The District Department of Transportation's Bikeshare Proposed Locations. Image via octo.dc.gov/dc/ddot.

The District Department of Transportation has released the preliminary map of bike share locations for the new Capital Bikeshare, set to open this fall with 1,100 bikes at 114 solar-powered stations.

The proposed station locations incorporated suggestions registered on DDOT’s crowdsourcing site – http://capital-bikeshare.appspot.com/ – where users can plot their desired station locations.  

For now, they look like they’ll be very concentrated downtown, which will help encourage usage.

It would be nice to see more stations around universities like Georgetown and Howard. As David Alpert points out, all of D.C.’s universities could improve transportation for their students — and discourage reliance on cars — by funding a few more stations on and around their campuses; it would cost chump change in comparison with what many universities are investing in their own bikeshare programs. This would be a particularly good idea for Georgetown: students drive more because the metro doesn’t go to campus, and many students live in parts of Glover Park and Foxhall Road that don’t look like they’re slated to get stations any time soon.

Are you happy with the proposed locations?

Ozone alert in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by haunted by Leonard Cohen.

Clean air is a fundamental part of our quality of life, a part which has undoubtedly improved since the passage of the Clean Air Act.  Especially during the summer, we are often reminded of remaining air quality issues, with radio stations notifying listeners of “code orange” days.  Orange means the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.  In the D.C. region, we’ve had nine “orange” days in the month of June, 10 “green” days (good air quality) and 11 “yellow” days (moderate air quality.)  Moving into July, we’ve already experienced several more “orange” days, and one “red” day (unhealthy). You can find this information for the D.C. metro area here, and for other regions of the U.S. here.

A region’s reported air quality corresponds to the concentration of “criteria” pollutants in the atmosphere, including particulate matter, lead, carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), and ground-level ozone (O₃), which is the principal component of smog.  Ozone, in particular, is receiving renewed attention due to recent proposals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish stricter ozone standards, which will be finalized in August. The proposed ozone rule could have a big impact on transportation. 

NEW STANDARDS

The EPA proposal would bring the 8-hour primary ozone standard to within 0.060 to 0.070 parts per million (ppm), meaning that that 8-hour average concentrations of ozone are not to exceed that level.  By law, these national air quality standards must be determined on the basis of public health and environmental quality – not economic considerations.  Still, it is worth noting that the potential human health and welfare benefits are in the tens of billions of dollars, and may exceed the economic costs of compliance, according to official benefit-cost analysis of the new ozone standard.  Moreover, the new standards will save thousands of additional lives.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

The proposed 2010 standard would not take full affect until 2014.  The map below shows which counties in the D.C. region would not be meeting the new standard if it were in in effect now (D.C. is the dark blue diamond about 1/3 down from the top).  The EPA also provides a national map showing the regions designated as “non-attainment” and “maintenance” areas relative to the 1997 ground-level ozone standard (0.085 ppm, which has been in effect for the past several years).

Source: Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee (MWAQC), January 2010

The D.C. region and many other regions will face many challenges, based on local background concentrations of ozone, weather conditions that contribute to ground-level ozone formation (sunlight and stagnant air) and pollution from various sources and sectors.  Emissions inventories vary significantly between regions.  Regions across the U.S. have had varying degrees of success in meeting the existing standards and some regions have virtually exhausted certain mitigation measures for various sectors.

TRANSPORT CONNECTION

Compliance with the standards for ground-level ozone and other criteria pollutants is an important aspect of regional transportation planning in the United States.  EPA’s proposal to tighten these standards is already prompting some states and regions to consider what actions may be needed in transportation and other sectors to ensure they’ll be able to comply with this standard over the course of the coming decades.

Regions designated as having non-attainment or maintenance status under the Clean Air Act standards are required to demonstrate that transportation investments are consistent with mobile source emissions projected in state air quality plans.  Failure to produce plans that effectively demonstrate how satisfactory reductions in criteria pollutant emissions will be achieved can lead to suspension of federal transportation funding.  Federal transportation funds have rarely been withheld except for a few instances. For example, restrictions on transportation funding in Atlanta during the late 1990s gave rise to an excellent smart growth development project, Atlantic Station.  Occupying the site of the Atlantic Steel Company, which employed 2,000 people before closing in 1998, the Atlantic Station mixed residential and commercial development has accommodated 3,000 new residents and 3,500 jobs in the central city, all without adding a lot of traffic to the region.  A recent report on the environmental impacts of the redevelopment project finds that 42% of trips to, from and within the site are something other than “drive alone” trips, and that residents of Atlantic Station drive only 32%-43% as much as the regional average.

BEYOND TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS

Transportation strategies to reduce ground level ozone levels include technological advances as well as urban and regional planning strategies that moderate traffic growth – as seen in Atlantic Station. Ozone is not directly emitted, but is formed in the presence of NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOC).  Reducing emissions of NOx and VOC effectively reduces ground-level ozone.  Since the early ’70s, several relatively easy to deploy technologies like catalytic converters and low sulfur fuels have significantly reduced NOx and VOC emissions from automobiles.  These technologies have reduced smog, diminishing (or at least deferring) the need to address personal travel behavior. However these technological solutions for typical cars and trucks have already run their course in many regions, and technological prospects for further NOx and VOC reductions are limited unless we expect a rapid conversion of the vehicle fleet to extremely low or zero-emissions vehicles. So it may be that more regions will now pursue transportation strategies to moderate traffic and vehicle travel demand.

Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s 2007 Air Quality Plan for the Washington, D.C. region reveals that vehicles are the largest source of both NOx and VOC emissions, even considering recent progress (predominantly via technological measures) that reduced these emissions by an estimated 45% and 42%, respectively, between 2002 and 2009. Utilities are the next highest source of NOx emissions, and lawn and garden equipment and various area source categories are other substantial sources of VOC emissions.  Top sources of emissions do vary from region to region. For example, while two major ports in Los Angeles receive about 40% of the nation’s containerized cargo, the L.A. region’s air quality management plan lists ocean-going vessels, heavy duty vehicles, off-road equipment and light duty cars and trucks among the highest sources of the region’s NOx emissions.

VIRTUOUS CYCLE

While technological advances will continue to be important in reducing NOx and VOC emissions in many sectors, strategic approaches that influence behavior for the better should also be included in emissions reductions plans.  Regions that that face non-attainment on account of emissions from cars and light trucks should consider strategic and comprehensive planning efforts to reduce traffic by facilitating alternative modes of travel (transit, walking, biking, carpooling, even telecommuting), which can create a virtuous cycle of public health benefits through improved activity levels, reduced obesity and lower levels of chronic disease. The Atlantic Station development shows that innovative projects can emerge amidst the challenges presented by federal air quality regulations.  While EPA’s new standard will be seen as a challenge by many regions, it is also an opportunity to re-align our regional priorities towards public health, time savings, reduced congestion and a better quality of life. Here’s hoping for many “code green” good air quality days ahead.

Feelin' like you'll never see the sun again? Prepare yourself to ride in the rain. Photo via jrodmanjr.

Many of you likely found yourself in a familiar dilemma this morning when you opened your door to leave: Do you bike to work in the rain, and risk arriving wet and grimy? Or do you find another mode of transportation, and risk arriving late and grumpy?

This morning I opted to bike. But on the rainy ride, I thought about how unprepared I am for these inevitable rainy morning commutes.

So, to try to keep TheCityFix’s readers from facing this situation, here are some tried and true tips on turning yourself into a rain-resistant rider:

• Bring a change of clothes.  If you have a breathable rain jacket and rain pants — gore-tex is good, but expensive — you’re probably already really prepared to bike in the rain. But if you don’t have the gear, just wear gym clothes to ride to work, and change when you arrive. And to make sure you don’t get too grimy…
• Invest in cheap fenders.  Most bikes made for commuting come with fenders to protect you from the steady stream of grime that your tires sling up at you.  But if you have a standard road bike, hybrid, or mountain bike, you’ve probably been riding without fenders. You can buy removable fenders for your bike for under $20 — just make sure you figure out where you’ll clip them on, first. This can be tricky on some road bikes.  And if you’re looking for more protection, there are plenty of different models out there; they just might cost a bit more.  For extra protection, especially to keep your shoes clean, you should think about adding mud flaps to the fenders.
• Avoid the temptation to splash through puddles! Once you’ve got your fenders and rain gear, puddles may look alluring. But, as many EMBARQ‘ers can attest, puddles often hide menacing pot holes. (If you are unfortunate enough to discover a pot hole this way , which we hope never happens, remember to report it on SeeClickFix.)
• Pretend it’s night time. Turn on your lights and wear more reflective clothing. Motorists have more trouble seeing you in the rain and are less aware of cyclists on rainy days; they’re focusing on keeping themselves safe in the rain, too.
• Brake early and often. Squeeze your brakes gently first to clear water off the brake pads. Give yourself plenty of time to brake, and ride more slowly to make braking easier and avoid skidding.
• Steer clear of metal, steel, and painted surfaces! Manhole covers, grates, and paint on the street can be extremely slippery. As EMBARQ’er and serious cycler Dave Cooper put it: “It’s one thing to be wet from the rain, it’s another thing to be wet from sliding on the pavement.” Painted crosswalks and cycling lanes can be especially dangerous, depending on the type of paint cities use.
• Carry an extra plastic bag or shower cap to keep your seat dry. Once it stops raining, you’ll be glad you don’t have to sit on a soggy seat.
• Look out for rainbows on the road and newly-wet roads. Rainbows mean a spot is especially slick.
• It is possible to bike with an umbrella! Just a bit awkward…

.”]

Worst case scenario: hold an umbrella while you ride! It is possible. Photo by Ol.v!er [H2vPk

The Giro d'Italia is a major road bicycle racing stage race, second only to Tour de France in age and prestige. Above, Britain's Mark Cavendish (right) chats with Lance Armstrong. Photo via telegraph.co.uk.

A D.C. stage of Giro d’Italia 2012  is looking more and more likely these days.

Yesterday, D.C. proved its ability to host a large-scale pro cycling road race as cyclists took over Pennsylvania Avenue in the Capital Criterium race, organized by the Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA). The D.C. race was the fifth of nine stops on the USA CRITS pro cycling tour.

