A bus stops by Dupont Circle Metro station by Adam Fagen licensed under Creative Commons.

The GGWash elections committee is currently in the process of endorsing a candidate for the Ward 2 council seat in advance of the June 2020 election. As part of this process, we sent a questionnaire to each candidate who has filed to run. Our questionnaire contained three sections, covering the broad issues that we routinely cover on the blog and around which we regularly advocate: housing, transportation, and land use.

Those issues are germane to Ward 2 as well. Ward 2 contains some of the densest and wealthiest neighborhoods in DC, and the candidate elected to represent it will have a direct stake in matters that we’ve long covered on GGWash, like dedicated bus and bike lanes and affordable housing.

This week, we’ll be running posts with the candidates’ responses to our questionnaire, broken down by section. Today, you can read what the six declared candidates have to say about transportation, and you can find their responses to our housing questions here. You can read more of our Ward 2 election coverage before we endorse a candidate, which we plan to do in November or December.

Here are our transportation questions, followed by responses from candidates John Fanning, Jordan Grossman, Daniel Hernandez, Patrick Kennedy, Kishan Putta, and Yilin Zhang.

1. The recent Washington Area Bus Transformation Project shows that riders want more buses, more often. Please explain how you would expand bus service in DC.

John Fanning

To provide better bus service for riders, I support additional express bus routes, expansion of dedicated bus lanes throughout the city, the creation of protected bus/bike lanes in some areas, and increased enforcement of bus and bike lanes overall.

Jordan Grossman

If elected, one of my highest transportation priorities would be dramatically improving bus service. I used to live on 15th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW and work at 3rd Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Initially, I tried to take what appeared to be the most direct transit route available: pick up the bus at 14th Street and N Street NW and get off at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Yet buses were only scheduled to arrive every 30 minutes or so and they frequently didn’t actually show up. Frustrated, I began walking 15 minutes in the opposite direction each morning to Farragut North to take the Red Line to Judiciary Square, because it came so much more frequently and reliably.

I’ve heard stories like this over and over again from Ward 2 residents – and DC residents more broadly – when it comes to the current state of bus service. I believe we must run buses more often on as many routes as possible, establish more dedicated bus lanes on major arteries throughout the area, complete these projects much more quickly, and set clear and specific targets for the frequency, reliability, safety, speed, and affordability of bus service. In order to make these goals a reality, I support all four of the Washington Area Bus Transformation Project’s main recommendations of providing more frequent and convenient bus service, giving buses priority on roadways (including through dedicated lanes and effective enforcement mechanisms), creating an excellent customer experience (including intuitive and easily understandable routes and transitions between systems), and empowering local and regional officials to implement these reforms and achieve a truly integrated regional system.

Daniel Hernandez

I would seek every opportunity to implement dedicated bus lanes and other tools to increase the timeliness and efficiency of the bus transportation network. I would support funding increased bus service to reduce headways. I would similarly push for late night service when the Metro is not operating, though the jurisdictional issues make that part more complicated.

Patrick Kennedy

I believe this comes down to three basic things: Running buses more frequently outside of rush hours, implementing dedicated bus lanes to create faster and more reliable trips, and working to simplify Metro’s fare and route structures to make transit intuitive and more cost-effective for riders.

Transit should be something that people in a major metropolitan area like ours can rely on all day and every day, not just something to be used twice a day during weekday commute hours. We maintain a bus fleet large enough to run relatively frequent service during rush hours, but it tapers off, sometimes greatly, during middays, evenings, late nights, and weekends. Improving service during these times is critical to making public transportation a realistic lifestyle choice for more people and to improve the lives of those who rely on the service as it exists now. That’s why I advocated strongly, for instance, to convert the H1 Metrobus route from a rush-hour route to all-day service and led multiple ANCs to be supportive of that effort, and also advocated for the implementation of the 59 MetroExtra service along 14th Street.

As we already have the infrastructure to run more Metrobus service, the main investment that needs to be made is on the operating side. Our ability to make that investment regionally may be hindered somewhat by the 3% WMATA subsidy growth cap implemented at Virginia’s behest during negotiations over dedicated funding, but the District should do what it can – perhaps by renegotiating the terms of regional vs. non-regional bus routes – to assume more direct control over locally-oriented service so it can scale up in response to local needs.

