June 14, 2007
Transit on Thursday: Dark Harbor Edition
Also, Metro has a long list of changes to local bus routes, affecting lines in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. Some are relatively minor details - for instance, on weekdays, northbound 42 buses will leave from a different Farragut Square location - while others are much more significant schedule changes and re-routings. The changes listed will go into effect beginning next Sunday, June 24th.
Finally, we have weekend track work and service disruptions from Metro.
Photo by digitaldefection
Alexandria Harbors Transit Hope
Of the many projects proposed and under construction in and around D.C., the National Harbor is among the most fascinating. The $2-billion development, planned for south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, is slated to include condos, shopping, office space, restaurants and entertainment options, and six hotels, including the 2,000-room Gaylord Hotel, complete with a massive convention center.
We've wondered aloud before whether this complex is terribly well suited to the city, especially looking at the transportation situation. Though Metro has identified National Harbor as a possible end station for a streetcar or rapid bus line running from Mount Vernon Square, so far little progress has been made on any of the city's planned streetcars, outside of Anacostia (which also might lead to National Harbor). With transportation planners predicting that as many as 10,000 cars will traffic through the area each day when it is complete, local officials and neighbors are already sweating. Though over $500 million in road improvements are planned for the area, the fact remains that National Harbor will add a significant amount of traffic to a road network that is already pushed to the breaking point.
Across the river, however, Alexandria might be seeing the light on the transit issue. The city, which will have a prime view of the Harbor development from its location along the Potomac, has been wringing its own municipal hands over the prospect of thousands of cars crossing the river for a bit of Old Town charm. Some view the National Harbor as a huge opportunity, and want to bring tourists and conventioneers over in droves to shop and eat at A-Town's many local establishments. Others are worried that the project will draw away from the crowds that currently fuel much of Old Town's economy. What everyone agrees on is that there is the potential for a traffic nightmare.
To push back against this possibility, along with plans for a water taxi, the city budgeted $200,000 next year to run shuttles to National Harbor and between the Alexandria waterfront and King Street Metro station, with stops in between. Originally, the plan was to beef up service on the city’s current free weekend shuttle, DASH About, running along King Street every 10-12 minutes. However, the city is now considering trolleys instead, due to their maneuverability on the town's narrow streets. The drawback to the shorter trolleys is that they fewer people, depriving the city of transit capacity that it might not be able to spare.
Many transportation experts say that people are more likely to take transit if it stands out from standard bus service, preferring the novelty and upscale-ness of streetcars or trolleys to buses. If the city is serious about dealing with the traffic it currently has, and the traffic it is likely to see, along with reducing local global warming pollution, perhaps planners should consider the merits of a light rail or a true streetcar service, with dedicated lanes and signal priority. And if the region at large is serious about mitigating the extra congestion that National Harbor will create, they'd do well to follow the same advice, and start planning some serious transit service upgrades.
You Can Go Your Own Way, D.C.
Driving to work alone could qualify as the unofficial pastime of most U.S. cities. And according to recent nationwide Census data, more people are taking up this unlikely hobby. Despite rising gas prices, about 77 percent of American commuters choose to go solo to work rather than carpool or take transit, up slightly from 2000.
Our humble metro region, however, has refused to follow the crowd over the last five years, with slightly more people driving together or commuting on transit. The D.C.-metro area has always been among the top five transit-happy regions in the country, sharing the honors with places like the New York, San Francisco, and Chicago areas. This most recent round of numbers keeps D.C. in third place nationwide with 13.2 percent of the population taking transit to work. We fall behind New York-New Jersey, with 29.8 percent transit usage, and San Francisco-Oakland, with 13.7 percent. Other metropolitan regions that made a running are Chicago metro, at 10.8 percent, Boston-Cambridge, at 10.7, Philadelphia-South Jersey-Wilmington, 8.8, and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, at 6.9 percent.
Anyone think it's coincidental that the top transit riding cities also have the best transit systems set up? If you build it...
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Weekend Service Disruptions on Orange, Blue, Yellow and Green Lines
Track maintenance and rail car testing on the Orange, Blue, Yellow and Green lines this weekend will cause delays as trains share one track.
Orange Line Track Maintenance
Riders traveling on the Orange Line between the Cheverly and New Carrollton should add up to 20 minutes of travel time for trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains between these locations will share one track from 7 a.m., to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. To help expedite rail service into downtown D.C., every other Orange Line train will terminate at Cheverly and return to Vienna.