The race’s director, Washington Attorney Mark Sommers,  is also head of the U.S. stages working group of the 2012 Giro D’Italia.  For the working group, yesterday’s race was a chance to showcase Washington’s potential to host a giant pro cycling event along “America’s main street,” and help D.C. win its bid to bring the first two stages of the Giro d’Italia here in May 2012.

The Giro takes place in May – June every year and is one of the three Grand Tours, together with Tour de France and Vuelta a España. Italian Ambassador Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty are also leading the push to have the Giro wind through Washington’s streets.

If the bid is successful, it will mark the first time any main cycling tour has started outside of Europe. Until now, the Giro has only taken place in Italy.

And success is seeming increasingly likely. D.C. has reportedly edged ahead of other U.S. cities — including Boston, Philadelphia, and New York — that were also bidding to bring the race to their streets.

In yesterday’s race, Mayor Fenty rode for charity sporting a bright pink jersey meant to mimic the Maglia Rosa worn by the leader of the Giro.

And with regard to the Giro in D.C., Fenty is optimistic, saying ”I really do envision the race coming and just sending an electric bolt through the world of cycling.”

Mark Sommers told The Washington Post that he thinks they will probably get a decision by the fall.

Professional cycling has seen dramatic gains in popularity in the United States over the past decade, thanks in large part to public affection for cycling stars like Lance Armstrong.  The sport’s popularity can translate into real gains for sustainable transport, as more and more people join in buying bicycles and hitting the streets.

How can a task force get input from the public if not enough people are able to show up? Photo by Daquella manera.

This morning’s Board of Trade/Council of Governments task force meeting to gain public input on Metro governance and best practices was a disappointment, expressed many participants.

Here are some of the complaints that resonated among most of the 12 speakers who signed up to offer their input to the task force:

BE INCLUSIVE, NOT EXCLUSIVE

Timing: The meeting was held at 9 a.m., when most people need to be at the office. This made it difficult for the task force to get input from a diverse group of D.C. residents, especially workers, students and families who are unable to leave their commitments to attend a 9:00 a.m. meeting on public transit.  As a result, only about 20 people from the general public showed up. David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington was the first to point out this incongruity, and other speakers echoed his complaint. Probably largely because of this timing problem, most participants who came to speak were involved in public transit professionally. In addition, there was an unpublicized three-minute time limit for each speaker. Many speakers had carefully prepared observations and suggestions, unaware that they would be limited to three minutes, and did not have a chance to make their points.

Task Force Composition: The composition of the task force represents just one interest group: business. As many speakers pointed out, this prevents the task force from truly representing a broad range of stakeholders in their final recommendations.

Issues Addressed: Most participants pointed to funding – not governance – as the “elephant in the room,” saying that an independent review of WMATA governance is merely a distraction from the deeper problem of underfunding. In response, the task force said they hoped to get more input about how governance structure can affect funding in the future.

ELECT, DON’T APPOINT

As far as recommendations are concerned, the most common point was that elected WMATA board members (currently from Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, and D.C.) have consistently shown more accountability to stakeholders and greater transparency in their work than appointed board members (from Maryland).

WMATA board composition: More (or all) elected officials, fewer appointees. This came at a moment when Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was threatening to withhold $50 million in funding unless he could appoint two of Virginia’s four board members. (Many participants expressed concern that the business lobby behind the task force had the ulterior motive of removing elected officials from the WMATA board.) TCRP Report 85 highlights the effectiveness and responsiveness of elected boards for transit agencies, which in turn reinforce the public’s trust in the system, creating a virtuous cycle of higher ridership and revenues.

Equal access to information: David Alpert pointed out that all board members must be regular riders in order to understand the issues they control, and that presently, the board chairman has too much control over the information available to the rest of the board, which causes information bottlenecks within the board.

Culture of safety: Metro has had an inordinately high number of safety issues over the past year, and several participants expressed concern about a lacking “culture of safety” within WMATA. Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, emphasized this issue, saying that WMATA must hire a top-notch General Manager who prioritizes a safety culture.

Know how to fix Metro? Please share your ideas, from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' Offices, 777 N. Capitol St. NE. Photo via Mr. T in DC

Do you have ideas about how to improve Metro? Now’s your chance to talk.

On Thursday, July 1, a joint task force run by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Greater Washington Board of Trade has invited the public to voice ideas about how to improve Metro.

The task force first met on June 11 but did not allow public participation. However, they quickly scheduled a public meeting for July 1, seeking stakeholders’ input about “critical governance issues” and best practices for the Washington area.

Metro riders have voiced frustration about service lately. Now is a good time to help think of potential solutions!

Details: The meeting will take place on Thursday, July 1, from 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. at the COG offices, 777 N. Capitol St. NE. You can sign up to speak by calling 202-962-3220. You can also submit written comments here.

German cities like Muenster and Freiburg have developed some of the world's best bike infrastructure. Dr. Ralph Buehler spoke about lessons that D.C. can take from Germany last night at the Goethe-Institut.

Yesterday I attended “Biking, Walking, and Public Transport: Smart Mobility for the 21st Century” at the Goethe-Institut.

