Arlington Democrats to select candidate for 47th District - Vote June 9th

After serving since 2004, Delegate Al Eisenberg is retiring.  Thanks to Mr. Eisenberg for representing my district these past five years in Richmond.  His staff was responsive to my questions and concerns during legislative sessions, and for the most part I agreed with his votes and proposed legislation.

Five Democrats are competing in a primary for his seat.  No Republicans have filed to run against the winner of the Democratic Primary, so this primary looks like it will determine the winner of the seat.  These elections are typically very low turnout (around 2000-5000 votes compared to 10,000 to 25,000 for a general election), so your vote could be very important in this race.

If you’re a Virginia Democrat, please remember to go vote on June 9th.  There’s also a three-way nomination contest for Governor, between Creigh Deeds, Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe.

The 47th District (map below) stretches from the East Falls Church metro station, where I live, all the way down to Columbia Pike, over to Ballston and Virginia Square metro stations.

View Virginia House of Delegates District 47 in a larger map

I sent questionnaires about transit to all of the delegate candidates for the 47th District, Miles Grant and Alan Howze responded (links to their responses on scribd).  I’m still waiting for Patrick Hope, Adam Parkhomenko, and Andres Tobar.

Miles' experience comes from his blog "The Green Miles" and groups like Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment; his strong suit is definitely the environment.  He's got Greater Greater Washington in his blogroll, and he appears to be running his largely self-financed campaign on a shoestring.  Miles has pledged to keep his campaign carbon neutral, and states publicly how he is minimizing his impact through using recycled materials and reusing things as much as possible.  He updates regularly on twitter (@milesgrant), and responds to questions fairly quickly.  He seems the candidate most comfortable personally with Web 2.0 technology.

 

Alan comes to the campaign an experienced political director for Governor Warner, and liason to the House and Senate Delegations.  He’s worked closely with the Democratic leadership in Richmond.  His environmental credentials are no less sterling than Miles’.  He started his university’s first comprehensive recycling program, and is a member of the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.  He worked directly with the Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources, and is starting a home energy audit business.  He lives with his wife and two children in the Westover area.  He is a regular bicycle commuter.

 

Both Grant and Howze are supportive of the Columbia Pike streetcar project, and both acknowledge that the local residents are apprehensive about the changes the project will bring.  Grant states that the issues can be managed, while Howze more specifically states that the County Board should address some of those issues.  While Grant expressed support for other transportation improvements like Lee Highway and a Beltway metro (in the very long term), Howze did not mention any additional transit lines in his response.

Both candidates stated that BRT was a valuable option, but only Grant specifically mentioned the development advantage with rail transit:  “Would a business set up shop on the Pike because there’s a rapid bus as opposed to a regular bus”?  Howze mentioned that there was no one right answer and the mode decision would have to be made on a case basis.

Howze had a much stronger response to a question about how to raise more money for transit, being able to cite his experience working for Governor Warner, and passing legislation through the General Assembly.  Grant is basically only able to say that he’ll make the case that blocking transit funding is blocking economic growth.  It may be true, but it might not be enough to convince the house GOP, which has until now blocked any new general taxes for transit.

Both candidates gave similar responses to a question about how we make sure transportation funding goes where it’s most effective, essentially committing to striving to get Northern Virginia its fair share, but other than that neither candidate’s answer really stood out.  Grant cited the need for a “radically different set of policies”, and Howze cited his experience working at a statewide level.

Both candidates oppose widening 66, citing that increasing highway capacity will just encourage more use.  They both support increasing transit capabilities as a tool for reducing highway congestion.  Grant more directly mentioned affordable housing as a method of reducing congestion, mentioning that he’d prefer making it easier for a teacher to live in Arlington as opposed to commuting from Warrenton.

Both candidates were for allowing localities to require building standards similar to LEED, and for allowing localities broader powers to address their local concerns.  I think both candidates pointed out difficulties with LEED but were supportive of LEED’s intent.  As part of his training to be an energy auditor, Howze has studied for the LEED certification.

Both candidates support an increase in the gas tax.  Grant supports if the money is carefully appropriated, with a concern that the tax revenue could be sent to other parts of the state.  When asked whether fixed-cost fees like licensing and titling were preferable, Grant said that he preferred mileage-based fees because they affect the occasional driver less than the daily long-haul commuter.  I think Howze brought up a great point that any fees or taxes need to be stable so that the Commonwealth can raise bonds against them. 

