Busy Metrorail station

Metro is wrapping up a study on the “business case” for transit that tries to answer the question, “how does the region benefit from Metro?”

The Purpose of the Study:  The goal of the project is to tell the story of Metro’s critical role in the development of the greater Washington region.  We undertook the study to identify all the ways that Metro impacts the broader regional economy, and measure those impacts in terms of real estate value, economic competitiveness, avoided roadway infrastructure, and others.

Why this Study? At WMATA’s 35th anniversary, and as we plan for the future, it’s important to understand what has happened since we decided to grow and sustain our transit system. Metro often measures our performance in short-term transportation terms – ridership, service frequency and reliability, and costs. And we will continue to do so. But transportation is not an end to itself, it is a means to an end. Metro impacts the region in much broader ways – changing the real estate market, altering people’s choices about where to live and work, and impacting our economic livelihood.  This study tries to shed light on those longer-term impacts as well.

In addition, Metro is frequently in the public sphere with regards to our costs: our operating budget, fares, or capital program.  As we talk about costs, it’s important to talk about the benefits we provide, too.

This study began with a long list of ways to measure transit benefits, and then narrowed to a subset of quantifiable results.

What the Study Is: We try to evaluate transit by imagining a region without transit, and measuring the differences from today. One of the best ways to understand the value of something is to take it away. A Washington without transit is, of course, a hypothetical situation. Without transit, the region would look very different  – but that difference is exactly the effect that this report tries to measure. By imagining the region without transit, it is possible to understand its role and value in the economy of the Washington area.

What the Study Is Not:  This study is not a formal cost-benefit analysis of Metro. It does not add up all the benefits and compare benefits to costs, because some of the measures of benefits overlap other measures. For example, we quantify the road infrastructure not needed because of transit, and also the amount of congestion avoided, but these are in large part mutually exclusive. Instead, we try to describe the benefits of Metro in as many ways possible, to give people an idea of the magnitude of Metro’s impact.

What Can We Take Credit For? The study quantifies benefits, but doesn’t claim that the result is entirely due to Metro alone.  For example, Arlington County highlights its economic success in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor along the Orange Line, but transit is only one part of this success, along with zoning, development decisions, long-term policies, and other factors.  So, in this study we measure the benefits where transit is either a precondition for, or an integral part of, an impact.

Results: We’ll be publishing a few posts in this space shortly to explain the major findings of the study.  Stay tuned!  In the meantime, read the Final Report (pdf).

Cross-posted at Region Forward.

Last week, Metro installed 32 new “U-Rack” bicycle racks at Vienna station, providing parking space for 64 additional bicyclists, nearly doubling bike parking capacity.  The new racks are located on the north side of the station, in the direction of the parking garage.  The installation is the latest in Metro’s overall Bicycle and Pedestrian Capital Improvement Program.

New bicycle racks at Vienna Metrorail station, with new space for 64 bikes. The existing racks at Vienna were often full or overflowing.

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Construction has begun for a Bike & Ride at College Park garage

This week, Metro’s contractor began constructing our first secure bicycle parking facility at the College Park garage.  In the spirit of our “Park & Ride” facilities for vehicles, this facility will be called a “Bike & Ride.”

Temporary fencing is up around the site now while a new concrete slab is poured.  Steel walls are being fabricated and will be installed over the coming weeks, along with new lighting, cameras,  doors, and of course bike racks.  We should be finished with construction this winter – unfortunately just as cold weather begins to discourage many cyclists, but the timing will allow us to work out any kinks before the spring.  As with any pilot project, this will be a learning process for us and you, so bear with us as we work through the logistics. Read more…

Metrorail Core Capacity: One issue discussed by the Board today.

The Metro board kicked off a strategic planning process today at a special 10 AM session. Staff presented the board with a history of regional visioning efforts, growth forecasts, an assessment of the role of Metro in the regional transportation network, and an assessment of how the region would look if there were no transit.

The remainder of the presentation covered a series of issues currently being faced by Metro and the region as a whole, including:

• Constrained core capacity
• Last mile(s) station access
• Inefficient surface transit
• Coordination of streetcar and lightrail projects
• Serving emerging activity centers with high quality transit
• The rising costs of operations and maintenance
• Unfunded capital needs

An annotated PDF of the presentation is available for download.  You can also listen to the presentation and the board’s subsequent discussion.

Ridership growth at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metrorail station from 1977 – 2011.

The Gallery Pl-Chinatown Station is the third-busiest station in the Metrorail system, with an average of 26,000 daily passenger boardings in May 2011.  Combined with the Metro Center Station less than 1,000 feet away, these two stations facilitate downtown transfers on all five Metrorail lines, with the Yellow, Green and Red Lines at Gallery Place and the Orange, Blue and Red Lines at Metro Center. The Gallery Place Station consists of two side platforms that serve the Red Line on the upper level and one center platform that serves the Green and Yellow Lines on the lower level.

Redevelopment in the station area catalyzed by the opening of the Verizon Center in late 1997 has drastically increased the demand at this station, resulting in crowded conditions during the peak travel times throughout the station, including mezzanines, platforms and escalators.  Weekday ridership has increased from an average of 6,500 boardings in 1997 to an average of 26,000 in 2011. Although ridership has stabilized over the past few years, more growth is expected in the near future with new CityCenterDC development currently under construction at the old convention center site at 10^th Street and H Street NW.