The event kicked off with a great hands-on demonstration of how to change a bike tire by Daniel Hoagland, D.C.’s star bike ambassador.

D.C. Bike Ambassador Daniel Hoagland demonstrates how to change a bike tire. Photo via Sylvia Blume.

Some highlights: If you have a flat tire, and you don’t know where the hole is, fill the inner tube with a little air and squeeze it until you hear where the air is coming out. If you can’t find the hole this way, try submerging the tube in water and looking for bubbles. Still can’t find a hole? You may just have to replace the tire. Also, make sure to invest in a good pump with a gauge (should cost around $30), and a patch kit – which will set you back $5 or $10, at most! A worthwhile investment since it will save your day any day now.

After the demonstration, Ulrich Braess, Director of Goethe-Institut, introduced the event, speaking about his personal experience using Barcelona’s bike share system.

Bike Share Commute

Braess said biking to and from work every day on Bicing bikes shaved at least 15 – 30 minutes off his commute, sparing him from the sticky air on the metro and allowing him to coast by congestion on the streets. Bike sharing, then, led to an immeasurable improvement in quality of life – an improvement we hope is in store for many Washingtonians with Capital Bikeshare.

Dr. Ralph Buehler and David Alpert (GreaterGreaterWashington) gave fantastic presentations on what Washington is, can, or should be doing to promote “green” modes of transportation: walking, biking, and public transit.

Buehler focused on Germany’s experience over the past thirty years, noting similarities between Germany and the United States – including federal systems of government with lots of power at local level, important auto industries, highest levels of car ownership in the world and extensive road networks – to make the case for comparisons.

Lessons for Washington, Direct from Deutschland

From 1995 to 2005, while CO2 emissions in the United States rose by 2 percent, emissions in Germany fell by 7 percent. Why?

Well, people walk and bike more in Germany. Partly because gas is about twice as expensive with Germany’s gas tax, and German infrastructure and driver training makes cycling and walking much safer than in the United States. Most residential areas in German cities have traffic calming and home zones where speed limits sometimes drop to 7 kilometers per hour.

In German Driving Tests, You’d Better Look Out for Bikes

Schoolchildren in Germany have bike training and pass a police bicycling test around the age of ten. And drivers  fail their driving test if they do not yield to bikes when appropriate and show heightened awareness when bikes and pedestrians might be around (Buehler failed his first driving test because of this!) Small changes such as making driving tests more stringent could make a big difference in the D.C. area.

Transit-Oriented Development with Regional Integration

Buehler also used examples of transit-oriented development from Freiburg, which clustered development around its light rail over the past forty years, and also offers a great RegioMobilCard for 50.50 € per month for the Freiburg region; the card gives unlimited trips on public transit with free rides for a companion at off-peak hours.

The system has regional coordination of services, timetables, tickets and finances – which allows for a single fare and seamless transfers across operators and public modes in the regional system. Something like this would be wonderful for Washington, but still feels far away. Metro could start by bringing back the monthly pass.

Bike and pedestrian infrastructure in Freiburg, Germany is some of the world's most advanced. Photo via Tillwe.

Buehler’s main recommendations for Washington-area improvements in sustainable mobility were:

• Develop multi-modal transit with incentives for using green modes and disincentives for driving
• Implement controversial policies in stages (Germany implemented gas tax over five years)
• Keep plans flexible so that they can adapt over time
• Fully integrate transport and land use planning
• Make sure sustainable transport policies are long-term because behavioral/cultural changes take time
• Support from higher levels of government is crucial for local policies to succeed
• Citizen involvement is also crucial

Speaking of citizen involvement, David Alpert’s GreaterGreater Washington has proved an excellent tool to organize people in support of the transportation improvements they favor most for Washington.

Making Greater Washington Greater

Alpert highlighted some steps being taken in D.C. to make transit more sustainable. These include the proposed K Street transitway (see here and here), the proposed 37-mile streetcar network, and the temporary curb extensions at the “death star” intersection of Florida, W Street, New Hampshire, and 15th Street. The temporary curb extensions are a great example of something temporary and cheap that DDOT can do to improve safety; hopefully, with the help of SeeClickFix, other intersections can get attention before people are killed trying to walk or bike through them.

D.C. officials celebrated the opening of new bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue this week. The lanes would be safer if they were painted green and physically separated along the entire route. Photo via Transportation for America.

Alpert also pointed to the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes and 15th Street bike lanes as recent improvements – which, of course, can still be improved upon.

Obstacles to Improvements in Washington

Some of the obstacles to further improvements in sustainable mobility in Washington include some well-organized lobbies like the Committee of 100, the Alliance for Rational Development, and the Cleveland Park Citizens Association. Federal agencies also make progress difficult on some issues difficult (for instance, the National Park Service doesn’t want Capital Bikeshare at monuments, and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts doesn’t want the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes painted green – which would help keep drivers out of them).

But, blogs are helping sustainable transport advocates organize and lobby, too. And they’re helping to change how we view the city: they inspire, inform, organize, coordinate, and critique, according to Alpert.

