Go Car Free on Monday

Monday September 22 is Car Free Day! Officially, it's the day on which people are encouraged to travel wherever they need to go without the use of a personal car. If possible you're urged to try busing, biking, walking, or riding in trains, carpools, vans, and other forms of transit. I mean, did anyone get that gondola thing up and running yet? Oh yeah, Portland. Because, of course.

To me, the day actually serves as a spot test for our communities and ourselves in regards to getting around without the need of a car. In DC so many of us already live without a need to own a car, or at least don't use them daily. 

In and around the District, the options are plenty: Walk, Bike, Local Bus, Metroway BRT, Metrorail, MARC, VRE, Commuter Bus, and soon Streetcar. But, out of the 5+ million of us in the entire Washington region, most people rely on the auto to get to and from work, at least for part of the trip. This day is for them, too.

Pledge your Monday as car-free, even if you are car-free every day. If you pledge before COB Monday, you'll be entered into a raffle for prizes. Enjoy the day!

New Car Share Option for the District

Enterprise Car Share on-street spots near 5th and F Streets NW

Enterprise has entered the DC car share market, with new on-street spaces and competitive pricing. I was approached by two Enterprise Car Share street-team employees last week and given a flier advertising free membership to their new service. So, they're trying to get the word out. I've also seen their cars on the streets already.

At first glance, it appears to work like Zipcar: reserve a car online, unlock it with an RFID membership card and drive away. At the end of the reservation, return the car to the original location. Enterprise promises weekday rates of only $5/hour on most cars, which would beat the Zipcar lowest daytime hourly rate by, at the least, $3 (although Zipcar's overnight rates can go as low as $4/hour). Car2Go charges by the minute and caps an hour rental at $13.99. Hertz 24/7 rates vary per location and car type, but the lowest I've seen is $8.25/hour. 

Too many car sharing services? Who knows. I think this "sharing" part of the economy (recognizing that it still has to turn a profit for the owners) is here to stay. So, even if four different companies don't make it in DC, this idea of car share is still going strong in the United States.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC: Bicycle Sharing

Capital Bikeshare station in Columbia Heights

Last week the popular transit program Capital Bikeshare introduced a rewards program that encourages users to ride bikes from full stations to empty ones. This is a good sign. The Reverse Riders program came about because so many bike docks in residential areas are emptied each morning as users ride to work and other destinations. 

Bicycle sharing programs are rare in the United States and DC has the largest as of this writing. Capital Bikeshare has close to 14,000 annual members and grows each week. Users can purchase memberships and rent bikes from designated stations around the District of Columbia and Arlington County, Virginia. 

Members can rent bikes for up to 24 hours, but the system is designed for short trips; no more than a couple of hours at most. The first 30 minutes of a rental incur no cost. Pricing increases from $1.50 for up to an hour all the way to $70.50 for 24 hours. Obviously bikes are rented for a variety of reasons; but to me, I feel that work commuting and leisure riding are the top two reasons for rentals. 

Capital Bikeshare uses a ratio of 1.5 available docks to every 1 bike in the system. In a perfect world, this would provide bikes at each station for checkout and empty docks for bike return. It doesn't always work this way though.

Stations can have a variable number of docks and stations in work centers tend to be larger. The combination of DC topography (hilly in places, mostly flat downtown), travel patterns and popularity have resulted in sometimes lopsided station availability. That is to say, that during morning rush hour, stations in residential areas may be empty or close to empty and stations downtown tend to be full or near full. Hence the Reverse Riders program. CaBi is working to manage these usage trends. The program launched in September of 2010. Let's see where we are in September 2011. I suspect the system will be much improved.

I love Capital Bikeshare. DC has been building bike infrastructure pretty aggressively for the last 10 years. This is huge feather in that hat. It gets people who may not have ridden before onto bikes and gives residents a healthy and green alternative to the sometimes unreliable Metro. It is another Reason to Be Car Free in DC. Check out the others!

Love it? Hate it? Join the conversation on Twitter @The42BusDC

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC: MPD's All Seeing Eyes

More radar cameras, less speeding?

First, we thought they didn't work. Now, we think they do. Red light and speeding cameras are here to stay, for better or for worse. 

And now, not only are District leaders expanding the number of cameras, but adding more ticketable offenses. A year from now --when the new deployment is set to be complete-- Metro Police Department cameras will be able to record infractions such as blocking the box at intersections as well as failure to yield to pedestrians. 

