Low Headways

I like transit and heavy underground rail. That functions. WMATA ≠ all of the above.

[lowheadways]

If you locked me in a 7-Eleven for a week, and then after the end of the week unlocked the door and you studied my diet over the previous seven days, then concluded that I prefer highly processed, packaged foods to fresh fruits and vegetables, I would say your study is flawed

Historian Peter Norton on the myth of an American love affair with the automobile (i.e., it wasn't a choice; it rapidly became the only option)

[lowheadways]

Oh Right, *That's* Why I Stopped Riding the Bus In the Morning

Too long for twitter; too insubstantial for wordpress; here it is: the chronicle of a single morning.

I moved to my current apartment to be near both immediate things to walk to (bars, restaurants, grocery store) and to be near transit (in my case, U Street GR/YL, 50s buses, 60s buses). My commute ends in Rosslyn, and until the Circulator gets extended to U Street - which is in the cards but for which I'm not holding my breath - my journey will inevitable involve the BL/OR/SV lines of Metro.

Now, hypothetically, the fastest way to get to work is by taking a bus from 14th and R to 14th and I, and then riding Metro from McPherson Square to Rosslyn (3 stops).

But for the past several months, despite the cold, I have almost always ended up walking to McPherson Square.* Why? Because the effing buses are wholly unreliable.

Past performance has taught me that if I walk out the front door and the next bus is 5 minutes or more away, it will actually be 10 or more and that it will be faster to walk. Even once on the bus, you really don't gain any time over walking - the traffic on 14th coupled with a criminal lack of dedicated lanes or level boarding means that it just crawls down the street. Through in the multimodal nightmare of Thomas Circle (more on that some other time) and the bus hardly makes sense at the best of times.

But today, where one bus is in 3 minutes and one is following in 4, it seems like it might just be doable for a change. So I hustle to 14th and R, and wait. And wait.

And wait.

Almost 10 minutes later, my app has changed from "3 minutes" to "arriving." And yet I can see the bus back up at U Street, waiting through multiple light cycles for some reason. And then, finally, the 53 bus arrives at R Street...and keeps on going, presumably too full to board.

Meanwhile, the 52 behind it has at this point gone from "4 minutes" to "1 minute" in the course of about 12 minutes. It, too, is trapped at U Street by whatever. So I start walking.

The bus doesn't catch up to me until I pass it at N Street, just before Thomas Circle. And by that point I'd be on it for three stops, so what's the point? So I keep walking.

In the end, what could have been a 15 minute bus ride (or a 25 minute direct walk) to McPherson has turned into 40 minutes of waiting and walking in the cold.

And that is why I hardly ever try to ride the bus anymore.

*Yes, let's put it in perspective - it's only a 1.1 mile walk (compare with this poor soul) - but if I'd known I'd never be able to rely on the 50s buses, I probably would have lived somewhere a few blocks south.

[lowheadways]

First As Tragedy, Again As Tragedy, Always As Tragedy

I have a letter lying around that I wrote several years ago. It’s a letter to the Washington Post, or more broadly, any outlet that will publish it. The sad part is that for the past few years, all that’s been required is to append the latest incident to the bottom of it and resubmit it, and the thrust remains just as relevant as it had before. After yesterday’s horrible incidentin which one…

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[best-of-memes]

[lowheadways]

Subway Serendipity

[lowheadways]

High-Speed Rail in France

TGV as our train departs the Gare de Paris-l’Est, 1 September 2014

Coming from the land of Amtrak – even in the Northeast Corridor, where at least intercity rail more or less exists – to ride the TGV in France was an absolute delight and an experience utterly unlike any I’ve ever had before in the United States. Rail is affordable, efficient, fast, and omnipresent. One leg of our journey required…

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[transitmaps]

Update: the Washington DC Metro Veterans Day Map now includes the Rosslyn–Pentagon shuttle bus service (shown as a dotted blue line with relevant call-out box). It’s like they’re reading my mind!

Source: WMATA website

[lowheadways]

Design aside, the fact that this is how WMATA chooses to handle a large crowd is utterly pathetic. Real transit systems don't close an entire line because heavy ridership is anticipated.

[lowheadways]

Observations: Paris

Place Saint-André-des-Arts, Paris

Paris is, of course, a magical city. We stayed in a lovely but somewhat out-of-the-way hotel in the XVIIe Arrondissment, near the Place du Maréchal Juin and Line 3 of the Metro. Connected to the Pereire stop was an RER station, Pereire-Levallois on the RER C. More on the RER later. The food was also spectacular, naturally.

We ended up buying a three-day “Paris…

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[thisiscitylab]

For $4 billion, the Port Authority could have extended PATH to Brooklyn, built a one-seat ride from Lower Manhattan to JFK Airport or helped cover the cost overruns from the dearly departed ARC Tunnel. For $4 billion, the MTA could build out most, if not all, of another phase of the Second Avenue subway or the lost 7 line station at 41st Street and 10th Avenue five times over. At a time with real needs for regional transportation improvements, a $4 billion missed opportunity stings.

