Union Station Intermodal Transportation meeting

Both Greater Greater Washington, in "Union Station Intermodal meeting recap," and Beyond DC, in "A united station" report on last night's meeting. GGW reported more directly on what he called "anti" or nimby sentiment. BeyondDC did not, but in a side conversation indicated that GGW's concerns were well-founded. A big issue is Union Station and how to visitors get to the Capital Visitors Center (when it opens) without unduly impacting negatively the surrounding neighborhood.

The best solution to that: WALK!

Other issues that came up were bikesharing, amalgamating the intercity (Greyhound) bus terminal into the station, and how to accommodate tour buses.

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Crazily, it wasn't until this moment when I remembered something that I have brought up on and off for the past couple years--better transit usage and wayfinding information at Union Station and utilizing the station as a place to explain how to use transit and the different options.

This came up as I was riding through Columbus Circle one day and heard a man exclaim angrily "$20 to get to the White House!" See, he went up to the Old Town Trolley people, and either it wasn't explained or he didn't get that it was an on-off jitney service to many different locations, with an all-day ticket.

I realized that just like how at National Airport they give you a sheet of paper explaining how the taxi system works and how much, approximately, it costs to get to various places, that we need some very basic instructional-wayfinding signage to explain transit and transit usage (maybe it's something that Christopher, myself and others can fiddle with).

Union Station is a key entry point into the city and an important opportunity to interdict possible drivers and get them to use transit while they are here (of course, many do).


At the same time, most of the downtown subway stations, in and around tourist destinations and hotels, offer the same opportunity.


Transit information kiosk, Arlington County Transportation Services.

And we have a model in the transit information signage system that Arlington County has created although they are adamant that the signage doesn't mix tourism information with transportation information--in this case I think that they are too hard core, and like with Union Station being a missed opportunity to explain transit, so is National Airport.

AND DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (to me, I can't believe I never thought of this before) there should be a "Commuter Store" in Union Station!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


But it should be expanded into a broader concept, what I call the "Mobility Store," also promoting bicycling and walking more heavily that the transit-centric Commuter Stores do. It's logical to do that at Union Station, given the forthcoming Bike Station and the proximity to the Metropolitan Branch Trail.




Public transit information signs, Seattle-Tacoma Airport.