The TDM Professional

Are you paying attention?

Traffic jam mystery solved by mathematicians from PhysOrg.com
Mathematicians from the University of Exeter have solved the mystery of traffic jams by developing a model to show how major delays occur on our roads, with no apparent cause. Many traffic jams leave drivers baffled as they finally reach the end of a tail-back to find no visible cause for their delay. [...]

While traffic engineers have known this for a while (did these folks pay any attention to the MUTCD?), I don't think that there has been an equation to this effect that would allow for the calibration of automated devices for individual vehicles.  Why does this matter for TDM?  A couple of reasons...

First, smoother flowing roadways mean less congestion in general, regardless of how many people are in the vehicle or what type of lane they're in.  If there are preferential carpool lanes, these devices could help with controlling lane conflicts from delay associated with a slower moving lane next to the carpool lane.  It would require designated access points, but I believe this is coming to most areas in the near future anyway associated with broader tolling schemes.

Second, in my opinion, the less personal control over the driving experience that the system user (i.e. driver) is allowed to have in order to maximize the use of the system, the more likely they are to consent to a shared travel experience with others in their conveyance.  This, of it's very nature, is an encouragement to HOV travel.  Admittedly, this could be more of a boost to the personal rapid transit crowd, but I can't see that level of separate infrastructure being created any time soon, and I see more emphasis on efficient use of existing infrastructure.

Chris Simmons, TDM Corridor Implementation Planner, WSDOT

simmocw@wsdot.wa.gov

Green Business is getting the hint...

For folks who aren't following the Green Business community, a recent post from cleantechblog.com gives some insight into how parts of the business community are looking to TDM as a method of reducing their carbon footprint.

http://www.cleantechblog.com/2007/12/flexible-work.html

Chris Simmons, TDM Corridor Integration Planner, Washington State Department of Transportation

simmocw@wsdot.wa.gov

It's Official. More Walking = Better Health

The results of yet another study are in.* And the conclusion is that you'll trim your waistline and decrease your risk of metabolic syndrome - an increasingly common condition that is linked to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle - by by doing a brisk 30-minute walk 6 days a week, even if you don't make any dietary changes. So if people can find a way to get in a little bit of walking each day, perhaps by choosing to walk instead of driving on an occasional trip, they can increase their health.

In a story by Reuters (Walking Packs Huge Health Punch, Study Confirms, December 17, 2007; Reuters) we learn:

"...about one quarter of all U.S. adults have metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of risk factors that raise the odds of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, a person must have at least three of these five risk factors -- a large waistline, high blood pressure, high levels of harmful triglycerides, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, and high blood sugar -- and according to many studies, a growing number of people have these problems.

The Duke University study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and just released in the American Journal of Cardiology says that there's a significant decline in the prevalence of the syndrome with consistent, moderate exercise. Says a Duke University Researcher: "It's also encouraging news for sedentary, middle-aged adults who want to improve their health. It means they don't have to go out running 4 or 5 days a week; they can get significant health benefits by simply walking around the neighborhood after dinner every night."

To help figure out how you can fit in 30 minutes of walking a day, visit Arlington's Car-Free Diet or WALKArlington.com.

*Related Posts:

• Coincidence or Conspiracy?, by Lauren Hassel; November 9, 2007
• Is Sprawl Contributing to America's Health Problems?, by Chris Hamilton; November 3, 2007

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and The TDM Professional blog and is a biking/Metrorail commuter from Alexandria, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C.

Inspiration for Going Car-Free from L.A. Yes, That's Los Angeles

From the folks at the Car-Free USA blog we find inspiration for going car-free from Los Angeles (Commuter Kicks Car Habit, Kerry Cavanaugh, December 5, 2007; Los Angeles Daily News). Yes, Los Angeles, California. The article begins:

"Two years ago, Simon Pastucha (pictured here) - an urban designer and planner for the city of Los Angeles - left his Mercedes SUV at the dealership and hasn't looked back. But how does a professional with children and far-flung meetings survive in car-centric Los Angeles without owning an automobile? Quite easily, I found after tagging along with Pastucha on his commute."

