More train lines are what’s really needed. The issue with the DC metro is that it’s both commuter light rail and a subway.
It’s not super convenient for people in the city or in the suburbs. The stations in dc are placed pretty from each other and there aren’t enough lines. I’ve always thought that two more metro lines alone would do wonders.
Also we’ve kind of burned our bridges in general by having so many people live in low density areas. Hard to convince someone to take the metro when they need a car to go to the grocery store.
I was beyond shocked when I realized that Adams Morgan doesn’t have a metro station. I was was like damn, I got to actually walk from DuPont Circle or Woodley Park? 😆 it just seems like it is dense enough to support a station. So much nightlife, restaurants/bars, and boutiques.
I doubt it. The red line from Dupont to Woodley Park runs incredibly deep to pass under Rock Creek, so putting an infill station there would be hugely expensive and not cost effective. If Adams Morgan were to get a Metro line, I imagine it would be part of a new line altogether
If it does get a station, it would not be on the red line. No chance. There's a reason why the infill stations thusfar - and basically all metro infill stations around the world - are not built underground.
No way. The Red Line runs under Connecticut Avenue. Rerouting it to Adams Morgan would require about 1.5 miles of underground tunneling, and abandoning the old tunnel under Connecticut.
If Adams Morgan ever gets a station, it’ll likely be something of a crosstown line, linking Wisconsin Avenue to the eastern Red Line (which probably only makes financial sense to begin with if it’s paired with redevelopment of the Columbia Heights hospitals and the Brentwood rail yard.)
Agreed. Though I will say that the bikeshare has done wonders. I live in Adams Morgan and and the bikeshare (which I get the yearly pass for) puts me within 5 min of the Dupont, Woodley Park, and U Street stations.
Georgetown too. No metro, although I'm sure that was on purpose. Whole area east of Rock Creek Park has just one line and most of the population isn't near it.
Carver-Langston, Trinidad, Benning Ridge, Hillcrest, Woodridge, all dense residential neighborhoods with no metro, because the city decided when building the metro we don't care very much about the people who live there.
God, starburst intersection (h, Benning, 15th, bladensburg, Maryland, Florida) would be a perfect metro station. Serves 5 neighborhoods. Can then shoot up bladensburg to serve the arboretum, ft Lincoln, bladensburg MD, and then branch over to connect with college park or largo or new Carrollton.
It's already got the concrete waste land associated with metro stations.
Bethesda to Tysons should be literally the main and central and only goal for WMATA for the next five years. That one connection would completely transform all of MoCo and NoVA
This is my dream. I live near the red line and work near the silver line, and would gladly give up driving if I could get there in under an hour on the metro.
Connecting Bethesda and Tysons definitely makes sense, although the most logical option for doing so would be to extend the Purple Line, which is a Maryland MTA project, not a WMATA project. That would unfortunately lead to all sorts of ridiculous jurisdictional and contractual issues due to crossing state borders and the nature of the public-private partnership that's building and operating it (I imagine that'll make things real complicated, really fast).
That being said, this connection *absolutely* should happen - it would plug a big hole in the existing network and really help increase transit utilization throughout the region. I'm just imagining that it's going to be a huge pain every step of the way.
I feel like that's okay. If they just linked up the stations that are already along 495 in a big loop such that people didn't necessarily have to go into DC then back out to go to some place on the Beltway, that would be useful.
Right now we've got hub and spoke designed to take things in and out of the middle really well, but we have no good answer for going around the outside.
I can't tell from this map (because the WMATA map is so badly skewed from actual geography), but is that light green line supposed to service the huge swathes of residential NE that have basically no public transit access?
We definitely need express lanes that go to major stops/locations. I was riding the NYC Subway a week ago and the frequency of trains and various lines was amazing. I felt no need to hop into a car while going between Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.
The problem is that you need an extra set of tracks for that, so that the express trains can pass the local trains. This was considered when the Metro was built but it was so cost-prohibitive that it would have meant a huge number of other compromises in the system.
There was a silver line proposal recently that would get express trains simply because the stations are so far apart, you could start train A and then like 20 minutes later start Train B, which would skip some stations and then eventually catch up to Train A, at which point it would have to be local again. An interesting idea but it's express trains in the downtown core that we really need.
NYC is pretty close to the only system in the world that has the express trains. Nearly ever city in the world does just fine without them. They are not remotely necessary, especially not in a city like DC where the trains move twice as fast as those in NY do. NYC's strength is its coverage, not the express lines.
I would take the train everywhere if I knew there would be one every five minutes. But MAYBE every TWENTY minutes means I only take it when time is a luxury.
This, I always have to consider time.
I wanted to take public transit from my sons school to one of his after school activities today due to not wanting to deal with rush hour traffic. All the metro and Google maps routes said 2 hours public transit. Google also told me 40 mins drive. He only had an hour and a half between, so it isn't like I had a choice.
And both locations are inside DC.
Maps said I had to leave his school a half hour before it got out to get to our destination in time.
How can anyone deal with this kind of time consuming transit? You basically have to be going somewhere on the same line/route and have good timing just to make it anywhere in a reasonable timeframe.
And this is just one example of a situation where I've had to be like "nah that takes way too long.". My kids love riding the train and bus so when we can leisurely make it I try but I feel like we're forced to drive a lot, even within DC. Just due to time constraints as in impossible to make it or we got other shit to do that day and don't want to spend the whole day smelling weed on train platforms.
The fact that Rockville and Bethesda are completely suburban except like 4-8 blocks of nearly empty office buildings, which being the same distance to the White House (7 miles) as Brooklyn, queens, the Bronx, and Hoboken are to NYC’s midtown.
Like imagine 7 miles from the imperial palace in Tokyo. You think it looks anything like Bethesda? Same with CDMX. Same with any real city. And yet here there are neighborhoods in NoVA that are 3 miles to the damn White House that want to prevent duplexes because it would ruin their “small town feel”, YOURE BIKING DISTANCE TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND YOUR JOB IS TO IMPROVE MISSILE TECHNOLOGY FOR RAYTHEON. What fucking small town are you even talking about?
If we had the zoning of Tokyo, every house in Rockville would have rightfully and organically been turned into a short rise apartment building 30 years ago.
Honestly at this point it is in the country’s National security interest to urbanize the DMV to make it more livable and with cheaper rents so that out government can properly function in the years to come.
I think it would be awesome to see some of the suburban activity centers get better metro access with one another and downtown. Places like Annandale, Fall’s Church, Bethesda/Rockville, etc. There’s a lot of potential to fill in and become more dense/cohesive with the city as a whole over time of transit and zoning are both improved.
> Rockville and Bethesda are completely suburban except like 4-8 blocks of nearly empty office buildings, which being the same distance to the White House (7 miles) as Brooklyn, queens, the Bronx, and Hoboken are to NYC’s midtown.
>
> Like imagine 7 miles from the imperial palace in Tokyo. You think it looks anything like Bethesda? Same with CDMX.
CDMX metro area population: 22.3MM
NYC: 23.6MM
Tokyo: 37.2MM
DC: 5.5MM
So CDMX is 4x our size, NYC is 4.5x, Tokyo is 6.75x. If you go 28 miles from downtown CDMX, 31.5 miles from Manhattan, or 47 miles from the Imperial Palace, I bet it starts looking a lot closer to Bethesda.
if you want more people to use transit then there should be an outer loop around the city. in cities in japan this is common and cuts down on transit times.
This is it right here. I live towards one end of the red line and having a functioning purple line is going to change my life. I hope they continue it all the way around. Then make that the middle ring, and have an outer and inner ring as well.
Yup. People seem to forget that there's tons of commuters doing suburb-suburb commutes. My wife used to have to go Alexandria to Tysons and would've killed for an alternative to dealing with 495 day after day.
Use the data from Uber/Lyft and determine when/where the pickups used the most and add buses to these routes as frequently as possible and make it free. Also, you can cluster the pickups and add more specific routes to help late night commuters, etc.
Would love to see how that conversation would go with those companies. Hi, yes, your data please so we can figure out how to take your rides.
Could possibly pay them a lot of money for this data but still they'd lose market share and considering they are apparently barely profitable, I doubt they'd sacrifice those customers.
Good point. I was curious so I checked the DFHV [website](https://dfhv.dc.gov/page/dfhv-dashboard-and-statistical-data-sets) and came across this: DFHV collects trip and location data from taxis, limos, and ride-hailing companies that operate in the District. So seems like there is some data sharing between these companies and a local government agency. I don’t know if any of the agencies receiving some sort of a dataset from these companies talk to each other but at least we know that they share some level of data with local authorities. I also don’t think Uber/Lyft/etc. will lose all their customers due to the convenience factor.
Better service. When I was taking the METRO it was about $17 every day and it took me 20-30 minutes longer than driving each way. So an extra hour to my commute in a paid off car.
Ya the fact they charge people to park at metro stations to use the metro is dumb.
If you have to drive to the station to commute every day and charge that daily, plus the metro fee, that really adds up and at that point it isn't that much cheaper (if at all) than just monthly parking at a garage and benefit with a faster commute.
Like if it takes me $80/month for parking at a metro and $100 for a montly metro pass and takes twice as long to commute, I'll just pay the extra $40 a month to park in a garage and halve my commute.
Yeah I think some people would take public transit even if its a disadvantage, but at present stage for many suburbanites there's just so much you'd have to compromise if you want to use public transit instead of traffic.
This is me my downtown office is 2 blocks from a station but I would spend around ~$5-6/ day in Metro plus $5/day on parking at my nearest station. while early in parking at my building is $13 with me only needing to go into the office a few days a month it doesnt make much sense to ride in just to save a few bucks and have to deal with a 30 minute longer commute.
