Streetcars
- Posted by ryan on July 13th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
The Post also has a nice story on District streetcars today. Several thoughts. First, it seems I may owe Jim Graham an apology, since he seems to support streetcars and was only interested in determining whether the Anacostia line was the best place to start. So, sorry Jim Graham.
Second, the Post documents the difficulty the city had in building the starter line as long as it wanted (which ultimately led to the current, stunted layout). The District had hoped to use CSX right-of-way but couldn’t come to an agreement with CSX. The next plan was then to run streetcars down the street, but residents opposed the plan saying that streets were too narrow. I’m sorry, what? Why would the city defer to residents on such a question? The thing to do in that case would be to bring out the traffic engineers who would say, why no, it’s not too narrow, you are incorrect.
Finally, I think the District should recognize that it might be a good idea to start selling development and transportation improvements together. It’s obviously good planning to consider transportation in conjunction with land use, but I suspect it’s also good politics.
Consider the developments coming to the North Capitol corridor. NoMa is developing heavily, and the McMillan Reservoir and Armed Forces Retirement Home are next. The latter developments also influence attitudes toward Brookland development because so many people commuting to those places (as well as the massive Washington Hospital Center) either use Brookland through streets or the Brookland Metro station (from which a steady stream of shuttle buses flows).
Even among residents not principally opposed to development, there is nervousness about all of these new projects based on traffic concerns. It makes sense to me, then, that the city might want to connect these developments to new streetcar lines, running north on North Capitol and running west from Brookland to Columbia Heights. This would facilitate the developments logistically and politically, while also helping to ensure the financial success of the developments and the streetcars.
I don’t know why we don’t do this. Arlington seems to get it–dense new development up Columbia Pike has gone hand in hand with streetcar planning. Why can’t we learn from their success?
July 13th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
The residents’ objection wasn’t so much that the streets were too narrow, tout court. It was that there wasn’t room for both a transitway and existing parking.
Alexandria is running into the same problem along route 1. The residents don’t want their parking removed to make way for dedicated transit (probably BRT since that seems to be the way Arlington is going on its segment). We, good Shoupists that we are, see a transitway and removal of free parking as win/win. But the residents don’t.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I agree with Jim and add that this seems to be a problem with DDOT. DDOT and the Office of Planning need to have a coordinated effort (I suppose in conjunction with the zoning process underway) to plan, design and implement (with Council/Mayor designated money) transportation and redevelopment throughout the city.
Quite frankly, the 2030 plan is limited. Why not re-institute much of the street can plan as it existed in 1950? Why not give the message that going forward, parking on streets will be harder, that driving single occupancy vehicles will be harder and that preferences will be given to streetcars, buses, pedestrians and cyclists?
Start with that message now and keep repeating it for the next 20 years, and after a while, people may get it. But the actions and words have to match.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I’m sorry, what? Why would the city defer to residents on such a question?
That’s a rhetorical question, right? (and for the record, that was a rhetorical question too.)
The city does not have the stomach to put up with loud well organized residents. Particularly with this situation. You had DDOT choosing the Anacostia line first for two reasons: the ease of using the CSX tracks and the PR boost of addressing Anacostia before the rest of the city.
Well, the CSX thing fell through (and as I remember it, the problem was that CSX didn’t actually own the tracks it was leasing out). Then they go to put the tracks through the residential streets and the residents complain. So basically, the whole reason for picking this route first would’ve been gone: no cheap route, no good PR. From DDOT’s point of view it makes sense to go with the shorter, easier route. It’s still cheaper, and they can salvage some PR for doing Anacostia first.
It’s obvious that this is not the best first route. To make a real splash (and get real numbers), H St. or K st. (along with the proposed ROW) would’ve made a lot more sense. At least H st. is in the on-deck circle. Graham is right to question this route’s priority. But it may be too late to change things around.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:50 am
However this pans out, I believe it is vital that this initial trolley line experiences overwhelming success. I suspect that eventually they’ll seek something that doesn’t involve overhead wires, but if this works I can see the city eventually blanketed in streetcars… suburbs too.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Of course, I’m tragically optimistic about this sort of thing.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:30 am
So if the City pushed for a streetcar line along a busy commercial corridor, would the businesses cry foul? Aren’t most of their employees/customers parking in garages anyway? And wouldn’t the Carr Park lobby be in favor of this, since this would get rid of more on street parking?
How much nicer would downtown be if there was a streetcar “inner beltway” connecting Dupont/Adams Morgan/U Street/Convention Center/Penn Quarter/K Street? Nicer for the residents, I mean.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Commercial land owners are usually all for transit improvements these days because they know their land value will go up.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Monkey, that’s exactly what I understand happened. The city initially wanted to build a streetcar on Georgia Avenue, and the business owners objected.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
The difference is that K Street landowners have deep pockets and can sustain a business slowdown because of construction. Georgia Avenue businesses and smaller and more likely to go under.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
It’s also that business owners don’t think well of transit that just carries people past their stores. In Alexandria, the merchants on Upper King Street are grumbling about the King Street Trolley (a decorated bus). In the past tourists used to get off metro and walk down King St. to old town proper. They’d walk past Upper King Street stores and sometimes walk into one and buy something. Now they get on the trolley at metro and are carried past those stores on their way to the waterfront. They get no chance to be beguiled into those stores; traffic in the stores has dropped; sales in the stores are down.
In response, the City has promised to try to get tourists to hop on and off the trolley rather than just ride it all the way to the end. But it may well be that the businesses will have been better off without the trolley.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Never see anyone get off the trolly on King Street and I drive trhough there every day. They just pile on at the Metro and either get off at the Hotel Monaco or the Torpedo Factory.
Maybe they should hire professional tourguides as drivers to try and pitch stores and restaurants to the passengers.
What’s going on with the water taxi service to National Harbor? I heard the dining options there stink pretty bad.