I like the idea of increased enforcement of aggressive drivers in regards to pedestrians, but I'm not sure I like the idea of having cameras everywhere to catch every driver who is a few miles above the speed limit or who tried their best, but gets caught in the intersection at a light. There are some terrible drivers in the DC region, no doubt. But, at some point the enforcement is what it is. Put the cameras in the trouble spots and keep attacking the problem from other angles; like traffic calming measures, better lighting and markings at intersections and installing bulb outs for pedestrians. 

Here is a current list of red light camera locations in the District. And here's the current list of photo radar (speeding) camera locations in the District. Drive safely, and slow down!

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC: Now Accepting Plastic

New credit card reading meters

Booya. Yeah. You can now pay for on street parking with a credit card. Plastic. Sounds like a nice option, but this just confirms that parking in DC has moved beyond quarters, dimes and nickels. The most forward thinking agency in our fair city, DDOT, has  floated quite a few ideas to make street parking faster and more convenient for drivers. Multi-space meters, pay by phone meters and at some point in the future, in car metering will all part of the parking management system. 

Another option is pay by credit card. As of today most streets downtown require $2.00 per hour for parking. That's 7 and 1/2 minuets per quarter. In performance parking zones (near Nationals Park and DCUSA for example) the rates are variable and can go much higher. The mulit space meters readily accept credit cards and if you are using the rare pay by phone meters, your phone number is linked to your credit card per sign up. Having this option does make some sense. Now that tolls can also be paid without coins, having 20 quarters in your glove box just for parking seems unrealistic and unnecessary (that's 2 and 1/2 hours, btw).  

Now individual space meters are getting the credit card makeover. The city argues that it's good for businesses, getting customers in and out, deterring all day parking. But man, who knew. A sign of the times if there ever was one. Pulling out the plastic for curb side parking. And you still have to parallel park that thing yourself.

More Reasons to Be Car Free in DC.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC: We're # 3!

Mount P's CaBi station is often empty--a sign of high usage

Not number 1. That's New York, by a lot. And Boston's  number 2. But we're number 3! 

Thanks to Greater Greater Washington for pointing me towards the results of the US Census American Community Survey. According to the numbers, the District ranks third among the largest U.S. cities with 50.4% of commutes by means other than automobile. 

Count me in. I was a bus guy, then Metro, now I'm trying bikeshare. Walk to work...? Maybe on a realllllly nice weather day. And I'd have to wake up fairly early, but it could be done. But seriously, what a great trend. Washington trailed only New York (66%) and Boston (51%) in percentage of non automobile commutes. Essentially this means that commutes by auto (alone and carpool) make up less than half of the city's total. The majority of DC commutes are via walking (11.1%), biking ( 2.2%), or mass transit (37.1%). Portland had the highest commuting percentage by bicycle (5.8%); Boston by walking (14.1%),New York by transit (54.9%).

And those are 2009 numbers. Looking forward to 2015 or 2020. I could see those numbers increasing. With Capital Bikeshare, expansion of the Orange Line Metro, addition of street cars and tweaked MetroBus service, the capital region and specifically the District are working to move more people more efficiently. Not every city or metropolitan area is able or willing, but I'm glad to be living in one of them. 

Broken Metro escalators: check. Empty bikeshare stations: check. Bunching buses: check. Even in the face of all the occasional inconveniences we still live in a town in which there are multiple ways to get around morning noon and night: check and double check. We can always strive for more efficient, service and a better customer experience. And maybe by the 2020 Census, 2.2% will be commuting by car and 22% will be biking. Pretty cool.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #12: Snowed In + Dig Out!

Walking around on Saturday was a blast. Not a worry in the world for most of us. Lots of snowball fights, walking in the streets, sledding and snow-football. Sunday, uh, not so much. Digging out was the theme of the day. Walking around, surveying Mount Pleasant, I saw dozens of people with shovels, scrapers and brooms digging out their cars. Not that the roads were passable, but people have to work, travel and live. Saw lots of neighbors working together as well, in teams.

One person who was not digging out a car was me. I would have gladly helped out any of you who needed, but most of you looked like you were having fun. The only shoveling I did this weekend was of food into my mouth while watching the Super Bowl. C'est la vie for a northeastern snow town, which is what we've become over the last few months, apparently. With more snow to come! I love it.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #11: Limited Stop Bus

Everyone knows the knock on DC Metro buses. They're slow, they bunch up, and make too many stops. Well, Metro and the city of DC have addressed some of those concerns and begun to offer limited stop buses. The buses don't necessarily aim to mimic subway trains, but instead augment train service and local bus service. Mount Pleasant is served by several of the lines including the city sponsored Circulator and Metro's S9 and 43 buses. The 43 isn't so much a limited stop bus. It just skips two stops on Dupont Circle in order to avoid the traffic tie up that is the circle itself. For riders traveling from downtown back to Mount Pleasant, the after work trip is made that much shorter. Like other limited stop buses in DC, they only enhance service, not eliminate it. Riders can still catch local buses that make stops on nearly every block if needed.