The author goes on to describe how Simon, after going car-free for a bit, realized he had a lot of extra money in his pocket. In fact he was saving $1,000 a month. So he decided not get a new car as planned and instead keep going car-free. He takes transit to work, uses a carsharing vehicle, taxi or car rental when he needs to and still comes out way ahead. Enough to pay for a trip to Italy.

The story is familiar. In fact our favorite author of How To Live Well Without Owning A Car, Chris Balish had the exact same experience. Mr. Balish was so inspired he wrote a book about it. We were so inspired by Mr. Balish's book that we worked with the author and publisher to print a Special Arlington, Virginia Edition (pictured here) recently made available for FREE by participating in Arlington's Car-Free Diet.

For other car-free and car-lite stories visit Arlington's Car-Free Diet Blog.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and The TDM Professional blog and is a biking/Metrorail commuter from Alexandria, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C.

Research: Proving the Value of TDM

About two years ago Arlington County Commuter Services  began work on a research plan and program to evaluate the impacts of transportation and ACCS services on Arlington residents, workers and visitors - and to understand our customers and their needs better.  The bottom line is to improve transportation services provided by Arlington County.

It began with a plan to determine the best methodologies to document the impacts of our services, to evaluate what is most effective with an eye toward improving (or eliminating) services, and to assess and improve our customer service in all areas of our operations.  We hired two of the leading firms in the transportation research industry, Southeastern Institute of Research (SIR) of Richmond, Virginia, and LDA Consulting of Washington, DC.  The resulting three year program of research planning and surveys is considered to be one of the most innovative and comprehensive research programs in the industry.

Most importantly, the results are showing that Arlington's transportation facilities and services are working, and they are paying big dividends in our quality of life and business climate.  For example:

• CEOs in Arlington cite Arlington's transportation system and services as the NUMBER ONE reason for locating a business in the county.
• Arlington employers say commuting services (Such as provided by ACCS) result in significant benefits to their business, including improved employee morale, easier recruitment and retention, increased productivitiy, and less parking demand.
• The quality of Arlington's transportation system and services has a direct correlation to residents' perception of their overall quality of life.
• One in five Arlington residents used a services of ACCS in 2006; and, of those, 40% took action to change their travel.
• Twice the percentage of Arlinton residents take mass transit to work as compared to the Washington regional average.

The Research and Evaluation Plan completed in October 2006 recommended a series of studies of different customers who are served by ACCS, including fielding new surveys and drawing upon existing research by others, such as the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.  These studies include:

• Surveys of Arligton residents, via telephone and Internet
• An Online survey of Arlington Transportation Partners' employer clients and residential property manager clients
• A survey of Arlington Business Leaders
• CommuterStore customer surveys
• CommuterPage.com customer surveys
• CommuterDirect.com customer surveys (in progress)
• Commercial property surveys, including building property managers,  employers, and employees (in progress)
• Customers of Arlington Transit

As they are completed, results of these studies are now being made available for easy use by everyone at our Arlington County Transportation Demand Management Research Center on the Web at www.CommuterPage.com/research.  Here you will find nearly 40 studies that can be searched easily by year, topic, or keywords.  We provide brief summaries as well as full reports.  There are also various "Knowledge Papers" interpreting what we have learned into valuable synopses of Arlington's transportation program and its effect on people and businesses in the community.

In future posts we will share key results of many of these studies that are of general interest.  If you want to learn more about how transportation affects your community, visit our Research Center or stay tuned as we roll out some "Cool Fact" about transportation in Arlington.

Posted by Howard Jennings, Manager of Research and Development with Arlington Transportation Partners in Arlington, Virginia, in the Washington, DC region.

Could Bogota's Example Lead to Ciclovias in U.S?

Our friends at the Car Free USA blog tipped us off to an inspiring new 10-minute film from the good people at Street Films entitled: Ciclovia: Bogota, Columbia. The filmmakers went to Bogota to document the advances in the livable streets movement there and came away with this remarkable story. Say the filmmakers:

"On Sunday we spent the entire day - from 5 AM ’til nearly 5 PM - riding bicycles around the city courtesy of the Ciclovia, a weekly event in which over 70 miles of city streets are closed to traffic where residents come out to walk, bike, run, skate, recreate, picnic, and talk with family, neighbors & strangers…it is simply one of the most moving experiences I have had in my entire life."