Blue and Yellow Line Track Maintenance
Riders traveling on the Blue and Yellow Lines between National Airport and Braddock Road stations should add up to 20 minutes of travel time for trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains between these locations will share one track from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturday.
Green Line Rail Car Testing
Riders traveling on the Green Line should add up to 10 to15 minutes of travel time for their trips because of railcar testing. Inbound and outbound trains operating between Greenbelt and College Park will share one track while new trains are tested from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Saturday.
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Not sure, other than the water taxi, can Alexandria do. The NH traffic is mostly coming from WW Bridge to Old Town, which is about 1 mile and good luck trying to fit a street car down King St. Although a street car up Duke will do wonders, most of Alex's traffic woes are people heading south to the beltway and they are usually just passing through. Alexandria does not have a problem with easy access to mass transit, its just that people’s jobs are not mass transit accessible.
That would be awesome if they put in a trolley down King Street. I've said before that Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax should be thinking long term about running a streetcar all the way up Route 7 from Old Town to Tyson's Corner. That would connect Old Town, Bailey's Crossroad (which will eventually be reached by the Columbia Pike Streetcar), Seven Corners, Falls Church, and Tysons.
Right now most people would drive that, but in terms of long (long) term planning, they could really do something special by focusing on building density along that corridor around a streetcar.
The nostalgic in me would like to see heritage trolleys through Old Town (perhaps replicas of the old Arlington-Alexandria lines: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Virginia_trolleys) but maybe new models would be more practical.
You Can Go Your Own Way, D.C.
"Driving to work alone could qualify as the unofficial past time...." Replace past time with pastime.
Reid,
There is no way you can put a street car up King just West of Old Town, the road is way too narrow and the nieghbors way to rich to allow it.
RJ, what would they object to? Particularly if the streetcar were built without ROW there?
I suppose there's always someone who will complain about anything, but I just don't see the complaints if you're not talking about taking a lane away.
I would think there would be people there happy to have easier access to the Metro and Old Town.
Ummm . . . something tells me they're talking about those silly buses dressed up to look like ye olde streetcar. I HATE those things. If it runs on rubber tires and is powered by an internal combustion engine, it's still a bus no matter how fancy the clothes.
Reid,
Alexandrians complain about everything, they're (uh-um, we're) extremely provincial, and RJ raises a good point about King. But you're right about the need for a long-term goal. Bailey's around Skyline and the rest of the way to Falls Church Tysons is just messy. East/West travel is just bad no matter how you try it. I've often thought a monorail traversing all those parking lots and "open space" would be a good solution, as well as paralleling some parts of Four Mile Run/W&OD Trail, but anybody who proposes touching those places is likely touching a third rail. People think monorails are a joke, but the places outside of the US where they get built tend to be sprawling Asian cities that grew and developed during the automobile area. Much of Rt 7 feels like a sprawling Asian trafficky megalopolis. A streetcar on the surface from Alexandria to Tysons would be quite a schlep.
People like to rant about Crystal City being bad urban planning of a different and best-forgotten era, but I personally think Skyline is the worst, and Tyson's is Skyline x20.
As to the question of whether real streetcars could fit in Old Town - plenty of cities with narrow and winding streets have streetcars. You can get some fairly narrow vehicles (narrower than buses). Also, there is less horizontal movement with streetcars than buses, since they're fixed to the rails. Makes it much easier for cars/bikes/pedestrians to share the street with them. They're also quieter than buses and have zero emissions at street level.
Everybody loves water taxis and ferries. I have heard talk of ferry lines running up the Potomac for commuters into DC and of course from National Harbor to Alexandria.
Yet, in New York, a city uniquely situated for both water taxis and ferries (Manhattan is, after all, an island) they have been pretty much a failure (I will leave out the Staten Island Ferry which is 100% subsidised and doesn't even charge a fare).
There has never been sustained water taxi service, and the latest attempt (NY Water Taxi I think its called) is meager at best and more suited for tourists looking for a leisurly ride up the river than anyone looking to get anywhere in any due course of time.
The ferry situation expanded after 9-11 and closing of the WTC PATCH station, but that was funded by heavy subsides from the Port Authority and once those subsidies stopped, the ferry business went back to losing money (to the point where NY Waterway, the primary operator has had to beg the city and feds for money to keep operating). Private ferries from NJ and Long Island have also been major money losers and several have gone bankrupt.
Running ferries is expensive and the ferries themselves run slowly. Few places are really suited for "high speed" ferries and for daily commuter or water taxi runs they are not cost- effective.