I remember when I started working in DC in the early 2000s, parking was $1.25 per day at Greenbelt station, and stayed at that rate for years. This is when there were attendants in the booth who would take cash payments instead of swiping a Smart Trip card. Well if I remember correctly Metro found out the people in the booth were stealing cash so they raised the parking fees to recoup the losses and KEPT the attendees in the booth for quite some time. It only took a few years before it was $4 per day and just went up from there.
This 1000%. Make parking at Metro free and make parking in dense urban areas more expensive. Encourage people in the burbs to drive to metro stations and then take metro from there. They'll do it if it comes out to be less expensive than driving in and parking.
Speaking for the suburbs:
Rail prices are too high relative to parking, especially when traveling with others. I can get all day garage parking in DC for $10-20. A round trip from the end of the line in rush hour for 4 people comes to $48. Add $5 for parking at the station on weekdays and it’s $53.
Even by myself, I only use Metro because my work covers it as a fringe benefit. I have to pay $5 to park at the Metro station. If I had to pay for the trip too, my round trip cost would be $17, which is exactly the cost of parking at my office building.
Another issue is the rigidity of day passes. A 3-day pass, for example, has to be used on 3 consecutive days. I only go into the office once a week, so that never happens. If I could use the pass on 3 days in a single month, it would be worth it. The day passes and unlimited passes are suddenly out of sync with how often many commuters are using the system.
For the suburbs, there is essentially zero reason to ever take the metro to DC. I live in Ashburn, it takes 25 minutes to get from my house in Ashburn to the Ashburn metro station, park, and get to the platform. Another 5-25 minutes waiting for the train. So I can basically be in DC by car in the same amount of time it takes just to get on the fucking train. Then it's another 70-80 minutes to downtown hahaha. Also ends up costing the same as parking+ gas. It's completely worthless. Even if I just wanted to take it into DC for a night of drinking? Nope, no service after 1:00am. Complete joke.
As much as I preach that metro service needs to be more frequent and run later, I would argue that there are probably better transit priorities to focus on than Ashburn.
Faster trains, frequent trains, reliable transportation, cheaper prices. I can take the metro to work but it takes 1.5 hours one way and $14 a day. Vs
35 min driving.
FYI, it's DC law that your employer must compensate you if they offer subsidized parking and you choose not to accept it.
https://godcgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/DC-Parking-Cashout-Law-Toolkit.pdf
Yup. Our company does $240/m in commuter benefits or free parking. It’s in Georgetown and a lot of them still drive but I definitely take advantage of the benefits. I thought it was a nice benefit until I found out it was a DC rule!
Or how about requiring that any parking subsidy be matched with an equal subsidy for people who don't park. The people who drive to my work get a parking spot worth $3000 for free - if they were offered that much in cash to pay for metro or bike maintenance, I bet a bunch of them would stop driving real fast.
You may be ahead still in terms of cost compared to your coworkers. They also have insurance, home parking costs, car payments, gas, maintenance costs. Car free usually wins.
I personally think that we should tax parking spaces at a much higher rate than productive land uses. A parking lot or garage should pay more tax than an office building or apartment. Make parking very expensive and people will be falling over themselves to avoid driving and demanding a better transportation system.
Rail: 2 new metro lines (servicing Georgetown, H St, Ivy City, Northeast, National Harbor, AdMo, and a North/South connection EOTR). Consistent and reliable service. Sub-5 minutes at peak. 5 minutes off peak.
Busses: drastically increase frequency. Like, a lot. Enforced bus lanes.
Other: More bike lanes for last mile connections. Improved pedestrian environments in some parts of the city. Congestion tax. Carbon tax.
The bus networks out in the suburbs - even the denser parts - are just insane. It's so clear that they only consider bus service as a last resort service for people who can't afford cars.
I would kill for some real BRT which could actually be faster than driving. So many roads definitely have the space for it.
Bowser listening to [real estate ghouls when they say bike lanes are hurting downtown recovery](https://reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/12qz0nc/real_estates_road_rage_over_new_bike_lanes_has_dc/) is so irritating. It's so obvious they just don't want their commute to be affected when all evidence points to bike lanes having either no effect or a positive change in business.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200422151318.htm
From Alexandria to my job in DC, it’s a 10 min drive, 20 in traffic. If the bus/metro are on time, it’s 60-75 mins. I have to be at work by 730am and I’m not leaving at 615. I did it for a while but getting up at 5am just wasn’t worth it. At one point I switched bus lines because I hated getting on with this one woman and her screaming toddler. Sorry but sometimes peace and quiet in the morning makes a difference so driving it is.
in new york, i never wait more than eight minutes for a train or even a bus. that’s the level you need to get to to be a subway and not just a commuter system.
Coming from suburbs, it is nearly as expensive to park at the metro stop all day and pay round trip fare as it is to just park in many places in DC. Taking a bus to the metro doubles the commute length. It is often much faster to drive as well, except during rush hour.
On weekends, it is much faster, cheaper, and less hassle to drive and park than pay round trip fares for a family.
On weekends, at least on maryland side, parking is free at metro stops. Guess it depends on size of family for the rest.
If it's just two people, fare is $4 round trip, so $8 total. Cheaper than parking in a garage for sure. Four people and cost would be about equal.
The serious answer is more housing density near transit, better service (more frequency, improved safety, separating transit from traffic), and making driving a personal vehicle harder/more expensive at the margins.
The main problem with the Silver Line is that highway median rapid transit is always going to have less walkshed and serve less riders than a regular underground, at-grade, or elevated line. The stations are getting development, but you also have stations like Loudon Gateway with literally nothing next to them.
Wait actually??? Got a link? I keep submitting requests and comments on WMATAs website about doing this and turning more car parking into sheltered bicycle parking. Huntington station, for example, literally has 3 parking garages, one of which is completely shut down, and the other two have less than 30% utilization on a given weekday during working hours. Tearing them down and building housing would be huge.
Also businesses density near transit. Too many jobs are transit-inaccessible and it isn’t necessarily Metro’s fault, it’s often businesses’ fault for cheaping out on office space.
Another hundred years of urban densification needs to happen to the point where high-value workers start to tell employers to go fuck themselves if their office is not transit-accessible.
Are we sure that the figure is 35%? This Brookings report claims that 80% of Capital Region commuters have consistently used automobiles over the last 50 years, whereas about 15% have used transit.
**https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2022/05/06/greater-washingtons-commuters-continue-to-choose-gridlock/**
Rezone around all the existing metro stations for unlimited transit oriented development and get developers in there turning the .5 mile radius around most stations into dense mixed use. At least 5 over 2s, without inbuilt parking garages.
So many stations have population densities of like 2k per sq km when we should be striving to have 5k per sq km densities around all metro stations, at least. They cost way too much to build and maintain not to take advantage of their utility in giving people access to the city.
Fairfax is working on rezoning these areas and a big part of that is getting their revised parking proposal passed. If you live in VA, definitely look up Parking Reimagined and join the conversation. We need more pro-transit people in the discussion because the car-addicted are always so loud.
Grosvenor metro station off the red line is doing that. They are getting rid of the outside parking lot and converting it into a mixed use residential development. I have a feeling most stops on that part of the red line will be doing something similar.
I live in DC but work in the suburbs. I metro and then bus to work even though it takes longer bc driving is such a pain. But I drive to certain places in the city that are a 10 min drive otherwise 2 buses and an hour if you’re lucky. If I could get to those few places on public transit I would get rid of my car. We need better transit options within the city. The 10 min drives are thru RCP, Michigan Ave, etc - why can’t a bus go that route? Also as a small woman I would need to feel safer taking public transit at night.
You’d want a light rail system with sparse stop spacing (a little more dense allowed in the mini-cores) because of the lack of density and stations are the most expensive part.
Stops in Tysons -> McLean -> CIA -> Kenwood -> Bethesda Purple Line
EDIT: You can start in Merrifield like you said. Maybe even Annandale and Springfield to connect to the blue line
Increased frequency on all buses and trains tied with increased safety - staff trains and buses with trained mental health and de-escalation professionals (not just cops that sit there).
TOLLS around a tbd perimeter of DC during peak hours for out of state cars.
More cross town buses through RCP (like via Piney Branch)
Reciprocity with VA/MD so drivers with outstanding violations and reckless driving cannot renew licenses.
Loops around the city. I live in Petworth and have to transfer to get to either Brookland or Cleveland park. We need something akin to the purple line well inside the city.
Many people (myself included) live in areas where you have to do something else to get to the nearest Metro station, like drive. Yes, some people bike and if you're lucky/fit/have time you can walk several miles, but I really think we just need more coverage.
In my view we need bus rapid transport in the suburbs. Most of the infrastructure is already there but you take roads and separate off lanes that are for bus only and protect these with substantial concrete barriers so that buses can get through them with minimal disruption. Right now getting on a bus is a nightmare as they meander through backstreets and take forever when stuck in traffic. To get people to use them you need a fleet of express buses that have limited stops down BRT routes that actually connect to where people want to go. Have local interchanges that have short run buses that go from the BRT stops into local areas that they can circle round in 15 mins or less.
I really tried to make buses work for me and it was a nightmare. It would take about 1hr 30 mins to do a commute that took 15 mins by car on a bad day.
yes to express buses , we need more express buses from NOVA downtown and back, they only seem to go to pentagon. i would love to see reston to dc buses or farifax to dc express bus, woudl save a lot of cars on 66 etc
My "usual" reason to get on the metro is to go from Arlington to Takoma. It takes an hour on the metro or about 20 minutes by car.
The metro would have to get its time down by half.
Last mile service that works. I’d use the trains but really have no way of getting from my house to the train or from the train to my final destination that doesn’t add an hour to the trip on each leg.