The Circulator and S9 are true limited stop buses. The new Circulator from Woodley Park to McPhereson Square has only seven pick up and drop off points for the entire route. The southbound bus makes a stop in Mount Pleasant proper at Irving and Mount Pleasant Streets. The S9 is a breath of fresh air (well, not literally) for 16th Street NW commuters, providing a much faster route from Silver Spring to Downtown. It stops about every five blocks, instead of every block, or every other block. I appreciate the trend and hope it continues, especially with a cross town bus or two. Limited stop H4 anyone?

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #10: Accidents

I read a joke recently that goes something like this: If there's an accident in downtown DC, the Maryland driver caused it, the Virginia driver slows down to gawk at the wreckage and the DC driver is up on the curb trying to get around the stinking mess. That's pretty accurate.

Knock on wood, I've only been a party to one car accident. Nearly 10 years ago I hit an insurance salesperson (no kidding) while she was pulling out of a school parking lot. She worked for State Farm, and since I also had Sate Farm, I believed all would be taken care of if I just gave her my info and we worked it out between the two of us. No police report needed. Just a little behind the scenes fixing by the agent and we'd both be clear of this little mess. The damage was undetectable in passing and no one was close to injured.

I made a mistake. She filed a report alright. State Farm determined (surprise!) that I was at fault and should be liable for all the damages. Here I thought she was going to be nice and sweep all this under the rug and let me off the hook, but nooooooooo. I was naive young person back then. Naive anyway. As soon as I moved out of that city, the car, insurance and invisible dent went the way of Vincent and Jules' ride in Pulp Fiction; the scrap yard.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #9: Walkability

Walk to: movies, haircut, school, groceries, clothes, beer/wine, pizza, pupusas, laundry, coffee, hardware, car share, and more! All his adds up to a high "Walk Score" on walkscore.com for Mount Pleasant. According to the website, we aren't even the most walkable neighborhood in DC. The Mount P score seems to be a bit low at 77/100, but I understand why Dupont is higher: buses galore, Metro, full service groceries, all of Connecticut Ave, et cetera. But Mount Pleasant shows pretty well. The ratings don't always seem on point. For example, all of Southwest gets an 81/100. If you've been, you know its barely drivable, let alone walkable. FYI, Dupont, with a 99/100 rating, is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in the nation. Not surprisingly, the most walkable are in New York City.

Occasionally I get neighborhood envy and venture out to A/M or Columbia Heights for wants and needs, but most of the time I realize that we pretty much have it all here in terms of necessities. As long as you can get tp when your roommate forgets (always the roommate, eh), a bottle of wine for guests on short notice, or a nice meal out when you don't feel like cooking, you should be happy. Well, we have all that and more. Having a car is nice if you need to get somewhere like Georgetown in a hurry (I know, an exreme and unlikey scenario) or buying an HDTV from Best Buy (what, you don't want to walk it down Irving Street?). Car share and cabs are apporpriate for those instances. Otherwise our walkability is reason number 9 to be car free in DC.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #8: The Real Pink Slip

To be honest I have no idea how much parking tickets are in DC! I have never gotten one. When I delivered food for a restaurant in my hometown, I collected about 20 tickets over 3 years. Since parking in a loading zone or no parking zone in Richmond was only $12, my employer paid many of the tickets. Otherwise, I paid out of my tips. Not so bad and just a danger of the job. Eventually though, I got towed.

At that time Richmond city didn't boot cars, they took towed cars to a private lot in one of the worst neighborhoods. It was on the edge of the city and I'm pretty sure blocks away form a bus line. The owners of the lot were surly and kept irregular hours which weren't posted. They charged more to pay with a credit card and each day your car sat on the lot, the fee increased. A compete nightmare! However it taught me to not get tickets and pay them promptly when I did get them. I paid in hard earned cash and considered the tow lot to be one of the greatest rackets in the city.

DC has the boot, but not having a car, I honestly, and thankfully have no frame of reference how large of a price one pays for breaking parking laws here. How much are tickets? How much of a beast is that wheel boot? I'm curious.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #7: I Can't Afford It

Well, so much for all the altruistic reasons for not wanting to own a car. This is purely a personal reason and I'm sure many people like me secretly know this is the real reason that they don't own cars. I'm car free for many reasons and one is the expense of owning one. The direct and collateral costs of car ownership are daunting to me.

