Today for the first time in my adult life, I biked to work. My 2 mile commute from Shaw to Georgetown makes for an ideal bike commute distance. However, I usually take the G2 bus across P Street which usually takes 30 to 45 minutes since I get off at P and 30th Street in Georgetown and walk several blocks south. Today, I made the trip in just 15 minutes, meaning my average speed was around 8 miles an hour. My route took me by the ghost bike above, a memorial to Alice Swanson.
I’m not the only one with biking on my mind. Richard Layman posted this morning a roundup of various biking news. As for the much-discussed D.C. bike sharing program, although I posted about it in April and the Post reported bikes would hit city streets in May, WashCycle reports we will have to wait until sometime in August.
An aspiring planner I met with yesterday asked me whether there’s a massive effort afoot to make every American city more bikable. While I can’t say it’s “massive,” it does seem like I hear about biking at every turn. After Alice Swanson’s tragic death, I was invited to a grassroots meeting to talk about ways to make DC more bike friendly. The bike lane network continues to expand here, and I noted with satisfaction that one graces the street in front of my new apartment in Cambridge (on the right, seen complete with bikers!).
Meanwhile, I’m noticing more and more bikers on D.C. streets. While I may just be more attuned to them, it’s reasonable to assume increased gas prices, more bike lanes, and crowded public transit may be causing a noticeable mode shift towards bikes. From a planning point of view, we have much work to do, both in the way of transforming our cities to be more accommodating to the bike and understanding the dynamics of biking better. Transportation planners regularly record automobile traffic volumes on city streets using automated devices, often reporting the results on maps. I’ve never heard of something similar for biking, but it seems it’s only a matter of time before bike lanes feature devices quietly counting their users, allowing planners to fine-tune the network with every bit the care we spend on automobiles.
Public transportation is open to all — except when it’s not. Amtrak may kick you off if you stink, and the Montgomery County bus may eject you for engaging in unwanted conversation. Whether traveling by train, taxi, bus, subway, or aircraft, public transportation providers set a host of restrictions about who can travel and on what terms.
My interest in the topic was piqued after recently reading Amtrak’s contract of carriage, printed on the reverse of my ticket. They reserve the right to refuse service to people who meet a variety of conditions. In addition to the expected rules regarding following the rules and following security procedures, they also reserve the right to eject anyone with “objectionable” conduct, “offensive” personal hygiene, and who pose a health, safety or security hazard.
Air travel is generally governed by the Warsaw Convention and airlines maintain their own specific policies. US Airways’ contract of carriage gives the airline the right to remove from any flight people who meet one of ten reasons, including refusal to follow government regulation, babies less than 1 day old, people who appear to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, people with a contagious disease their medical adviser determines to be a “direct threat” to the health and safety of others, or are abusive or violent. Greyhound doesn’t have a legal contract on their website, but their information webpage informs passengers they have “zero tolerance for alcohol, drugs, weapons and unruly behavior,” and a ban on animals.
The New York City subway’s detailed rules of conduct says nothing about illness or hygiene, but does prohibit a wide variety of behavior, including barring those who “conduct himself or herself in any manner which may cause or tend to cause annoyance, alarm or inconvenience to a reasonable person or create a breach of the peace.” I’ve been on plenty of buses with people who “tend to cause annoyance.”
Here in D.C., Metro’s rules take the form of “Dos” and “Don’ts” for the rail and bus systems. Although the Metro Police are empowered to enforce WMATA policy, I can’t seem to find a more formal statement of policy for riders, although they do have a detailed policy regarding the use of WMATA property.
In the suburbs, Montgomery County’s Ride On bus has a policy banning disruptive behavior, including “unwanted touching or conversation with another passenger,” as well as yelling, spitting, fighting, and eating. The rules for taxicabs focus mostly on unfair discrimination, but municipal regulations allow cabs to refuse transportation when they “has reason to believe the person is engaged in a violation of law,” or “The operator has cause to fear injury to his or her person, property or taxicab.”