I’m split between the two of them.  Both candidates have been responsive to questions, understand Northern Virginia’s transportation issues, and understand the link between good transit and land use.  It’s unfortunate that you’re only allowed to pick one, I’d prefer a ranked choice voting system or some system that allowed me to vote for more than one. 

If other candidates respond to my questions I’ll try to pass that information along. 

I’m specifically not making an endorsement other than to say that either Grant or Howze are clearly bright individuals with the experience they need for the office.  As Northern Virginia Democrats, they have similar views on transportation, taxes, public finance and social issues.  Mr. Howze appears to bring more directly applicable experience to the office, having worked for Virginia public officials, while Mr. Grant appears to have a better feel for the many interlinked topics when it comes to planning, land use, transportation and the environment.  At this point, I’m going to vote for one of the two, I’m just not sure which one.

Multispace Meters make performance parking easier

According to a recent press release, DDOT has installed new multispace parking meters all over downtown, including Connecticut Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, and the Chinatown area. These meters replace older single-head meters which have been unreliable.

The new meters have some capabilities that will help the District more easily implement performance parking. One of the difficulties with implementing a good performance parking plan is the trouble with collecting good data about parking occupancy, and with having meter prices that make sense at different times of day and days of the week.

With old meters, you might only get the number of quarters collected, if it’s logged. The transactions won’t be tied to times of day or days of the week. To get the kind of occupancy data you need for performance parking, you have to do manual counts and surveys. This isn’t a very efficient use of manpower, which may be one reason why performance parking hasn’t taken off yet in many cities.

Additionally, since old meters only allow for one hourly rate, it’s difficult or impossible to implement rates that vary by time of day or day of week. It’s an all-or-nothing prospect, which is why meters typically run all day and then offer free parking at all other hours, including Saturday and evenings. But there is sometimes too much demand to let the parking go free, but not enough demand to charge daytime rates.

The new meters are capable of collecting and transmitting transaction-level data, down to the amount of parking purchased, time of day, and date of sale. By analyzing this data, DDOT can get a very accurate picture of how crowded various parking meters are and when. For example, I obtained a day’s worth of data from a parking meter on 8th Street SE (near M Street SE). The data show a dual peak of demand at lunchtime and at 3pm. This data combined with targeted occupancy surveys would allow DDOT to adjust meter rates to more closely match the demand for parking with the price.

Number of cars purchasing time in 30-minute blocks from 7am to 7pm.

As the performance parking pilot around the ballpark demonstrates, the new meters allow for variable pricing by time of day, for the first hour, or even something as complex as special event pricing.

This combination of data collection and flexible rates allows DDOT to more easily implement performance parking downtown. DDOT should work with the Council and local groups to roll out performance parking slowly and steadily, starting with the most crowded blocks and based on the data reported by the District's investment in multispace meters. DDOT should implement a plan of regular data collection and analysis, with surveys to confirm the calculations. Then, rates and time limits should be adjusted to implement a target occupancy, in order to make parking more convenient and available.

Photo by Michael Perkins, parking meter data from DDOT.

Metro wants your input for online bus maps

At each Metrorail station, WMATA has great local area bus maps near the station entrances.  The maps show where the buses go from the station, a zoomed-in version of the bus map showing downtown lines, the location of each bus stop in the area, and a table with estimated headways and hours of operation for each bus line that travels near the station.

Here’s the central city map:

Here’s the map of the bus stops local to Eastern Market:

Here’s the table of hours of operation and frequencies:

And here’s an excerpt from the large system map:

  I asked WMATA whether the station-specific bus maps could be linked from each Metrorail station's information page.  They're willing to do that, but there is a concern that the information would not be very usable because the maps are very large PDFs (the one for Eastern Market is about 4MB) with a lot of street detail layers (the PDFS are the same as the ones used to print the maps, which are about 4 foot by 5 foot). 

Take a look at the PDF and discuss what you think should be displayed on the wmata.com web page for the associated station:

The whole map?
Excerpts from the map?
The table of headways and hours of operation?

I think the target audience for having this map on the Metrorail station webpages would be people that live near a metrorail station or who frequently travel to a metrorail station but are unfamiliar with the bus service in that area.  It's possible that by having this information available online, we can turn a current rail rider to an occasional bus rider, too.