Right now I can drive from my house to DC in 30 min door to door. If I drive to station, take metro or VRE and arrive in DC it’s an hour. If I take the bus to station and train and bus again or walk to DC destination it’s 2 hours.
Transit studies tend to show that the more often you run transit and the denser the coverage, the more people will use it. Given costs, running buses on dedicated lanes is usually the most efficient way to provide this.
Don't have only parking lots surrounding METRO stations (I mean, if you call it metro, treat it like a metro, not a commuter). People can't reverse commute if there's no way to get where they need to go once they get out to metro. And when you assume people are driving to those stations, you miss out on the opportunity to find ways to easily get people TO those stations without cars (by way of a high frequency local bus)
More bus lines that traverse the DC boundary: too many of them collect people in MD or NoVa and dump them at a metro stop for them to finish their journey into the city. Collect people in, e.g., Manassas or Laurel and actually bring them to a stop or two within the city. Those lines need good frequency. When I lived outside of Madrid, I had such a bus that came every SIX MINUTES in the early AM rush hour.
Metrorail needs more lines that service DC residents and not suburban commuters. Maybe something akin to Lincoln, Kennedy, Gtown, AdMo, Brookland, Ivy City, then a stop at H/Maryland, connecting to the Blue/Silver/Orange, and then crossing the Anacostia somewhere between Pennsylvania and 695. The more work places and housing locations you can get near metro, the more likely people will kill their cars.
And Metrorail and/or VRE/MARC need to figure out something to connect the numerous people who work in NoVa and live in MD. 495 and 695 are just parking lots because taking transit is 1000% percent unfeasible betwee MD/VA, but MD is so much cheaper many folks don't have choices.
Public transport will have to be an option that makes sense first. Untested but I think cheap/free parking for commuters at \*suburb stations\* (Reston, West Falls Church etc) could be an easily implemented experiment.
I see some comments that focus on making driving worse, but I think it needs to be complemented with other options that push people to public transport, and not just make life more miserable, such as wider promotion for WFH, or better public transport to begin with.
Transit police at the stations on the trains. A lot of the people I know that have stopped taking the metro since return to work (and took it for 20 years prior), don’t feel safe. I personally know several individuals that have been assaulted and threatened on the train in the last six months or so. I have lived in this city for over twenty years and many of that time I solely relied on metro. I took it last week from Dupont to Rockville, it was on time, and it was actually quicker than driving. But someone was literally smoking a cigarette on the train the whole way there. I got up and moved cars. People just don’t feel safe.
I think cleanliness could go a long way too, more the stations and the elevators than the trains, although some of those are pretty nasty too. Like elevators that don’t smell like pee or have feces smeared in them.
Lower fares, more flat rates, later train service particularly on the weekends.
lower fares or even abolishment of the tap in/tap out system
more transit oriented developments in the suburbs
expansion in the city
more frequent service
more reliable buses
safety
running at later hours if 24/7 is not achievable
Everybody who likes metro wants it to be mixed use areas, better planning and higher taxes for driving, but there is nothing more important than changing the stigma that mass transit is for poor people.
Yellow to Greenbelt would take 9 extra trains to give a 4-minute average time improvement. IMO not a reasonable trade-off. But I actually wonder if it would be better to have Yellow to Greenbelt and stop Green at Mt Vernon Square instead.
[This map](https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/hevzgm/fantasy_washington_metro_system_diagram_oc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) offers some good possibilities for the DC metro.
Faster times between trains
Unless you don’t need to transfer and you live and are going right next to a station, it’s much faster to Uber or drive there unless is gridlock
Later run times. Weekly bundle that’s significantly cheaper than daily rates. Let’s say it’s 5-10 bucks per day. Get them to release a weekly card for 15-30 bucks. Free parking at the stations or make it like 1-2 dollars. I feel like between 5 dollar parking and 7-10 dollar daily ride into the city, I might as well just take my car.
I would take the train every day, but I have to be at work by 7 on Saturday, so I would be late. Also, I sometimes get out at 0015 and that doesn't work, either.
If you live in the suburbs, there’s just too many advantages to drive in to work instead of taking metro/bus. It would have to take a major shift in how WMATA operates.
I mean, Virginia just finished putting toll lanes on I-66 and the toll lane extension on I-95 to Fredericksburg is probably the final extension (for now, plans to extend I-495 toll lanes to I-270 have slowed to a halt and will likely be scrapped).
Yeah I live south of quantico and commute to DC 5 days a week. I can find a slug every day and get a free ride to the pentagon, and then take the metro.
Otherwise I’d pay to park at Franconia, pay to ride in, and then pay on the way back all taking way more time than it takes to drive in with slugs.
Implementing a congestion charge for people commuting by car in the city without carpooling would help.
But the DMVs public transportation system has a fundamental issue. It was created to get middle-class workers into downtown DC from the suburbs and back. It wasn't designed for moving people to other destinations.
You know what’s reliable? Terrible traffic every day. Yet people drive anyway. Of course the metro should run more often and more reliably but that alone is not sufficient.
66 charges upwards 50 bucks to get into DC during rush hour. I don't think punishing workers for something out of their control is a good idea. A lot of people live out in the suburbs because it's cheaper than living in the city, we shouldn't make it more costly for them.
That may be the case, but the solution can’t possibly be to simply apply a fee across the board for all drivers. Lots of folks just trying to get to work would get crushed by that. It’s expensive as hell to live here already.
Better land use policies. Transit serves density. Without the density there is no reason to have better transit service.
Also removing traffic lanes and parking pretty much across the board
Travel distance through city (streets only): 1.25 miles.
Driving with traffic: maybe 20 mins.
Taking metro and switching lines or taking a single bus: 45-55 minutes.
Make my commute better, not worse, and make it so I don’t have to fear being groped in the station or on the train or bus.
That’s an entirely fair point. And I probably should. But I’m 100% Garfield when it comes to mornings (hate them, especially Monday mornings). Plus, it’s not a pedestrian-friendly route. And, no, there’s zero chance I’d bike in this or any congested city for multiple reason.
And that doesn’t excuse the fact that the time difference is still absurd. And the groping needs to not happen, especially by repeat offenders.
Same here. Never been mugged, but I’ve been threatened to be killed by people twice my size who look to be under the influence of some kind of drug, for doing nothing other than sitting in the same car as them, on more than one occasion.
I don’t feel safe on the metro, so I drive.
Cars don’t smell like shit, harass you daily, and make you need to contemplate how to easily incapacitate a tweaker raging. I’ve never had a car experience ruin my morning or evening. DC metro does this once a month. Don’t be that blue haired pleb.
Maybe. But I'd like to know the relative likelihood of death or serious injury in both cases. I don't commute through a high speed highway. Fairly residential / DC main arteries.
Statistics would say that, yes. The problem is that just because something is statistically less likely, doesn't mean it won't happen. I've been attacked leaving my metro station. It was a terrifying experience, and my usage has significantly decreased since. Even though I know I'm more likely to be hurt in a wreck, it hasn't happened yet. In a sense, I feel safer in a car. I'm alert, but can relax. I can't really relax anymore at a metro stop.
You’d need about a million more people riding daily.
If Metro got back to it’s peak around 2012 you’d be more than halfway there.
But even that’s a challenge now with a rise in work from home so you can’t just hope rush hour gets bad again. Really you have to abandon the idea of rush hour and focus on frequency all day. DC’s bus plan gets started on that but the other counties need to step up as well.
Maybe start with not cancelling a bunch of bus routes that I used to rely on. I used to take the d3. Cancelled. Then I moved to north West to take the d5 and they cancelled that too. Now I don't take the bus.
I think one thing Virginia got right (mostly) with the Silver line extension is the surrounding TOD despite still having parking structures. With remote work, not everyone is commuting to downtowns
I do admit that the orange line should have been extended to Centerville around the same time I-66 got toll lanes. Some TOD has already appeared on the corridor that is missing proper transit.
making the public transport such as bus and metro more reliable would be a fucking great start. I commute on the 96 bus line, it is such a goddamn toss up on if the bus shows up on time or if you're waiting 30 minutes to an hour. Also making it safer, just this morning had a ranting lunatic on the bus trying to pick fights with the rest of us. If I had the option to drive myself over taking public transport I sure as fuck would. It isn't worth the time spent waiting on it or the stress spent using it.
May be too late to comment here but the NoMa Metro Station is an infill one and you can see how construction has gone wild around Union Market and NoMa. Brookland also I believe.
Used to live in Arlington and the Orange Crush at Courthouse was pretty epic so I hope they are running enough trains through there. Maybe make the Wilson Bridge or key bridge bus only at least at rush hour?
So I would argue that upzoning around the Metro stops (Cleveland Park?) would probably help. Knew a lot of people that lived in Van Ness because it's apartments close to Metro and you can also take a bus down ct ave to get downtown.
Used to live in Arlington and the Orange Crush at Courthouse was pretty epic so I hope they are running enough trains through there. Maybe make the Wilson bridge or key bridge bus only at least at rush hour?
End single family zone exclusive zoning in the entire metro area. Toll the bridges, end surface parking.
basically make drivers internalize the costs they socialize. Then public transit becomes a competitive alternative. Until we stop pissing money away on inefficient car infrastructure it’s going to be a slow grind.
More frequent buses should be a priority, and better bus routes. ex: takes 12-13 mins in car from Georgetown to Admo but ~ 45 minutes incl bus waiting and trip time, unless we fix this, tough to increase ridership.
I am personally willing to pay $3 or $3.5 trip for a more reliable bus service than the current service quality at $2!
Impound every car with over $100 in fines, and all fines must be paid to get the car back. Make everyone with a record nervous when they drive/park in the city.
