In an attempt to alleviate some of the traffic congestion that the suburbs of DC are famous for producing, the county of Fairfax (one of NOVAs biggest and richest counties) wants to put more people on the bus. They would do this by improving the buses ability to accomplish what makes it appealing: getting people to work/home faster than they would if they were driving. That is the only way that people would consider taking the bus. In order to do this, the new bus system would employ some of the following features: bus only lanes, eliminating on board fare (using a smarTrip card instead) , and the latest electronics to help them through traffic lights.
The county has recently come out with an extensive 10-year comprehensive plan. Buses are to play a big role in the transportation future of the county. One other way the county would sweeten the deal for bus riders is by having their respective companies subsidize the bus fare, so “You’re essentially going to get congestion-free travel for free” said Ronald F. Kirby, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ director of transportation.
It will be interesting to see how this county deals with the traffic dilemma of the nations second most congested region in the nation. In 2000, about 78% of commuters drove, which is higher than the national average of 76%. One would think that DC, with its extensive metro system, would have a lower percentage of car-commuters. As a NOVA resident, I can tell you that the metro is packed during rush hour. Sometimes you cannot even get on the train you want. There must be another appealing option for public transit. By appealing I mean enough to convince the 75% of commuter who say they are content with driving to work still. A chunk of that audience needs to be capture.
I think this issue needs to be resolved fast before the DC suburb region starts to do unsustainable rapid growth. The people will not stop moving there, so planners need to work quick so that there is the infrastructure in place already, waiting for them. Otherwise I’m afraid DC will suffer the same fate as LA and have a smoggy, trafficy, constantly congested reputation. The county should also try to appeal to peoples growing concerns about the environment and global warming. Taking the bus should be played-up as a way the average citizen can help their community be green!
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Metrobus already provides an extensive route network, with Smartrips for fares, corporate/government subsidies for fares, express buses, etc and still most people drive to work. Most people in Fairfax County are wealthy enough to drive to work, and therefore do not see any reason to do otherwise.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it seems the only way to encourage bus ridership is to create additional disincentives for driving in the form of increased carpool lanes and restrictions, and tolls.
-Sam Shelby
I believe that if Fairfax is going to put this into effect it would help a great amount. Yes many people are wealthy there but there is also a great amount of low income housing in certain areas that could benefit from such a extensive system. I can also understand the carpool lane increase and the tolls. I think a good approach to take would be to emphasize the green effects that it would have on the environment and the benefits that could be gained from it.
ReplyDeleteI live in Fairfax county and I think that having a push for more public transportation is a good idea because there are still at lot of people that do not have access to a car.
ReplyDeleteAnd on a different note I think it also would increase employment rate because through my experience I've seen people that could be potentially be working in different areas of the Metropolitan area if they had a way to get there. However, with the current system sometimes it seems impossible to consider other areas for employement.
I agree that this is a great idea. Northern Virginia seems like the ideal place to heavily increase mass transit to demonstrate that living without cars is possible. With so many people commuting into DC to work, creating easy ways to get there would probably be very popular. The traffic getting into DC is ridiculous during rush hour to the point where the large highways are completely stopped, which counteracts the notion that cars provide great mobility. I'm sure other modes of transit such as buses would be highly welcomed if they were reliable and offered frequently.
ReplyDeleteI also live in Fairfax county and I have to say that its about time that buses were utilized to their full capacity. Over the summer I tried to convince my father to take the bus to work more often, especially since we have a bus stop right at the top of our street, he still drove his car and only rode the bus for a week. I'm actually surprised that the DC area hasn't already added a bus lane.
ReplyDeleteI think that another way to get more people riding the buses into the city would be to discourage driving through closing some of the parking lots, as if its not already impossible to park in DC, and maybe implementing a tax to enter the city in a car. Several major cities have seen success with this tax including London.
As a resident of Northern Virginia, I'm very excited to see how this plan turns out. If it comes back with positive results I do not see a reason as to why other cities wouldn't try the same thing.
Busses are one way of handling the ever increasing population of the DC area, but I feel that it will take more than one mode of transportation to handle it. In addition to increasing bus traffic, I feel that we need other forms of mass transportation. A light rail system might be a good other way of dealing with the growth.
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