How far do people drive to Metro?

Metro’s bicycle and pedestrian study charts are full of interesting data. One diagram shows how far people drive to various stations:

Unlike the mode share graph, this one does scale the pie charts based on the numbers of drivers at each station. Unsurprisingly, the most people drive long distances (blue) to the stations at the ends of the lines. Fort Totten, West Hyattsville, and Prince George’s Plaza have large percentages of drivers coming from within a mile (red), reflecting the auto-dependent yet dense urban design in those areas. The same applies to Deanwood, Cheverly, Congress Heights, and other stations in that area.

In general, stations with high numbers of 1-mile drivers (red) are the best candidates for better feeder transit and denser development, because those stations already have many people very close by, and it doesn’t take many stops to put transit wtihin a quarter mile walk of everyone living in a 1-mile circle.

Rhode Island Avenue seems to have a high percentage of drivers coming from three miles or more. Those drivers are probably coming from Hyattsville and Riverdale, which are closer to Prince George’s Plaza or West Hyattsville, but in the wrong direction and have less service. That strongly argues for improving transit service along Route 1, perhaps with a streetcar or light rail as Richard Layman and others have advocated. Plus, being the station in the densest area, Rhode Island Avenue is the top candidate for replacing parking entirely with walkable development. Perhaps the development can help fund transit to enable residents along Route 1 to commute without driving to Metro.