Chart of the Week: “Hotspots” for Pedestrian and Bike Access to Rail Stations
Heat map showing short-distance parking access at Forest Glen station, which indicates good opportunities for pedestrian and bicycle access (click for full map)
In our effort to improve safety, access and sustainability, Metro is expanding our understanding of bike and pedestrian barriers faced in commuting to our Metrorail stations. Over the past several years, we have focused our bike and pedestrian project planning and implementation efforts on improvements we can make to our station areas such as, installing bike racks or constructing pedestrian improvements. Now, we’d like to expand the envelope and develop a list of access needs beyond our own boundaries and work with our jurisdictional partners to make needed improvements.
One way we are doing this is by gaining a better understanding of where auto commuters come from when they drive to our stations, and zeroing in on areas where we see a good deal of auto access to determine if there are barriers to walking or biking to the station.
The map at right (full version) shows auto-to-station “hot spots” around the Forest Glen station, to pick one example, locations from which clusters of customers drive and park at Metro. According to the 2007 Metrorail Passenger Survey data, many customers drive from within a 1-3 mile radius; some are even closer. So why are so many people from this area driving? In our 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, we teased out some of the more broad-based reasons why people drive rather than walk or bike – now we’d like to explore each station’s local conditions and see what can be done to improve walk and bike access.
The Forest Glen station is located north of the Capital Beltway and west of Georgia Avenue. More commuters to Forest Glen are from north of the Beltway and east of Georgia Avenue. There is pedestrian overpass over the Capital Beltway which helps facilitate foot traffic: Is crossing Georgia Ave then a barrier? There are four Metro rail stations located within a 2-mile radius of Forest Glen which draw away commuters farther from the station. This could help to explain the highly localized nature of the parking shed.
There are many factors not considered here such as demographics, bus usage, and average driving trends. Further research into parking and commuting trends is in the works.
If you commute from this area, can you comment about what you experience on your commute? Do you drive? If so, what factors influence you to drive instead of walk or bike? Would you like to walk or bike, but the infrastructure isn’t there or the traffic is too daunting? Or do you see something else from this data? We want to hear from you and appreciate any feedback you have that can make our system more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.
Very nice heat map. Do you have numbers broken down by distance? i.e., of the 600 or so parkers, how many come from what distance, and also what numbers are represented by the colors of the heat map?
I’m pretty sure a lot of folks on the east side of Georgia are going to say that they’re intimidated by the Georgia Avenue/Forest Glen intersection, and that they don’t want to walk or bike across those roads in the dark, or possibly ever.
Forest Glen is the ‘secret station’ because from Georgia, it’s hard to find. I would imagine that the residents want it that way.
The beltway, and in particular Georgia avenue, create barriers – visually and structurally. Georgia has something like 10 lanes of traffic at that point. The 15 foot hedges in front of the station and the 3 wide foot sidewalk don’t help either. I think more people would like to walk and bike there but getting there isn’t easy by design.
As someone who lives right on the (far) edge of the “hottest” part of that heat map, let me take a stab at this. First of all, there’s a quick drop off close to University Blvd. because of the frequency and (relative) reliability of buses along University, that serve five different metro stations (Twinbrook, Wheaton, Silver Spring, Greenbelt and PG Plaza). Most of the folks on that side of the neighborhood take the bus into Silver Spring or Wheaton.
The RideOn 8 bus runs right through the dark red area, servicing Forest Glen, but it runs an oddly shaped route, and is frequently *early*, so I know a lot of folks give up on it and walk or drive to the station rather than wait 30 minutes for the next one. This is a place where improvements to the RideOn Mobile App (or integration with NextBus) would come in very handy. I have noticed when riding the RideOn 8 and 9 buses that the RideOn app reverts to the scheduled arrival time of a bus when the GPS doesn’t register, which makes it very frustrating because if a bus is on schedule, you never know if you’re getting accurate information, or a phantom bus.
I know a decent number of bike commuters in the area, a lot of folks moved to the neighborhood east of Georgia partly because of the easy access to the Sligo Bike Path. However, the recent “improvements” to Forest Glen Road actually made the station *less* accessible. The westbound lane of Forest Glen, which goes uphill from Sligo Creek, past Holy Cross to the hospital, was actually narrowed to make room for a downhill bike lane (not necessary, since downhill bikes tend to go the same speed as cars), making the slow climb up the hill more dangerous for cars and bikes alike. The best fix for this would be to re-paint the lines on Forest Glen Road, but a quicker fix would be to put up a signed bike route from the Sligo Path, through the Holy Cross Annex to Dameron Drive, then up one of the parallel streets to Woodland Drive.
Bike storage at the station is also an issue. I only ride to the station if it’s at a time where I can take my bike on the metro. The parking lot (and bike racks) are a large, unmonitored, low traffic area during the day, ripe conditions for bike theft. There is a ton of room on the mezzanine – even moving the bike racks inside the tunnel from the parking lot under Georgia Avenue, where they are more likely to be monitored by cameras, or in the line of sight of the station manager, would at least give the illusion of security.
I understand the “secret” station comment above, because of the lack of signage from the Beltway and the left turn restrictions from Georgia Ave, but that’s not the case for people living nearby, and besides, the parking lot always fills up, so it’s not a very well kept one!
