U r b a n T r e k k e r

Bees at Work

I was just looking to take pictures of the streets around where I live, when I heard the bees buzzing around these flowers. It's fascinating to see how they work. And these guys work really heard. 

Check this out. 

Urban (City) vs. Suburban Living (in Pictures)

Images speak louder than words. Here are some pictures I took recently in DC and Arlington East Falls Church neighborhood. You can see the striking difference between urban (city) living and living in the DC suburb like Arlington. I took the pictures of the streets in Arlington's East Falls Church and Dupont Circle at the same day. 

At EFC streets, you don't see that many people as on the streets of Northwest DC in downtown, Dupont Circle and George Washington University. Living in the city have its advantage: people, walkability to stores, easy access to public transportation, etc. In the suburb of DC like Arlington, unless you're really close to the center of - along orange line metro in Arlington - there's practically not much going on around your neighborhood. People seldom walk. Walk means exercise. Other than that, they drive. (I'm guilty of it, too). 

What do we have here in our hood? The closest stores we have around our neighborhood in North Arlington (a mile from EFC metro), is CVS, 7/11, a Chinese restaurant, a deli and a few other mom and pop stores.. that offer basic services.

That's the suburb for you.

A side note: the pictures you see below are mixed with some old pictures I've taken from around Rosslyn neighborhood in Arlington. I have taken like thousands of neighborhoods pictures in Northern Virginia and Washington DC, but just haven't had the chance to upload them. I'll add more sets when I have time. 

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Are We There Yet? DC's Transportation Blueprint

This show is part of PBS' Blueprint America series about U.S. infrastructure, where Kojo Nnamdi hosts a panel of transportation experts to talk about the metro Washington DC transportation blueprint and where's taking us. The first 5 minutes or so is the most important part of the whole discussions. It lays out all kinds of transportation projects each jurisdiction - District of Columbia, Maryland, Baltimore, and Virginia - are working on. (yours truly was among the audience.)

“Its not about getting people from point A to point B, but more about building better communities,” said Robert Thomson aka “Dr. Gridlock” of The Washington Post, one of three guests panelists along with Ron Kirby, Director of Transportation for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; and Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Greater Washington Research at the Brookings Institute. [via Blueprint America]

Building better communities, that's the challenges we have...

Are We There Yet? D.C.'s Transportation Blueprint from WHUT-TV on Vimeo.

Are We There Yet, D.C.'s Transportation Blueprint (2) from WHUT-TV on Vimeo.

How do I get to Tysons During HOT Lanes & Dulles Metrorail Constructions?

Do you know that the projects meet at Tysons? Yup. Of all places, Tysons Corner is the place, where the two Virginia mega projects meet.

Coming up this summer! Here's the rundown of constructions around Tysons, via Virginia Mega Projects news.

Construction of the new I-495 South (Outer Loop) bridge over Route 123 continues in Tysons Corner. When the bridge is completed this summer, traffic on I-495 South will shift to the bridge, and the original bridge over Route 123 will be demolished. After demolition, pier construction begins on the future Dulles Corridor metrorail tracks over I-495. During construction the left lanes of Route 123 under I-495 will be closed in late spring for 18-24 months.

What kind of travel management options available for employers and commuters? There's a wide range of options available from commuter solutions, carpool incentives, NOW Mega benefits program, telework!va 50k.

So, here's your getting there options.

COMMUTER OPTIONS

• Tysons Connector Bus
• Tysons Express from Woodbridge to Tysons
• Coming soon: Tysons Express from Loudoun
• Metro/Fairfax Connector Services
• Vanpool and carpool incentives
• Guaranteed Ride Home Program
• Carpool and Vanpool matching

This is a plus if you commute from Loudoun. Loudoun Tysons Express, a June 21 start-up date, funded by Dulles metrorail project and Virginia Megaprojects as an effort to keep commuters moving during construction. It'll save commuters money on tolls and gas. The price: $3 per trip with SmarTrip card and $3.5 per trip with cash. The Loudoun Express have 55 comfy seats and free wi-fi. Take note of that. So you can keep your productivity running.