It should also explore whether there are opportunities to co-locate Circulator buses in new or future WMATA bus facilities in order to facilitate more service being provided under the direct control of the District government, something I have advocated for, and conceived of route alignments for, over the course of several years.

Just as important as running more frequent service is running more reliable service. Advertising and budgeting for buses to arrive on a route every five minutes doesn’t do any good if the real wait time ends up being 15-20 minutes before three or four buses show up in quick succession, bunched due to traffic congestion. For more people to feel comfortable relying on bus service, they need to know not only that they won’t have to wait unduly long for a bus to arrive, but that their travel time will be reasonably short and predictable.

That’s why implementing dedicated bus lanes for bus routes identified as part of WMATA’s Priority Corridor Network study a few years ago is so important: they are a relatively low-cost way to speed up commutes and improve service. Having sat on the study committee for bus lanes on 16th Street, it dismays me that we have not yet implemented bus lanes on that corridor – to take one example – five years after the planning process was launched. If there is a slam-dunk case to be made for bus lanes on any corridor in the entire District, it’s 16th Street, where bus passengers constitute 50% of the people traveling on the road at peak hours squeezed into only 3% of the total vehicles.

What’s more, we had a large number of bus lanes set up in the District into the 1970s, before Metro was built-out, so the concept of creating a network of dedicated lanes is not even new here in practice. It is a solution that was abandoned and neglected along with the rest of our bus service for decades, based on a lack of willingness to reapportion road space and an assumption that Metro was going to relieve the region’s surface traffic woes.

We need to treat bus service like it’s an integral, interconnected part of the region’s transit network rather than an inferior complement to the rail system. I am passionate about eliminating the transfer penalty between bus and rail service, something I have written about in the past. The transfer penalty can often double the cost of commuting for low-income users, many of whom ride bus routes that were truncated at rail stations as the Metro system expanded. The inclusion of free bus rides in monthly SelectPasses starting in July was a positive down payment on making our fare structure more equitable, but we need to follow the lead of New York, Chicago, and systems in many other peer cities and allow riders to transfer freely between buses and Metrorail.

More than that, the transfer penalty serves as a huge impediment to reorganizing and rationalizing the bus system to take full advantage of network benefits, because the incentive to retain longer, duplicative, one-seat rides is so great on a pure cost basis for riders.

We need to make service patterns simpler and more understandable to the average user. Would-be riders shouldn’t have to confront a confusing hodgepodge of alphanumeric route designations birthed in the Coolidge administration or before – some of which, today, denote routes that run infrequently and for only a couple of hours a week. There should be a greater emphasis on corridor-based routing with intuitive route designations.

From an operations standpoint, streamlining the number of service patterns run on particular routes makes it easier to manage consistent headways and to set up headway-based dispatching. It is virtually impossible, for instance, to run evenly-spaced, reliable service on shared sections of the 30s Metrobus line, where riders have their choice at some point or another of taking the 30S, 30N, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, or M6.

Kishan Putta

When I was first elected ANC Commissioner in 2012, I saw people waiting 20-40 minutes at bus stops on 16th Street as buses passed by full and way off schedule. I promised to help them, but many in DC government told me it would be too hard. I didn’t listen.

I printed and taped up signs up at every bus stop between downtown DC and Silver Spring - over 40 each way! As WAMU reported in an on-air story: “Putta tried to solicit commuters’ concerns on Facebook and Twitter, but drew his largest response the old fashioned way: he put up posters at bus stops asking commuters to contact him.” I held community meetings with WMATA and DDOT and testified before the council and WMATA. Our persistence paid off and we got larger buses, more buses, and finally convinced DDOT to bring back dedicated rush-hour bus lanes for the first time since Metrorail.

The pro-transit organization TransitCenter featured my bus advocacy prominently.

I care deeply about expanding bus service in DC, especially as DC’s congestion problems are only getting worse. And I’ve actually gotten it done. I know how challenging it can be, what an uphill push it is, and I know bus issues and bus policy intimately. Progress has been frustratingly slow and I want to change that.