Talking to folks about this issue will always lead to more than a few who can't afford to live WITHOUT a car. They don't live near public transit, need a car to get to groceries or food, are taking care of kids or relatives, whatever. I get that. This is about people who can't afford to live WITH a car.

If I were to forced to buy a car today, say if my employer relocated me to Manhattan, Kansas, or Houston TX, Phoenix AZ, or some other place where driving is pretty much a necessity, what would I buy? Well, there's the dream car of the Hollywood set, the Prius. Then there's the Euro import, Smart Car and finally, my dream car, the Honda FCX, a real live hydrogen car. Insurance and registration costs notwithstanding, how much would each set me back?

Well, the Prius is pretty recognizable these days. Needs no introduction. Kelly Blue Book puts the cost of a new standard 4-door Prius at $23,583. It gets 48 miles per gallon in the city. Not bad!

The Smart fortwo (yes, the model is the "fortwo") is TINY, even though it's slightly larger than the European version. I haven't seen any on Mt Pleasant yet, but there must be a dozen or so spread out across the city. Surprisingly, clocks in at only 33mpg in the city. KBB lists the 2-door hatch back at $12,235.

Then, my baby. I love this thing. A pure hydrogen fuel cell driven car. Hydrogen is the fuel, which in turn powers the cells, which in turn create clean electricity, which runs the motor. No exhaust. The only byproduct is water. It's almost unbelievable. There is no pure mile per gallon equivalent, but Honda and the EPA estimate that the FCX Clarity is comparable to 74mpg. Honda has started leasing them nationally. The range is 280 miles per tank, not so different from some gas powered cars. We have a hydrogen fueling station in DC. It's on Benning Road NE at a Shell station (I really hate Shell, so that's a problem). The next closest stations are at Fort Belvior in Virginia and Newark, DE. Then there's the cost. Honda "hopes" to produce a Clarity for less than $100,000 within a few years. Until then, it's not for sale. Even if it were, they'd have to be $300,000-$500,000 per car for Honda to turn a profit. Right now, leases are $600 per month. That effectively puts me out of the race, but maybe it will supplant the Prius as the Hollywood favorite (supposedly Jack Nicholson has one).

So, all that goes to say I still can't afford a car I potentially would want to drive (sorry Smart fortwo and Prius). But, that's still good enough reason for me not to own one.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #6: Real Taxis!

If you ever want to stalk meet me, come to the Black Cat on Friday or Saturday night. I'm the guy sitting at the bar, or dancing, or possibly watching the show. On later nights (earlier mornings), especially during the winter, I like to take a cab home to Mount Pleasant. Before June of this year, that meant walking up to U and 14th Streets and then waiting for an empty cab to come by, fighting off women in heels (cabbies tend to pass me up for them) and dodging aggressive drivers who obviously aren't thinking about pedestrian cross walk rights. I could have caught one in front of the Black Cat, but that meant paying for two zones as the zone barrier was U Street. That ride was $9.80 (including the gas surcharge, which is still in effect). With any sort of tip (I always do) the trip was gauranteed to cost more than $10.00. Would the meters be more affordable? I'll spare you the suspense: YES.

After June 1 when the District began enforcing the change to metered fare, I've taken cabs more often across the board. Its now reasonable for me to take a cab to a get-together if I'm running late, to Union Station to avoid lugging my bags on the Metro, and to home from a night out on the town. These are all everyday activities I avoided hailing cab for before the switch. That $9.80 ride home using the zone system cost me $6.75 using the meter. The drop rate, or inital charge, was $3.00. Mount Pleasant is only about 1.5 miles from 14th and T Streets, so the mileage only cost an additional $2.25. We barely stopped and hit all the green lights perfectly, so we idled for only a few seconds the whole ride (the idling rate is $15 per hour; do the math). Add in the $1.00 gas surcharge and the fare came to $6.75. Sorry if you disagree, but I think that's more fair than the arbitrary zone rate of nearly $10.00. Also, for those who live further afield, think about using cabs more; the maximum fare within the District is now $19.00. Not that meters will cause any of you to give up your cars, but having another affordable option to get around town certainly makes it easier to live in DC without one.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #5: Parking

Oh, about a year and a half ago I went to check out the Lot 33 condos on Euclid Street. I wasn't thinking of moving away from Mount Pleasant, just wanted to see what $400,000-$500,000 could get me and re-convince myself that I had laughably few options for owning anything at this point in my life. Lot 33 is on Euclid near 17th Street. You can walk to Malcolm X Park, Harris Teeter, the Euclid Market corner store, Adams Morgan, and U Street is just down the Hill. The unit I looked at had hard wood floors, granite splashbacks and killer views...of the apartments next door. I kid, it was very nice. A little sterile, but yea, all the newness a newness-liking buyer could ask for.