  

image: Loudoun Express with free wifi bus

image: Planned stops at Tysons for Loudoun Express

CARPOOL INCENTIVES

Program rollout in summer 2010. You can earn rewards with carpool, points, etc. like your frequent flyers thing. Through Commuter Connections, each person that signs up, gets a free McDonald's "Angus Third Pounder" and a $10 coupon from GrubHub that you can use towards ordering food from more than 400 restaurants in Washington metro area. Not bad. 

Van Assistance program

This is part of employer solutions program. Because it's challenging to start a new vanpool with 100% of the seats filled, the Virginia Megaprojects VanStart Assistance program will help to get start a new vanpool on the road while working on rounding up people to sign up for the services. They're kicking in financial incentives to cover vacant seats for the first two months. Program only available while funds last.

EMPLOYER SOLUTIONS

For employers, they do offer bottom line incentives. It's all about bottom line! In the form of telework!va, transit and vanpool incentives.

• 50% for matching for new or increase, employer offer benefits combination of vanpool, transit, bike to work. The way I understand it, if employer offers SmarTrip allowance up to $230 per mo. per employee. (I might be wrong on this. My writing is so bad. So don't quote me).
• employer, employee tax free benefits.
• teleworkva benefits if your office located in Tysons Corner up to $50,000 just by starting or expanding company wide telework program. Up to $35,000 for companies with 20-99 employees,
• there is also some tech assistance available.

If you are an employer, you might want to contact them directly, because they can help you customize your program company-wide.

Oh, if all else fails.. there's always slugging, the instant carpooling.

RESOURCES you can check into for more details:

- Tysons Connector

- Tysons Express (from Woodbridge to Tysons)

- Guaranteed Ride Home

- Commuter Connections

- VA Mega Project Employer Solutions

- Telework!Va 50k

- Virginia 511 - for checking road conditions, trip planning and more

- Loudoun County Tysons Bus Express

Lastly, the mother site for all information related to Virginia megaprojects construction, http://www.vamegaprojects.com/

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Related posts, TAGS:  transportation, around Tysons development.

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Keep Tysons Moving during Virginia Mega Projects - HOT Lanes, Dulles Rail Constructions

  

image: some of the brochures I picked up from the booths

This morning I went to the 'Keep Tysons Moving' business briefing. Briefing is about the two mega projects they're working on around Tysons Corner and the kind of transportation options available for employees. VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportations) have two mega projects in the works around Tysons: Capital Beltway HOT Lanes and Dulles Corridor Metrorail. Without the two projects alone, traffic would be so jammed up during rush hours - that is morning, lunch, and afternoon - of people trying to get to and out of Tysons. 

Briefing is divided into four part:

1. Dulles Metrorail
2. Capital Beltway HOT Lanes project
3. Commuter and Employer solutions
4. Regional Transportation management plan - the big picture

Tim Steinhilber, the general manager of Capital Beltway HOT Lanes Project with Transurban said "that the transportation projects are 2010 most active constructions." We have the largest employment center in Virginia and economic engine of the state, that's why it's important for employers to empower employees to commute. Besides talking about the construction timeline, commute is the other thing that they want to get the message out. 

Dulles Corridor Metrorail

Marcia McAllister, Dir. of Communications with Dulles Corridor Metrorail project, gives an update on project. She said that Dulles metrorail is integration of 106 miles of metrorail. With 11 stops planned in which 5 metro stops slated for phase I and 6 in phase II. Phase I from East Falls Church to Wiehle will open in 2013 and phase II from Wiehle to Route 772/ Ryan Road in Loudoun county via Dulles Airport open in 2017. The big part: All five phase I work will be under constructions by end of 2010. What that means, employers would need to roll out alternative transportation options - be up and running for their employees - ASAP. There's no way to put around it. Think about it for a moment, these are Virginia two biggest projects ever! Can you imagine, what traffic going to be like, if we have traffic-as-usual pattern?

