Charge
Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues.
It's easy to focus on the problems and pathologies at the margins of a rapidly growing city. The pains of congestion and growth are frequently more dramatic in the far flung counties, where populations increase annually by astounding percentages and where infrastructure is least developed. At some point, though, you have to realize that one of the best ways to fix the problems at a city's margins is to keep improving life at the center. If we want to help reduce the pressure to expand, we've got to make sure that we keep things running smoothly at the heart of the metropolis.
At the moment, we are not doing the things that are going to allow that to happen over the long-term. It's nice to think that at some point density and transit might make their way into Prince William County, and it's fantastic to imagine taking Metro out to Tyson's or Dulles Airport, but gains made on the transit periphery will be next to useless without a functioning core. As cost estimates for Metro expansions outside the Beltway run into the billions, those same expansions have their value undermined by trains inside the Beltway that slow down and break down under the crush of intense use.
Last year, transit ridership nationwide hit a 40 year high, and Metrorail use has followed a similar trend, growing steadily and constantly over the past decades. On most weekdays, Metrorail easily tops 700,000 daily riders (along with over 400,000 daily Metrobus users), and 2006 alone was responsible for seven of the system's ten highest ridership days. It's probable that the coming spring and summer seasons will set additional records.
It's difficult to imagine what a typical summer weekday might look like without any rail service at all (and it's scarier still to imagine what might happen to downtown, the third largest central business district in the nation, if rail were offline for an extended period), and yet practically nothing is being done to arrest the growing paralysis on what is an extremely successful but woefully underdesigned transportation system. Metro should be running more trains, more often, for longer hours, but instead finds itself having to reduce capacity to address maintenance needs. When an unexpected incident occurs, the system rapidly bogs down into single-file lines of immobile cars filled with irate passengers. Metro will be able to get along for a short time without any major improvements, but upgrades and expansion take time. If we're not yet beginning the process of adapting to a busier future, what are we waiting for?
The problems are clear and well known. Capacity is too low, particularly across the river and through downtown. The lines we have are hamstrung by the presence of only one lane in either direction. This prevents the use of express trains and results in single-tracking for even the most minor of incidents. It means that tracks must be shut down at night and on weekends to repair faults, reducing the effectiveness and utility of the system. The pressure to run so many people on such limited infrastructure takes its toll; more faults appear causing larger delays.
If Metro encountered serious problems, improved bus systems and, eventually, a streetcar system might help mitigate the absolute worst parts of the crisis. But the fact remains: Metrorail is the skeleton around which our transit system — and along with it our urban geography and our economy — is built; nothing else will work well if we don't keep the trains running dependably. And yet the calls for significant improvements are nonexistent, no doubt because the scope of the problem is so great. But ignoring it won't make it go away.
What can be done? Dedicated funding would certainly help, but major capital improvements requiring billions of dollars are going to be needed. I propose that a congestion charge scheme be adopted for the entire area inside the Beltway, and that additional tolls be levied on highways entering the center city. This will result in an immediate increase in use of the Metrorail system, but would also improve bus and cab service inside the beltway which should help shoulder some of the shift. Most importantly, it will provide a steady stream of revenue for capital transit improvements, helping to provide long-term stability to the core of the system. Upgrades should include the construction of a new lines through downtown, consisting of two express and two local lanes, and including a new river crossing. Additional plans should be made to add at least a third lane, and preferably two more, to existing Metro lines. Streetcar plans inside the Beltway should be expedited and bus service improved.
Including the inner suburbs of Maryland and Virginia is logical, in that their density and transit usage is similar to the District's and in that they're tightly linked to the economy of central Washington, but such a plan might also help avoid the legal difficulties of a District-only commuter tax. Revenues should accrue to a regional body which could help guide WMATA's transit improvements inside the Beltway. There are sure to be political difficulties involved, but with road pricing increasing around the metro area, and tragi-comic statehouse politics forcing jurisdictions toward greater self-sufficiency, the plan doesn't seem like quite as hard a sell as it might have been in the recent past.
The scheme isn't perfect, but it is an idea. The longer we go on without entertaining possible solutions to this glaringly obvious problem, the harder it will be to fix.
Picture taken by davetron5000.