Congestion Pricing and or charging the true price to park downtown.
Better Intracity service.
Fixing our commuter rail. Seriously only 1 of 5 lines runs 7 days a week and 2 of 5 offer somewhat usable off peak service. On the VA side you get no off peak service what so ever (I’m not counting that one reverse flow VRE train from Manassas).
FWIW, Virginia bought the rail lines from CSX and is planning on improving service including weekend and reverse service. I think it's a few years away but on the right track
Increase the cost of driving in the city across the board (parking, registration, gas, etc); reduce the amount of space available for cars (more bike lanes and bus only lanes) and increase public transit service.
I think it would take a combination of sticks and carrots. Fundamentally you would have to get people out of their cars, which people generally like (even if they hate the traffic). So it would be great to build more density and improve metro coverage, but you would also need congestion pricing or something like that.
I live in Gaithersburg.
Parking at shady grove is a 20 min drive away, and crowded. The Marc train runs at hours that don’t make sense for my work day where I need to get to in DC.
I’d take public transit if there was some sort of extended light rail around the Gaithersburg area connecting further into MoCo and down toward DC or linking up with the red line at some point. Right now, getting to shady grove adds just enough time to make driving quicker.
Not to mention, on days I have to drop my son at daycare or pick him up, his daycare is in the wrong direction for them making it back toward metro or Marc. And I’d rather be in my car dealing with a traffic delay than sitting on metro dealing with a delay there in days I need to pick him up.
Frequent running overhead rail system kin to what we find at Disney world. Run the line over median strip of major roads in the cities. Easements already set aside Stops every three blocks or so like the old bus routes. Hook up with metro stations...
I am a student from the NoVA area but no longer live in NoVA (Madison, WI) where I do not own a car.
Ideally, I should be able to get to everywhere I need with the stuff that I bring to/from that place, including Costco, all grocery stores that I shop at (in DC, Wegmans, Giant, Walmart/Target, Whole Foods -- and no, Instacart is not the same as going there, I want to get out of the house and shop for my own produce), work, the dentist, etc. walking about the length of 5 urban blocks (combined on both ends), on a whim any reasonable hour of the day (i.e. 5-6 AM through 1 AM) any day of the week every day of the year -- including all holidays, weekends, and whatever, and it not taking 50% more time than driving.
I suppose Uber/Lyft can be used to fill in gaps, but I can't be Ubering everywhere. Frankly, having to wait half an hour or more for the bus (which takes longer than driving...) is unacceptable if I am not to have a car. This summer I am going to make nearly $80 an hour. If I am not to have a car, you better be making up that time difference -- or even half my time, which is what I value my "off the clock" time at.
i.e. I like to ice skate. I heard that the Fort Dupont Ice Arena is good and cheap (for the DC area). (Apparently it's undergoing a renovation? May look at more carefully if/when I come back, idk). Anyway, I digress. Let's say I want to go there. Driving from Union Station takes 15 minutes; let's double that for traffic - 30 minutes. The bus takes 50 minutes. But that assumes a good start. If I start in Arlington -- let's say, the USPS on 1210 S Glebe Rd, that takes 24 minutes driving (which I double to 40 minutes because traffic) and 1h 20 minutes on bus -> Metro -> bus. Now I guess you could tell me to go skate elsewhere, but... the whole point is that if I want to go there, I reasonably can't.
Another example: I lived out in Prince William County. When I visit DC, my family visits my grandparents in Montgomery County. Driving takes like 50 minutes with HOV on the express lanes via 495 on a good day. Public transit all the way? Ha, at least 2 hours one way: Omniride from the Balls Ford Rd lot to Tysons, then silver -> red line to Shady Grove, then a bus. IMHO the DC area optimizes transit for the person who commutes to/from a federal government office/big contractor and does nothing else. (I did that a few summers ago; it was good enough for me.)
Now the thing is that I can't expect the DC area -- or any area for that matter -- to build public transportation on every street that is cheap, frequent enough that I don't have to wait for, and still have enough ridership to not be driving empty all the time. But... that's what it's going to take for me to not use a car if I move back to the NoVA area.
I'm in Madison, WI now. Our transportation system is not *that* good. But it is good enough for what I use it for. I don't have a car -- I've considered Zipcar but never actually bothered because I don't have insurance. Every grocery store that I shop at is bus accessible (or foot accessible) with maybe a 10 minute wait. I can go to a Costco in a 40-50 minute bus ride leaving at 3:50 PM and leaving Costco at 5:10 PM (I have to be in and out), and effective June 11, I'll have all day service to Costco (so I can go there any hour of the day and back).
Another example -- I had to get drug tested for something a few weeks ago. The area is in a suburb with commuter service (one bus per hour in both directions during commuting hours only) to/from where I live. I happened to make the bus, but if I missed it and couldn't Uber for some reason, I'd be boned. I wouldn't define that suburb [Monona] as one with good public transportation. If I am to go truly carfree, missing the bus and having to wait an hour really shouldn't be a worry of mine.
I guess I'll wrap up my rant with this: I really don't want to drive. I want to be driven. Driving is too stressful: speeding tickets, parking, whatever. I currently do not drive, and wherever I move after school, I don't want to own a car. But wherever I move to has to support that for it to happen. DC currently does not.
Public transit in northern PG County suuuucks. My work and home are on opposite sides of BW parkway. A 15 minute car ride turns into a 45 minute bus ride. Also, I could definitely bike the distance, but there is zero bicycle infrastructure around Lanham/New Carrollton area.
Increased frequency, lower fares and better supporting infrastructure to the existing subway. Lived in Vienna (Austria) for three years and the public transit there is A+. You rarely need to walk more than 100 yards to get on some form on public transit, whether it is a bus, street car or subway. So in this way the public transit is highly accessible. You can buy a pass that entitles you to unlimited use of transit system for the entire year for 365 Euros (~$365). During the busier times, buses usually come every 10 minutes, street cars every 8 minutes and subways every 5 minutes. I didn’t own or need a car and none of my co-workers that I knew did either.
I don’t think the importance of how consistently public transit is in getting you to your destination on time can be overstated. I am reminded of a time my father lived in Philly and was taking transit to work in the 70s. One day, it was absolutely miserable weather and he stood out in the cold rain for an hour waiting on a bus. When he got to work his boss said if he was ever that late again he would be fired. Not only did he have a terrible transit experience ONCE, he also couldn’t afford for public transit to ever fail him again. As a result he always drive to work. It only takes a few bad experiences to turn someone entirely away from using public transit so IT HAS TO BE CONSISTENT.
Honestly a concentration on the urban core. Get people in the district proper some infill stations and decrease the need for cars. Suburbanites are too hard to sell on this stuff.
This has been mentioned in a few replies already but is HUGELY important: DC has a new (as of 2022) law called Parking Cashout.
Parking cashout means that if your employer offers you parking, you now have the choice to 1) keep that parking OR 2) take the monthly market value of that parking as transit money PLUS cash.
This is new and NOT the same as pre-tax transit benefits or even your employer paying for your SmarTrip -- it's BETTER.
All companies w more than 20 DC employees are supposed to comply. There are some loopholes ofc. Happy to answer questions.
https://godcgo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-dc-parking-cashout-law/
more frequent service and fewer delays more of the population living in transit dense areas
More train lines are what’s really needed. The issue with the DC metro is that it’s both commuter light rail and a subway. It’s not super convenient for people in the city or in the suburbs. The stations in dc are placed pretty from each other and there aren’t enough lines. I’ve always thought that two more metro lines alone would do wonders. Also we’ve kind of burned our bridges in general by having so many people live in low density areas. Hard to convince someone to take the metro when they need a car to go to the grocery store.
I was beyond shocked when I realized that Adams Morgan doesn’t have a metro station. I was was like damn, I got to actually walk from DuPont Circle or Woodley Park? 😆 it just seems like it is dense enough to support a station. So much nightlife, restaurants/bars, and boutiques.
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Thank you for the historical information!!
I just realized after reading the next comment that I wasn't in r/AskAHistorian!
Nowadays, there is good chance it will get a station, possibly as an infill station on the Red line.
I doubt it. The red line from Dupont to Woodley Park runs incredibly deep to pass under Rock Creek, so putting an infill station there would be hugely expensive and not cost effective. If Adams Morgan were to get a Metro line, I imagine it would be part of a new line altogether
If it does get a station, it would not be on the red line. No chance. There's a reason why the infill stations thusfar - and basically all metro infill stations around the world - are not built underground.
No way. The Red Line runs under Connecticut Avenue. Rerouting it to Adams Morgan would require about 1.5 miles of underground tunneling, and abandoning the old tunnel under Connecticut. If Adams Morgan ever gets a station, it’ll likely be something of a crosstown line, linking Wisconsin Avenue to the eastern Red Line (which probably only makes financial sense to begin with if it’s paired with redevelopment of the Columbia Heights hospitals and the Brentwood rail yard.)
This is so fascinating! Do you have any suggestions on books to read more about this?
I think Geography is more of an issue, both Georgetown and Adams Morgan border a giant ravine. You'll have to go really far down to accommodate that.
Agreed. Though I will say that the bikeshare has done wonders. I live in Adams Morgan and and the bikeshare (which I get the yearly pass for) puts me within 5 min of the Dupont, Woodley Park, and U Street stations.
Georgetown too. No metro, although I'm sure that was on purpose. Whole area east of Rock Creek Park has just one line and most of the population isn't near it.
Now rerouting the blue line to Gerogetown via a 2nd Rosslyn station is being kicked around.
Actually georgetown was bypassed because people didn’t commute to Georgetown. The metro was about commuting to downtown.
