News

The pandemic affect on DC’s metro

NCSG Professor Hiro Iseki was quoted in a Washington Business Journal story about COVID-19’s impact on the WMATA system:

Just as it was for so many things, 2020 was supposed to be a great year for Metro.

The aging rail system had been taking steps to repair its infrastructure, build new stations, improve service and expand its hours. It had finally nailed down the budgetary holy grail: dedicated, fixed funding from its constituent jurisdictions. And it was all starting to pay off.

With just 3.3 million trips from April through June, WMATA’s fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, the system saw a 93% plunge in Metrorail ridership from the same quarter in the previous year — and a 93% differential from what it had forecast for the quarter. In taking a look at average weekday ridership on the rails, which WMATA has historically measured annually in May and we had recorded with our annual List, some stark changes abound this year. The transit system had to temporarily close several stations in March due to the pandemic-driven lockdowns, and it watched as multiple stations bore average daily ridership in the single digits this May, down from the thousands in May 2019.

The stations with the most drastic drops in ridership numbers are normally fueled by commuters to their jobs. Ridership remained higher on the eastern side of the system, a point WMATA also has highlighted. That, at least in part, reflects where people are less likely to have alternative modes of travel or own a car due to some lower income levels, said Hiro Iseki, an associate professor of urban studies and planning for the University of Maryland. He said it also indicates where residents may be less likely to have work-from-home job options.

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Nick FinioNov 30No Comments

The Diamondback covers PLCC Annual Meeting

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of people gathered on Zoom to discuss equitable development goals surrounding the long-awaited Purple Line at the Purple Line Corridor Coalition’s annual stakeholder meeting.

The Purple Line Corridor Coalition is a collaboration between communities and the public and private sectors. Led by the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth, the coalition works collectively toward prosperity in the communities and businesses around the Purple Line.

Tuesday’s meeting brought together corridor residents, nonprofits, businesses and other organizations to check in on local communities and businesses. Also present were planning department officials including Kip Reynolds from the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and community activists such as organizers from advocacy organization CASA.

Sheila Somashekhar, the coalition’s director, spoke about how the community must adapt to the changes presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Nick FinioNov 20No Comments

Gerrit Knaap interviewed for Baltimore Sun story on the Purple Line

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Gerrit Knaap interviewed for Baltimore Sun story on the Purple Line

Ricardo Velis doesn’t have a car, so he spends an hour and a half commuting each way on two buses between his home in Montgomery County and work in Prince George’s County. It’s a less than 30-minute drive, but he said one of the Montgomery County buses stops 20 times.
Velis, a 31-year-old construction worker, is one of the many in Maryland’s Washington suburbs eagerly awaiting the Purple Line, a 16-mile, east-west light rail line between Bethesda and New Carrollton, connecting to two MARC and four Washington Metro lines.
“We need more connections,” he said. “The bus is very slow.”
Decades in the making, the 21-station rail line is about 40% built. A 100-foot hole has been dug for elevator shafts in Bethesda. Utility and steam line relocation is underway along University Boulevard and on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Bridges for the elevated sections of the mostly street-level rail line have begun rising in Chevy Chase, Silver Spring and Riverdale Park.
The Purple Line Corridor Coalition laid out goals for affordable housing, economic development, small business preservation, workforce development and other initiatives along the route, including art and cultural preservation, in 2017.
“We’re trying to prepare the corridor, which at one time seemed really urgent,” said Gerrit Knaap, who established the coalition as director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland. “It seems a little less urgent now, but we still think it’s important.”
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Nick FinioNov 20No Comments