We've noticed that this kind of forward thinking has taken hold in other progressive cities (People-Oriented Cities are Cycling Friendly Cities, September 4, 2007, CommuterPageBlog), (Enrique Penalosa and Bogota Columbia, September, 4, 2007; CommuterPageBlog), and (Another Car-Free Idea from Mexico City, August 2, 2007; CommuterPageBlog). Since the Washington, D.C. region was recently named the most walkable in the nation (D.C. Leads Nation in Walkability, December 4, 2007; CommuterPageBlog) shouldn't we be leading in this area as well? Shouldn't other U.S. cities being following the lead of Bogota? Perhaps some inspired TDM pros can lead the charge to implement something similar in their own cities here in the U.S.?

Related Links: WalkandBikeforLife.org (one of the speakers in the video was from this organization); Wikepedia on Ciclovia; official Ciclovia y Recreovia Bogota site (in Spanish); CicloviaElPaso.com (El Paso is currently the only U.S. City with a Ciclovia program).

Pictures from Ciclovia: Bogata, Columbia

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and The TDM Professional blog and is a biking/Metrorail commuter from Alexandria, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C.

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Toronto Star: U.S. Spreads Commuting Virus Into Canada

Our good friend Richard Layman at the awesome Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space blog points us to this article in the Toronto Star (Think you have it bad? Try a 240-km commute; December 8, 2007) about a commuter in our area who drives from Berryville in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains to Alexandria each weekday. The article is the first in a series from the Star's foreign correspondents describing a world of commuting horror stories beyond Toronto's urban sprawl. First in the series is the story about Lori Forrester commuting to Alexandria. She says her commute (in the picture) takes anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours each way. It also costs her $150 each week to fill up her gas tank. From the article:

"The American commute starts earlier, lasts longer, wastes more time and money and further endangers physical and psychological health each year. It is fueled by soaring house prices, a growing population, an influx of immigrants, and the torrid American obsession with the car. And the commuting virus is spreading uncontrollably - across the border into Canada and around the world."

So it seems we aren't just exporting Starbucks and McDonalds. Now we are exporting our extreme commutes.

The Toronto Star Commuting Series so far:

• Hellish Journey Around Holy City, Oakland Ross, December 12, 2007
• Running a Gauntlet in Jerusalem, Oakland Ross, December 11, 2007
• Beijing, the Triathlon of Commutes, Bill Schiller, December 10, 2007
• London's Subway Commuting Hell, Mitch Potter, December 9, 2007
• Think you have it bad? Try a 240-km commute, Tim Harper, December 8, 2007

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and The TDM Professional blog and is a biking/Metrorail commuter from Alexandria, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C.

2008 IRS Increase for Transportation Fringe Benefit

The IRS released Revenue Procedure 2007-66 which increases the monthly tax-free Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefits [IRC 132(f)] limits for transit from $110 to $115 and for parking from $215 to $220 in calendar year 2008.

With metro fares increasing, any increase in benefits is good news- even if it is only $5.  However, transit and parking are still not on par.  While a monthly space at a garage might cost more than $220, taking transit can be just as expensive.  For instance, just a MARC monthly ticket from Laurel to Union station cost $125, not even taking into account the cost of metro from Union Station to a work site.

To encourage even more people to take advantage of transit and get out of their cars to help the environment, wouldn't it make sense to increase the transit benefit to be equal with parking.  With the higher available parking benefit, it seems there isn't quite enough of a cost deterrent to get people out of their cars.... or maybe the benefits of taking transit aren't made clear enough?

Carly Nider, Arlington Transportation Partners

11 Most Bicycle Friendly Cities...in the World

Virgin Vacations gives us the 11 most bicycle friendly cities in the world. They say, biking is a great way to become intimate with a city and get some exercise too. Who can argue with that logic? I love spending a day in a new city biking around and getting to know the town at a friendly level.