Highlights:

• Tysons east station construction has already started
• Construction for Tysons Central station will start in June 2010
• Construction for Tysons West station will start in late summer 2010
• There will be 3 different trusses. Large truss will be assembled at the Dulles Connector Road bridge over Old Chain Bridge road that will be used to build elevated tracks. The total weight of the structure is 366 tons, according to Marsha that is equal to 11 elephants. The first truss segment assembly scheduled for May 9.
• Working on Route 7 retaining walls for Tysons Central Route 7 station construction

 



 

Capital Beltway HOT Lanes

Larry Cloyed, the project manager, gives us the scoop. Once construction is said and done. There will be carpool HOV-3 lanes on the beltway from Springfield interchange to north of Dulles Toll road (via Tysons Corner), congestion free network for buses, pedestrian and bike paths on the side. The work they do right now is replacing $260 million of aging infrastructure in addition to build four new lanes (2 in each direction), construction carpool ramps connecting I-95 with the beltway for seamless network.

There is a plan for southbound bridge, taking down the bridge in one weekend by shutting down Route 123 from Friday to Monday morning in the Fall of 2010. He said that by taking down the bridge, it saved you about six weeks of dealing with demolition. He says that they'll do some creative work around it. 

 
 View larger image of Virginia HOT lanes spring construction 2010 here.

There you have it on projects. In the word of Larry Cloyed 'enjoy mobility while you have it..'

We'll continue with employers, employees solutions that include commuter solutions, carpool incentives, NOW Mega Benefits program along with resources - and more..  tomorrow. 

So check back tomorrow.

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On a side note, I bumped into Dr. Gridlock from Washington Post. I think he's going to have a write up about this briefing, too. So check out his column over at Washington Post. 

images credit: Dulles corridor metrorail, Virginia mega projects

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Buying a House Using Walkability Score

The other day I posted Getting to Walkability presentation from DC office of Planning. It got me thinking that the same method can also be used by buyers. DC is using the walkability for different things related to planning, for transportation and neighborhood livability. I know from my days in the trenches, few of my buyers were looking for the walkability factor.

Personally, for me, the ability to walk to everything comes to reality, when we had the snowoverkill last January. After two days of home stay, I walked to the nearest store 7/11.. and you know what, we had lines. As crazy as it sounds, people were actually find comfort to know that their neighborhood's store is open.

Washington DC is number 7 out of 2,508 walkable neighborhoods in the nation. You can find walkers paradise or neighborhoods that have high score of walkability in DC. Out of perfect 100 score, these are best 10 walkable neighborhoods in DC: Dupont Circle (99), Logan Circle (98), Downtown (97-all points), U Street Corridor (97), Foggy Bottom (95), Mount Vernon Square (95), Adams Morgan (93), Kalorama (92)    , Friendship Heights (90) and Georgetown (90). Low on the list is Catholic U (61), Petworth (60), Foxhall Village (58), Berkley (54), Deanwood (49), The Palisades (48), Anacostia (48) and Barnaby Woods (44).

The walkable neighborhoods mostly concentrated in the District. Across the river, depending on where you want to buy - Arlington County, City of Alexandria and Falls Church - these neighborhoods offer somewhat walkable. Along the orange line, that stretch from Rosslyn to East- West Falls Church, they have some neighborhoods that have higher walkable score.

There's an advantage to living in walkable neighborhoods. You're within walking distance to shopping, transportation, parks, library and other neighborhood amenities. However, good location has something to do with home prices. The price per square footage will be higher.

Let's say, you are looking for a single home somewhere in Falls Church near zip code 22043, which is outside the boundary of the City of Falls Church. Using Homes Database, I picked these four single homes below. These four homes are somewhat comparable #1 and 2, #3 and 4.

House #1: 2003 Miracle Lane, list price $680,000

House #2: 6727 Montour Drive, list price $670,000

House #3: 6503 Orland Street, list price $649,000

House #4: 2400 Claremont Drive, list price $649,000

First thing you do is to enter the address of each of the home you're looking at to get the walk score here. Once done, it'll populated with information that can help you decide, i.e. metro station, stores, library, school, etc. - anything that's close by.

Here's what the score tells you:

• House #1: is totally car dependent. Score is 20 out of 100. The nearest 7/11 (in case of snow) is about 0.92 mi. 
• House #2: car dependent. Score 28. However, you're about half a mile walk to Orange line .
• House #3: car dependent. Better score 30. It's close to Haycock Elementary school, about half a mile. 
• House #4: still car dependent. Score 45. This one has the best score so far. Subway, Starbucks within half a mile. But away from a metro station. 