With the high number of people relocating to D.C., there’s an increasing interest among new residents to make the city more livable.

Optimistically these citizens can organize more and more, and help Washington D.C. overcome larger, societal obstacles to better sustainable transport and regional integration. These include a U.S. political bias for rural areas and the founding precept that Washington D.C. would remain a seat of government, rather than a large urban area.

Flickr user arthurohm posted a picture of his bus driver texting on Flickr. But what if the passenger, driver, and company knew that this photo could go directly to SeeClickFix? Photo via arthurohm.

If you see your bus driver texting – or dozing – what can you do? Or how about if you notice a train conductor talking on a cell phone?

These were some of the questions that arose yesterday at “Transportation Tuesday,” a meeting hosted by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) on the one-year anniversary of the tragic Metro crash near Ft. Totten. The guest speaker was Deborah Hersman, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

With regard to the Metro accident, Hersman said NTSB has already investigated three additional incidents since the crash last year. (One year after the crash, is Metro safer?) She recognized that WMATA is under financial pressure and facing service cuts (so are all other mass transit agencies around the country) and Metro has had a disproportionate number of incidents. But, this is key, she said: NTSB can’t do anything to force any transit agency or business to abide by higher safety standards.

One of the most salient points from the meeting was that NTSB, as an independent federal government agency, has absolutely no authority to make or enforce safety standards and regulations.  NTSB can only make recommendations based on insights gained from previous investigations. (Fortunately, 80 percent of the recommendations they have made are closed or at acceptable status.)

So for now, it’s up to all of us to collaborate and cultivate a stronger “culture of safety” in the United States.

How can we do it?

One tool that came to mind (again) is SeeClickFix. Most often used to report potholes, broken traffic lights, and other non-emergency issues, SeeClickFix could also prove a powerful tool to encourage accountability and responsibility in any type of mass transit.

With SeeClickFix,  next time you see your bus driver snoozing or a train conductor texting, for instance, you can report it right away, and include a photo of the guilty party. Optimistically, this will provide a great incentive for a higher level of personal responsibility in bus and rail transit around the country.

But to expand in this direction, SeeClickFix to will need to strengthen and build new partnerships, possibly with public transit agencies or private companies, including curbside bus services. And public education will also be crucial. A public awareness campaign, which SeeClickFix doesn’t necessarily have to lead, would help inform riders of the tools that are already available and waiting to be used.

Could community-designed murals, like this one in Brooklyn, New York, be used to inform the public about important transportation issues in Washington, D.C.? Photo via Streetsblog.

Monika Kerdeman is the communications and finance coordinator for The Access Initiative (TAI), a global network that promotes access to information, participation, and justice in environmental decision-making. TAI is a project of the World Resources Institute, where EMBARQ, the producer of this blog, is also headquartered. In this post, Monika describes ways in which the District Department of Transportation can work with the community to improve information-sharing about traffic patterns, public transit routes, and biking and walking initiatives.

After attending last week’s event on “Online Engagement for Sustainable Urban Mobility” in Washington, D.C., I came up with some low-budget ideas to make information about transportation and urban planning more accessible to the public, with a special focus on communities where people don’t have access to the Internet, speak a variety of languages or  don’t pro-actively engage in finding out information about transport changes, even though these changes could greatly benefit their livelihoods. I submitted my recommendations to Lance Schine, DDOT’s new chief information officer, who was one of the panelists at last week’s event. While it’s important to engage with people through online tools – including social media, interactive websites, mobile apps and other digital devices – it’s equally important to remember how to engage with people face-to-face, on the ground, without relying on technology-enabled solutions, to bridge the digital divide.  

In the developed world, we often times tend to over rely on technology to inform people. However, Joseph Foti and Lalanath de Silva note in their latest publication, A Seat at the Table: Including the Poor in Decisions for Development and Environment, that communication channels and language barriers can often hinder access to information.  Additionally, while many issues might be dealt with using technology, some solutions might require deeper understanding of the local culture and therefore require less technological approaches.

CASE STUDY: ECKINGTON’S “VIRTUAL CIRCLE”

One example of the importance of having good access to information is when city officials attempt to communicate new traffic patterns. DDOT recently announced a number of these changes on busy routes across the city, including the 14th Street Bridge, 11th Street Bridge (I-295), and Key Bridge. But it’s been a challenge to inform area residents and commuters about the new – and often confusing – new traffic flows. As DDOT Director Gabe Klein wrote in a recent d.ish post:

Of all these impacts, the one that may be the most confusing will be the new pattern at the New York Avenue and Florida Avenue intersection.  Anyone who travels this intersection knows the myriad of left turns, or better yet restricted left turns, traffic signals, crosswalks, and significant competing traffic.  The ongoing construction is part of a safety improvement project that will change the direction of traffic creating a “virtual circle” around the center of the intersection where the Wendy’s is.

Klein acknowledges that  people who “receive [DDOT's] press releases, monitor our tweets, are a Facebook friend, or see our posted Variable Message Signs” have probably already heard about the new traffic patterns on what is affectionately being dubbed “Dave Thomas Circle.” But what if you’re not plugged in to any of these channels? How are you supposed to know about the important changes to your commute?