I will make transit - and especially bus service - a top priority and will aim to join the Committee on Transportation and Environment. I will conduct strong oversight of our transportation agencies because we need to make much more progress much faster. I will push to implement more dedicated bus lanes, signal prioritization for buses, all-door boarding, and pre-payment — improvements other cities have made to make bus trips quicker and easier and to encourage more ridership. I will also push to transition to a new fleet of reliable electric buses.

Lastly, I will push DDOT and WMATA to work together and to work faster on important priorities. I will suggest that both agencies fall under the same DC Council Committee and chair - it is inefficient to have them separated.

More links to articles about my transportation advocacy work:

Yilin Zhang

It is important to first understand where and when the concentration of need(s) is/are for bus services. Then, understanding why these areas have a greater concentration, and aligning bus service to these needs.

Enhanced bus services may also help with limiting traffic, when bus riders and interested bus riders are confident that there will be additional bus service. We also need to ensure that no cars are parked in the bus lanes.

2. Would you support making the H and I Street bus lanes permanent—yes or no?

John Fanning

Yes. As an ANC commissioner, I have supported the creation of bus lanes on H Street and I support making the H and I Street bus lanes permanent.

Jordan Grossman

Yes.

Daniel Hernandez

Yes.

Patrick Kennedy

Yes. I authored our ANC’s resolution in support of the pilot back in March and suggested that the bus lane concept be extended to 18th and 19th Streets in our neighborhood as well to accommodate the various Metrobus and commuter bus lines traveling to or from Virginia at peak hours.

As a longer-term solution, I would suggest that DDOT revisit the concept of introducing a contraflow bus lane on H Street (as was studied a couple of years ago), and potentially introduce one on I Street as well. This idea has been studied since at least the mid-1970s, dating to when WMATA took over the various regional bus companies. Traffic has only gotten worse since then, especially with the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, so it’s absolutely critical that we update our street infrastructure to provide for more reliable, faster east-west bus commutes through the downtown core.

I think that a protected, contraflow lane with special traffic signals for buses could be a better solution than what we have now, where buses running in the curb lane with traffic must mix with turning vehicles or those stopped or standing in the bus lane.

Broadly speaking, however, I think that DDOT’s willingness to attempt a low-cost, quick-turnaround pilot like the one launched this summer is very promising. I welcome that approach to evaluating more potential bus and safe streets projects throughout the District, where temporary infrastructure is utilized to evaluate the success or failure of proposed concepts under real world conditions. That is greatly preferable to interminable study processes with no clear outcomes.

Kishan Putta

Yes, I hope the lanes will be made permanent.

I have been a strong proponent of dedicated rush-hour lanes including on H and I ever since serving that area on ANC 2B in 2012. Buses used to travel as slow as 3.6 miles per hour, in an area that can see over 70 buses per hour.

I was pleased to hear of the pilot program and am eagerly awaiting the results of the upcoming study/data analysis. While these new bus lanes are usually working well, too often vehicles are blocking the lanes - recently over 300 violations were found in just one day! We need more education as well as enforcement, whether live officers, or camera enforcement, to encourage clearing the lanes for smooth quick bus service to encourage more bus ridership.

Yilin Zhang

Yes. It is now permanent.

3. DDOT plans to stop purchasing diesel buses and only purchase clean electric buses going forward. Would you support the funding necessary for these buses, and would you push WMATA to electrify its bus fleet—yes or no?

John Fanning

Yes, I would support the funding necessary for WMATA to transitions its bus fleet to electric vehicles. Although the upfront costs of electric buses are more than their diesel counterparts; fuel savings and lower maintenance costs make electric buses the cheaper long-term investment. During the transition, I would like for WMATA to commit to using only biodiesel/natural gas fuels for its remaining combustion vehicles. Additionally, I would support increased emission restrictions on long haul or tour buses that operate within the District; and an eventual ban on all non-EV buses by 2030.

Jordan Grossman

Yes.

Daniel Hernandez

Yes.

