TheWashCycle

Business Partnership backs more biking

An alliance of the region’s top chief executives is urging ambitious, costly steps to improve commuter rail, bus networks and other transportation systems to reduce chronic traffic congestion and bind together the “super region” stretching from Baltimore to Richmond.

And one of the "other transportation systems" improvements they write about is biking, especially asking for more trails.

Investments in multi-use trails could increase bicycle and pedestrian travel (which are shown to reduce health costs)—generating
a return on investment as high as 8:1 in other regions. 

Locally they aren't asking for anything for which there isn't already some support and plans, but they are calling for Richmond to catch up to DC and Baltimore. Specifically, one of the 20 actions the report calls for is to expand the trail systems in Baltimore and DC in ways that are already planned, specifically the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network and Capital Trails Network, and establish a Richmond trail network strategy. I'm surprised that RIchmond doesn't have one. Richmond already has some great trails and, because of it's history as a rail hub, several opportunities for rail trails - including one north about 14 miles to Ashland. 

The Capital Region benefits from hundreds of miles of multi-use trails. Investments in a few critical trail connections for bicyclists and infrastructure for pedestrians can achieve further reductions in congestion, increase economic development, and improve community health outcomes. The Baltimore and Washington metro areas have clear strategies to close gaps between existing trails and the Richmond metro area should develop such a strategy. If executed well, the region has the potential to generate economic benefits as high as an 8:1 return  on investment as seen in other U.S. regions and reduce rates of chronic diseases—reducing direct health treatment costs in the community

It's heartening to see trails viewed as so important to the areas economic health, but It's only one part of the bicycle and pedestrian mobility and it would have been nice to see protected bike lanes included in the action. I suppose that trails are less controversial, since they won't take away space from parking or driving.

In addition they recommend tying the payment for transit and bikeshare to one card, something people have been talking about forever.

While the Washington metro area’s SmarTrip farecard allows consumers to pay for trips with the other transit agencies in the metro area, none of the region’s farecards currently function in Richmond or Baltimore—with Amtrak, VRE, bike share, or private ride share operations. This lack of integration across all trip options creates confusion for consumers and undermines the potential benefits of new technologies

I don't know the fix for this. I wonder if the federal government needs to design a single transit payment system and put it in the public realm so that no system has to worry about being captured. 

Meanwhile, here's an interesting factoid.

The average Capital Region resident can access more than 1,320,000 jobs by vehicle, 109,000 jobs by transit, 203,000 jobs by bicycle, and 25,000 jobs by walking within 45 minutes from their home.

Everybody's talking about transportation

Two big wide-scope regional transportation plans have been put forward recently, and surprise surprise they both rely on more biking in the future.

The first is Visualize 2045, which has been covered here before. Recently the TPB had subject-matter experts from the TPB’s subcommittees present recommendations for how to implement five of the seven initiatives from Visualize 2045. One of those goals is to "Improve walk and bike access to transit". 

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee recommended:

To develop a limited list of transit station areas that are regionally prioritized for pedestrian/ bicycle investments. These prioritized locations will be places where critical gaps in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure currently exist and where demand is great for walking and biking to transit. Improvements in these areas will also improve safety in and around the stations, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.

Prioritize traffic signal timing, turn lanes, crosswalk locations, and transit priority on roadways surrounding transit stations. These improvements would help people using all modes of transportation. They would also improve safety for people biking and walking, and improve bus reliability.

Expand the TPB’s Transportation Land Use Connections (TLC) Program, which currently provides technical assistance to TPB members for short-term planning activities to develop communities that are multi-modal and mixed-use. Subcommittee members believe that the TLC program has been highly cost-effective and enhancing the program would assist in having more non-motorized projects ready for funding and implementation.

Another is to complete the National Capital Trail

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee notes that the National Park Service (NPS) worked with the subcommittee to adopt the National Capital Trail (NCT) into its Trail Master Plan. With some of the missing segments of the NCT located within National Park property, this action by the NPS is a significant step towards completing the trail.
One of the basic recommendations related to this initiative is for all appropriate regional jurisdictions and agencies to:

Integrate the missing segments of the National Capital Trail into other highway, transit and other infrastructure projects so that the trail can be completed.

