborhoods and farther south say that’s the most predictable part of the rush-hour bus service.

But to really succeed, a transit service needs the schedules to be predictable, not the bus bunching and crowding.

Metro and the District Department of Transportation consider 16th Street part of a regional bus priority corridor network, but DDOT has not yet presented an official proposal for bus-only lanes on 16th Street.

Maryland-to-D.C. commuters and D.C. residents along the corridor need to see such a proposal to make a proper evaluation. DDOT’s abortive experience with reconfiguring Wisconsin Avenue NW highlights some of the difficulties in translating what looks good on a map into what works for commuters in rush-hour traffic.

Before bus lanes arrive on 16th Street, drivers and bus riders alike need to know the District will be committed to enforcing new rules on lane use, parking and turning.

Bus-only lanes in an urban core are a block-by-block experience in engineering and transportation politics. If 16th Street becomes an initial experience, it needs to be a good one. Otherwise it could poison the environment for other transit improvements.

Read the original article here.

D.C. is spending $1 million on another study of the 16th Street NW corridor

Posted on by Claire Zippel

The new 16th Street NW Transit Priority Planning Study will look in detail at a 2.7-mile stretch from Arkansas Avenue south to H Street NW, a section an earlier study noted as optimal for a dedicated bus lane. DDOT will hold a public meeting March 31 to hear from residents, transit users and other stakeholders. Once this latest study is completed, some riders and public transit advocates say they expect the city to move from planning to action.

16th Street bus lane fact sheet

Posted on by acustis

How to get better bus service for 16th Street – Rush hour bus lanes – 16th Street NW buses are plagued by overcrowding and delays – A rush hour bus lane would greatly improve service – What would a rush hour bus lane on 16th street NW do? A dedicated bus lane operating during rush hour in the peak direction would keep buses from getting stuck in traffic. Buses in dedicated lanes would avoid traffic delays, move at increased speeds, and arrive on time. This means more reliable, regular service, and less overcrowding for riders.

16th Street will get another bus upgrade, but only a dedicated lane will really fix it

Posted on by Nick Ruiz

Metro has added more buses to the 16th Street “S” line, but ridership just keeps rising, the buses are crowded, and they’re seriously bunching. A dedicated lane is the best solution, say WMATA planners, but in the meantime, they’re going to add articulated (or “accordion”) buses along the congested corridor.

Better DC Buses: What does it take?

Better DC Buses: What does it take?

Posted on by acustis

New and innovative bus service has offered a better ride on DC buses, but many more improvements, like the 16th Street rush hour bus lanes, are still pending. Improving bus service is of vital importance to DC residents, since they rely more on riding the bus than on Metro.

Traffic congestion, constrained funding, and limited street space are all challenges to speedier and more reliable buses. For several years, better bus service has been planned, and sometimes implemented in DC and the region.

What’s the status of bus improvement plans, and what can we learn from other regions’ experiences? Together with ANC Commissioner Kishan Putta, CSG hosted Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Joseph Barr (formerly of NYC DOT), WMATA’s Jim Hamre, and DDOT’s Sam Zimbabwe, as well as DC Councilmember Mary Cheh.

Transit advocate backs bus-only lane as traffic solution for D.C.’s busy 16th Street route

Posted on by acustis
Dear Dr. Gridlock:

Sixteenth Street buses are squeezing out all the capacity they can under current conditions. There’s no more room to add additional capacity for cars to the road without harming neighborhoods adjacent to 16th Street NW (nor is driving an option for many residents along 16th Street anyway).

Yet our region continues to grow, and more people need to commute to downtown D.C. from D.C. and Silver Spring neighborhoods all along the corridor. What are we going to do to address that?

The 16th Street bus lanes proposal, in which the current reversible rush-hour lane from Arkansas Avenue NW to downtown would be transformed into a dedicated bus lane, is our best option. With the rush-hour bus lane, we would increase our capacity to move the greatest number of people through this important corridor and with the least disruption to commuters using different transportation modes.

A 2013 feasibility study for the District Department of Transportation showed that creating a bus lane in that stretch of 16th Street would still leave two lanes for cars and only slightly increase delays. Meanwhile, buses, which move half of rush-hour travelers on 16th Street, would move 30 percent faster with a dedicated lane and, most important, would increase capacity for [moving people through the corridor] by 10 percent.

All of this can be done without sacrificing any parking spaces or narrowing 16th Street to one lane for cars in the peak direction south of U Street NW, as the letter-writer in your column suggests.

The same 50-foot right-of-way along this corridor has sufficient room south of U Street to be restriped for three travel lanes in the peak direction during rush hour, and to allow the non-peak direction to remain as it is — with one parking lane and one travel lane. Traffic volume is not as high south of U Street as it is to the north, where street parking isn’t allowed during rush hour in either direction.

As to your other points about bringing signal prioritization to the corridor and increasing the number of Metro supervisors along 16th Street to improve the efficiency of bus spacing, we agree, but it’s not enough.

Buses get stuck in traffic and are thrown off their schedules for two big reasons: They are stopped at red lights, and they are held back from moving through intersections because there are a bunch of cars in front of them.

Dedicated bus lanes free up buses from being stuck behind a line of cars trying to get through an intersection, and signal priority gets the bus through the intersection. Together, bus lanes and signal priority do more than the benefits they offer individually to get buses moving.

When we can do this with a marginal effect on traffic congestion, but a real increase in overall capacity, it’s a win for everyone.

What should be our next move? Do the detailed evaluations, approvals and plans to assess and implement a bus lane. DDOT should also expedite implementation of transit-signal priority, which is scheduled to be operating in the next two years.

The current status of the bottled-up transit service on 16th Street leaves more than half of the corridor’s commuters with a substandard option that is not only unacceptable, but also fixable. Why would we be so biased against effective solutions to make a corridor work for a majority of its travelers?

Cheryl Cort, policy director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

 

DG: A woman who lived at 16th and U streets in the late 1980s told me the Metrobuses were referred to as the “Banana Bus Lines,” because they always arrived in bunches. Many of today’s riders who try to board in the Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights neighborhoods and farther south say that’s the most predictable part of the rush-hour bus service.

But to really succeed, a transit service needs the schedules to be predictable, not the bus bunching and crowding.

Metro and the District Department of Transportation consider 16th Street part of a regional bus priority corridor network, but DDOT has not yet presented an official proposal for bus-only lanes on 16th Street.

Maryland-to-D.C. commuters and D.C. residents along the corridor need to see such a proposal to make a proper evaluation. DDOT’s abortive experience with reconfiguring Wisconsin Avenue NW highlights some of the difficulties in translating what looks good on a map into what works for commuters in rush-hour traffic.

Before bus lanes arrive on 16th Street, drivers and bus riders alike need to know the District will be committed to enforcing new rules on lane use, parking and turning.

Bus-only lanes in an urban core are a block-by-block experience in engineering and transportation politics. If 16th Street becomes an initial experience, it needs to be a good one. Otherwise it could poison the environment for other transit improvements.

Read the original article on Washington Post >>

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 >>

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.

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