Currently, the signs only say there is a detour. There are few, if any, signs saying “new” traffic pattern. The official map for people to understand the new traffic pattern looks complicated. This creates a lot of confusion and frustration, especially for drivers who travel the route frequently. Pedestrians and bikers are also affected, experiencing limited accessibility to cross Florida and New York avenues. This is potentially dangerous, as there are a lot of school children nearby – and this is an unintended consequence of what was originally designed to be a “major safety improvement.”

THE SIGN PROJECT

An easy way to address these problems would be to install signage in the appropriate locations and engage the community to work with the DDOT to develop usable information for that community.

For this project, I would propose that DDOT engage people in the community, including children, to create signs that are colorful and stand out so people read them. They could include more pictures if people can’t read. DDOT can pay them a marginal amount and this would give kids something to do in the summer, as well as get community members involved in the process of understanding what changes are taking place.

This is also an opportunity for DDOT to make signs for the new signed bike-pedestrian trail so that people can find the access points to get on it. This trail seems to connect the Eckington and Bloomingdale communities to the New York Avenue Metro station and Union Station, and it is much safer route. At the present time, there are no signs for this path and few people use it.

Think this is a good idea? Vote to have this fixed on SeeClickFix – http://seeclickfix.com/issues/43270 – where I’ve submitted a report with photos.

OTHER IDEAS:

The sign project is just one of many ideas to improve information access in urban communities. Here are some others:

Mural Art – Post information in communities where smartphones do not exist; let sidewalks, walls and other streetscapes be the analog equivalent of digital touchscreens.

Transit-Oriented Information Displays - Provide more information about transportation in metro stations or bus shelters;  post updated information about street closings, construction, multi-modal transit hubs  in places where people don’t need computers or Internet access. (Lance Schine, DDOT’s chief information officer, has already announced plans to launch a pilot project to install interactive information displays in the District’s bus shelters.)

Community Transportation Centers – Create public spaces near public transit or information kiosks about DDOT’s services and changes; encourage people  to have public meet-ups and share information about what is happening in D.C. on transport issues; use existing resources like Adams Morgan’s community board.

Information Education – Work with schools to distribute information on public transport, bicycling and walking; integrate this into their health or physical activity curriculum.

Business Partnerships - Partner with local businesses to post information about DDOT and public transit.

Roundtable discussions stimulated debate about how we can use online tools to build citizen engagement in transportation planning. Photo by Erica Schlaikjer.

On June 15, EMBARQ – The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport (the producer of this blog) hosted 50 D.C. city officials, planners, transport practitioners, technologists, social media mavens and urban advocates for a discussion about online engagement for sustainable urban mobility in Washington, D.C. The event was organized by TheCityFix Managing Editor Erica Schlaikjer, who is also EMBARQ’s online engagement coordinator, as part of the District’s first Digital Capital Week.

We were extremely pleased with everyone’s participation, from the five panelists’ presentations highlighting specific, concrete examples of successes, failures and requests for collaboration, to the fantastic ideas generated in our discussion groups. A big thank you to all of the participants who came to talk about transportation with us. We are already getting positive feedback.

For all those who weren’t able to make it – and for participants reminiscing about creative collaboration and cookies – here is our roundup (the video recording is still pending) of the event.

A newly launched interactive Capital Bikeshare Survey will get input from D.C. residents on where the bikestations should be located.

Breaking News!

The afternoon included some exciting announcements.

Where Do You Want Your Capital Bikeshare Station?

Panelist Lance Schine, the chief information officer for the District Department of Transportation, announced a new website – http://links.dc.gov/capitalbikeshare – to allow people to contribute thoughts on where the new Capital Bikeshare stations should be located. Lance reminded contributors to keep in mind that the solar-powered stations will need at least 4 hours of sunlight per day, so no “shady spots”!

Through a deal made with D.C. Public Libraries, Lance also announced that the site will become the homepage on the city’s 600 public library computers. This will incorporate stakeholders who do not have access to the Internet at home or on their mobile devices.

Circulator Gets QR Tags

Panelist Bryan Sivak, the chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, announced that a new QR Tag (QR for Quick Response) designed specifically for DC Circulator Buses will be launched next week.

The tags will have QR Codes – that work like bar codes – to streamline internal efficiencies and improve the passenger experience. By July, the tags should be added to all Circulator bus stops and bus shelters in the city. A smartphone application will allow passengers to scan the QR tag on a bus and see a map of their route, their current location, and the next bus stop. During the first phase of the QR tag roll-out, DDOT will host a contest for developers to create apps using Circulator data, complementing the official “Where is My Bus?” app, which tracks real-time bus locations.

Resounding Message: Engage and Collaborate

As pointed out by panelist Nick Grossman, director of civic works for OpenPlans, engagement is a beautiful thing. The resounding message from the afternoon was for everyone to engage and collaborate as much as possible and in areas we might not have considered before.

All panelists gave examples of how their organizations – including OpenPlans, The Washington Post, Greater Greater Washington, the District Department of Transportation and the Office of the Chief Technology Officer – are encouraging civic engagement and collaboration through online tools.

