October 17, 2006
It's the Suburbs, Stupid
When local media, including this site, discuss our countless transportation and traffic problems, it is often to be described as D.C.-Metro or Washington-area congestion. However, statistics indicate that something along the lines of Va./Md.-Metro area congestion might be a more appropriate description.
Eric Weiss, the Post's new transportation reporter, has kicked off his duties with articles exploring several recent studies on commuting trends across the region and the nation. He reported last week that the potential savings on housing prices in farther-out suburbs could be outweighed by the cost of commuting and living in a spread-out landscape that requires a car trip for the smallest errand. He followed up today, pointing out that Virginia and Maryland have, on average, the nation's greatest proportion of lengthy commutes. While the District may be the geographical center of the region, it seems that Virginia and Maryland are closer to the center of the problem.
Photo by jtowns
Traffic and congestion have long been associated with cities; the downtown traffic jam is a recurring image in pop culture and literature alike. However, a major study called Commuting in America III looks at commuting trends around the country and leaves us with some interesting statistics that give us the impression that the issue of traffic needs to be decoupled from urban areas.
Notable to our area, Virginia boasts the highest percentage of residents who live and work in a different county, and Maryland comes in a close second. Local residents also have the second highest percentage of commutes that exceed 90 minutes one-way, second only to the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region. As Weiss points out in his article today:
Of the 12 counties with the highest percentage of long commutes, the region had three: Prince William, Prince George's and Montgomery. The extreme commutes of Prince George's and Montgomery residents suggest that many of them are traveling to jobs in other suburbs rather than in the District.National statistics back up the idea that this problem revolves much more around suburbs and exurbs than it does urban centers. For instance, between 1990 to 2000, about 64 percent of the growth in U.S. commutes was between suburbs. Meanwhile, traditional city-to-suburb commutes accounted for only 14 percent of growth, actually falling a percent in its overall share. Of the nation's 20 fastest growing counties, several of which are in Northern Virginia, 15 are more than 30 miles from an urban center.
As DCist editor emeritus Ryan Avent suggested last week, to combat the catch-22 of high housing costs versus high commuting costs, the region should invest in expanding both "backbone" and "feeder" transit service, and the city should look at improving both the average price and density of its housing supply. Both of these are extremely worthwhile ideas that should be pursued; however the new data suggests that this approach is only half the battle.
Metro does a fairly good job moving commuters in and out of the city, and the District has begun to succeed in increasing the number of area residents that live in its higher-density urban setting. The city also has several local projects on the docket to improve transit within the city, including reformed bus service on the busiest routes and new streetcars along the burgeoning H Street NE corridor.
Suburban counterparts to these examples are much harder to find outside of the semi-urban hubs along Metro lines that have existed in some cases for decades. Ideas such as Arlington's push for streetcar service along Columbia Pike are the exception, not the rule, and are made more difficult by the perennial lack of available funding. Yet this is just the type of project that is needed to begin to address the increasing amount of commuting that occurs around a major city, rather then into or within that city. Steps should certainly continue to improve District housing policy and Metro. However, represenatives of our suburban neighbors (to the west, for example) must begin to recognize that suburban problems must be solved in the suburbs.
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Which begs the question: why are all those people in the suburbs to begin with if the District is such a rich, vibrant tapestry of human achievement? They can't all be intellectually retarded. Families have been migrating out of cities since Lot and for the same reasons. Until DC gets its act together and deals with craptacular schools, multigenerational crime families, and overall squalor, get used to more suburb-to-suburb commuting and more patronizing rhetoric from DC pols.
Because I don't think putting Ma and Pa Minivan in re-education camps is an option.
And yet many residents in the bastion of liberalism, upper NW DC, are advocating to vote for the republican candidate for City Council because the democrat is a smart growth supporter who favors more density around the metro stations on Wisconsin Avenue.
One of the reason so many people live in the suburbs is that dc is very expensive. A big reason why dc is so expensive is because you can't build buildings higher than the capital. This creates an artificial shortage of property and drives prices up. It is silly vanity and people don't think about the consequences.
Our region's many government officals inability to cooperate hurts us once more. The corrupt reign and the masses lose, no wonder it's called DC.
Why not increase job numbers and therefor choices in the suburbs to minimize this? Rather than building an ever bigger yet ever deficiant transportation network, why not encourage more suburban employment nodes?