The crossing of Georgia on foot is more of a nuisance than anything, EXCEPT in bad weather. A drop off area on the east side of Forest Glen, maybe in part of the parking lot of the medical office building, would be a boon to commuters from our neighborhood. I frequently metro home and meet my wife, or someone else in a car, on one of the side streets on the other side of Georgia, so that they don’t have to sit at the light twice to cross Georgia.
Hope that helps?
As someone who lived there, I can tell you some reasons. One, Georgia Ave is rather unpleasant to walk along. Luckily, my path allowed me to take a parallel route till near the intersection with Forest Glen. It’s also true that it’s easy to bicycle commute downtown from there, though I suspect the numbers are still small. Finally, the fact that you can drive means you do. Parking creates its own demand, and that demand is there from people who could walk 15 minutes, but would rather drive 4 minutes.
I live within about 1.5 miles of Forest Glen and can quickly name two issues
1. I am a regular bike commuter and would not ride along GA Ave: even the sidewalks are not in good shape. The best you can say is that it is “uninviting” to pedestrians and bikes.
2. Poor bike security: if I rode and parked my bike, I doubt it would be there when I returned. I would prefer to take it on board the train, but Metro does not allow bikes until after 10am.
I cycle to Metro, but not. in the Forest Glen area. However, I would like to note that Simon Elliott hit the nail on the head in his second point.
Bicycle security at many Metro stations is poor to non-existent. When I parked my bike at Shady Grove Metro, it was vandalized so often (and stolen once) that I gave up. I recently observed a person cutting a chain that secured two bikes at Silver Spring Metro. The bikes were gone by the time that I returned after I had reported the theft to the station manager.
As Simon Elliott noted, Metro does not allow bikes until after 10:00 a.m. (and between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m.). For that reason, I can’t take my bike on Metro during peak commuting periods. Metro really needs to discontinue this policy.
People can use New York City’s subways to transport their bikes at all times. This works well, even though rush hour crowding on New York subways is worse than on Metro. Cyclists quickly learn which parts of trains arriving at their stations are usually least crowded, or wait until another train arrives if no uncrowded cars are available. During rush hours, the waiting time is short.
Metro has never cared very much about cyclists. The situation at Forest Glen is a direct result of Metros callous attitude toward many of these potential users of its rail system.
I cycle to Metro, but not in the Forest Glen area. However, I would like to note that Simon Elliott hit the nail on the head in his second point.
Bicycle security at many Metro stations is poor to non-existent. When I parked my bike at Shady Grove Metro, it was vandalized so often (and stolen once) that I gave up. I recently observed a person cutting a chain that secured two bikes at Silver Spring Metro. The bikes were gone by the time that I returned after I had reported the theft to the station manager.
As Simon Elliott noted, Metro does not allow bikes until after 10:00 a.m. (and between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m.). For that reason, I can’t take my bike on Metro during peak commuting periods. Metro really needs to discontinue this policy.
People can use New York City’s subways to transport their bikes at all times. This works well, even though rush hour crowding on New York subways is worse than on Metro. Cyclists quickly learn which parts of trains arriving at their stations are usually least crowded, or wait until another train arrives if all cars are crowded. During rush hours, the waiting time is short.
Metro has never cared very much about cyclists. The situation at Forest Glen is a direct result of Metro’s callous attitude toward many of these potential users of its rail system.
I’d add that bikes are also allowed on the BART system.
I used to be a regular Metro rider and still have my Smarttrip card. However, I have found that the Metro position re bikes, and the poor service, means it almost always faster for me to ride the entire 12 miles to work instead of using Metro, with its “service delays” etc.
I have lived in the high parking access area since I moved to this part of 20902 in 2000. From 2000-2006, I worked downtown and rode a “beater bike” to and from Forest Glen metro, a r/t distance of two miles. The Ride On 7 bus also services this neighborhood and used to run both ways between FG and Wheaton Metro. MoCo has targeted this route for elimination on several occasions but riders saved the AM and PM rush only AM/PM service to G the morning and from FG to Wheaton in the PM. I now bike commute to College Park via the Sligo corredor. Bike access has improved in this area with the on street bike route signage and the Beltway bridge providing improved access South of FG station. In the short term, widening of sidewalks and better bicycle wayfinding would be beneficial. Metro should post at multiple point around the station the neighborhood maps so peds can better find the existing infrastructure.
Nice map! I agree that crossing Georgia Ave from the east is the big barrier here for walking or biking. What is needed is a metro entrance on the east side of that road with a pedestrian tunnel under Georgia. Problem solved! I had heard a while ago that this was in the works… is that still the case?
I’m late to the conversation here, but just came across this post. I live in one of the red “high parking” areas on your map, 1.2 miles from the station. I use all modes to get to there (walk, bike, RideOn, and drive). Biking is extremely unpleasant and scary heading west on Forest Glen, especially as you approach Georgia Ave and the Metro station. The road is very narrow and cars edge practically up to the curb as they are backed up at the light. My husband’s bike was stolen from the station a few years ago, though mine has always survived. Walking across Georgia Ave. as others have mentioned, is unpleasant as well. Walking and biking across Sligo Creek Parkway is also scary and uncomfortable. RideOn would be so much more useful if it had a shorter headway.
One big factor on whether to drive or not for me and many others I know is whether we have kids to drop off/pick up. There is a daycare center on Dameron Drive (half mile from the station east of Georgia Ave), and the elementary school (with before/aftercare) for the neighborhood east of Georgia is located west of Georgia in the neighborhood behind the station. So when schlepping kids, it sometimes makes most sense to drive.