Stories of successes and failures enlightened everyone in the room about what works best, and what may not work; and each panelist’s request for collaboration ensured that everyone in the room will continue working together to promote sustainable mobility in the D.C. area. For more detailed notes, see below.

Panel Presentations: Success, Failure, Request for Collaboration

Christian Madera (Columnist, Next American City)

Christian moderated the panel, emphasizing that involving a wide variety of stakeholders in the planning process is very important for building sustainable transportation systems. Christian noted the success of the first Open Cities conference last year in D.C., which explored how new media can radically shift the way the public interacts with governments and cities, and how participatory tools can change the way the government works.

By outlining how transportation development is an area ripe to incorporate new media to empower and engage people, Christian provided a fitting introduction for the panelists’ presentations.

DDOT's open data allows Circulator bus route information to be integrated into Google Transit.

Bryan Sivak (Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia)

Bryan highlighted that the city has comprehensive data for the Circulator buses, including stored snapshots at 15-second increments of where each Circulator bus has been over the past year.

Using this real-time data, the city was able to build a mobile and web app to determine bus locations throughout the city, incorporate the Circulator into Google Transit, and develop the QR tags that will go on the buses and bus stops to help riders find their location and figure out when the next bus will arrive.

Bryan asked for collaboration on the “Circulator Open Data Challenge,” specifically:

1. to create any kind of public-facing application based on the new QR tags, application programming interface (API), or both, which will publish all the codes that the tags decode to.
2. to help with two specific apps to improve the Circulator’s internal efficiency, i.e. a management consul showing the real-time location of buses, and a clever visualization of the Circulator, showing how it interacts with city and the rest of D.C.’s transit system.

The OpenTripPlanner, developed by OpenGeo, is an open-source software that plans true multi-modal trips combining walking, biking and transit.

Nick Grossman (Director of Civic Works, OpenPlans)

Nick emphasized the need to get as many people as possible excited and interested in sustainable transportation. His organization, OpenPlans, based in New York City, has already convened a strong following of sustainable cities advocates through its highly popular StreetsBlog and StreetFilms media networks.

Nick highlighted OpenPlans’ strategy of learning from some of the world’s most successful engagers: open-source developers behind projects like Firefox, Linux and the Android platform. One of the most important lessons from developers, he said, is to take advantage of third-parties to amplify your work.

Now, OpenPlans is working with the D.C. government on developing an open protocol for doing 311 services online. The Open311 Standard has already been supported by San Francisco.

OpenPlans has also demonstrated the importance of third-party collaboration through its OpenGeo project, which helps bring open-source geospatial software to governments and other organizations. Recently, OpenGeo helped create an open source multi-modal trip planner in collaboration with Portland’s TriMet (and other individuals, transit agencies and non-profit organizations), based on the successful experiences of apps like Graphserver, OneBusAway, and FivePoints. Now, after just six months, OpenTripPlanner has become the largest open-source transit project in the world, and it has received bug reports and code contributions from Spain, Poland, Hungary, Uruguay, and the Netherlands, along with many U.S. states.

But with success, comes failure, and Nick was able to explain some of the challenges and mistakes of trying to build an online social network from scratch with its former Streetsblog initiative. Nick highlighted that rather than focusing on new technology, it’s better to focus on content and processes that support and extend existing online activity, rather than trying to start something new. The result of this learning experience is the new Streetsblog.net, which aggregates activity from more than 300 blogs across the sustainable transport community.

Currently, OpenPlans is seeking collaboration on a new project with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) to build greater transparency and participation into the transportation planning process. This will include bringing online transparency into the process by helping agencies learn how to blog about plans and interact with stakeholders, publish proposals online, and finding the best ways to get feedback from stakeholders.

To do this, and make effective use of all the data that’s out there, how much technology is too much? Where are the best opportunities for collaboration, to get people to work together on these issues? Where can NYC learn from other cities and partner with other cities working on similar projects?

To collaborate, join the Google Group and catalog relevant info!

David Alpert writes about his online campaign to help save the H Street streetcars.

David Alpert (Blogger, Greater Greater Washington)

David highlighted the growing contingent of young people who are relocating to the D.C. area and committing themselves to make it “greater.”

He noted the fantastic success of Greater Greater Washington in alerting area residents through social media and local blog outreach about D.C. Councilmember Vincent Gray’s decision to cut the H Street Streetcar program from the budget; this led to enough citizen complaints that, by noon the same day, the project’s funding was restored.

A challenge is to take this sort of engagement between local stakeholders and officials to a larger scale, involving state governors, for instance, or the National Park Service, which controls many parks in the area but often doesn’t manage them from a pro-neighborhood perspective (e.g. they don’t allow the Circulator around the Mall or bike-share stations at memorials).

So how can we engage these officials? David asked for collaboration in this area, along with building a greater following for the blog. He also noted that everyone needs to collaborate to ensure that open data – such as WMATA’s newly open data – is presented in a useful way.

And one particularly pressing issue is the design of a new bus map to give a more realistic understanding of accessibility around the city at any given time. Currently, the bus map gives the appearance of an extensive, frequent network of service. But a more accurate depiction might be represented by thicker lines for the busier routes, for example, to visualize the true nature of the system.