Mark,
You mean like Alexandria, Roslyn, Reston, Tysons, Dulles corridor, Rockville, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Silver Spring, College Park, Fort Belvoir ect. The most of the traffic problems revolves around commuters going from burb to burb; not burb to city. The current mass transit infrastructure (Metro, HOV, Bus routes) is oriented toward the traditional Burb to city flow. There is little in the way of inter suburban mass transit.
Michael, firstly you are wrong about building hieght. You can't build a building taller than the Monument, and no building can be taller than the building next to it. It's been that way since Le'fant planed it so if you have a problem go ahead and be trapped in a NYC skyscrapper with 10000 other folks.
Foody: You can't build a building taller than the capitol? Of course you can! Where'd you hear that, a bar?
And suburban employment nodes? Have you ever VISITED the suburbs? What does Tysons Corner look like? Herndon? Office Parks maybe? There is no more room for suburban employment, the inn is full except in PG. For about 6 years I lived in DC and worked outside.
Again, who said Upper NW is a bastion of liberalism? It's not, here's a name for you: Carol Schwartz, longtime republican. Who would EVER call Upper NW liberal? People who don't know anyone there.
I lived in both the suburbs and the city and they both have positive things. The suburbs are prettier with gorgeous modernist housing tracts, trees and plants, but once you're home, you're stuck at home. My parents grew up on farms where they owned hundreds of acres of land, so where they live is "city" to them. Some people hate to see other Americans when they wake up. Other people LIKE to see Americans when they wake up- for them, the city is ideal. It's worth noting that farm people probably will never live in the city. I like my city commute and refuse to spend more than 20 minutes in the car. I like the trees and flowers on my city block. The biggest issue in the city is race. I have some trepidation saying this, but certain things are accepted by different races and that created the Barry history in DC. But since Latin people are making up large percentages of Montgomery County (a county with a non-US-born majority), Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax... Since PG County is so very African-American... The idea that cultural misunderstandings, cultural differences re: importance of education, cultural differences re: number of people per house, and all the issues that white flighters look at as a "DC issue" no longer are. My parents just had their community group talk to three families that bought this ~million dollar split-level- 13 people in one house in a very nice neighborhood! It looks like a commune! There were burger wrappers on the driveway! Did anyone expect 3 families would pool their money and move 7 kids and 6 cars to one house formerly owned by 1 widow?!
But seriously, DC schools are hardly worse than PG. Upper NW schools are not worse than Arlington County. The private schools are the best in the region. So instead of spending $30k on an SUV, I spent $20k on a nationally-ranked private academy... shocking I'm sure.
Its The Schools, Stupid.
Its easy to blame the 'burbanites for the traffic. Hell, I like taking the piss out of Virginians and Marylanders as much as the next guy. But the first comment poster is right. If DC improved the schools, people wouldn't live outside the city in the first place.
Seriously...I love DC now, but when and if I have kids, I'm going to have to either:
1) Comprimise and move to the burbs so they can be in better schools, adding to the traffic problem out there.
2) Shell out $15k a year/each to put them in private school.
3) Give up on the area altogether and try another city that pays more attention to its public schools.
So lets hope Fenty works some magic, eh?
Michael & Breaux: You are both wrong about the height limit.
See this WaPo article:
In 1899, Congress passed the Heights of Buildings Act.. The original law limited buildings to the height of the Capitol, but was amended in 1910 to the width of the adjacent street plus 20 feet, so a building facing a 90-foot-wide street could be only 110 feet tall.
... the democrat is a smart growth supporter who favors more density around the metro stations on Wisconsin Avenue.
And it has been pointed out in many other posts that city neighborhoods can be very suburban and non-city neighborhoods can be very urban. The highest density neighborhoods are in DC east of RCP, south of Piney Branch, and extending across to the Anacostia. Alexandria has some very dense areas. Wilson Boulevard and Bethesda look a lot like upper Connecticut Ave. Anacostia and South Arlington and Mount Vernon Avenue and Brookland and much of inner PG look a lot alike. AU Park and Chevy Chase and North Arlington resemble one another. And so on. These distinctions have more to do with historical growth patterns and access to job centers than municipal boundaries.
And it's absurd to say that NoVA and MoCo are built out. You just have to make it profitable for developers to redevelop old properties, and that's the whole point of the Tysons Metro project. It happens in Arlington all the time. How many Arlington car dealerships have vanished in the past ten years? Parking lots? Strip malls? If it becomes profitable for developers to buy aging office parks and rebuild them, it will happen. Roads can be rerouted. A grid system can be enforced.
Carol Schwartz lives in Kalorama and became a republican to challenge Marion Barry in a mayoral race. She is hardly a textbook republican.
