Transit on Thursday: Walking Tall Edition
There tends to be a lot of attention given to the state of bicycling to maneuver this city's streets, and rightfully so. But what about those of us who don't have the benefit of a manpowered two-wheeler to ride to work? After all, recent statistics show that 11.8 percent of D.C. walks to work, compared to the 2 percent who pedal.
Well, DDOT has us people on feet in mind. On Tuesday, the agency released its "Pedestrian Master Plan" (link leads to a 11MB PDF) for the next ten years - because for a city with the "most walkable places," there sure are some dangerous places to take a stroll - 14th and U, for instance, had 12 instances of cars hitting people between 2004 and 2006.
Some of the highlights? Well, simple things like repainting crosswalks, and increasing light durations to encourage safe crossing (yes, that means you, Mister "Cross Pennsylvania Avenue with 2 Seconds Left on the Clock"). Also, you can look forward to more graphic advertisements depicting coffeehouse patrons getting mauled by careening death vehicles.
One change that caught our eye was the suggestion to raise fines for drivers who fail to yield right-of-way to match those found in other jurisdictions in the area - D.C.'s fine currently is $50 per infraction, whereas the fine in Fairfax County can be as high as $500 per incident. Of course, the key is enforcement - personally, we here on Transit on Thursday have a pedestrian walkway outside our office building, which was monitored for a short period - but only after a pedestrian was almost smashed walking through it. Then again, if local law enforcement could be as judicious with these types of tickets as they are with jaywalking, it might just work.
After reading the report's helpful suggestions, what are your biggest gripes with or ideas to improve pedestrian safety in the District?
photo by HoiPolloi.
Here's A Cute Picture. Trust Us, You'll Need It After This: If you were to guess what the costliest and fastest-growing service Metro provides, would you say MetroAccess? (We sure didn't.) But it's true - the arm of Metro that serves individuals who are unable to access Metrorail or Metrobus service accounts for almost $72 million of Metro's budget and grew by 16 percent this year. However, it seems that the program is a bit too picky when it comes to making sure that it's patrons are actually disabled. Currently, Metro requires MetroAccess users to re-certify every three years, even if they have a permanent disability. One story that really got to us was that of Scheronne Briggs:
[Briggs is] a workforce development specialist who regularly rides the train and bus but uses the paratransit service when necessary. Briggs has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair. When her MetroAccess eligibility lapsed last fall, she said, she wasn't able to schedule an appointment for the required face-to-face assessment. In addition to her day job, she was taking night classes. MetroAccess refused to provide her service. She had to wait for a 10:30 p.m. bus to go home after class."It was dark, and the first couple of times the bus didn't see me, so I had to wait another 40 minutes," said Briggs, who has since regained her eligibility.
Yes, it certainly costs a lot. But not being able to get cancer patients, blind people, and cerebral palsy sufferers around town without needless bureaucracy getting in the way tends to drum up quite a bit of poor publicity. Looks like WMATA's got another high priority to address - they may want to start by bumping up some of those certification dates.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Transit Funding Update: Our friend David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington penned an interesting post about the Cost Effectiveness Index (CEI), which the FTA uses to determine which transit projects to fund; and how the index could be changing for the better. It really got us to thinking about next year's dedicated funding levels - and whether it would reflect the record ridership numbers we've been seeing lately. The word? It's still too early to say, but some major initiatives are starting to shape up, like a possible $171 billion over the next 50 years (about $3.4 billion of dedicated funds per year), or $750 million in both 2008 and 2009 for urbanized areas. In this time of significant expansion planning for Metro, it's important to get as much money as possible in the pot. We'll keep you posted.
Engines and Cabooses: New Alexandria trolley along King Street notches 41,000 riders in first four weeks...D.C. metro area named the nation's third priciest daily commute, costing about $13 per day...Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space has lots of news about streetcars in Virginia...Tyson's Tunnel folks still fighting, even though such an alteration to the plan at this point would likely kill the project (again)...Well, we're probably the last transit outlet to say it, but still: Paul Krugman, thanks for flying the flag of mass transportation.