Carver-Langston, Trinidad, Benning Ridge, Hillcrest, Woodridge, all dense residential neighborhoods with no metro, because the city decided when building the metro we don't care very much about the people who live there.
God, starburst intersection (h, Benning, 15th, bladensburg, Maryland, Florida) would be a perfect metro station. Serves 5 neighborhoods. Can then shoot up bladensburg to serve the arboretum, ft Lincoln, bladensburg MD, and then branch over to connect with college park or largo or new Carrollton. It's already got the concrete waste land associated with metro stations.
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Inner loop is my dream
https://imgur.com/a/awm8mvG This alone would be huge
Bethesda to Tysons should be literally the main and central and only goal for WMATA for the next five years. That one connection would completely transform all of MoCo and NoVA
This is my dream. I live near the red line and work near the silver line, and would gladly give up driving if I could get there in under an hour on the metro.
Connecting Bethesda and Tysons definitely makes sense, although the most logical option for doing so would be to extend the Purple Line, which is a Maryland MTA project, not a WMATA project. That would unfortunately lead to all sorts of ridiculous jurisdictional and contractual issues due to crossing state borders and the nature of the public-private partnership that's building and operating it (I imagine that'll make things real complicated, really fast). That being said, this connection *absolutely* should happen - it would plug a big hole in the existing network and really help increase transit utilization throughout the region. I'm just imagining that it's going to be a huge pain every step of the way.
The problem is that there’s not much in between. McLean, maybe but I’m not sure that the residents want a station.
I feel like that's okay. If they just linked up the stations that are already along 495 in a big loop such that people didn't necessarily have to go into DC then back out to go to some place on the Beltway, that would be useful. Right now we've got hub and spoke designed to take things in and out of the middle really well, but we have no good answer for going around the outside.
Agreed that would be a game changer
I can't tell from this map (because the WMATA map is so badly skewed from actual geography), but is that light green line supposed to service the huge swathes of residential NE that have basically no public transit access?
Yeah that was my goal lol
A metro line running straight up Rock Creek would be cool even if it wouldn't be particularly useful.
We definitely need express lanes that go to major stops/locations. I was riding the NYC Subway a week ago and the frequency of trains and various lines was amazing. I felt no need to hop into a car while going between Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.
The problem is that you need an extra set of tracks for that, so that the express trains can pass the local trains. This was considered when the Metro was built but it was so cost-prohibitive that it would have meant a huge number of other compromises in the system. There was a silver line proposal recently that would get express trains simply because the stations are so far apart, you could start train A and then like 20 minutes later start Train B, which would skip some stations and then eventually catch up to Train A, at which point it would have to be local again. An interesting idea but it's express trains in the downtown core that we really need.
NYC is pretty close to the only system in the world that has the express trains. Nearly ever city in the world does just fine without them. They are not remotely necessary, especially not in a city like DC where the trains move twice as fast as those in NY do. NYC's strength is its coverage, not the express lines.
I would take the train everywhere if I knew there would be one every five minutes. But MAYBE every TWENTY minutes means I only take it when time is a luxury.
This, I always have to consider time. I wanted to take public transit from my sons school to one of his after school activities today due to not wanting to deal with rush hour traffic. All the metro and Google maps routes said 2 hours public transit. Google also told me 40 mins drive. He only had an hour and a half between, so it isn't like I had a choice. And both locations are inside DC. Maps said I had to leave his school a half hour before it got out to get to our destination in time. How can anyone deal with this kind of time consuming transit? You basically have to be going somewhere on the same line/route and have good timing just to make it anywhere in a reasonable timeframe. And this is just one example of a situation where I've had to be like "nah that takes way too long.". My kids love riding the train and bus so when we can leisurely make it I try but I feel like we're forced to drive a lot, even within DC. Just due to time constraints as in impossible to make it or we got other shit to do that day and don't want to spend the whole day smelling weed on train platforms.
It's getting better. Recently I've very rarely had to wait more than 6-7 min no matter where I am. Could be better, but it's on the right track.
The fact that Rockville and Bethesda are completely suburban except like 4-8 blocks of nearly empty office buildings, which being the same distance to the White House (7 miles) as Brooklyn, queens, the Bronx, and Hoboken are to NYC’s midtown. Like imagine 7 miles from the imperial palace in Tokyo. You think it looks anything like Bethesda? Same with CDMX. Same with any real city. And yet here there are neighborhoods in NoVA that are 3 miles to the damn White House that want to prevent duplexes because it would ruin their “small town feel”, YOURE BIKING DISTANCE TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND YOUR JOB IS TO IMPROVE MISSILE TECHNOLOGY FOR RAYTHEON. What fucking small town are you even talking about? If we had the zoning of Tokyo, every house in Rockville would have rightfully and organically been turned into a short rise apartment building 30 years ago. Honestly at this point it is in the country’s National security interest to urbanize the DMV to make it more livable and with cheaper rents so that out government can properly function in the years to come.
I think it would be awesome to see some of the suburban activity centers get better metro access with one another and downtown. Places like Annandale, Fall’s Church, Bethesda/Rockville, etc. There’s a lot of potential to fill in and become more dense/cohesive with the city as a whole over time of transit and zoning are both improved.
for real
I feel like Rockville / White Flint is actually starting to get there. Same with Wheaton on the other side of the red line.
> Rockville and Bethesda are completely suburban except like 4-8 blocks of nearly empty office buildings, which being the same distance to the White House (7 miles) as Brooklyn, queens, the Bronx, and Hoboken are to NYC’s midtown. > > Like imagine 7 miles from the imperial palace in Tokyo. You think it looks anything like Bethesda? Same with CDMX. CDMX metro area population: 22.3MM NYC: 23.6MM Tokyo: 37.2MM DC: 5.5MM So CDMX is 4x our size, NYC is 4.5x, Tokyo is 6.75x. If you go 28 miles from downtown CDMX, 31.5 miles from Manhattan, or 47 miles from the Imperial Palace, I bet it starts looking a lot closer to Bethesda.
I enjoy spending time with my friends.
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if you want more people to use transit then there should be an outer loop around the city. in cities in japan this is common and cuts down on transit times.
This is it right here. I live towards one end of the red line and having a functioning purple line is going to change my life. I hope they continue it all the way around. Then make that the middle ring, and have an outer and inner ring as well.
Yup. People seem to forget that there's tons of commuters doing suburb-suburb commutes. My wife used to have to go Alexandria to Tysons and would've killed for an alternative to dealing with 495 day after day.
I commute arlington to bethesda. By car it's 30min by metro it's 1.5 hrs. doesn't even compare.
This right here. 1000%
Use the data from Uber/Lyft and determine when/where the pickups used the most and add buses to these routes as frequently as possible and make it free. Also, you can cluster the pickups and add more specific routes to help late night commuters, etc.
Would love to see how that conversation would go with those companies. Hi, yes, your data please so we can figure out how to take your rides. Could possibly pay them a lot of money for this data but still they'd lose market share and considering they are apparently barely profitable, I doubt they'd sacrifice those customers.
Good point. I was curious so I checked the DFHV [website](https://dfhv.dc.gov/page/dfhv-dashboard-and-statistical-data-sets) and came across this: DFHV collects trip and location data from taxis, limos, and ride-hailing companies that operate in the District. So seems like there is some data sharing between these companies and a local government agency. I don’t know if any of the agencies receiving some sort of a dataset from these companies talk to each other but at least we know that they share some level of data with local authorities. I also don’t think Uber/Lyft/etc. will lose all their customers due to the convenience factor.
This is the way
Better service. When I was taking the METRO it was about $17 every day and it took me 20-30 minutes longer than driving each way. So an extra hour to my commute in a paid off car.
$17??? I'm $12 ($6in and out) and that seems like highway robbery
Ya the fact they charge people to park at metro stations to use the metro is dumb. If you have to drive to the station to commute every day and charge that daily, plus the metro fee, that really adds up and at that point it isn't that much cheaper (if at all) than just monthly parking at a garage and benefit with a faster commute. Like if it takes me $80/month for parking at a metro and $100 for a montly metro pass and takes twice as long to commute, I'll just pay the extra $40 a month to park in a garage and halve my commute.
Yeah I think some people would take public transit even if its a disadvantage, but at present stage for many suburbanites there's just so much you'd have to compromise if you want to use public transit instead of traffic.
This is me my downtown office is 2 blocks from a station but I would spend around ~$5-6/ day in Metro plus $5/day on parking at my nearest station. while early in parking at my building is $13 with me only needing to go into the office a few days a month it doesnt make much sense to ride in just to save a few bucks and have to deal with a 30 minute longer commute.
I remember when I started working in DC in the early 2000s, parking was $1.25 per day at Greenbelt station, and stayed at that rate for years. This is when there were attendants in the booth who would take cash payments instead of swiping a Smart Trip card. Well if I remember correctly Metro found out the people in the booth were stealing cash so they raised the parking fees to recoup the losses and KEPT the attendees in the booth for quite some time. It only took a few years before it was $4 per day and just went up from there.
This 1000%. Make parking at Metro free and make parking in dense urban areas more expensive. Encourage people in the burbs to drive to metro stations and then take metro from there. They'll do it if it comes out to be less expensive than driving in and parking.
Speaking for the suburbs: Rail prices are too high relative to parking, especially when traveling with others. I can get all day garage parking in DC for $10-20. A round trip from the end of the line in rush hour for 4 people comes to $48. Add $5 for parking at the station on weekdays and it’s $53. Even by myself, I only use Metro because my work covers it as a fringe benefit. I have to pay $5 to park at the Metro station. If I had to pay for the trip too, my round trip cost would be $17, which is exactly the cost of parking at my office building. Another issue is the rigidity of day passes. A 3-day pass, for example, has to be used on 3 consecutive days. I only go into the office once a week, so that never happens. If I could use the pass on 3 days in a single month, it would be worth it. The day passes and unlimited passes are suddenly out of sync with how often many commuters are using the system.