The other potential audience for these maps online would be tourists that are planning to stay near a Metrorail station, but it’s less likely that tourists are adventurous enough to try the bus system.  Usually they stick to rail.

Discuss in the comments whether you’d find this kind of map useful online (they’re already available at Metrorail stations).

All images courtesy WMATA

New Laptop

I bought a Samsung NC20. 

This laptop rocks.  It’s so tiny (but with a decent 1280x800 screen and a full-size feeling keyboard), fairly inexpensive (around $550), about 2 lbs lighter than my old one (Dell Inspiron 600m), and can handle PDFs, Windows Live Writer (my offline blogging tool of choice), Google Chrome (my browser of choice), Skype (free video phone calls).

It’s much easier to write while on the Metro, etc.  Now that most everything I do is Web-2.0 style stuff with the data stored on the network, it’s more seamless to transfer between laptops.  I’ve got all my research on the other one so I may have to use a memory stick or external USB hard drive to transfer stuff over but until then it’s not like I’m missing much. 

I ended up not getting Microsoft Office so I’m going to give Open Office a shot.  That and Google Docs should be able to manage.

Anyone else know of some hidden gem piece of software you can’t live without?  Let me know in the comments.

Metro approves contract for Smartrip upgrades, bus riders to get first passes

I wrote last year about how Metro is working on upgrades to the Smartrip program so you'll be able to do things like go online to check your recent trips, recharge your Smartrip card online or automatically by credit card, or use your Smartrip card as an unlimited use pass.

The Metro board recently approved contracting to provide those online services, which it says will reduce the number of service calls that currently have to be staffed by the Regional Customer Service Center. The schedule is a slight slip due to contract negotiations, but it still involves significant upgrades during the coming year.

By September 2009, the Smartrip software will be upgraded to allow unlimited passes. That is, the cards and system will be capable of having passes, but the roll out of actual passes will be an ongoing process after that. Metro is going to start with the unlimited weekly bus pass since that one is the most popular. It's also the best deal, offering unlimited $1.25 bus rides for only $11 per week. I've put in a question to see if these can be automatically renewed from stored value on the card or by using the "autoload" feature.

By December 2009, you'll be able to call Smartrip customer service to set up automatic replenishment of your Smartrip card via a credit card (this is called "autoload"). The same feature will be available by Internet in early 2010. Metro is working to beat these target dates so if they can get it out sooner, they will.

Later this year, they will be increasing the number of stand-alone retail Smartrip terminals from 127 installed today to 220.

The combination of allowing the bus flash pass on Smartrip, autoload, and more retail Smartrip terminals reduce the disincentive for bus riders to go get a Smartrip card. Metro is working to make it easier to load fare, to use the popular bus pass, provides free transfers for three hours, and a ten cent discount for single rides.

What are the final low hanging fruit to convince bus riders to use Smartrip? Should Metro get more of the card-by-mail brochures on buses? Is it even possible to convince the people still paying with cash to get a Smartrip, or has Metro done everything it reasonably can?

Metro response to: Delays involving single tracking

I got a response about two months ago to an earlier Infosnack article, "Delays involving single tracking", which discussed whether Metro should be turning trains around just short of a single-track section during a major service disruption.  Here's what Metro's Rail Operations Control Center Director Hercules Ballard had to say:

We regret that you and other customers experienced lengthy delays on February 19, 2009.  In routing trains during a derailment or other serious service disruption, the Operations Control Center (OCC) has to consider many factors, including the number of available trains, the time required to turn trains around, the time of day, the location of the derailment, and the number of customers who would be helped or hindered.

On February 19, 2009, some trains were turned around at the Ballston Metrorail station as you suggested; as circumstances quickly changed, other trains were turned around at East Falls Church Metrorail station, and still others were not turned back.  Turning back trains at Ballston Metrorail station allowed us to reduce the inconvenience to customers travelling toward New Carrollton.  It also meant we were sending fewer trains into the single-tracking area, thereby reducing platform wait times for Vienna-bound customers.

Obviously from inside a Metrorail train it's hard to tell to what extent this idea is possible or being used, but it's good to know what they take into account and that they use it during disruptions.

A PARP request for the incident report for these disruptions did not turn up documents that were terribly interesting.  The full report had not been finalized and was not released to me because it was considered "pre-decisional".