In 2007, I took a class on transportation and land use planning, and my term paper laid out an agenda for linking transportation and land use planning within DC proper, although the concepts were extendable to the metropolitan area.
Some blog entries reflect the various conclusions in the paper, including whether or not DC should move to "free transit," which is relevant again as DC Council is proposing $100/month in free transit benefits to all residents ("D.C. Council Ponders Bill to Give Residents $100 Monthly to Ride Metro," Washington Informer).
-- "Comments on Proposed EYA Development at Takoma Metro Station," 2006
-- "Not being able to build your way out of congestion," 2007
-- "A 2008 Transit/Transportation Planning Wish List for DC," 2008 (updated 2015, part 1, part 2)
-- "Is making surface transit free the best transit investment DC can make?," 2016
Predating the paper, the 2006 entry discusses the "Transit First" agenda laid out in the San Francisco City Charter, which prioritizes sustainable mobility, while the 2007 entry discusses "Transit First" as well as how Utrecht, The Netherlands links land use approvals to the capacity of the transportation system to accommodate the number of trips generated ("Utrecht: 'ABC' Planning as a planning instrument in urban transport policy"). These provide the foundation for the paper's argument.
PG: no substantive link between transportation and land use planning, especially for big projects. Unlike what they do in Utrecht, it is amazing how in Prince George's County in particular, they approve large scale developments -- FedEx Stadium, Konterra, and the National Harbor development on the Potomac River alongside an outlet shopping center and the MGM Grand Casino -- WITHOUT ANY REQUIREMENTS FOR HIGH CAPACITY TRANSIT SERVICE. Even though they claim to be proponents of what is called "transit oriented development."
Konterra is still a long way from substantive development, but it's completely car dependent.
FedEx Stadium is about 1.5 miles from the Largo Town Center Metrorail Station, and National Harbor has zero substantive transit connections--it was hard to even get bus transit.It's why I argue that Prince George's County planners don't really understand what transit oriented development and transit centricity even mean:
-- "The future of mixed use development/urbanization: Part 3, Prince George's County, where's the there?," 2011
-- "A recommended new planning direction for Prince George's County," 2011
-- "Another lesson that Prince George's County has a three to five year window to reposition based on visionary transportation planning," 2011
-- "Frustration #3: the talk about transit oriented development and Prince George's County," 2013
-- "Prince George's County still doesn't get "transit oriented development" and walkable communities: Greenbelt edition," 2012
National Harbor. And wrt National Harbor specifically, there are limited bus connections only, which came with a struggle ("Eight years and one casino later, a bus line from Alexandria to National Harbor," Post, 2016), even though the Sierra Club Metro DC Chapter advocated for a circumferential transit line connecting all the legs of the Metrorail system c. 2000. This proposal included a station at National Harbor.
This comes up because the Washington Post has an article, "In growing National Harbor, eyes are once again set on a future Metro station," about the possibility of Metrorail expansion, the long discussed separated blue line, that would provide service both to Georgetown and National Harbor as a kind of inner circumferential line for the subway system.
Purple Line. FWIW, the first time I ever heard of the Purple Line was in a cover story in the Washington City Paper in December 1987. And now, "only" 39 years later, the first leg will be operational ("Maryland approves revised contracts for Purple Line, now set to open in 2026," NPR).
Separated Blue line/Separated Silver Line. The separated blue line was a WMATA concept from 2001, but after a recession around 2003, Metrorail junked expansion planning entirely, devolving authority for expansion to the separate jurisdictions, and it fired most of its long range engineering and construction staff. The original blue line proposal called for service to Georgetown, Union Station and H Street NE.
But the key element was the additional platforms at Rosslyn Station, as the present setup is a key chokepoint in the system, made only worse by the addition of the Silver Line.
The only expansion plan underway at the time that continued was the Silver Line, by the State of Virginia. The second phase will open this year -- 20+ years later ("Silver Line opening pushed back again, MWAA says, as new issue arises. But hiring is underway," Washington Business Journal).