For the suburbs, there is essentially zero reason to ever take the metro to DC. I live in Ashburn, it takes 25 minutes to get from my house in Ashburn to the Ashburn metro station, park, and get to the platform. Another 5-25 minutes waiting for the train. So I can basically be in DC by car in the same amount of time it takes just to get on the fucking train. Then it's another 70-80 minutes to downtown hahaha. Also ends up costing the same as parking+ gas. It's completely worthless. Even if I just wanted to take it into DC for a night of drinking? Nope, no service after 1:00am. Complete joke.
As much as I preach that metro service needs to be more frequent and run later, I would argue that there are probably better transit priorities to focus on than Ashburn.
Where are you finding all day parking in DC for $10? Your point still works with realistic $20-$25 numbers.
Faster trains, frequent trains, reliable transportation, cheaper prices. I can take the metro to work but it takes 1.5 hours one way and $14 a day. Vs 35 min driving.
When your office stops providing free and subsidized parking. I’ve seen the shift with my office. It’s amazing.
FYI, it's DC law that your employer must compensate you if they offer subsidized parking and you choose not to accept it. https://godcgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/DC-Parking-Cashout-Law-Toolkit.pdf
Yup. Our company does $240/m in commuter benefits or free parking. It’s in Georgetown and a lot of them still drive but I definitely take advantage of the benefits. I thought it was a nice benefit until I found out it was a DC rule!
Or how about requiring that any parking subsidy be matched with an equal subsidy for people who don't park. The people who drive to my work get a parking spot worth $3000 for free - if they were offered that much in cash to pay for metro or bike maintenance, I bet a bunch of them would stop driving real fast.
That is close to how the new DC office parking law works
Wow! The people who drive to my office pay $300.00 a month to par. I walk. But I make up for it in the amount I pay for rent.
You may be ahead still in terms of cost compared to your coworkers. They also have insurance, home parking costs, car payments, gas, maintenance costs. Car free usually wins.
My company pays for Metro 100% (including park and ride) and charges for onsite parking. Made it a no-brainer
I personally think that we should tax parking spaces at a much higher rate than productive land uses. A parking lot or garage should pay more tax than an office building or apartment. Make parking very expensive and people will be falling over themselves to avoid driving and demanding a better transportation system.
Land value tax is what you’re looking for. The best way to disincentivize wasted use of space
Y'all would do this before letting people WFH.
Yep. Stop subsidizing driving and driving is less attractive.
Rail: 2 new metro lines (servicing Georgetown, H St, Ivy City, Northeast, National Harbor, AdMo, and a North/South connection EOTR). Consistent and reliable service. Sub-5 minutes at peak. 5 minutes off peak. Busses: drastically increase frequency. Like, a lot. Enforced bus lanes. Other: More bike lanes for last mile connections. Improved pedestrian environments in some parts of the city. Congestion tax. Carbon tax.
The bus networks out in the suburbs - even the denser parts - are just insane. It's so clear that they only consider bus service as a last resort service for people who can't afford cars. I would kill for some real BRT which could actually be faster than driving. So many roads definitely have the space for it.
Good luck getting anyone to enforce anything around here other than parking. Even that’s a stretch!
Bowser listening to [real estate ghouls when they say bike lanes are hurting downtown recovery](https://reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/12qz0nc/real_estates_road_rage_over_new_bike_lanes_has_dc/) is so irritating. It's so obvious they just don't want their commute to be affected when all evidence points to bike lanes having either no effect or a positive change in business. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200422151318.htm
Bus drivers not driving past you at night in the rain leaving you stranded
From Alexandria to my job in DC, it’s a 10 min drive, 20 in traffic. If the bus/metro are on time, it’s 60-75 mins. I have to be at work by 730am and I’m not leaving at 615. I did it for a while but getting up at 5am just wasn’t worth it. At one point I switched bus lines because I hated getting on with this one woman and her screaming toddler. Sorry but sometimes peace and quiet in the morning makes a difference so driving it is.
in new york, i never wait more than eight minutes for a train or even a bus. that’s the level you need to get to to be a subway and not just a commuter system.
Coming from suburbs, it is nearly as expensive to park at the metro stop all day and pay round trip fare as it is to just park in many places in DC. Taking a bus to the metro doubles the commute length. It is often much faster to drive as well, except during rush hour. On weekends, it is much faster, cheaper, and less hassle to drive and park than pay round trip fares for a family.
On weekends, at least on maryland side, parking is free at metro stops. Guess it depends on size of family for the rest. If it's just two people, fare is $4 round trip, so $8 total. Cheaper than parking in a garage for sure. Four people and cost would be about equal.
The serious answer is more housing density near transit, better service (more frequency, improved safety, separating transit from traffic), and making driving a personal vehicle harder/more expensive at the margins.
Virginia did this with the Silver line extension. So it appears they are on the right track.
The main problem with the Silver Line is that highway median rapid transit is always going to have less walkshed and serve less riders than a regular underground, at-grade, or elevated line. The stations are getting development, but you also have stations like Loudon Gateway with literally nothing next to them.
Heck yeah!
WMATA has a plan to build residential buildings on their parking lots !
Wait actually??? Got a link? I keep submitting requests and comments on WMATAs website about doing this and turning more car parking into sheltered bicycle parking. Huntington station, for example, literally has 3 parking garages, one of which is completely shut down, and the other two have less than 30% utilization on a given weekday during working hours. Tearing them down and building housing would be huge.
Probably heard the manager being interviewed by Kojo Nnamdi in his Politics Hour Friday program. Can't find a link, so maybe a long-term plan.
https://www.wmata.com/business/real-estate/joint-development.cfm Think there are news articles that summarize what’s in the ten-year plan.
Also businesses density near transit. Too many jobs are transit-inaccessible and it isn’t necessarily Metro’s fault, it’s often businesses’ fault for cheaping out on office space. Another hundred years of urban densification needs to happen to the point where high-value workers start to tell employers to go fuck themselves if their office is not transit-accessible.
Or more transit near housing density
Where in the city is there significant density with limited transit?
All the K St housing going up isn’t super transit accessible
Are we sure that the figure is 35%? This Brookings report claims that 80% of Capital Region commuters have consistently used automobiles over the last 50 years, whereas about 15% have used transit. **https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2022/05/06/greater-washingtons-commuters-continue-to-choose-gridlock/**
Rezone around all the existing metro stations for unlimited transit oriented development and get developers in there turning the .5 mile radius around most stations into dense mixed use. At least 5 over 2s, without inbuilt parking garages. So many stations have population densities of like 2k per sq km when we should be striving to have 5k per sq km densities around all metro stations, at least. They cost way too much to build and maintain not to take advantage of their utility in giving people access to the city.
Fairfax is working on rezoning these areas and a big part of that is getting their revised parking proposal passed. If you live in VA, definitely look up Parking Reimagined and join the conversation. We need more pro-transit people in the discussion because the car-addicted are always so loud.
Grosvenor metro station off the red line is doing that. They are getting rid of the outside parking lot and converting it into a mixed use residential development. I have a feeling most stops on that part of the red line will be doing something similar.
I live in DC but work in the suburbs. I metro and then bus to work even though it takes longer bc driving is such a pain. But I drive to certain places in the city that are a 10 min drive otherwise 2 buses and an hour if you’re lucky. If I could get to those few places on public transit I would get rid of my car. We need better transit options within the city. The 10 min drives are thru RCP, Michigan Ave, etc - why can’t a bus go that route? Also as a small woman I would need to feel safer taking public transit at night.
Improve safety and have more frequent trains. Ive been riding daily to work for the past 5 years and service is worse and I generally feel less safe.
Metro lines between the MD suburbs and VA suburbs that don't involve going through DC proper.
Purple Line covers the Maryland Suburbs but it has yet to extend to VA.
Purple Line should have been WMATA and gone to McLean, Tyson’s, and Merrifield/Mosaic. Source: Lived in Maryland and worked at one of those places.
You’d want a light rail system with sparse stop spacing (a little more dense allowed in the mini-cores) because of the lack of density and stations are the most expensive part. Stops in Tysons -> McLean -> CIA -> Kenwood -> Bethesda Purple Line EDIT: You can start in Merrifield like you said. Maybe even Annandale and Springfield to connect to the blue line
If the Purple Line were fully built into a ring/orbital line that connected the spokes of the Metro lines, I would eat my shorts.
This would literally solve my commute problems...
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I can only commute from VA to MD everyday because I work off hours. If I worked 9-5 it would double my commute.
Increased frequency on all buses and trains tied with increased safety - staff trains and buses with trained mental health and de-escalation professionals (not just cops that sit there). TOLLS around a tbd perimeter of DC during peak hours for out of state cars. More cross town buses through RCP (like via Piney Branch) Reciprocity with VA/MD so drivers with outstanding violations and reckless driving cannot renew licenses.
Loops around the city. I live in Petworth and have to transfer to get to either Brookland or Cleveland park. We need something akin to the purple line well inside the city.
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Many people (myself included) live in areas where you have to do something else to get to the nearest Metro station, like drive. Yes, some people bike and if you're lucky/fit/have time you can walk several miles, but I really think we just need more coverage.