The policies raise interesting questions: do those carrying highly contagious diseases have a right to use public transit, even if it means risking spreading infection? (What if they have no other way to the clinic?) Should commuters be forced to tolerate riding with people with bad personal hygiene, or with people who may engage in unwanted conversation? Where’s the line between behavior that is encouraged and that which is required?
Metrorail’s relatively new Station Access & Capacity Study provided us the raw data to evaluate how well the Washington region jurisdictions were doing cultivating transit oriented development, but now that summer is here I had more time to go back and investigate it in more detail. The study sought to predict ridership growth and station improvements that may be needed. They concluded ridership will growth to 970,000 daily by 2030, or a 42 percent increase from 2005 to 2030.
The report concludes major changes will be needed to smooth transfers at busy stations and respond to growing peak demand. Here are some of the recommendations:
“Based on an order-of-magnitude analysis, the study identified a list of highest-priority capital improvements, including:
Farragut North-Farragut West Tunnel: Construct pedestrian tunnel between two stations.
?Metro Center: Add platform-to-platform vertical capacity, possibly by building the Farragut North-Farragut West pedestrian tunnel. Building this tunnel could reduce Orange or Blue Line transfers to the Red Line.
Gallery Place-Metro Center Tunnel: Construct pedestrian tunnel between two stations.
?Gallery Pl-Chinatown: Add platform-to-platform vertical capacity and faregates at the north mezzanine and extend mezzanine between 7th and 9th Street entrances.
?L’Enfant Plaza: Add platform-to-platform vertical capacity, possibly by building the Gallery Place-Metro Center pedestrian tunnel. Building this tunnel could decrease L’Enfant Plaza transfers.
Record high crude oil prices has put the federal gas tax in center stage, as McCain and Clinton have proposed a summer holiday of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax. Thomas Friedman blasted the short-sighted proposal, as well as our leader’s failure to create a coherent energy policy.
Calling it a meaningless “quick-fix” solution, Barack Obama argues the real solution lies in alternative fuels and higher fuel efficiency standards.
To that list I’d add increased investment in transit and a higher gas taxes, although I can understand why those proposals may not make it into a television ad in Indiana and North Carolina.
High gas prices don’t just effect consumers, they have resulted in record profits for oil companies. However, according to economic theory we should be doing the exact opposite of what McCain proposes if we want to cut their profits. Economists have found consumers pay roughly half the federal gas tax — the other half comes from the oil companies themselves. This study concludes:
Using the estimated coefficients, we can determine the incidence of federal and state specific taxes. An increase in the federal tax by 1˘ raises the retail price by 0.47˘ and decreases the wholesale price by 0.56˘. Thus, consumers and wholesalers each pay roughly half of the federal specific tax.
In effect, a higher federal gas tax would shift wealth from the oil companies profits to federal coffers, and help pay for badly needed infrastructure improvements.
Ever wanted to rent a bike in downtown D.C. to run a quick errand or see the town? Starting next month the city’s SmartBike rental program kicks off with 120 bikes at 10 locations, where the racks have already been installed. Membership will cost $40 annually and work something like Zipcar, with rentals limited to 3 hours and users charged $200 for bikes unreturned in 48 hours. Registration is not yet activated on the program website. Renting will be free to start. Clear Channel’s international program website has more data on the bikes and how the system works. The program is run through the city’s bicycle program, where you can find bike maps and other information. Of course WashCycle has the latest news and all the background on the program. Unfortunately there seems to have been a delay in the Bike Station at Union Station — maybe Arlington will beat D.C. in that one.
An aspiring planner I met with yesterday asked me whether there’s a massive effort afoot to make every American city more bikable. While I can’t say it’s “massive,” it does seem like I hear about biking at every turn. After Alice Swanson’s tragic death, I was invited to a grassroots meeting to talk about ways to make DC more bike friendly. The bike lane network continues to expand here, and I noted with satisfaction that one graces the street in front of my new apartment in Cambridge (on the right, seen complete with bikers!).
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