The separated blue line concept died for the most part, except as mentioned in the Arlington County Master Transportation Plan. Instead of advocating for it, DC shifted into streetcar planning, which since the original process, has been pretty much abandoned to one line on H Street NE, ending at Union Station.
Starting in 2006, I wrote tons about the concept of a separated blue line, including the missed opportunity by DC to use the creation of the Silver Line as a way to create that line.
-- "The "Downtown" Circulator and Rosslyn, Virginia," 2006
-- "Blinking on urban design means you limit your chance for success," 2006
-- "Winners and losers with the Dulles subway project," 2007
-- "Silver Line Metro expansion a classic example of the need to have true regional transportation planning," 2011
-- "Ultimately, WMATA blue line riders have been dissed by the State of Virginia, not WMATA," 2013
-- "The Silver Line WMATA story that WJLA-TV missed," 2014
-- "If DC had visionary elected officials and planners it could use the new WMATA "BOS" study to push through the development of a separated Silver Line in DC (and Northern Virginia)," 2019 recap
Although now I think it could be a separated Silver Line and the Blue Line, in Virginia could have its own expansion plan.
-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for the Metrorail Blue Line," 2020
Separately Paul Meissner and I created a "fantasy map" for Metrorail expansion, which did include Metrorail service to National Harbor, but should have included other suggestions for Blue Line extension in Virginia.
- a new junction at Rosslyn, service to Georgetown
- presumably a connection to a Mount Vernon Triangle Maglev station if it's ever built ("DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project," 2021)
- an additional line connection to Union Station, which needs additional transit capacity and connections to serve the proposed expanded station
- to Navy Yard, which is a single line station serving the Washington Nationals Baseball Stadium which lacks the capacity to adequately serve special events ("Baseball World Series in DC #2: Eleven urban planning lessons from the Washington Nationals stadium," 2019)
- the addition of a station at Buzzard Point, which would serve Audi Field, the DC United soccer stadium ("Baseball World Series in DC #3: Five lessons for transit," 2019) providing enhanced special event service, although Audi Field is about one half mile in west of Navy Yard Station and east of Waterfront Station.
I'd rather see the Separated Silver Line, and extension of service east of Union Station rather than southward from Union Station to National Harbor, although the issue of enhanced special event coverage to Nationals Stadium and Audi Field is a plus.
To me, planning an extension of the Purple Line from New Carrollton to Alexandria makes more sense, based on the likelihood of ridership demand to National Harbor, which can't be particularly high.
The route would add 180,000 new weekday trips, according to pre-pandemic Metro estimates made when the existing rail system was serving four times the passengers it does now. The route would bring rail service to lower-income communities in the District and Prince George’s, as well as to areas where development is booming, such as Buzzard Point and National Harbor. ...Proponents of the proposed National Harbor line take a much longer-term view. It’s the preferred of six options the Metro board is considering to deal with crowded stations on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines. Trains and stations on the three lines, which share one set of tracks through much of the District, frequently exceeded capacity before the pandemic during peak hours, according to Metro.The Blue Line route would connect an area of Prince George’s with few transit options — limited to a handful of bus routes — to the greater Washington area. It also would create an alternative to car travel in an area that suffers from frequent traffic congestion.“It would be a tremendous amount of relief if folks were able to depend on mass transit,” said Malcolm Augustine, a former member of Metro’s board who represented Prince George’s and is now a state senator.The down side? It would come with a hefty price tag, costing between $20 billion and $25 billion to build and between $175 million and $200 million annually to operate, according to a Metro report last fall. It’s not clear how the extension would be funded.
-- "One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example" (2015)
-- "Branding's (NOT) all you need for transit" (2018)
-- "Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland," Ralph Buehler, John Pucher & Oliver Dümmler, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation (2018)
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