[thisiscitylab]

-Why Can’t Transportation Mega-Projects Be Both Beautiful and Practical?

[Photo: Paul Wilkinson / Flickr]

[lowheadways]

Why indeed?

[lowheadways]

Streetcars: "Good" Enough?

Streetcars: “Good” Enough?

Lots and lots and lots and lots of discussion sparked today by David Alpert’s CityLab article, “Hey, Streetcar Critics: Stop Making ‘Perfect’ the Enemy of ‘Good’.” I’d Storify it all if I had the time but the conversations went down so many branches there isn’t really a linear thread. At any rate, I suggested that maybe we should all just sort of summarize our arguments. So here’s why I disagree…

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[lowheadways]

• Let's say a truck is making a turn onto a high-speed four-lane street in The Hague, and rides over a cyclist in the bicycle lane. The accident is witnessed by a very reliable observer whose testimony is likely to stand up in court—say, the prime minister of the country. Who is at fault, and will have to pay damages and/or face criminal penalties? Answer: the truck driver. • But what if the same accident occurs on a two-lane street with no designated bicycle lane, so the bicycle is riding out in traffic? And what if there are no witnesses or video evidence? Who is at fault then? Answer: the truck driver. • What if there was a separate traffic light for bicycles at this intersection, and the cyclist was clearly running a red light? Answer: still the truck driver. • Okay, so...what if the bicycle was coming the wrong way up a one-way street, arrived at the intersection at the same time as the truck, and despite the fact that the truck was on the right, the bicycle seized the right-of-way and dashed straight across the intersection? Answer: the truck driver would have to pay at least 50% of the cyclist's damages, unless he can prove there was no way he could have seen the cyclist. • Fine. What if a tornado is racing through the streets of some Dutch town, picks the truck up, and hurls it into the bicyclist, who is in the middle of running a red light while going the wrong way up a one-way street, no hands? Answer: the truck driver will probably not have to pay the cyclist's damages, unless the cyclist was 14 or younger, in which case the truck driver will have to make an extra effort to prove that there was nothing he could have done to avoid the accident.

The way America continues to treat cyclists, and pedestrians, and transit riders, and really, anyone who isn't in a car at a given moment is appalling. This is the country we constructed in the 1950s. And it's time to take it back.

[lowheadways]

Passages

From a comment on a fantastic new London 2050 map:

There’s a better one. Get off at Opera on line 3, walk to Auber RER line A, then to Havre Caumartin, on line 3 again, then keep walking to Haussmann Saint Lazare RER line E, THEN continue to Saint Lazare, which, yes, is on line 3 again. And if you really want, you can keep going to Saint Augustin on line 9. A total of six stations and a mainline railway connected by interchange. It makes Bank/Monument look a bit pathetic in comparison.

Here's a picture of said walk:

M3 to M7 at Opéra is hard enough. But can't wait to see the Euston-King's Cross-St. Pancras diagram!

[lowheadways]

Moving Day

In the interest of a platform better-suited to longer thoughts, I'm moving this over to Wordpress.

There may be the occasional short thought posted here, but...probably not.

[lowheadways]

NIMBYism in a Nutshell

In the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Chicago, a developer wants to build a 12 apartment complex on an empty lot. What did one resident have to say about that?

"Tina Marie Campbell, who has lived near Montrose and Cicero avenues for more than 25 years, said the area is dense enough, and does not need more rental apartments.

'We've got a great neighborhood here,' Campbell said. 'I'd like to see it grow and get better.'"

The area is too dense for more apartments. I'd like to see the neighborhood grow.

WHAT THE FUCK; THESE ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE SENTIMENTS

[lowheadways]

On Responsibility and Governance

Senator Chuck Schumer released a proposal on Monday to revamp the system governing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey:

First, the Port Authority should come back with a process for the nomination and confirmation of an Executive Director by the Board of Commissioners, not by the Governor of one state or the other. Second, the Port Authority should propose administrative changes vesting full managerial authority and responsibility of the entire Port Authority organization with the Executive Director. Third, the Port Authority should establish a permanent process to nominate individuals as Commissioners to the Port Authority who possess a comprehensive financial, engineering and planning background, and no conflicts of interest related to the Port Authority’s core mission. It should be clear that these commissioners have a fiduciary duty to the Port Authority.

While this is laudable in the sense of (to some extent), removing politics from the governance of the Port Authority, at the same time it removes any sense of accountability and dilutes what remains to the point where it's hard to say where the affected citizenry might turn.

This is an inherent problem in any multi-state compact, with WMATA being - as usual - a prime example of the dysfunctionality that can ensue. The Pennsylvania-New Jersey Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) has problems of its own. With WMATA, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, the governors of Virginia and Maryland, and the federal government all appoint members to the board, which in turn appoints a general manager.