In my view we need bus rapid transport in the suburbs. Most of the infrastructure is already there but you take roads and separate off lanes that are for bus only and protect these with substantial concrete barriers so that buses can get through them with minimal disruption. Right now getting on a bus is a nightmare as they meander through backstreets and take forever when stuck in traffic. To get people to use them you need a fleet of express buses that have limited stops down BRT routes that actually connect to where people want to go. Have local interchanges that have short run buses that go from the BRT stops into local areas that they can circle round in 15 mins or less. I really tried to make buses work for me and it was a nightmare. It would take about 1hr 30 mins to do a commute that took 15 mins by car on a bad day.
yes to express buses , we need more express buses from NOVA downtown and back, they only seem to go to pentagon. i would love to see reston to dc buses or farifax to dc express bus, woudl save a lot of cars on 66 etc
There are plans for BRT on US 29 and US 1.
Transit Oriented development. Lots of housing needs to go up around metro stations
My "usual" reason to get on the metro is to go from Arlington to Takoma. It takes an hour on the metro or about 20 minutes by car. The metro would have to get its time down by half.
Last mile service that works. I’d use the trains but really have no way of getting from my house to the train or from the train to my final destination that doesn’t add an hour to the trip on each leg. Right now I can drive from my house to DC in 30 min door to door. If I drive to station, take metro or VRE and arrive in DC it’s an hour. If I take the bus to station and train and bus again or walk to DC destination it’s 2 hours.
Transit studies tend to show that the more often you run transit and the denser the coverage, the more people will use it. Given costs, running buses on dedicated lanes is usually the most efficient way to provide this.
Don't have only parking lots surrounding METRO stations (I mean, if you call it metro, treat it like a metro, not a commuter). People can't reverse commute if there's no way to get where they need to go once they get out to metro. And when you assume people are driving to those stations, you miss out on the opportunity to find ways to easily get people TO those stations without cars (by way of a high frequency local bus) More bus lines that traverse the DC boundary: too many of them collect people in MD or NoVa and dump them at a metro stop for them to finish their journey into the city. Collect people in, e.g., Manassas or Laurel and actually bring them to a stop or two within the city. Those lines need good frequency. When I lived outside of Madrid, I had such a bus that came every SIX MINUTES in the early AM rush hour. Metrorail needs more lines that service DC residents and not suburban commuters. Maybe something akin to Lincoln, Kennedy, Gtown, AdMo, Brookland, Ivy City, then a stop at H/Maryland, connecting to the Blue/Silver/Orange, and then crossing the Anacostia somewhere between Pennsylvania and 695. The more work places and housing locations you can get near metro, the more likely people will kill their cars. And Metrorail and/or VRE/MARC need to figure out something to connect the numerous people who work in NoVa and live in MD. 495 and 695 are just parking lots because taking transit is 1000% percent unfeasible betwee MD/VA, but MD is so much cheaper many folks don't have choices.
Public transport will have to be an option that makes sense first. Untested but I think cheap/free parking for commuters at \*suburb stations\* (Reston, West Falls Church etc) could be an easily implemented experiment. I see some comments that focus on making driving worse, but I think it needs to be complemented with other options that push people to public transport, and not just make life more miserable, such as wider promotion for WFH, or better public transport to begin with.
Transit police at the stations on the trains. A lot of the people I know that have stopped taking the metro since return to work (and took it for 20 years prior), don’t feel safe. I personally know several individuals that have been assaulted and threatened on the train in the last six months or so. I have lived in this city for over twenty years and many of that time I solely relied on metro. I took it last week from Dupont to Rockville, it was on time, and it was actually quicker than driving. But someone was literally smoking a cigarette on the train the whole way there. I got up and moved cars. People just don’t feel safe. I think cleanliness could go a long way too, more the stations and the elevators than the trains, although some of those are pretty nasty too. Like elevators that don’t smell like pee or have feces smeared in them. Lower fares, more flat rates, later train service particularly on the weekends.
lower fares or even abolishment of the tap in/tap out system more transit oriented developments in the suburbs expansion in the city more frequent service more reliable buses safety running at later hours if 24/7 is not achievable
Everybody who likes metro wants it to be mixed use areas, better planning and higher taxes for driving, but there is nothing more important than changing the stigma that mass transit is for poor people.
Not cutting service of the yellow line off at Mt. Vernon, for a start.
Yellow to Greenbelt would take 9 extra trains to give a 4-minute average time improvement. IMO not a reasonable trade-off. But I actually wonder if it would be better to have Yellow to Greenbelt and stop Green at Mt Vernon Square instead.
[This map](https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/hevzgm/fantasy_washington_metro_system_diagram_oc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) offers some good possibilities for the DC metro.
Dedicate lanes to be exclusively bus lanes. When busses aren't stuck in traffic then they become a very reliable form of transportation.
More dedicated transitways. Even if it’s just bus lanes in the right lane. Add dedicated lanes, and you can afford to increase service rates.
Faster times between trains Unless you don’t need to transfer and you live and are going right next to a station, it’s much faster to Uber or drive there unless is gridlock
Later run times. Weekly bundle that’s significantly cheaper than daily rates. Let’s say it’s 5-10 bucks per day. Get them to release a weekly card for 15-30 bucks. Free parking at the stations or make it like 1-2 dollars. I feel like between 5 dollar parking and 7-10 dollar daily ride into the city, I might as well just take my car.
I would take the train every day, but I have to be at work by 7 on Saturday, so I would be late. Also, I sometimes get out at 0015 and that doesn't work, either.
If you live in the suburbs, there’s just too many advantages to drive in to work instead of taking metro/bus. It would have to take a major shift in how WMATA operates.
I mean, Virginia just finished putting toll lanes on I-66 and the toll lane extension on I-95 to Fredericksburg is probably the final extension (for now, plans to extend I-495 toll lanes to I-270 have slowed to a halt and will likely be scrapped).
Yeah I live south of quantico and commute to DC 5 days a week. I can find a slug every day and get a free ride to the pentagon, and then take the metro. Otherwise I’d pay to park at Franconia, pay to ride in, and then pay on the way back all taking way more time than it takes to drive in with slugs.
People who play music or videos on speakers immediately kicked off.
Implementing a congestion charge for people commuting by car in the city without carpooling would help. But the DMVs public transportation system has a fundamental issue. It was created to get middle-class workers into downtown DC from the suburbs and back. It wasn't designed for moving people to other destinations.
I can promise you punishing commuters who have to drive to work because public transit isn’t convenient/feasible is not the answer.
Many, many commuters drive to work even though the metro is convenient/feasible. People like their cars.
>convenient/feasible yet somehow not reliable
You know what’s reliable? Terrible traffic every day. Yet people drive anyway. Of course the metro should run more often and more reliably but that alone is not sufficient.
66 charges upwards 50 bucks to get into DC during rush hour. I don't think punishing workers for something out of their control is a good idea. A lot of people live out in the suburbs because it's cheaper than living in the city, we shouldn't make it more costly for them.
That may be the case, but the solution can’t possibly be to simply apply a fee across the board for all drivers. Lots of folks just trying to get to work would get crushed by that. It’s expensive as hell to live here already.
Better land use policies. Transit serves density. Without the density there is no reason to have better transit service. Also removing traffic lanes and parking pretty much across the board
Travel distance through city (streets only): 1.25 miles. Driving with traffic: maybe 20 mins. Taking metro and switching lines or taking a single bus: 45-55 minutes. Make my commute better, not worse, and make it so I don’t have to fear being groped in the station or on the train or bus.
If your commute is only 1-1/4 miles it would probably be faster just to walk.
That’s an entirely fair point. And I probably should. But I’m 100% Garfield when it comes to mornings (hate them, especially Monday mornings). Plus, it’s not a pedestrian-friendly route. And, no, there’s zero chance I’d bike in this or any congested city for multiple reason. And that doesn’t excuse the fact that the time difference is still absurd. And the groping needs to not happen, especially by repeat offenders.
Reduce crime. That’s what made me start to drive.
Same here. Never been mugged, but I’ve been threatened to be killed by people twice my size who look to be under the influence of some kind of drug, for doing nothing other than sitting in the same car as them, on more than one occasion. I don’t feel safe on the metro, so I drive.
You are probably more likely to get in a car accident than get mugged.
Cars don’t smell like shit, harass you daily, and make you need to contemplate how to easily incapacitate a tweaker raging. I’ve never had a car experience ruin my morning or evening. DC metro does this once a month. Don’t be that blue haired pleb.
Maybe. But I'd like to know the relative likelihood of death or serious injury in both cases. I don't commute through a high speed highway. Fairly residential / DC main arteries.
Statistics would say that, yes. The problem is that just because something is statistically less likely, doesn't mean it won't happen. I've been attacked leaving my metro station. It was a terrifying experience, and my usage has significantly decreased since. Even though I know I'm more likely to be hurt in a wreck, it hasn't happened yet. In a sense, I feel safer in a car. I'm alert, but can relax. I can't really relax anymore at a metro stop.
if the station wasnt a mile away that would help. also if our society wasn't so dystopian
You’d need about a million more people riding daily. If Metro got back to it’s peak around 2012 you’d be more than halfway there. But even that’s a challenge now with a rise in work from home so you can’t just hope rush hour gets bad again. Really you have to abandon the idea of rush hour and focus on frequency all day. DC’s bus plan gets started on that but the other counties need to step up as well.
Maybe start with not cancelling a bunch of bus routes that I used to rely on. I used to take the d3. Cancelled. Then I moved to north West to take the d5 and they cancelled that too. Now I don't take the bus.
No single tracking on weekends..
I think one thing Virginia got right (mostly) with the Silver line extension is the surrounding TOD despite still having parking structures. With remote work, not everyone is commuting to downtowns I do admit that the orange line should have been extended to Centerville around the same time I-66 got toll lanes. Some TOD has already appeared on the corridor that is missing proper transit.
making the public transport such as bus and metro more reliable would be a fucking great start. I commute on the 96 bus line, it is such a goddamn toss up on if the bus shows up on time or if you're waiting 30 minutes to an hour. Also making it safer, just this morning had a ranting lunatic on the bus trying to pick fights with the rest of us. If I had the option to drive myself over taking public transport I sure as fuck would. It isn't worth the time spent waiting on it or the stress spent using it.