Sites like The Daily Gripe encourage local residents to engage with their city officials through interactive mapping.

Justin Jouvenal (Web Editor, Postlocal.com)

Justin remarked that The Washington Post has always had a huge demand from readers for very local reporting – for instance, stories on overflowing sewers or bus-lane failures – but didn’t have the capacity to cover these issues in a meaningful way before recent, innovative online collaboration.

Now, thanks to an interactive SeeClickFix widget, the Post has developed an interactive column, known as The Daily Gripe, where area residents can register complaints about city issues that will then be sent directly to the officials responsible for fixing the problem.

Launched in the beginning of June, The Daily Gripe is clearly satisfying a latent demand for these services. More than 200 complaints have already been registered. And one of the greatest successes so far has been the near-instant repair of a mistimed cross-walk signal near a school in Alexandria, Va.

The Washington Post had previously to build its own customized mapping tool to report problems related to the D.C. blizzard. But the editors realized that it is important to use available tools that are already out there, rather than trying to create your own, hence the partnership with SeeClickFix.

Justin asked for greater collaboration from stakeholders and government officials in using The Daily Gripe to build a safer environment for sustainable transportation.

Lance Schine (Chief Information Officer, Department of Transportation)

Lance highlighted DDOT’s Transportation Access Portal (DTAP), which now details more than 300 transport projects and allows stakeholders to check the status of a project online. He said he is currently working on making DTAP more dynamic.

Lance also announced the launch of the crowdsourcing site – http://links.dc.gov/capitalbikeshare – which will allow users to suggest where they would like Capital Bikeshare Stations located. This will eventually be visualized as a heatmap, showing where the solar-powered stations should be installed. Lance requested everyone’s collaboration on this project.

Lance also announced a new project to develop interactive displays at bus shelters, especially for multi-modal public transportation hubs, to show information about routes, arrival/departure times, and nearby transport alternatives. The technology already exists in Europe and would be easily replicable in D.C. using local data.

WMATA's AssistantGeneral Manager Nat Bottigheimer led a discussion group about how to encourage relucant agencies to open their data. Photo via Erica Schlaikjer.

Roundtable Reports

Roundtable #1: Open Data

Facilitator: Eric Gundersen (President, Development Seed)

Focus on incentives for governments to open up data, particularly because of the internal efficiency that open data generates. View opening data primarily as a great way to improve efficiency that will benefit everyone.

Example: Using open data, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital identified major inefficiencies, and almost overnight, claims for overtime pay dropped by 46%. This could also be applied for landlords registering properties in D.C. Better knowledge of available apartments would be useful in a crisis and would create more revenue for the city.

Roundtable #2: Government Transparency & Civic Engagement

Facilitator: Harriet Tregoning (Director, Office of Planning)

Make riding the bus the “New Normal” through social media and networking: We need to change people’s perceptions about what constitutes “the good life.” Barriers include the stigma associated with riding the bus; confusing routing/schedule information; few east-west routes (because of few east-west roads); and the increasing number of new neighborhoods, giving a sense that public transit service isn’t keeping up with shifts in population.

What DDOT’s Circulator has done right: smaller system, so you have to know less; 10-minute headways; clarity. With NextBus app, WMATA has shown a good model for predicting bus arrival times – now, the Circulator’s Where is My Bus? app should also focus on letting people know when the bus is arriving.

Focus on getting transit agencies to create a bus-rider community around particular bus lines: Maybe there should be a button or T-shirt displaying your favorite route – this could encourage people to talk about routes they regularly ride.

Roundtable #3: Government Transparency & Civic Engagement

Facilitator: Nat Bottigheimer (WMATA)

We need to define open data in a way that it is in an agency’s strategic interest, and describe the information in a way that is supportive of an agency’s mission. This could mean presenting open data as a tool for managers to see how different parts of the system are performing, and otherwise show how accountability is something positive for the agency opening data.

We need to create a “menu” of applications and analyses of current data for developers to tackle. Create the expectation that if we use data, it’s “peer-reviewed,” to create accountability among data-users.

Roundtable #4: Blogging and Citizen Journalism

Facilitator: Dan Silverman (Prince of Petworth)

Digital Divide: Many new transportation innovations revolve around computers and smartphones. D.C. has lots of people without either. It is important to utilize other avenues for citizen engagement, like town hall meetings, and underutilized services, like providing the Capital Bikeshare online survey at all D.C. Public Library computers.

Role of Citizen vs. Role of Expert: We need to make sure that all of this interaction remains a two-way street. We need citizen engagement, but also need experts to respond about what can or cannot be done, and why.

Roundtable #5: Citizen Collaboration

Facilitator: Philip Ashlock (OpenPlans) and Zvi Band (FixMyCity DC)

There are different types of communities/tools/and processe. There will never be one tool that will make sense for everyone. We need to constantly think of ways to “cross-pollinate” radically between different types of tools. In what sense does the government play a role in supporting these tools, and how can you sustain that?

Reach out to existing communities, i.e. OpenPlans identified cyclists with bikes locked up illegally to posts and gave them flyers to attend a forum to suggest where more official bike racks were needed.