Carol Schwartz lives in Kalorama and became a republican to challenge Marion Barry in a mayoral race. She is hardly a textbook republican.
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Yet she was an elected republican official for 20-25 years, right? I think we're in agreement here.
Bethesdan
Yes, she changed parties when she returned to politics to challenge Marion Barry in, I think, the 1990 race.
After that, she ran for City Council, and by charter, the Council cannot be 100% democrats, so it made sense, to preserve her seat, to remain a republican. I guess she could have pulled a Catania and become and independant.
Meh.
"Again, who said Upper NW is a bastion of liberalism? It's not, here's a name for you: Carol Schwartz, longtime republican. Who would EVER call Upper NW liberal? People who don't know anyone there."
Bethesdan,
I'm not really sure where your logic is comnig from. Just because Carol Schwartz lives in NW and is a Republican does not mean that NW is a Republican stronghold. Carol Schwartz is an At-Large councilmember, meaning she was elected by voters citywide. Trust me, I've lived in NW for the better part of 15 years and I can count on one hand the number of Republican neighbors I've had.
And, my guess is that she's a Republican because it's easier for her to get re-elected. There must be two members from the non-majority pary on the Council and Carol Schwartz would be a much more attractive Republican candidate than some others.
I live in Spring Valley and let me tell you - its full of republicans.
I also commute to Glover Park. 8 minutes WITH traffic.
Life is good.
as a recent transplant, I'm starting think this place just sucks.
And, my guess is that she's a Republican because it's easier for her to get re-elected. There must be two members from the non-majority pary on the Council and Carol Schwartz would be a much more attractive Republican candidate than some others.
I thought it had been determined that this is little more than urban legend. What happens if all of the Democratic council candidates receive the most votes in their respective races? For the at-large seat, voters must chose no more than two candidates on the ballot, and only one can possibly be a Democrat. But in the various Ward races, the candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of party affiliation.
I know that RJ, the problem as I see it is that people are not commuting within their communities. Rather than building more roads toward the goal of facillitating a bad and unsustainable practice (long distance commuting), I'm trying to encourage a good and more sustainable practice (short distance commuting). Increasing commercial density, and thereby job choices, in those satelite areas seems to me the best planning solution. There are other solutions dealing with tax policy and the like....
Colin's post is completely correct, and he's not saying the District is a great place. He merely says that transportation is easier within the District and worse in the suburbs. He's right.
And because the suburbs can't build more roads to solve their traffic problems, he's also right that the metro area needs more suburb to suburb transit connections.
And the schools don't have anything do with this problem. Even if D.C.'s schools were the finest in the country, there would still be people living in the suburbs.
I myself am a fan of having a small house closer into the city center instead of spending my life in a car. However, the problem that DC faces is one of perception and expectations.
Thanks to years of bad leadership (e.g. Marion "bitch set me up" Barry), the city has a horrible reputation for poor management. Furthermore, it has one of the highest tax rates in the nation, and the poor services provided by the city don't justify the higher taxes. Mayor Williams has made many advancements but not enough to change most perceptions.
Ron, nope, it's not urban legend. When Congress set up the structure for the District government in the Home Rule Charter, they put in a requirement that at least two members of the Council be from a different party. DC Code provides for this in Sec. 1-204.01(d)(3):
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, at no time shall there be more than 3 members (including the Chairman) serving at large on the Council who are affiliated with the same political party.
Since we have five at-large members, including the Chairman, two of those have to be of a different political party than the others.
DC has some of the finest schools in the region -- most just happen to be private and exorbitantly expensive. Suburban flight may have more to do with access to better public schools than simply the uneven state of DCPS, but the schools angle paints an incomplete picture.
Lifestyle preference contributes at least somewhat to suburban living -- many people prefer to live in suburban environments various reasons. Many urbanites enjoy selective suburban amenities as well, particularly more abundant retail options.
I live in Spring Valley. Bethesda, Tysons and Georgetown are within 15 minutes of me.
I have retail options.
Life is good.
Sarah O. you are so right? After five years finally got the hell away from the area. I do enjoy coming to DCist and reading about all the things that I don't miss though.
Get out of here while you can, Sarah O. It is a good thing that you quickly realized this place kind of sucks. I have spent five awful years here and I can't wait until December when I will be moving away from this miserable swamp.
Sarah O. -
Move to my neighborhood, its got everything you need. Big beautiful homes, large mature lots with trees and parks - easy commutes to downtown, easy travel to retail and entertainment.
Spring Valley is wonderful.