One great perk in particular, off street parking. Yes, you can pull in to the street level garage next to the front door. The entrance is right on Euclid Street. The condo units actually sit above the garage so the 1st floor is really the second level. Anyway, the spaces were for sale; for $40,000 a piece! Yes, the $450,000 unit I saw could be complete with a parking space for nearly 10% of the purchase price. I'm sure many of the cars in the spaces aren't even worth $40,000. My last car was worth, like 5% of that. Please, if anyone thinks an underground parking space is worth $40,000 please make the justification. I'm open to all opinions, convince me.

I was going to write about how hard it is to find a space on the street, but I think the forbidding price of secured parking counts too. It's reason #5 to be car free in DC.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #4: Car Share...?

If I had written this post 3 years ago, just after I had joined Flexcar, there would be no questions. I loved the idea of car share. The cars were local. I didn't have to give any more money to that corrupt, derelict company known as Budget-Rent-a-Car and I took a liking to the idea of this little community of people who practically shared the same car located a block away from my house. At the time I could rent a care for 5 dollars and change per hour. Amazing! Never had to pay for gas, although every now and again you'd have to fill it up with the company card. The other users took care of the cars, bought them back on time and didn't leave paper coffee cups or dirty tissues in the cup holders or on the floor.

That nice little picture didn't last. Zipcar "merged" with Flexcar and took over operations. The prices rose immediately. Those $6.00 and $7.00 per hour rentals became $9.00 and $10.00. Until recently, renting a hybrid cost MORE than renting a regular gas car (cheaper for Zipcar to operate, but a "privilege" to drive?). Cars seem dirtier and more and more often I rent a car that's nearly empty on gas. Other members don't seem to be a part of the "community" any longer. We're all customers of the company, looking out for number 1. Typical, and I'm OK with that. But to pick up my parents from National Airport this weekend, honestly, requires a two hour rental. The car closest to my house is $9.75 an hour, or $19.50 total. I found a rental car on Hotwire.com for the same day at $17.95; $30.30 after taxes and fees. That's for a whole day. 24 hours. Zipcar would be $72.00 for the same 24 hour period. However, the advantages of using Zipcar are I wouldn't have to pay for mileage (as long as I didn't drive over 180 miles) and I could pick-up/drop-off near my house.

I get the convenience factor, but the more cars you add per neighborhood, doesn't the idea of getting cars off the road diminish? Some residents also complain that Zipcars illegally take up public parking space on streets. I don't have a problem with that considering the aims.

The idea of car share is pretty great. The convenience almost outweighs the negatives, including, yes, price. But I find myself renting less and less, relying on my bike and the 11 bus (that means walking; ask your coworkers if you don't get it.) I guess $5.00 per hour wasn't realistic and this series is about how living without a car is great. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #3: Transit

Metro is providing 1.2 million trips per day by bus and subway. Pretty amazing! That number is growing now, of course, with $4.00 gas and not much relief on the horizon. I feel gleefully ignorant, not owning a car, but when we rented one to travel over the Memorial Day weekend, I realized that having a car sucks right now. Sorry for all of you that have to drive to work, or drive the kids to school, or whatever. Almost every trip has to be justified now.

Feel lucky that we have one of the best transit systems in the nation. Yes, as much as you hate on Metro, it provides an invaluable and mostly reliable service. Now a lot of folks who travel distances long and short are trying Metro and regional transit systems for the first time, or after a long lapse. Transit, more than ever making it apparent that its a great reason to be car free in DC.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #2: Bikes

We're getting better at the whole marking off lanes for bikes thing. Not there quite yet, but making progress. DC is an incredibly walkable town and I'm convinced it'll be an incredible biking town one day. Driving; yes, for some its a necessity, and who among us doesn't like being out on the open road every now and then? But no one likes idling at K and 20th during rush hour, inching up slowly after the second green light has come and gone. And remember when your friend came to visit and you forgot to tell them to not turn onto 18th street that Friday night? Yeah, you spent 20 minutes driving from Columbia Road to Belmont and still didn't find parking. I bike downtown and regularly beat both the 42 and S2 buses to Metro Center. Here's a cool article form City Desk too, on a neat experiment in NY: Some Reasons the Bike Always Wins. Anyway, its settled, having a bikeable city is another reason to be car free in DC.

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #1: Gas

That's it. Nothing else to say really.