In addition, in New York (and Washington) there are no major business centers right on the water. So that means a ferry ride, and then a long walk or subway ride from the pier to work, shopping, or entertainment. Consider a water taxi or ferry to DC. Passengers would disembark on Maine Avenue and then have a walk to the Waterfront Metro station or an even longer walk to downtown.
Old Town Alexandria might be perfect for a water taxi (it is right on the water which is good), but I will remain skeptical until I see some evidence that this is the best use of public transit money.
Don't you have some sort of secret "in" when they start messing with your beloved 42 bus?
Esmeralda,
I totally agree about the possibility of streetcars within old town, but King Street passes west through some tony sections of town, and I'm sure if you proposed fixed rail transit on that part of King, the reaction you'd get would be "over my dead body".
I could also see protests in Old Town proper too, since streetcars did not exist in 1790, and I can see many historic preservationists and self-interested Old Townies making a passionate case that streetcars did not exist in 1790, and therefore would be out of "character" with the city, or would interfere with the "historic viewshed" or some such BS.
I could see some other form of transit connecting to King Street metro station, but east of there, no way, except (on second thought) perhaps something up and down Washington St.
I could also see protests in Old Town proper too, since streetcars did not exist in 1790, and I can see many historic preservationists and self-interested Old Townies making a passionate case that streetcars did not exist in 1790, and therefore would be out of "character" with the city, or would interfere with the "historic viewshed" or some such BS.
Bill, the (inevitable) situation you foresee is the frustratingly inconsistent argument of a town of entrenched NIMBYs. I mean, is proper fixed rail transit less in "character" with the "historic viewshed" than the army of Volvos and Lexus SUVs that clog the streets? Maybe a horse drawn light rail would satisfy their delicate 1790-era sensibilities? Like you say, total BS.
This kind of thing only helps make my ongoing case for a benevolent dictatorship. How to ensure benevolence is the only thing I have yet to figure out...
Also - @ editor: Thanks.
Colin,
LOL, I've often said the perfect form of government would be a "benevalent dictatorship" with me at the top!
Back when I had cable TV, I used to watch the Alexandria Architectural Review Board and the Board of Zoning Appeals hearings. I hope I never have to go before one, because I don't think I could contain myself. Some of the most riveting and infuriating television you can find. Endless arguments over widths of window mullions, debates about type size of signs in Old Town, colors of sheds in Del Ray, and arguements in support of halting the demoliton of "historic" buildings that were merely old.
Doesn't King Street have free bus service already?
Sorry, but Old Town used to HAVE streetcars until the 1950s. One line ran down Duke Street, another down Washington that ran all the way to Mount Vernon. You used to be able to take the streetcar from the Central Station (which used to be at the foot of the Capitol building) all the way to Mount Vernon. Hell, you used to be able to take a streetcar from downtown all the way to Annapolis back in the 1920s. Next time you're in a used bookstore, check out an old DC tourguide from that era. They've got timetables and everything.
Now, the local residents would never allow a streetcar because construction would take at least 2 years to complete, and local businesses couldn't afford to lose the business. Then there's the need to eliminate street parking on King Street if you wanted to run a streetcar down the line. And Old Town loves themselves their Volvos and Subarus.
The surface rail project from Crystal City to Braddock Road seems to have evolved into dedicated bus lines. Pity, since that area would be ideal for trollys, what with the density going through the roof and all.
"The surface rail project from Crystal City to Braddock Road seems to have evolved into dedicated bus lines. Pity, since that area would be ideal for trollys"
Easy: Infill station at Potomac Yard. Cheaper and you don't have F__ with Rt1.
Now a street car down RT 1 from Huntington to Ft Belvoir is what we really should be talking about.
Now a street car down RT 1 from Huntington to Ft Belvoir is what we really should be talking about.
Why? Nobody who works at Belvoir lives anywhere near there. When I worked there, most of my co-workers lived in Woodbridge, Sterling, or freaking Haymarket. I myself was living on U Street and can't imagine how long it would have taken to get from there to Huntington, then transfer to a streetcar to go the rest of the way to Belvoir.
Besides, most of the BRAC refugees will be housed near the Springfield Metro anyway.
Streetcars only work in short-haul situations, a downtown loop connecting core stations, or as a short spur from existing rail stations through business corridors. And that only happens when you're able to lure all the nimbys into a townhall meeting, bolt the doors, and set the place on fire.
Little known fact: the Reichstag fire was actually an annual neighborhood cleanup meeting gone horribly awry.