The Multi-Mode, Car-Free trip to the party

On Monday I attended the Queen's Day celebration at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC.  As it turned out, the trip to and from utilized numerous modes of travel that all added together to make for an interesting trip as shown on this map.


View Steve's Multi-Mode Car-Free Trip in a larger map

Here's how it went, with the travel mode for each segment shown in BOLD:

No More "Ridiculous" Car Trips

The city of Malmo, Sweden adopted a marketing campaign highlighting "ridiculous" car trips--those less than five kilometers (about 3 miles).  Here's a video highlighting their efforts:

No ridiculous car trips from Martin Lang on Vimeo.

Transforming Transportation by Reprioritizing Trails

Here in the Washington region we have experienced record snowfall that has crippled our transportation systems. They are returning to normal. At the time of this post, it is eight days since the blizzard ended.

I live in Arlington County, which is supposedly the model TOD community: bicycle and pedestrian friendly, excellent transit service, smart land-use decisions, etc.  At bicycle advocacy meetings I hear that we are going to strive to move up from Silver to Gold designation from the League of American Bicyclists. However, not one flake of snow (now ice) has been removed from any of the key (and in some cases essential) ped/bike commuter corridors.

This part of the Custis Trail (which is likely one of the 10 most used bike commuter routes in America) has been redubbed the Custis luge.Because of how it is shaded, it will still have ice on it a month from now unless action is taken.

Arlington has a Car-Free Diet campaign that promotes Arlington as a place to live
without a car, because of all their supposed amenities and  infrastructure.  Yet  someone who lives in parts of Rosslyn  without a car has no--zero!--options for getting to the Metro (okay, taxicab; one).  What are they to do?  Walk on Lee Highway?  Risk injury on the Custis luge?

There are three sections of trail near Metro stations that provide Metro access to hundreds and hundreds of people.  As of the time of this writing, not one inch of those sections has been attended to in any way.  Because of the significant pedestrian use, those sections have now become glaciated skidways of treacherous ice.

The problem is that trail maintenance is housed in the Parks Department.  Rightfully, Parks tend to have lower priority than transportation.  Yet in the case of significant portions of Arlington trails, they function primarily as transportation facilities.  Trails that are used significantly for transportation should be treated as transportation infrastructure and prioritized as such.


View Larger Map
Recently Arlington installed counters along the trails, and they have documented the fact that a significant number of people are using the 4-Mile Run underpass at 395 for transportation; it's necessary for them to reach jobs in Shirlington.  Yet as far as the County is concerned, they may as well not exist.

In reality, if a small vehicle plow had been dispatched immediately after the snow stopped and before it was tramped down, it could have cleared a 5-foot wide path on the 17 miles of Arlington Loop plus the section from the Custis/WOD intersection to East Falls Church in 4-5 hours max.  At $100/hour, it would have cost under $500 total.  Three times this year so far, we're still looking at probably no more than $2000.  No salt or chemicals needed.  If you clear down to the pavement right away, it dries out on its own.  By now it would be totally usable.  (Some people have intelligently pointed out, if you clear 1/2 the trail, the other half remains for the skiers for much longer--everyone wins.)

If someone were to try to clear the Rosslyn part of the Custis now, it will take many hours and big-time treatment, costing thousands of dollars.  Clearing all the trails would take days.  I can hear the whine already, "We doe-on't have the muh-uhny to do it."

A few years ago I was in New York a couple of days after a large snowstorm.  I stayed on the west side near Ground Zero.  I could see the Hudson River Greenway totally cleared as far as I could see, and one cyclist I talked to said it was cleared all the way up.  The streets were still a mess.  Somehow NY has figured out a way to prioritize that route for the thousands of peds and cyclists who are dependent on it.

When the George Washington and Rock Creek Parkways were built, they were primarily envisaged as "recreational" facilities--intended for people to tool along and enjoy the scenery.  Their function has changed.  Imagine if commuters were told that those roads were not going to be cleared, because they are "Parkways" rather than "highways," so they are not really transportation corridors, but recreational.  That's essentially what pedestrians and cyclists are being told about their "trails."  They are recreational facilities, not transportation corridors, so they don't get tended to until everything else is done, and then only if there is money enough left.

