Local blog on transportation issues along Interstate 66.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Autumnal Roundup

It's back to school season or at least townhall-style meetings in school cafeterias.
  • The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation held public meetings in September discussing preliminary findings from their study of short- and midterm transit options on I-66. They're thinking mostly bus service improvements, and the study will be finalized next month.
  • Metro is facing a budget shortfall and has held public meetings to discuss the topic in D.C. and Virginia. (Maryland meetings are scheduled for next month.) Service cuts, fare increases, increased contributions from participating jurisdictions, and other options are to be considered.
  • Fairfax County is holding a series of meetings on its 10-year plan for bus service. Attend the meetings to learn about bus service, give input, and participate in the development of service recommendations. The remaining meetings are all scheduled weeknights, 6 to 8pm.


Interstate 66 is what state transportation secretary calls Northern Virginia's most congested and challenged corridor and he says its high-occupancy vehicle program needs to be updated (possibly longer, higher, and/or both directions). Others are calling for high-occupancy toll lanes. That said, if nearly half of I-66 commuters take transit, imagine what the highway would be like if more or less took transit.


For Tysons commuters, Fairfax County is starting a free lunchtime shuttle bus operating every ten minutes on two routes in Tysons Corner. If you bus or carpool to Tysons or if you want to just give your car a lunch break during the mid-day rush hour, then this service is probably for you.


Foreclosure rates in the outer suburbs have increased, according to a report in The Examiner. Looks like Fairfax County isn't in as bad a shape as Loudoun, Prince George's, and Prince William counties. But Fairfax's rate is still more than twice as high as its other neighbors.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Metro Talks Finances, Seeks Input on Budget Shortfall

At a public forum last night in Northern Virginia, transit officials, representatives from local jurisdictions, and Metro riders discussed the value and needs of the area's major transit operator in the wake of the economic recession. Metro faces a projected budget shortfall of more than $100 million for operations in fiscal year 2011 in addition to capital improvements estimated to cost $11.4 billion over the next 10 years, according to the opening presentation by John Catoe, Metro's general manager. Officials responded to comments and questions from forum participants about how Metro can balance its budget.

Most commentators emphasized that service cuts would be detrimental, both to the region as a whole and to the lives of many users reliant on the transit system. Some commentators viewed fare increases as unwelcome but preferable to service cuts. Users of MetroAccess, a paratransit service operated by Metro for people with disabilities, were concerned that the level of service they receive now, higher than what is mandated by federal law, could be reduced.

Fairfax County supervisor Pat Herrity (Springfield) recommended consideration for contracting bus service and "giving these bus routes back to the jurisdictions," citing how his county contracts bus operators for the routes assumed from Metro in Reston and Centreville. "Competition is something that could lead to lower fares, increased service, and a better system," Herrity said, after noting that Fairfax Connector's contractors have saved the county money and improved service.

Metro's biggest expense category, "personnel" in the presentation's pie chart, led to discussions about Metro employee salary and the benefits packages. Catoe insisted that reports that some employees receive extraordinary compensation due to overtime are rare cases that should become rarer. Pensions, another large personnel expense, are in a sticky situation, according to Metro director Chris Zimmerman, who explained that Metro's obligations to fund pensions for employees was inherited from the bus operations the infant transit agency assumed 30 years ago, and for legal reasons can't be modified without arbitration.

A number of commentators and officials, including Herrity and Zimmerman voiced support for priority bus improvements -- road and route modifications that allow buses to bypass normal traffic -- which could reduce costs by allowing buses to move more people faster with fewer vehicles and less fuel. Catoe was recognized for his personal experience implementing dedicated bus lanes in Los Angeles, and he said busways that once existed in the D.C. area's past should be brought back.

Catoe's presentation detailed the value of Metro service to the greater community in terms of transportation, economics, and the environment before providing a background on the budget situation.
  • Metro's biggest sources of funds are state and local contributions (39%), fare and parking (33%), and federal contributions (20%);
  • Metro's biggest uses of funds are personnel (45%) and capital costs (i.e., new buses, trains, stations, etc., 35%); and
  • average fare subsidies per passenger (i.e., estimated cost of a ride not covered by its fare) are $37.89 for MetroAccess, $2.46 for Metrobus, and $0.54 for Metrorail.
Also noted are some of the "cost drivers" of the budget gap (slide 16 or page 9):
  • contractual union wage and benefit obligations,
  • pension contributions,
  • fuel and energy inflation,
  • escalating claims costs,
  • security,
  • maintenance of an aging system, and
  • decreased due to ridership decline.
[I actually had to leave at 9pm before the meeting wrapped up (to catch a bus, naturally). So if anyone at the meeting, especially anyone who stayed to the end, has anything to add, please comment.]


Photo credit: Metrobus by Jason Lawrence.

      Monday, October 19, 2009

      Stone Road Park and Ride Full


      I wandered the aisles around 8:35am (just before the 8:40 departure of FC 442) and there was but one parking spot left. (The two cars pictured are probably going to find that one spot already full.) Maybe I don't pay a lot of attention to the parking situation because I prefer to bike to the park and ride, but it seems like it's been quite a while since the Stone Road park and ride has been at capacity.

      Ironically, on the way to Vienna, Interstate 66 seemed surprisingly uncongested -- with no backup within sight of Nutley Street as the bus got off toward the Metro station.

      Photo by the author.