The subcommittee also noted that, thanks to numerous projects that have been built or funded in recent years, the National Capital Trail is well on its way to completion. Therefore, the subcommittee also recommends that the TPB expand the National Capital Trail to the entire TPB region (National Capital Regional Trail), thereby extending the trail to all TPB member jurisdictions.

There has been great interest among the region’s jurisdictions, agencies, and advocacy groups to build on the National Capital Trail, as endorsed by the TPB and adopted by the NPS. The Capital Trails Coalition was established through a public-private partnership to work on this idea. The subcommittee worked with the coalition to develop a framework through which trails from other jurisdictions that are not included in the NCT would be strategically incorporated to form a true regional trail system (National Capital Regional Trail). This work activity is not complete and is in need of a regional sponsor to take on responsibility for finalization. Once complete, this National Capital Regional Trail could represent the region’s prioritized trail network to be considered for local, regional, and state level funding.

The other big plan is the Blueprint for Regional Mobility, released Monday by the Greater Washington Partnership. It also advises an expansion in regional bicycle trails. In fact, GGW says it's more ambitious on them. One of the 20 actions proposed is "Complete trail networks in all three cities." [That would be DC, Baltimore and Richmond]. 

Baltimore and DC have trail network plans, and the straightforward Blueprint recommendation is to implement them. Richmond, on the other hand, needs to create a trail network plan and then build it.

The Blueprint defines the action as

Complete the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network and Capital Trails Network, and establish a Richmond trail network strategy

It also calls for congestion pricing, which should make biking more appealing for commuters, relative to driving at least. The blueprint itself calls on leaders to expand and connect

the region’s multi-use trail networks to increase access to recreation and safe travel options for bicyclists and pedestrians.

It notes that

The Capital Region benefits from hundreds of miles of multi-use trails. Investments in a few critical trail connections for bicyclists and infrastructure for pedestrians can achieve further reductions in congestion, increase economic development, and improve community health outcomes.

The Baltimore and Washington metro areas have clear strategies to close gaps between existing trails and the Richmond metro area should develop such a strategy. If executed well, the region has the potential to generate economic benefits as high as an 8:1 return on investment as seen in other U.S. regions and reduce rates of chronic diseases—reducing direct health treatment costs in the community

The average Capital Region resident can access more than 1,320,000 jobs by vehicle, 109,000 jobs by transit, 203,000 jobs by bicycle, and 25,000 jobs by walking within 45 minutes from their home.

Investments in multi-use trails could increase bicycle and pedestrian travel (which are shown to reduce health costs)—generating a return on investment as high as 8:1 in other regions.

Richmond already has some great biking infrastructure. And, because it's an older city with a lot of railroad infrastructure, it has a lot of potential for rail trails that can form the core network. For example, much of the ROW of the old Richmond to Ashland electric interurban still exists. 

It all starts with good planning, and so far these seem to have good plans for bike trails and transit access. 

TPB recommends cycling initiatives for incorporation into the region’s long-range transportation plans

A task force established by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) recommended that the TPB endorse five initiatives – with the potential to improve the region’s transportation system – for further study and future incorporation into the region’s long-range transportation plans. These were primarily focused on transit, land use and transportation demand management. But later the TPB recommended the addition of two other initiatives focused on bicycle and pedestrian projects. The “non-motorized” initiatives supplement the five initiatives focused on other forms of transportation.

Of the first five, one specifically mentioned cycling

Bus rapid transit and transitways throughout the region with improved bicycle and pedestrian connections

But the two non-motorized ones were the National Capital Trail and accessing transit stations by walking or biking (which is very similar to the one listed above).

• The [National Capitol Trail] is 60 miles long but there are gaps of 21 miles yet to be constructed. Three miles of the trail also need upgrades. The trail connects 36 of the region’s activity centers and 26 Metrorail Stations. These connections show how important the network is to helping people get around on foot, by bike, and being able to connect homes, jobs, shopping, and more.

• In approving the station access initiative, the TPB called attention to WMATA’s prioritization as an example of the types of projects the region should implement near high-capacity transit throughout the region. The concept does not only apply to Metrorail – it also calls for improved pedestrian and bicycle access to commuter rail, light rail, and bus rapid transit.

Unfortunately at least one item supported by bike advocates was dropped from possible recommendations.