Virgin rated the cities based on five categories created by The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign and referred to as the Five E's. They are engineering, encouragement, evaluation & planning, education and enforcement. So based upon these criteria the top 11 are, drum roll please...

1. Amsterdam, Netherlands
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Boulder, Colorado
5. Davis, California
6. Sandnes, Norway
7. Trondheim, Norway
8. San Francisco, California
9. Berlin, Germany
10. Barcelona, Spain
11. Basel, Switzerland

How cool that four of the 11 and three of the top five are right here in the U.S. The cities range from little Sandnes, Norway (population 56,000) to Berlin, Germany (population 3.4 million). Let's hope the next list includes a city from our area. Maybe Silver Level "Bicycle Friendly Community" Arlington can make that cut?

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and The TDM Professional blog and is a biking/Metrorail commuter from Alexandria, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C.

Making Cycling Irresistable

A report written by Rutgers University researchers John Pucher and Ralph Buehler titled "Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany" summarizes the success of these countries in making cycling popular and concludes:

"The most important approach to making cycling safe and convenient in Dutch, Danish, and German cities is the provision of separate cycling facilities along heavily traveled roads and at intersections, combined with extensive traffic calming of residential neighborhoods. Safe and relatively stress-free cycling routes are especially important for children, the elderly, women, and for anyone with special needs due to any sort of disability. Providing such separate facilities to connect practical, utilitarian origins and destinations also promotes cycling for work, school, and shopping trips, as opposed to the mainly recreational cycling in the USA, where most separate cycling facilities are along urban parks, rivers, and lakes or in rural areas."

However, the solution is not only making cycling attractive, but also making driving less attractive, the authors suggest. Pucher and Buehler report, "Not only do these countries implement far more of the probike measures, but they greatly reinforce their overall impact with highly restrictive policies that make car use less convenient as well as more expensive. It is precisely that double-barreled combination of ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ policies that make cycling so irresistible."

Arlington follows many of these same public policies of The Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. The County has provided 21 miles of bike lanes since 2002, integrates the bicycle into transit, requires bike amenities in new development, and promotes bike use through education and encouragement. While Arlington does not yet provide separate bike facilities (aka "cycle tracks"), I imagine that this type of bike facility will be provided here in the future. The County also provides disincentives on car use with increased parking meter fees and vehicle registration fees. These policies have helped lead to less congestion on Arlington streets than even a few years ago and more biking.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

image: separate bike facility in The Netherlands

A report written by Rutgers University researchers John Pucher and Ralph Buehler titled "Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany" summarizes the success of these countries in making cycling popular and concludes:

"The most important approach to making cycling safe and convenient in Dutch, Danish, and German cities is the provision of separate cycling facilities along heavily traveled roads and at intersections, combined with extensive traffic calming of residential neighborhoods. Safe and relatively stress-free cycling routes are especially important for children, the elderly, women, and for anyone with special needs due to any sort of disability. Providing such separate facilities to connect practical, utilitarian origins and destinations also promotes cycling for work, school, and shopping trips, as opposed to the mainly recreational cycling in the USA, where most separate cycling facilities are along urban parks, rivers, and lakes or in rural areas."

However, the solution is not only making cycling attractive, but also making driving less attractive, the authors suggest. Pucher and Buehler report, "Not only do these countries implement far more of the probike measures, but they greatly reinforce their overall impact with highly restrictive policies that make car use less convenient as well as more expensive. It is precisely that double-barreled combination of ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ policies that make cycling so irresistible."

Arlington follows many of these same public policies of The Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. The County has provided 21 miles of bike lanes since 2002, integrates the bicycle into transit, requires bike amenities in new development, and promotes bike use through education and encouragement. While Arlington does not yet provide separate bike facilities (aka "cycle tracks"), I imagine that this type of bike facility will be provided here in the future. The County also provides disincentives on car use with increased parking meter fees and vehicle registration fees. These policies have helped lead to less congestion on Arlington streets than even a few years ago and more biking.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

image: separate bike facility in The Netherlands