So now you decide, which one that best fits your needs.

SELLERS: you can also do the same - find the score - to give that extra kick on the value of your home.

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Get Paid to Carpool

Commuter connections is looking for participants for pilot project. They need 700 participants. Hey, you'll get up to $130 for three months just to carpool. Details here.

Smackdown: Fairfax vs. Montgomery county

In politics, this is what you call opposition research. By looking outside, Montgomery county assigned 2 staffs to do a comparative data report. (Because Fairfax "snatched" a couple of big businesses relocating to the area - I think Hilton is one of them- instead of Montgomery county). The report released by Office of Legislative Oversight Montgomery counties gives Fairfax county the bragging rights for the number of jobs, income, and crime rate. Though, Montgomery county is ahead in terms of percentage of land preserved for open space/ parkland. In terms of population, Fairfax has more population density per square miles, 2,570 persons/sq.mi vs. 1,912 persons/sq.mi for Montgomery.

Comparative data, via Office of Legislative Oversight Montgomery county.

                                                   Montgomery County                 Fairfax County

Land area                                     497 miles                                    395 miles

% of land preserve as open space    38%                                            15%

Population (2008)                         950,980 people                          1,015,302 people

Budget approved FY10                  $4.47 billion                                $4.34 billion

Expenditure per resident               $4,706                                       $4,316

Sources of revenue:

Property tax                                32%                                             57%

Income tax                                  27%                                            none

Other tax                                     7%                                               11%

All non tax revenue                      34%                                              32%

Tax rate:

Residential (per $100 assessed)  from $0.975 to $2.835                from $1.066 to $1.113

Commercial  - ditto                    from $0.975 to $2.835                from $1.176 to $1.443

No. of jobs  (2007)                     654,728                                       855,842

Unemployment                            5.2%                                            4.7%

Housing:

Total housing units                    365,083 units                                393,365 units

Median housing price ('08)         $489,400                                       $523,300

Foreclosure rate                        2.4%                                              3.3%   

Sure, jobs attracted more people to move to Fairfax. Fairfax has 200,000 more jobs than Montgomery! However, there's other things to consider when it comes to choosing where you want to live, work and play. Fairfax spend less per resident as oppose to Montgomery. On the other hand, taxes higher in Montgomery county than Fairfax. What about schools? Oh well.. you can continue digging in the data...       

Read full report, here.

Nearly $2 Billion for Region's High Speed Rail Funding

  

The $2 billion allocated for the region - Virginia, Maryland and mid-Atlantic states, which is part of the stimulus funds. However, Virginia didn't get the $1.8 billion it requested for the 19 high-speed rail projects from Petersburg to DC. $620 million slated for upgrading 480 miles of track in the Southeast corridor from Charlotte - Raleigh - Richmond - Washington DC. Maryland and DC gets the $1.2 billion for development along Northeast corridor, from DC to Boston.

Full story here.

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image: bullet train Shinkansen 500, Japan

Slugging to Washington DC

In case you haven't heard the term 'slugging,' the term refers to casual carpooling. No money exchange. The purpose is to use the I-95 HOV lane, so they get to DC faster. The slugging business even have its own website, slug-lines.com, where you can find information that you can think of about slugging there.

Though, these folks are total strangers, slugging is safe, according to Slug-Lines.

However, slugging is a very organized system with its own set of rules, proper etiquette, and specific pickup and drop-off locations.  It has thousands of vehicles at its disposal, moves thousands of commuters daily, and the best part, it’s FREE!

 

If there's no money exchange between the driver and the riders over in DC, in the other side of the world in place like Jakarta, Indonesia, the sluggers (acting as additional passengers) are 'actually' get paid to ride in the car. Since cost of labor is cheap. You'd see people lined up along busy streets leading up to the HOV-3 area, waiting to be picked up for a ride and make some money. So, slugging is use as a way to create jobs over there.

This clip below found explains about slugging in DC.

Slugging in Washington, DC from Stephen Weigand on Vimeo.