App cuts double parking by delivery drivers in DC

Like many cities, Washington, DC, has a problem with double parking and delivery vehicles blocking crosswalks and bus and bike lanes. One experiment in curb management showed good results during its trial run from August to October. Using the curbFlow app, delivery drivers can book an appointment for a loading zone up to 30-minutes in advance. Double parking and illegal U-turns went down 64 percent in the nine zones where it was tried. Delivery drivers like it as well, as they reported that they received fewer parking tickets and avoided circling the block looking for a legal spot.

More evidence that TNCs are clogging downtown streets (and what NYC is doing about it)

In August, Uber and Lyft jointly released an analysis conducted by Fehr & Peers examining how their vehicles are contributing to VMT in six major cities: Boston, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The study found that Uber and Lyft vehicles account for just 1-3 percent of total VMT in the metro regions. However, they are contributing a significantly larger share in the core counties of several of these regions.

Washington, DC, improves parking and traffic with “asset-lite” pricing program

Washington, DC, just released the results from its four-year pilot program, parkDC, which applied dynamic pricing for on-street parking in Penn Quarter and Chinatown. Based on its success, the city is now working to expand the program beyond the pilot area. The program, which built upon the earlier success of those like San Francisco’s SFpark, achieved similar results with fewer resources.

How land use and access to transit impact taxi demand

Significant research and debate in recent years have surrounded the impacts of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft on transportation systems: whether they reduce the need for personal vehicles, how they contribute to or reduce congestion, and how they impact transit ridership. A recent study published in the Journal of Transport Geography may help shed further light on some of these questions by examining taxi demand and its correlation to land use patterns and access to other travel modes in the Washington D.C. region. As the researchers point out, despite the significant growth of on-demand ride-hailing service providers like Uber and Lyft, taxis remain a key asset for urban mobility that can either complement or compete with other modes.

Transit: If you build it wrong, they might not come

Both the San Diego Mid-City BRT line and the DC-area Silver Line Metro are struggling with lower than expected ridership. Recent news coverage points out that both lines may suffer from poor implementation. The disappointing usage may hold lessons for other cities considering ambitious new transit services. Walkability in Tysons Corner, VA, and reliability in San Diego are hampering transit use.

Bike share both reduces use of other modes and induces new trip-making

The bike sharing system in Washington, DC has gathered and analyzed travel data about members’ usage of both the system bicycles and other travel modes. Evidence on mode choice comes from user surveys. It is intuitive to suspect that the emergence of a new mode would both substitute for other modes and induce new travel. And that is what the Capital Bikeshare survey finds.