Life is good.
Sara O.
get out.
get out now.
please take me with you.
for the love of god take me with you.
5 years of my life have been wasted in the ghetto swamp that is dc.
the longer you stay the harder it is to flee this festering cess pool of humanity.
Sarah O, maybe dc lawyer can give you a ride when he or she leaves town. Neither of you will be missed. And CBC, you actually spend time reading DCist in order to remind yourself of all of the things you don't miss? Clearly life in your new city is extremely fulfulling. Best of luck.
Sara O, don't let the grumbling fool you. D.C. is a great city to live in once you find your place. We just complain about it because:
1. It keeps out the riff-raff. Same reason why Seattlists tell you it rains 370 days a year there, or Minneapolists tell you that it's cold enough there in February to freeze nitrogen.
2. We like complaining. Duh.
dc1000
Did the Army ever clean up the toxic waste leaking from the unexploded munitions at Spring Valley?
Live IS good.
heh- The toxic waste makes them trees grow big!
EAW - Your MIRV like sarcasm bombs always make my day.
when I will be moving away from this miserable swamp.
5 years of my life have been wasted in the ghetto swamp that is dc.
ooh.oooh!! can we start the dc is a swamp debate again???
for the record, i didn't say "5 years of my life..." in my previous post... both of the first two lines should have been in italics as they were both quotes from earlier in the comments.
Hill Rat, am I really that sarcastic? I really had no idea, but I'll own that.
I'm here only to entertain and to be entertained. And speaking of being entertained, from another thread: "What do you want? A medal or a chest to pin it on?" made me laugh so hard I almost blew snot all over my monitor. Thank you for that. Ah, to be in the fifth grade again. Good times.
When are people ever going to be able to talk straight in Civic Politics. In a post-industrial society the menial labor classes are seen as marginal displaced nuisance. Their "ethnic charm" is outweighted by their ignorance of all the niceties of ordinary civic existence. Our attitude toward the median standard has risen tremendously since the depression, wwII and the social reforms of the 1960's and 1970's. So much so that the urban poor are seen as people who for the most part resist and or ruin the wealth and wealth of opportunities around them. Are the poor lining up to public libraries and art museums? or are they rather a ferment of crime and urban blight? before you reply take an honest LOOK! I know there are REASONS but there always are and in light of the social and material progress that this country has made in the modernist era since the depression the old chestnut of it's not their fault but the system's fault isn't a very valid argument.
Thank you, Chris Lee, for that eloquently written opinion that was neither solicited nor relevant to anything discussed in this forum.
Ah, to be in the fifth grade again. Good times.
"I have a weakness for the classics."
RELEVANT to the underlying reasons for the NEED for suburbs.
RELEVANT to the underlying reasons for the NEED for suburbs. The social dynamics of the flight from cities.
chris lee dislikes poor people.
Got it. Check. No need to keep bringing it up on unrelated posts.
thank you. dismissal and invalidation duly noted. Have a nice day :>
Actually EAW it is much more fulfilling in Boston.
Less crime, check.
Lower taxes, check.
More competent local government, check.
Not paying a lot to live in a slum, check.
(Still expensive but not nearly as unreasonable)
Not dealing with self importand a**holes on a daily basis, check.
Authentic culture, check.
No NOVA to deal with, check
Tunnels falling down as you drive through them, check.
Gotta give you that one hill rat. Wasn't there some falling ceiling debris a couple years ago in one of the metro tunnels? It was Farragut North I believe.
DCist does kick Bostonist's ass though. You guys are much better, what the hell is going on with your brother to the North?
Not sure, it could be that people in DC don't work as hard so we have more time to blog and post smart ass comments.
"Not dealing with self importand a**holes on a daily basis, check."
I gotta give you that one, but only because I know I'm not one so there's no way you could be refering to me. I'm merely a smart-ass government drone milking tax payer funds while I feed my desire to make sarcastic comments.
"No NOVA to deal with, check"
Without NoVa, by what standards do you judge your level of hipsterness (or is it hipserosity)? Providence? Acton?
Waltham.
EAW I honestly love your response.
Without NOVA my hipster compass has been spinning with no direction.
LOL. I mean, if a hipster hangs out in the trendiest bar, but there are no suburbanites to whom he can act superior, does he know he's cool?
Actually, CBC, I love Boston. It's a great city and I find that Southie accent HOT!! Hmm, what does that say about me?
That is a question for our time that many great minds will have a hard time answering.
I don't know what that says about you with the accent but I have to say it is soooooo unfortunate on women.