Metro’s planners are currently undertaking the Gallery Place Station Access and Capacity Improvement study, with the purpose of identifying capacity constraints and developing improvement alternatives at the station.  Similar to the Union Station Access Study, this study will provide simulations of the projected pedestrian environment on the platform at key milestone years, and will measure the effectiveness of the proposed capacity improvements.
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Back in December, we told you about the Metrorail Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Improvements Study, which recommended ways for enhancing bicycle and pedestrian access in and around Metrorail stations.  Since then, Metro has been developing a capital program aimed at implementing some of these recommendations.  Here is an update on our progress and some discussion on what’s next:

Recent Highlights

In February, Metro’s Board of Directors adopted a goal to increase bike mode share from 0.7% to 2.1% by 2020 and 3.5% by 2030.  Around the same time, we made improvements to the bicycle section on Metro’s website.   This spring, we surveyed use and capacity of bike racks at Metrorail stations and conducted an inventory of unmet bike and pedestrian needs at Metrorail stations.
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Bicycle access is a key long-term access strategy to Metro’s services, and we are currently trying to triple the number of bicyclists accessing our network by 2020.  As we develop plans for capital investment in bicycle and pedestrian facilities, we need good data on bicycle parking demand to tailor new facilities to each station.  Our most recent bike parking counts were from 2006-2007, but a lot has happened since then.

So, taking a cue from from trail count data, we counted bikes and racks at rail stations over a six-week window of peak usage from May 1 to June 15 for a “bike parking census.”  Each station was counted on a sunny, warm day typically between 9:30am and 3:00pm. We wanted to learn about the general availability of and demand for bike parking in station areas. For these counts, we specifically excluded bike lockers and the Union Station Bikestation, and focused just on racks. We wanted to know how easy it would be for a new bike-to-rail customer to easily find bike parking near a station.  We counted each U-Rack as space for 2 bikes, and used our best judgment for wave, grid, post-and-ring, and other racks.

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We are looking for a Project Manager, who will be located in our Office of Parking – which has taken on a broader mantle to include non-auto parking management (i.e., bicycles) – to coordinate bicycle and auto-related parking projects, as well as pedestrian access projects here at Metro.  The project manager will coordinate all aspects of implementation – design and engineering review, environmental review, and construction coordination.  The project manager’s project portfolio will be heavily influenced by the projects identified in the Planning Office’s recent bicycle & pedestrian access needs inventory.  This is a great opportunity to make a solid impact on bike, pedestrian, and transit infrastructure in our region. To see the full job description and apply, please go to our careers website, and see posting 110834.

Applicants will need to register with our on-line system to apply.  The posting is open through August 5.

Screen capture of live parking information for Fort Totten. Click image for live site.

As part of Metro’s ongoing effort to make parking more convenient for riders, a trial of real-time sensing has been underway at the Fort Totten Metro Kiss and Ride Lot for the past few months. This system uses sensors embedded in the pavement and in parking meters to let users know when spaces are available in the Kiss and Ride Lot, and when they should save time, energy and reduce their carbon footprint by driving to a different lot or using some other mode to access Metro.  Eventually, we hope that a similar sensors and monitoring technology will be available at all Metro metered parking spaces as a customer service to riders and to improve transit access, information and use.  Information on parking space availability reduces traffic cause by motorists search for parking and reduces pollution from vehicles being driven around in the search for parking.

This real-time space availability information from the Fort Totten Kiss and Ride Lot is currently available on Metro’s website on the Fort Totten parking page:

http://www.wmata.com/rail/parking/parking_detail.cfm?station=28

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Metro’s early experience with promoting TOD took place at below-ground rail stations in established urban settings that did not require the provision of transit access facilities beyond connections from sidewalks to the stations below. More recently, WMATA’s opportunities to develop its land to support TOD have been predominantly in suburban rail stations that include extensive parking lots, bus bays, and facilities for taxis, bicycles, customer pick-up and drop-off, and ADA patrons.

The default agency policy in recent years has been to replace existing facilities with a like amount and kind of facilities on a reduced footprint, and to emphasize transit operational functionality over urban design issues.  For example, this approach has tended to favor placing parking structures and bus bays adjacent to the station in lieu of pedestrian facilities, public spaces and mixed-use development.  However, public feedback has prompted WMATA to reassess the appropriateness of this default approach, and there is a need for new thinking about how future patrons should arrive at suburban stations; how transit operations should function in TOD contexts; and how to better meet local development policy objectives.

Development plan for Twinbrook Metrorail station. Click the image for more information.

Over the past five years, WMATA has made a number of significant policy and program changes to recognize the changing development environment at suburban rail stations. For example, in 2008 WMATA adopted a new set of real estate development guidelines (1.91 MB PDF), and the first real estate projects implementing those guidelines were initiated in the summer and fall of 2010. While the evolution of WMATA’s planning and land development practice is underway, it is far from complete. WMATA’s most recently-launched TOD projects confront the agency with the immediate challenge of replacing first-generation, auto-oriented transit access facilities with a new generation of facilities that supports transit access, transit operations, and TOD.

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