Transportation Information in action (almost)

One of the tremendously wasted information dissemination points in Downtown DC are office buildings. Since 70% of the workers in DC don't live in DC, it's reasonable to assume that many downtown workers don't live in the city. Many come by car, too often single occupancy vehicle trips.

Plus, office workers may not know what's going on in downtown, unless something is mentioned in the Express, and to some extent the City Paper, although interest in the City Paper skews to people interested in the arts and culture, and therefore readership tends to skew younger. (I like how CP has hawkers now on Thursday, distributing the paper at subway stops such as Farragut North.)

When something runs in the District Extra section of the Post, it doesn't necessarily reach Downtown office workers, because they read the Extra section from their home-delivered newspaper -- which by the way is why I have suggested that the Post do an overrun of the District Extra section for distribution Downtown and at certain other highly traffiked and visible areas.

Most of the jurisdictions had displays at the Regional Bus Conference. Arlington County's included a sample transit information sign that was specifically designed for the Regent Building in Ballston.
The Regent Building, 950 N. Glebe Road. Image from Arlington County.

The sign is very good, with localized information relevant to the workers in that building. I presume it's required as part of transportation demand management planning in Arlington County. (Click here to read the Transportation Demand Element of ArCo's Transportation Plan. It's very very good.)

This is the kind of lobby-based marketing and promotion that DC's Downtown BID ought to be doing. Office building lobbies (and concierge networks) are some of the most important places we have to reach office building workers both about events and opportunities downtown, as well as primary points of contact for promoting transit usage.
(Sorry about the quality of the image. The sun was very bright.)
Inset.

Inset.

Index Keywords: transit