      Thursday, October 8, 2009

      Comprehensive Bicycle Plan: a beginning?


      Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay (D) asked the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Board Chairman Sharon Bullova (D) to consider the creation (or in his words, to "endorse the concept only") of a bicycle master plan for the county at Monday's board meeting. Such a plan would be a blueprint for integrating bicycling into transportation infrastructure and is a popular step among jurisdictions nationwide toward comprehensive multi-modal transportation planning. The motion, which simply called for county staff to investigate the matter and make recommendations, passed unanimously.

      McKay expressed alarm at how many parents drive their children to school, the small number of students who walk, and the amount of fuel wasted driving children to school. "We have trails, but trails are only so good as they are connecting to other trails that take people to places like schools," McKay said, further arguing that fuel savings in the transport of children to school has "budget implications" and is "one of the components of why we need to look at an overall plan, both for kids to walk and to bike to school."

      A number of supervisors voiced concerns or related issues, including John Cook (R-Braddock) and Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) who emphasized that numbers need to be collected or projected on users and usage of existing and planned bicycle facilities for cost/benefit analysis.

      "The numbers right now are low because the facilities are non-existent," McKay explained. Both McKay and Herrity alluded to a "chicken and egg" egg problem or as Bulova -- who seconded the motion -- put it, "build it and they will come."

      Supervisor Lynda Smyth (D-Providence) recommended coordination with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's regional bicycle planning efforts and consideration for bicycle parking ratio requirements at shopping and business centers.

      Prompted by Bulova's mention of his flat tire, Herrity prefaced his remarks by talking about his own bicycle commute from his house in Centreville to the Government Center to Fairfax Corner to his office in west Springfield along trails.

      Video of McKay's bicycle master plan "in concept only" proposal and the board discussion is available on the county's website. Fast forward to 3:01:30 for the segment on bicycling. The bicycle plan is board matter 44 (page 30) in the board summary (PDF).

      Photo credit: bicyclists on trail by Kathleen Tyler Conklin.

      Wednesday, October 7, 2009

      Number Crunches in the County

      The 2008 data from the American Community Survey has a lot of new numbers to bask in and some unsurprising information on the home front.

      Fairfax County has one of the lowest percentages of commuters who take take transit among jurisdictions around or inside the Beltway. Almost three quarters of commuters drive alone to work. Farther out jurisdictions, such as Loudoun and Prince William counties, score even lower in transit use. But Fairfax has a high percentage of carpoolers and Prince William has even higher, likely owing to slugging (carpool lines) along interstates 95 and 395. And even though Fairfax's transit commute numbers are below average inside the Beltway, they're above the national average.

      Moreover, transportation patterns reflect housing and land use. For Fairfax County, the same survey data also show:
      • 96.6 per cent of households have a car, almost half of households have two cars, and about a quarter of households have three or more;
      • more than half of housing units are one-unit detached structures (suburban-style single-family houses unconnected to other buildings), and about a quarter of housing units are one-unit attached structures (single-family houses that are clustered together); and
      • construction of new housing units has come down considerably since the 1980s.
      BeyondDC crunched population numbers and noted that Fairfax County -- the most populated jurisdiction in the region and "20th-century sprawl champion" -- is now the slowest growing jurisdiction in the area between 2005 and 2008. Growth in Fairfax was outpaced by that in neighboring areas, both inner-Beltway suburbs and far-flung bedroom communities, and mostly before the recession.

      Decades ago Arlington -- already fully built out and suffering from pollution, traffic, and a shifting demographic that was taking a tax base with it -- faced much the same situation. As the nests of the baby boomers empty and media reports herald an end of the era of single-family cul-de-sac developments, what choice does Fairfax have but to pursue an Arlington-style transit-oriented reboot?

      Photo credits: map of mean commute time by the Census Bureau, two-car garage by Rich McGervey, Rosslyn and Courthouse aerial view by the Environmental Protection Agency.

      Sunday, October 4, 2009

      Bicycle Parking at the Colonnade at Union Mill

      I was at the Colonnade at Union Mill today. Bicycle parking is very poor at this shopping strip. The only store with a bicycle rack is Giant Food (and props to them for that). That one rack is pretty far from the ends of the strip and is only convenient if you're riding to Giant or the shops next to Giant. I do like getting groceries by bicycle, but, frankly, that's one of the more complex tasks to accomplish by bike. On the other hand, many of the other shops are excellent candidates for bike-by errands.

      If you wander behind the parking strip, you'll notice what I presume to be employee bikes locked to pipes behind the building. Actually, putting bike parking in the back of the stores at the end (like Panera) isn't a terrible idea, but parking that's somewhat hidden or cabled to the building's pipes is not recommended.

      With a large residential area (Union Mills and Little Rocky Run), Centreville High School, Braddock Park, and good shared-use trails along Braddock Road so closeby, there's no reason why bicycle parking shouldn't be more existent and prominent. Maybe the Colonnade should do what Centreville Square did with a bicycle parking rack on an actual parking spot.

      This is a good strategy because bicyclists are treated the same as other customers (not second-class shoppers), and the parking spot's prominence close to the storefronts highlights to other customers how nice a ride to the Colonnade might be in the future. People might bike to the Colonnade not because they don't have a car but because they want to ride a bike. Good bicycle parking is attractive and fun, but if you have to lock up to a sign, that's not attractive and and not fun.