Patrick Kennedy

Not only would I support the funding necessary for these buses on Council, I already have pushed for the necessary funding on the ANC level. I also believe that WMATA should move in the direction of an electric fleet. They have announced plans to integrate infrastructure to support an electric fleet into the plans for the renovated Northern garage on 14th Street. I think that as battery storage technology (reliability, capacity, and cost-effectiveness) improves, the case for moving toward all-electric fleets will be easier.

Electric fleets are important to invest in, not only for the impact they will have on moving the District closer to its sustainability goals, but also because cleaner and quieter buses resolve many of the objections residents who live on or near bus routes/facilities may have and that helps with garnering support for needed service improvements.

Kishan Putta

As a new dad raising a child in DC, I worry about the impact of climate change on my son’s future on the future of low-income neighborhoods of DC. A recent NPR study found that as temperatures rise, low-income city communities are disproportionately at risk.

Throughout the United States and the world, we see cities taking it upon themselves to begin transitioning to clean electric buses from diesel buses. While reports do state that electric transit buses cost around $200,000 more in upfront costs, these reports also show that lifetime fuel and maintenance savings from these buses are around $400,000 per bus. Thanks to the Clean Energy DC Act of 2019, the Mayor and DC Council have stated their intention for the entire electrification of public and private buses in the District by 2045, with a phased program put into writing.

It is my desire to continue to push for DC to transition to 100 percent electrification of buses and I will attempt to use all mechanisms available, ranging from the DC Green Bank to federal grants, and through public-private partnerships like the one conducted by Pepco and the DC Public Service Commission regarding installing bus depot chargers. As the capital of the United States, we must be a vanguard city in regards to air quality for our citizens.

Yilin Zhang

The original fleet of clean electric buses was projected to reduce fuel and maintenance costs by $6 million over their 12-year lifetime. I would support the purchase of additional clean electric buses if they continue to show significant benefits to our environment and return-on-investment. The savings generated year-after-year can be used toward additional district priorities, such as affordable housing.

We should push for greater numbers of clean electric buses as long as they continue to show significant benefits to our environment and no unintended consequences.

Finally, with ongoing innovations, there may be other sources of clean energy to consider.

4. It’s currently illegal to ride bikes and scooters on the sidewalk in DC’s central business district, which is predominantly in Ward 2. Would you support removing parking to install more protected bike lanes, as was done on Water Street in Georgetown, so that people could ride on the street instead—yes or no? Likewise, would you support removing parking to install dedicated bus lanes—yes or no? If no, please explain why not.

John Fanning

Yes!

Yes!

Jordan Grossman

Yes and Yes. If ever there is a place to prioritize protected bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes, and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, it is in the downtown core of the District, which is predominately in Ward 2. I would also support exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of converting one car parking spot per block in the central business district into dedicated scooter parking – similar to how grocery store parking lots often dedicate some parking spots to areas for returning shopping carts. This could help address one of the most common complaints about scooter use while ensuring this alternative to driving downtown remains accessible.

Daniel Hernandez

I think completing a complete network of protected bike lanes is an essential piece of our transportation planning. While we should look for compromises to minimize the impact on street parking, we must start from an initial foundation that protected bike lanes are a requirement. They’re key to cyclist, scooter-ist, and pedestrian safety. I also support removal of parking for dedicated bus lanes. I believe both of those efforts will enable more people to not need to rely on cars for transportation.

Patrick Kennedy

Everything is ultimately dependent on the context of the corridor, but in general I strongly believe that we should build out dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes according to the moveDC plan. I’ve supported every project in our ANC that has been advanced under that vision, going back to the L and M Street cycle tracks.

Sometimes the best solution to achieve bus or bike lanes might entail a loss of parking, but in other cases it might be preferable to remove a vehicular travel lane instead if there is excess capacity or the road needs to be made safer.

I think it’s important in these debates, however, to retain a strong degree of empathy for the different interests that have to be considered during these discussions. We should attempt to find solutions that are not any more impactful than necessary, and it’s important to build support for the types of long-term changes that we want to see in order to make the District a more livable, walkable, and sustainable place. That vision needs to be as inclusive as possible, and the greatest number of people possible need to see that they have a place in it, which is why discussions about residential on-street parking are especially sensitive.