It is past time for communities to re-prioritize their thinking about transportation to include all the amenities, not just the roads and transit facilities.  Pedestrian and trail facilities should be included in transportation budgets--not parks or other lower priority budgets.

Going Car Free

A couple of Obama's key appointees do not own cars as reported in this article in the Washington Post, which was also picked up by some blogs, including DemConWatch and Kicking Tires. Carol Browner, President Obama's Energy and Environment Czarina and Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, were reported to not own cars at all. That's two out of the six high level appointees this article reported on. Also, one of the ten aides on the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry also reported not owning a car. That's three out of sixteen. Clearly these individuals are making a conscious choice not to own a car, since I presume they could afford one if they wanted. As we transform our transportation systems and our economy to more sustainable models, we need to move away from the concept of one car/one person. The average car sits idle 22 hours or more a day, which is an extremely inefficient use of capital. Creating a more integrated system that allows people to not have to own their cars and tie up many thousands of dollars of capital will serve us better in the long run--both economically and environmentally.

Here in Arlington, VA, we have a promotional effort called Arlington's Car-Free Diet. The article did not go into the reasons why these leaders choose not to own a car, but one might guess that they just find it more convenient and cost effective to not have one, and are able to avail themselves of the options available in the DC area, the kind of options that make the Car-Free Diet a model for other places.

Multi-Mode Car Free

I'm a Zipcar member for occasional use; it's one of the options that helps our family of four get along with a single car. Unfortunately, the closest Zipcars are 1-2 miles from my house, so I can't easily walk to get one. However, I can quickly bike to get one, which was what I did yesterday, when I needed to transport my daughter to her friend's pool (my wife had our car with her at her work).

I rode my bike to Ballston, locked my bike to the pole (see photo), picked up the Zipcar, "zipped" back home to get her, took her to her friend's, returned the car, biked home, realized I'd left my phone in the car, biked back, got the phone, biked home again. Okay, the last part was a bit of a pain, but I can only blame my own brain fart for that.

I've looked around on the web and haven't readily found other examples of how Arlington coordinates the bike parking with the carsharing. Note in the photo that I've locked my bike right to the Zipcar pole. The pole incorporates a bike rack directly into it. Now that is convenient. Good job.

Car Free in Milwaukee!?

A couple of weeks ago I was riding the Metro and overheard an interesting interaction. A newbie rider got on, and a conversation ensued between her and a couple of other riders, who seemed to be regulars. She mentioned that she was from Milwaukee, and one of her interlocutors mentioned that he had gone to college there a decade or so ago. So, as people will, they chatted about various places they knew in common and were having quite a pleasant little talk. Then out of nowhere the gentleman who had gone to college there said, ". . .and it's easy to live there without a car."
What a surprise!--for a couple of reasons.

First, the whole idea of relating to a stranger that living without a car is an advantage in our car-culture society was quite unusual. And second, Milwaukee is not a city that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of places to live without owning cars.

So if they can do it in Milwaukee, then the Car-Free diet in Arlington should be even easier. Those of you who read Chris Balish's How to Live Well Without a Car may recall that the author started out in St. Louis, which is probably not that dissimilar from Milwaukee for living car-free.

Tell Us Your Car-Free (or Car-Lite) Story

Arlington County makes it easy to live without needing a car. An excellent book recently out by Chris Balish called "How to Live Well Without Owning a Car" is a great resource and an inspiring story (see recommended reading on the left frame). Mr. Balish is not a granola-eating tree hugger. In fact, he owned a $36,000 V8 SUV, which he loved and drove everywhere (listen to his story on NPR). Circumstances made it so that he had to get by without his car for a few days. A few days turned into a couple of weeks and then a month. He suddenly realized that he had $800 more in his bank account and was getting along just fine without the car. So he never bought a new one. And that was in St. Louis!--not New York City or San Francisco. Now he lives in Los Angeles. . .without a car.

What's your story? Arlington County Commuter Services would like to hear from Arlingtonians who live without a car (or perhaps families who live with just one--i.e., "car-lite"). As we continue to improve services and make Arlington easier and easier to get around car-free, we would like to highlight residents who are already experiencing the advantages of the car-free life.

Please email us with your stories and experiences. And don't worry, we won't print or publish anything without talking with you first. Maybe your story will inspire someone else to give it a try, too.
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Steve Offutt, Director - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), Transportation Projects