This has the perverse effect of establishing zero-responsibility positions with full authority. If dissatisfied with the GM, one can't petition a single elected official to remove and replace him, nor is the GM himself elected. One could try to approach, say, DC councilmember and WMATA board member Muriel Bowser, but even if she were inclined to do anything, she's just one voice on the board. And if one went to the Mayor of DC, what can he do? He only appoints two members of the board.

It's clear that WMATA and DRPA and the Port Authority are all in need of major reform, but it's less clear to me how we establish some accountability within the leadership of these agencies. Political patronage is not the answer, but neither is shelter from consequences. Managing interstate compacts is an incredibly difficult - but necessary - proposition, and somehow they must also be held accountable.

(via Second Avenue Sagas) 

[lowheadways]

The United States is divided into two transit markets: - The first is the five boroughs of New York City; and reasonably nearby areas of New York State (Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island; plus nearby counties north and northwest of the city, such as Westchester and Rockland Counties); southwest Connecticut (the former Fairfield County); North Jersey; and far eastern Pennsylvania (Pike County) - The second is the rest of the United States.

A commenter at Bacon's Rebellion. Would that this weren't so, but alas.

The sad part is that on a global scale, New York's system isn't even all that great.

[lowheadways]

The divided city of Nicosia, in Cyprus. Part of a great Atlantic photo series on the island, the abandoned airport, and other symbols of a fractured island.

I can't help but think of China Mieville's The City & The City, which explores a similar but much more extreme version of the fractured conurbation. Two cities, intertwined, side-by-side. Which side does this nook belong to? That cafe? How much of this division is just a mental construct?

Of course, this is also just a reminder that I need to finally get around to reading Divided Cities.

[lowheadways]

What Rails Beneath/What Rails Above

Yonah Freemark, writing for Atlantic Cities, concludes that light rail systems have not been especially great for local transit or cities as a whole:

"In four of the five cities with new light rail lines, the share of regional workers choosing to ride transit to work declined, and the center city's share of the urbanized area population declined, too...while light rail may appear to make the public transportation system more appealing to the average rider, the construction of such a system will not automatically result in increased transit use."

There is one bright lining, however:

"There is one metric by which the metro areas with 1980s light rail investments 'thrived' more than others: core population....The median 1980s light rail metro saw its center city’s share of the urbanized area population decline by just 6 percent by 2012, compared to more than 10 percent for the 45 other regions with populations of more than 500,000 in 1980."

Freemark also points out that there hasn't been a new heavy rail (e.g., subway) system constructed in the country since 1993. This isn't to say that there haven't been new heavy rail lines: the DC Metro's Silver Line, New York's Second Avenue Subway,  However, I fear he also draws the wrong lessons:

"Does this mean we should cease investment in new light rail lines? Certainly not; in many cases, rail has provided the essential boost to reinvigorate communities, and in some cases it has also resulted in higher ridership than before: just look at Rosslyn-Ballston in the D.C. region or Kendall Square in the Boston region."

Of course, unmentioned there is that Kendall Square is served by the Red Line - a heavy rail line. The Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in Arlington, Virginia is served by the Orange (and soon, also Silver) Line - heavy rail. Not all rail is created equal, and while the benefits of "transit" writ large are readily apparent, so too is the fact that nothing has driven development, demand, and ridership like heavy rail.

This is a key question if North American cities are to consider modes like mixed-traffic streetcars as mobility solutions or as development tools. They might work better in the latter category, but they do nothing to solve mobility issues. Proper light rail, such as Freemark is writing about, is a better mobility solution but still only a halfway measure.

Maybe the better judge of success for a rail line, though, isn't even the dedicated right-of-way argument, but the grade separation. The three most-ridden light rail systems in the country all include significant portions of underground tunnels, as do four of the top six (and even the other two, the San Diego Trolley and Portland MAX, operate underground for stretches). The article Freemark links to about Rosslyn-Ballston and Arlington's renaissance reinforces this:

"Arlington planners and politicians were bold, optimistic and foresighted. They insisted that the [Metro line] run underground through Arlington, following Wilson Boulevard and Fairfax Drive, rather than running along the Interstate 66 right of way, which would have been the path of least resistance and at the lowest cost."

The Silver Line in Tysons Corner will help to distinguish between mere grade separation and underground vs. other modes as more beneficial than surface-running transportation. It probably should have been tunneled, but that moment is past. The key is to learn from light rail, elevated rail, and the undeniable and dramatic appeal of proper subways in forming future transit plans.

The importance and utility of underground heavy rail should be unquestioned (its high costs remain another matter). The same can't be said for light rail, much less a streetcar. And to maximize dwindling transit dollar, the most bang for the buck might actually be found in more grandiose plans of heavy rail, or at the very least, down in the tunnels.