Also, in some corridors, businesses have on-street loading needs and the abundance of pick-ups and drop-offs make the maintenance of a short-term parking lane necessary. I do think, in general, that curbside space in high-demand areas should be reserved for short-term needs and that those who need longer-term vehicle storage should be directed to off-street facilities.

The 20th/21st/22nd Street Protected Bike Lanes Project illustrates an example of how I put my sensibilities into practice. The overall goal was to get a high-quality bike facility implemented to connect Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom to the federal employment core and the National Mall, but I knew that doing so was going to take compromise and a lot of consensus-building with different stakeholders.

So I encouraged DDOT to add 20th Street to what was originally a study of only the 21st and 22nd Street corridors over a year ago. It is a wider street than the other two corridors, it is plagued by speeding traffic that could be reduced via a lane reduction, it doesn’t contain any sensitive residential parking, and it achieves substantially the same connectivity with accommodations on the northern end of the project.

DDOT agreed to study using it for a large portion of the route, the two relevant ANCs came to an agreement on recommending it, many residents who were upset over potential parking loss on 21st Street became supporters of the project, and as a result DDOT just selected a preferred route that has wide support and a clear path to implementation.

I am interested in getting things accomplished that move us in the direction of a more sustainable, livable city even if it means accepting only 90% of what is optimal, because I have seen a large-scale failure to press forward with projects that encounter even modest opposition. In view of that reality, I think it’s critical to be practical, so that we can build out infrastructure that will steadily attract a larger and larger constituency of people with a vested interest in changing how we get around.

Kishan Putta

I have long been a supporter of protected bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes. I successfully advocated making vital safety improvements to what was then the most popular protected bike lane in DC - on 15th Street. The League of American Bicyclists was so impressed, they featured my advocacy in their 2014 “Advocacy Advance” publication.

I was proud to support the very popular protected bike lanes on Water Street, now serving hundreds every day and making the area safer for pedestrians, cyclists, scooter-riders, and drivers alike. I am in favor of looking for opportunities to make the streets downtown safer as well. Studies show that when cities invest in bike infrastructure, traffic accidents go down as well as traffic violations. Removing parking to install bike or bus lanes downtown might be appropriate on certain streets, and it definitely warrants further study on potential impacts for overall transportation, businesses, and residents. I will push for that on the council because we need to open to new approaches to solving our growing congestion problems.

ps- I have also successfully advocated for several new Bikeshare stations, including Burleith’s first bikeshare coming this fall.

ps- I strongly support more dedicated parking areas for scooters and dockless bikes. This increases safety and also reduces emissions from the trucks that drive all over looking for e-scooters. I would push DDOT to increase the responsibilities of the companies, and perhaps call for a public roundtable with the heads of the companies to discuss what other improvements can be made.

Yilin Zhang

With technological changes and a focus on walkability, we have a tremendous opportunity to reimagine how we travel within DC. Second, traffic safety is key and everyone, no matter what form of transportation they take, should be safe from harm. Third, everyone also has the equal responsibility of promoting traffic safety.

Bike lanes are important to promoting safety for everyone. Where we can put in more bike lanes, we should consider doing so.

Bus lanes are a critical mode of public transportation, and we should consider increasing service frequency and/or expanded hours where and when there is significantly higher concentration.

There needs to be a balance of bike lanes, bus lanes, and parking availability. Some depend on their car for their livelihood and those who live outside of DC may need to drive into downtown (especially if public transportation is not easily accessible). DC drivers spend a significant amount of time looking for parking, and we need to assess whether this is related to higher car volumes, parking scarcity, and/or the need for real-time parking systems.

With respect to parking, in other large urban areas such as San Francisco, New York City, and Boston, there have been pilots to test an application that helps drivers understand where parking spots will become available. The application predicts this based on where other users were able to park. This is something that DC, if not already considering, could consider piloting.

5. Do you support extending the streetcar through downtown and into Georgetown—yes or no? If no, please explain why not.

John Fanning

Yes, I support expanding DC’s Streetcar network to through downtown and into Georgetown. I also hold a broader vision for a more robust streetcar network that connects to neighborhoods beyond the District’s borders. I question why the streetcar should end at Georgetown, shouldn’t we enter into a partnership with VA that would have the streetcar network that crosses the Potomac and connects to Rosslyn. I would also like to see DC streetcars utilize the same Smartcards used on WMATA Metro rail and buses.

