Boston’s commuter rail is informally known as the “Purple Line.” Maryland still hasn’t decided whether its Purple Line will be light rail or bus rapid transit. Photo by Pylon757.
Today’s a big day for the Purple Line. (Check out our previous post about the controversial transit project here.) The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board is voting on whether or not to include the Purple Line in the long-range transportation plan. The NCRTPB is the D.C. area’s metropolitan planning organization. MPOs are critical parts of any planning process, in that federal transportation dollars won’t go to projects that the regional MPO doesn’t include in its plan. (Nashua, N.H.’s MPO provides a decent guide to the role of MPOshere.)
Moreover, if the Board does include the Purple Line and are then able to secure funding, opposition suddenly becomes a lot harder. It’s pretty rare to see someone give back federal dollars.
Metro ridership is up. Bus ridership is down. What gives? Photo by Teo.
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released their ridership numbers for the first quarter on Monday, and there’s some very interesting news for D.C. and for the nation.
Let’s start at the national level. Total transit ridership is down 1.2% from the first quarter of 2008. That sounds like bad news, except by comparison with the 1.7% decrease in vehicle miles traveled. In other words, it appears the recession has caused people to drive less more than it has negatively affected the use of public transit. APTA further points out that this is true even despite lower gas prices than a year ago, a factor that would ordinarily shift commuters back into their cars.
Can D.C. use a bag tax to fund public transportation? Photo by nicasaurusrex.
Yesterday, the D.C. Council finalized the five cent tax on paper and plastic bags at grocery, drug, convenience and liquor stores. This is a good move for the environment, but I’m particularly happy that four of the five cents go directly toward cleaning up the Anacostia River. It makes the tax more transactional. It doesn’t feel like the government is stepping in and taking away your plastic bags, which people would resent; it feels like you’re paying a nickel to get a clean city. That’s very smart framing for the environmental movement, which too often is painted as a bunch of killjoys, and I’m sure part of the reason the Council was able to pass it unanimously.
D.C. plans to build 15 miles of new sidewalks. Photo by BrittneyBush.
The Wash Cycle pointed out today that Mayor Fenty has announced he’ll be spending $4 million in stimulus money on new sidewalks, enough to build 15 miles of new sidewalks out of the 200 missing miles in the District. The Washington Post’s Get There blog adds that these particular streets were chosen “by matching medium and high pedestrian activity areas with missing sidewalk locations and reviewing comments received from Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and residents.”
Times Square is transforming itself into a pedestrian- and cycle-friendly public space. Photo by Lorrie McClanahan.
I wrote yesterday about SmartBike DC, the capital’s new bike sharing program, and its plans to expand dramatically in the next two years.
It looks like New York City is also planning a major bike sharing program. Although their plans are still in the early stages, the New York City Department of Transportation has put out a long feasibility study outlining the benefits of bike sharing, best practices from around the world and what models would work best in New York. There’s a lot in there, but the headline is 89,500. That’s the number of bikes they expect their program to have. 89,500 bikes!
Transport and urban development policies in European cities are recognized as being more balanced than those of the rest of the world, resulting in competitive, attractive, denser and high quality urban environments. There are plenty of best practices, and in an energy- and carbon-constrained world, they show great examples on how to retrofit American cities and how to evolve developing cities.
Increased economic activity doesn’t necessarily have to lead to greater energy consumption. Photo by bitzcelt.
Energy use in the transport sector follows economic activity, but the relationship is not necessarily in direct proportion. Energy efficiency plays an important role in changing what used to be an unquestionable truth. A recent report by Dr. Peg Young, “A Time Series Analysis of Transportation Energy Use Per Dollar of Gross Domestic Product” from the Bureau of Transport Statistics, shows a 15% decline in the ratio of energy consumption in the U.S. transport sector to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), from January 2000 to October 2008.
What does this mean for us? It is a clear indication that energy consumption is gradually de-coupling from economic growth, with the main culprit being increased energy efficiency. With greater efficiency the economic growth has less-than-proportional impacts on energy security and greenhouse gas emissions. Read the rest of this entry »
On the Streets of China, Electric Bikes Are Swarming
June 14, 2009
By Austin Ramzy
In China, electric bicycles are leaving cars in the dust. Last year, Chinese bought 21 million e-bikes, compared with 9.4 million autos. While China now has about 25 million cars on the road, it has four times as many e-bikes. [Compare these staggering figures to more modest numbers from the United States, where more bicycles (2.6 million) were sold than cars and trucks (2.5 million) during the first quarter of 2009.] Thanks to government encouragement and a population well versed in riding two wheels to work, the country has become the world’s leading market for the cheap, green vehicles, helping to offset some of the harmful effects of the country’s automobile boom. Indeed, as engineers around the world scramble to create eco-friendly, plug-in electric cars, China is already ahead of the game.
But is the popularity of the e-bike in the world’s most populous country necessarily a good thing? Read the rest of this entry »
You may have seen SmartBike stations around downtown D. C. Although, you may not have noticed: For now, it’s just a pilot program (the first in the country, in fact) and there are currently only 10 stations and 120 bikes. It’s still a very small piece of the District’s transportation network. Increasingly, though, it is an important piece. EMBARQ produced a short video outlining SmartBike’s success. Read more at The City Fix DC…
Editor’s note: TheCityFix.com is going local. Stay tuned for our online expansion, which will include local editions of our coverage in cities across the world, including Washington, D.C., where our offices are based.
Washington D.C. is the nation’s 9th largest metro area and for those interested in sustainable transportation, one of the most interesting. The D.C. area has some of the best and worst in transportation piled right on top of each other.
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