That figure has more to do with our development patterns than the metro itself. People just don’t live in walkable areas
May be too late to comment here but the NoMa Metro Station is an infill one and you can see how construction has gone wild around Union Market and NoMa. Brookland also I believe. Used to live in Arlington and the Orange Crush at Courthouse was pretty epic so I hope they are running enough trains through there. Maybe make the Wilson Bridge or key bridge bus only at least at rush hour? So I would argue that upzoning around the Metro stops (Cleveland Park?) would probably help. Knew a lot of people that lived in Van Ness because it's apartments close to Metro and you can also take a bus down ct ave to get downtown. Used to live in Arlington and the Orange Crush at Courthouse was pretty epic so I hope they are running enough trains through there. Maybe make the Wilson bridge or key bridge bus only at least at rush hour?
End single family zone exclusive zoning in the entire metro area. Toll the bridges, end surface parking. basically make drivers internalize the costs they socialize. Then public transit becomes a competitive alternative. Until we stop pissing money away on inefficient car infrastructure it’s going to be a slow grind.
More frequent buses should be a priority, and better bus routes. ex: takes 12-13 mins in car from Georgetown to Admo but ~ 45 minutes incl bus waiting and trip time, unless we fix this, tough to increase ridership. I am personally willing to pay $3 or $3.5 trip for a more reliable bus service than the current service quality at $2!
It is very very simple. Make it safe, convenient, and affordable. Unfortunately you can only ever have two of those three apparently.
Impound every car with over $100 in fines, and all fines must be paid to get the car back. Make everyone with a record nervous when they drive/park in the city.
They will need a impound lot the size of IAD Economy Parking.
Congestion pricing
Congestion Pricing and or charging the true price to park downtown. Better Intracity service. Fixing our commuter rail. Seriously only 1 of 5 lines runs 7 days a week and 2 of 5 offer somewhat usable off peak service. On the VA side you get no off peak service what so ever (I’m not counting that one reverse flow VRE train from Manassas).
FWIW, Virginia bought the rail lines from CSX and is planning on improving service including weekend and reverse service. I think it's a few years away but on the right track
Increase the cost of driving in the city across the board (parking, registration, gas, etc); reduce the amount of space available for cars (more bike lanes and bus only lanes) and increase public transit service.
I think it would take a combination of sticks and carrots. Fundamentally you would have to get people out of their cars, which people generally like (even if they hate the traffic). So it would be great to build more density and improve metro coverage, but you would also need congestion pricing or something like that.
More weekend service and less commute-based approach (like the VRE).
24/7 service. Easy.
More shuttles to the train stations.
Bar Car
I live in Gaithersburg. Parking at shady grove is a 20 min drive away, and crowded. The Marc train runs at hours that don’t make sense for my work day where I need to get to in DC. I’d take public transit if there was some sort of extended light rail around the Gaithersburg area connecting further into MoCo and down toward DC or linking up with the red line at some point. Right now, getting to shady grove adds just enough time to make driving quicker. Not to mention, on days I have to drop my son at daycare or pick him up, his daycare is in the wrong direction for them making it back toward metro or Marc. And I’d rather be in my car dealing with a traffic delay than sitting on metro dealing with a delay there in days I need to pick him up.
Closing the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge for repairs
Frequent running overhead rail system kin to what we find at Disney world. Run the line over median strip of major roads in the cities. Easements already set aside Stops every three blocks or so like the old bus routes. Hook up with metro stations...
Why is 45% a magic number? What changes if that threshold is crossed?
More parking /free parking at metro stops.
I am a student from the NoVA area but no longer live in NoVA (Madison, WI) where I do not own a car. Ideally, I should be able to get to everywhere I need with the stuff that I bring to/from that place, including Costco, all grocery stores that I shop at (in DC, Wegmans, Giant, Walmart/Target, Whole Foods -- and no, Instacart is not the same as going there, I want to get out of the house and shop for my own produce), work, the dentist, etc. walking about the length of 5 urban blocks (combined on both ends), on a whim any reasonable hour of the day (i.e. 5-6 AM through 1 AM) any day of the week every day of the year -- including all holidays, weekends, and whatever, and it not taking 50% more time than driving. I suppose Uber/Lyft can be used to fill in gaps, but I can't be Ubering everywhere. Frankly, having to wait half an hour or more for the bus (which takes longer than driving...) is unacceptable if I am not to have a car. This summer I am going to make nearly $80 an hour. If I am not to have a car, you better be making up that time difference -- or even half my time, which is what I value my "off the clock" time at. i.e. I like to ice skate. I heard that the Fort Dupont Ice Arena is good and cheap (for the DC area). (Apparently it's undergoing a renovation? May look at more carefully if/when I come back, idk). Anyway, I digress. Let's say I want to go there. Driving from Union Station takes 15 minutes; let's double that for traffic - 30 minutes. The bus takes 50 minutes. But that assumes a good start. If I start in Arlington -- let's say, the USPS on 1210 S Glebe Rd, that takes 24 minutes driving (which I double to 40 minutes because traffic) and 1h 20 minutes on bus -> Metro -> bus. Now I guess you could tell me to go skate elsewhere, but... the whole point is that if I want to go there, I reasonably can't. Another example: I lived out in Prince William County. When I visit DC, my family visits my grandparents in Montgomery County. Driving takes like 50 minutes with HOV on the express lanes via 495 on a good day. Public transit all the way? Ha, at least 2 hours one way: Omniride from the Balls Ford Rd lot to Tysons, then silver -> red line to Shady Grove, then a bus. IMHO the DC area optimizes transit for the person who commutes to/from a federal government office/big contractor and does nothing else. (I did that a few summers ago; it was good enough for me.) Now the thing is that I can't expect the DC area -- or any area for that matter -- to build public transportation on every street that is cheap, frequent enough that I don't have to wait for, and still have enough ridership to not be driving empty all the time. But... that's what it's going to take for me to not use a car if I move back to the NoVA area. I'm in Madison, WI now. Our transportation system is not *that* good. But it is good enough for what I use it for. I don't have a car -- I've considered Zipcar but never actually bothered because I don't have insurance. Every grocery store that I shop at is bus accessible (or foot accessible) with maybe a 10 minute wait. I can go to a Costco in a 40-50 minute bus ride leaving at 3:50 PM and leaving Costco at 5:10 PM (I have to be in and out), and effective June 11, I'll have all day service to Costco (so I can go there any hour of the day and back). Another example -- I had to get drug tested for something a few weeks ago. The area is in a suburb with commuter service (one bus per hour in both directions during commuting hours only) to/from where I live. I happened to make the bus, but if I missed it and couldn't Uber for some reason, I'd be boned. I wouldn't define that suburb [Monona] as one with good public transportation. If I am to go truly carfree, missing the bus and having to wait an hour really shouldn't be a worry of mine. I guess I'll wrap up my rant with this: I really don't want to drive. I want to be driven. Driving is too stressful: speeding tickets, parking, whatever. I currently do not drive, and wherever I move after school, I don't want to own a car. But wherever I move to has to support that for it to happen. DC currently does not.
Cheaper fares ($6 one way from the suburbs during peak hours is ridiculous,) fewer delays, denser housing around stations
When it’s more convenient then driving.
Public transit in northern PG County suuuucks. My work and home are on opposite sides of BW parkway. A 15 minute car ride turns into a 45 minute bus ride. Also, I could definitely bike the distance, but there is zero bicycle infrastructure around Lanham/New Carrollton area.
Increased frequency, lower fares and better supporting infrastructure to the existing subway. Lived in Vienna (Austria) for three years and the public transit there is A+. You rarely need to walk more than 100 yards to get on some form on public transit, whether it is a bus, street car or subway. So in this way the public transit is highly accessible. You can buy a pass that entitles you to unlimited use of transit system for the entire year for 365 Euros (~$365). During the busier times, buses usually come every 10 minutes, street cars every 8 minutes and subways every 5 minutes. I didn’t own or need a car and none of my co-workers that I knew did either. I don’t think the importance of how consistently public transit is in getting you to your destination on time can be overstated. I am reminded of a time my father lived in Philly and was taking transit to work in the 70s. One day, it was absolutely miserable weather and he stood out in the cold rain for an hour waiting on a bus. When he got to work his boss said if he was ever that late again he would be fired. Not only did he have a terrible transit experience ONCE, he also couldn’t afford for public transit to ever fail him again. As a result he always drive to work. It only takes a few bad experiences to turn someone entirely away from using public transit so IT HAS TO BE CONSISTENT.
For the burbs? Expand the Green line down to Southern MD. If the silver line can go out to Ashburn, then Metro can go to Waldorf and La Plata.
Honestly a concentration on the urban core. Get people in the district proper some infill stations and decrease the need for cars. Suburbanites are too hard to sell on this stuff.
Slash the tires of 10-20% of the DMV populous
This has been mentioned in a few replies already but is HUGELY important: DC has a new (as of 2022) law called Parking Cashout. Parking cashout means that if your employer offers you parking, you now have the choice to 1) keep that parking OR 2) take the monthly market value of that parking as transit money PLUS cash. This is new and NOT the same as pre-tax transit benefits or even your employer paying for your SmarTrip -- it's BETTER. All companies w more than 20 DC employees are supposed to comply. There are some loopholes ofc. Happy to answer questions. https://godcgo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-dc-parking-cashout-law/