Jordan Grossman

I would love if the District once again had an extensive streetcar network. My 94-year-old grandma often tells me about riding the streetcar to Roosevelt High School when she was a teenager. That said, I would support extending the streetcar through downtown and into Georgetown if reliable evidence showed it would be quicker, more effective, and less expensive than increased bus frequency and dedicated bus lanes. I believe increased bus service and dedicated bus lanes – such as those planned for the K Street Transitway – may be a quicker and less expensive option for providing frequent, reliable, safe, and affordable transit options along this route.

Daniel Hernandez

I do support extending the streetcar, though I would prefer we be bolder and push for crosstown Metro service with the line going through Georgetown.

Patrick Kennedy

Yes, I have supported the project for many years – including in previous GGWash voter guides – and I still believe that it represents the best achievable solution for improving east-west travel through the downtown core. There is no realistic prospect of a new over-$1 billion per mile Metro tunnel being built in the near-term, but the exhaustive Alternatives Analysis for the streetcar projected demand of somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 users per mile in the downtown core. That figure would make the streetcar among the best-performing “light rail” projects in North America, with rate of ridership better than most subway systems.

It is unfortunate that the poorly-executed mixed-traffic starter segment on H Street NE has jeopardized support for the line, and the streetcar network as a whole. Implemented properly in dedicated lanes, streetcars can be a tremendous transportation asset: they are a higher-capacity solution than buses, dwell times are lower than buses because there are more doors for passengers to enter and exit, the ride itself is smoother and acceleration more rapid – and the cost is far less than a subway.

We spent a decade planning in earnest for this project, including studies necessary to obtain federal funding for its construction. Our inability to follow-through with consistent commitment to long-term planning efforts highlights a broader dysfunction which I am dedicated to correcting in order to solve major urban problems.

Kishan Putta

Getting across downtown and Georgetown can be very slow and I want to work on the council to improve cross-town transit. Georgetown is wonderful historic and commercial hub of our city. I am proud to serve on the ANC Commission covering this wonderful neighborhood. But, I know Georgetown needs better transportation connections. I would like to study the impacts of a dedicated bus lane to get riders between Georgetown and downtown more efficiently. I love streetcars, but they are not cheap. If bus lanes are successful, maybe a streetcar would make sense. But if not, at least bus lanes can be easily repainted and buses easily re-routed. I remain interested in streetcar as an option and will pay close attention to the studies underway on the streetcar extension. I promise to keep an open mind on new and different transit options including the possibility of a Georgetown metro station. We will never make improvements if we don’t start trying harder.

Yilin Zhang

From its opening up until approximately December 2018, the DC Streetcar has served 3 million passengers.

For the extension, we would need to better understand sustainable funding for the extension. Assuming there is sustainable funding, we should better understand the trends in utilization month over month (or another frequency) of the current DC Streetcar. In some cities with streetcars, ridership saw a large increase upon first opening and then dipped after several months. We should better understand how DC riders who would need and want to travel through downtown and into Georgetown prefer to travel and how often.

6. The city is currently studying decongestion pricing, a program in which drivers of single-occupancy vehicles would be charged to enter certain parts of the city at certain times. Do you support decongestion pricing? If no, please explain why not and list your proposed alternatives to limiting traffic and improving air quality in DC.

John Fanning

Yes, I support decongestion pricing as adopted by cities such as London, Stockholm and soon to be implemented in New York City in 2020.

This inability to control the number of vehicles entering the District daily from neighboring jurisdictions puts all our transit improvements at risk. Currently, we are unable to dis-incentivize single-occupancy commuters that might otherwise be better served using other transit opportunities.