Long Bridge corridor improvements including at least 4 tracks and bicycle-pedestrian facilities.

National Capital Trail, bike/ped Metro access could become regional priorities

At it's January 17th meeting, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' (MWCOG) Transportation Planning Board (TPB) will vote on whether or not to include two bicycle and pedestrian  initiatives into the Visualize 2045 plan, the long-range transportation plan for the Washington Region. One is completion of the National Capital Trail and the other is bike and pedestrian improvements to high-capacity transit stations. These would join 10 existing initiatives. The recommendation from the Bicycle and Pedestrian subcommittee and the Long Range Plan task force is to make these "unfunded aspirational elements". (See item 7 on the agenda)

Consistent with the Task Force’s discussions related to the ten initiatives currently being analyzed, the TPB’s endorsement of two additional initiatives which focus on pedestrian and bicycle improvements would mean that these concepts have the potential to improve the performance of the region's transportation system beyond what is anticipated by its current long-range transportation plan and deserve to be comprehensively examined for implementation. The TPB’s endorsement would make it possible to include the concepts represented by these initiatives in the aspirational element of the 2018 update of the TPB’s long-range plan, Visualize 2045. The meaning of such an endorsement would not be a mandate from the TPB for its member jurisdictions to alter their own plans, programs, or policies or to design, fund, and implement these initiatives without further study.

The National Capital Trail – Originally called the “Bicycle Beltway,”  is a proposed network of circumferential trail connections circling the core of the Washington region. The full perimeter of the NCT is 45 miles, but it is also divisible into shorter loops. The NCT was originally defined by the National Park Service and the name, concept, and route for the NCT has been adopted by the TPB.

The above image of the National Capitol Trail is of what was once considered the inner loop. 

In addition to the inner loop route, VDOT and MDOT representatives requested an outer loop that would cross the Potomac at the American Legion Bridge and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. However, work on an Outer Loop has not advanced, due in large part to the lack of a clear right of way or planned trails.

As finalized in the Paved Trails Plan, the National Capital Trail comprises four connected loops: a 30- mile northern loop, a 10-mile central loop around the monuments and the stadium, an 18-mile southern loop connecting to National Harbor and Old Town Alexandria, and a 45-mile perimeter loop.

There's a list of the projects needed, mostly in DC, to complete the NCT in the Subcommittee report appendix, some like the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail Kenilworth section, have already been completed. Others, like the South Capital Street Trail are still in the planning stage. 

The Metrorail Station Access Project comes started with WMATA. WMATA staff in 2016 completed a study called the Metrorail Station Investment Strategy (MSIS), which highlighted priority projects that would improve non-motorized access to rail stations. Starting with 4,217 unbuilt pedestrian and bicycle projects that have been planned in proximity to the region’s 91 Metrorail stations (!!!), WMATA identified 394 projects, which are around 31 Metrorail stations, that represents the types of station access improvements that can have the greatest impact on walk and bike access to transit. The list was further trimmed to 200 projects that are unfunded and remain unbuilt and are still considered “active” by local jurisdictions. 

These projects solve a litany of familiar problems. Sidewalks do not exist or they are in bad condition. Bike lanes are disconnected. Intersections are inhospitable and crossings do not exist. Signage and lighting are poor.

WMATA staff looked at the pedestrian projects, which were 62 in total, that were included in the priority list. These pedestrian projects were estimated to cost nearly $13 million and the monetized benefit of these projects (in increased ridership and reduced MetroAccess trips) was estimated at approximately $24 million. 

There is a list of the 200 items they identified in the Subcommittee report, but the authors note that these items aren't being approved (as by now some have been completed or overcome by events) but rather the the concept of prioritizing and implementing station access improvements is being endorsed

Including these items in Visualize 2045 is not meant to be a mandate to regional members to change their plans.

The TPB’s endorsement would be a call for future concerted action by TPB members. Staff believe that at a minimum, it would involve a commitment by all TPB member jurisdictions and agencies to collaborate and undertake further examination of the concepts represented by the endorsed initiatives. Such next steps could include a study of the constructability of projects associated with the initiatives. Following such study could be efforts to secure funding to implement them. Funding sources could include future federal TIGER grants, the TPB’s TLC and TAP program, and other funding opportunities in the region.

Visualize 2045 is scheduled for approval in October 2018.