Jordan Grossman

I believe we should prioritize projects and initiatives that provide a clear, reliable, sustainable, and attractive alternative to driving in order to change behavior when it comes to car use. To me, pressing for processes and resources that will provide for better bus and rail service, including running more buses, establishing more dedicated bus lanes, and addressing choke points on Metrorail like the Rosslyn tunnel; establishing a truly comprehensive network of protected bike/scooter lanes; and executing street and infrastructure design that elevates the safety and comfort of pedestrians, transit riders, and cyclists is the most direct, equitable, and efficient way we can reduce the use of single-occupancy vehicles, limit traffic, and improve air quality in DC.

While I support the goals of decongestion pricing, I’m concerned about potential equity issues in the design and implementation of such a program. Decongestion pricing would require very thoughtful design, implementation, and oversight to avoid these potential inequities, particularly for those who live in areas that are poorly served by transportation alternatives. Even a well-designed and effectively implemented decongestion pricing program is a means to the end of moving people away from non-essential car use and toward alternatives, and while it could generate funding for transit projects, it’s not an alternative mode of transportation in and of itself. My preference would be to focus first on supporting, funding, and maintaining world-class transit alternatives rather than dedicating substantial time, energy, and resources to implementing a decongestion pricing program.

Daniel Hernandez

Yes. We’d need to investigate the details and determine the impact on lower income residents, but this is a policy I support. I also think we need to broadly re-evaluate the roads we have that seem designed primarily for commuters coming from out of the District.

Patrick Kennedy

I support decongestion pricing, as called for in the moveDC plan, as long as it is implemented equitably and coincident with a vast improvement in transit service. Any revenue raised through it should be reinvested in transportation alternatives above-and-beyond current funding levels.

Fundamentally, though, unlike suburban Virginia and Maryland, the District does not have any toll facilities within its boundaries and that puts it at a tremendous funding disadvantage compared to neighboring jurisdictions – especially considering our inability to otherwise impose a commuter tax or levy assessments on the large amount of valuable land under the control of the federal government, foreign countries, international institutions, and nonprofits.

We know that other cities have adopted decongestion pricing, with the end result being decreased travel times for all road users and increased funding for public transportation. We need to review those models and learn from their experiences. I am not wedded to the precise boundaries contemplated in moveDC. I think, in addition to boundaries, that further technical analysis needs to be done on congestion reduction and funded initiatives under various models of pricing, hours of operation, including if certain classes of vehicle users are exempt from charge. Only with that analysis in-hand do I think that we will have enough information to properly balance the equities and implement a system that works for the District’s needs. I am hopeful that the $400,000 study funded by the Council’s Transportation Committee this year will provide useful answers to these questions.

Kishan Putta

I support the city’s initiative in funding a study on congestion pricing in the DC area. I think it is important to look at other city examples, such as London and soon to be New York City, to look at the impact and unintended consequences and allow that to help shape the study. Once the study is released to the public in July 2020, we can have a better idea of the potential impact and positive benefits of decongestion pricing. In theory, if applied correctly and fairly, decongestion pricing can ease traffic, speed up travel times, reduce pollution and provide funds for public transport and infrastructure investments. As our city grows, we need to consider different options to deal with the rising congestion. I am very interested in following this issue closely.

Yilin Zhang

We may want to consider other ways to decongest, particularly if the cost is not a sustainable cost for the driver. For some drivers, mass transportation may not be feasible for them and the charge would significantly and negatively impact their income. Many drivers who drive into DC are doing so because they work in DC and may not be able to afford to live in DC. When making a determination on transportation policies, we must also consider current and potential future affordable housing policies.

If we do charge, they should only be considered in areas that can be accessed by two or more forms of public transportation, and they should not be in areas with that offer critical social services such as hospitals and medical centers.

An example of an alternative that does not charge is, on certain days of the week, it would be license plates ending with an even number that can enter certain parts. Other days, odd numbers can enter. We may also want to consider exceptions (especially as some drivers may not have other options for getting into DC to work), but these would need to be discussed in detail.

Tagged: politics

Alex Baca is the DC Policy Director at GGWash. Previously the engagement director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the general manager of Cuyahoga County's bikesharing system, she has also worked in journalism, bike advocacy, architecture, construction, and transportation in DC, San Francisco, and Cleveland. She has written about all of the above for CityLab, Slate, Vox, Washington City Paper, and other publications.