Ruthanna Emrys's Journal

Posted by Payton Chung (Editorial Board)

https://ggwash.org/view/64861/instant-neighborhoods-dont-make-great-cities-washington-dc-insists-on-them

In certain corners of DC, flocks of construction cranes are busy assembling dozens of apartment towers from scratch – while other neighborhoods look much the same as they have for decades. This imbalance is quietly undermining the character and continuity of DC's urban fabric by eroding the physical, economic, and social diversity within neighborhoods. Yet DC's planning policies explicitly encourage this pattern when they single out a few areas to develop all at once, while exempting other areas from growth.

There are subtle reasons why it's not a great idea to funnel all of the District's growth into just a few central-city areas. From an urban design standpoint, "instant neighborhoods" rarely have the visual or social diversity that many people enjoy about urban places. Great neighborhoods evolve as a mixed collage of uses, buildings, activities, and people over time – resulting not just in a more interesting place, but also a more enduring one.

One common complaint about areas like Southwest Waterfront, Crystal City, Golden Triangle, and even Capitol Riverfront is that they "look generic." They're filled with large, boxy buildings that were all built within a relatively short period of time, and thus responded to the real-estate market pressures of that one particular era. Suburban tracts filled with identical houses, whether in Olney or Bowie or Chantilly, face similar criticisms.

Large swatches of construction built at one time are inherently inefficient for sheltering wide ranges of cultural, population, and business diversity... It is hardly possible to expect that many really different types of dwellings or their buildings can be added at any one time... There are fashions in building. Behind the fashions lie economic and technological reasons, and these fashions exclude all but a few genuinely different possibilities in city dwelling construction at any one time... As soon as the range and number of variations in buildings decline, the diversity of population and enterprises is too apt to stay static or decline, instead of decreasing.

Even some of the Modernist architects whose work Jacobs abhorred shared her skepticism about applying redevelopment in sudden and sharp bursts. Cloethiel Woodard Smith, one of the chief architects of the Southwest Urban Renewal Area, echoed Jacobs' understanding of architectural fads, saying, "This whole business of a large-scale urban renewal program reflects a moment's thinking in time."

Our greatest neighborhoods grew up over time

By contrast, beloved urban neighborhoods like Old Town and Shaw evolved slowly, as generations of both small and large buildings layered over centuries into a fine-grained urban fabric. A mix of buildings of different sizes, uses, and ages display the eclectic handiwork of different architects, builders, and owners. This makes for a livelier experience than an area laid down by a handful of big firms. These mixed areas also turn out to be better at fostering the economic and social variation that defines great cities.

A diverse building stock also accommodates a fuller diversity of human activities, which ultimately turns out to be a significant economic strength, according to research from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In its "Older Smaller Better" report, since expanded into an "Atlas of Reurbanism," the Trust found that older neighborhoods had better economic performance across a range of factors: "The higher performance of areas containing small-scale buildings of mixed vintage suggests that successful districts evolve over time, adding and subtracting buildings incrementally, rather than comprehensively and all at once."

The report compared blocks that generally had smaller buildings of mixed ages to blocks that had larger and newer structures (a category that also includes both much of downtown and the single-family areas at DC's fringe). In DC, the report found that smaller, mixed-age blocks had 80 percent higher population density and 93 percent more jobs in small businesses – even though the larger/newer areas are home to most of the District's jobs.

Diverse buildings can more easily adapt over time

That same lack of building type diversity makes instant neighborhoods less resilient to change than more slowly developed neighborhoods just as a monoculture tree farm is less resistant to pests, drought, or fire than a biodiverse forest that's constantly regenerating itself. Jacobs writes:

Neighborhoods built up all at once change little physically over the years as a rule… The neighborhood shows a strange inability to update itself, enliven itself, repair itself, or to be sought after, out of choice, by a new generation. It is dead. Actually it was dead from birth, but nobody noticed this much until the corpse began to smell.

For example, Crystal City's forest of high-rise office buildings proved to be a convenient place to house the booming defense industry in the 1980s, but left the neighborhood highly vulnerable when the Pentagon decided to move its offices elsewhere. To fill that gap, local planners and developers want to fill in the area with different uses and smaller buildings.

A similar problem applies to housing: Just as people inexorably age, so do the neighborhoods they call home. All of the units under construction today necessarily respond to the demands of today's housing market, owing to what Jacobs called "fashions in building." In 2017, this means small high-rise apartments, aimed at young renters living in small households. These are certainly needed to house today's burgeoning population of singles, but may not be what the housing market demands 20 years from now – but by then, today's hot neighborhoods will be built out, and infill development of future housing types will be that much more difficult.

This "cohort effect" means that homogenous neighborhoods tend to rise and decline together, which is not a recipe for neighborhood stability. Currently, 42 percent of Capitol Riverfront residents are Millennials, almost twice the national rate. That makes sense, given that its apartment buildings began signing leases just as thousands of Millennials began moving to the District. The Millennials are the children of a previous demographic bulge, the baby boomers, whose attachment to their large suburban houses is also creating challenges for the communities where they live.

DC's comp plan tried to stop neighborhood evolution

If communities are better with mixed building ages, then why does DC build so many "instant neighborhoods"? That turns out to be exactly according to plan. The District's comprehensive plan set out to "encourage and facilitate new development" within 25 designated "Land Use Change Areas". Most of the rest of the city was designated as "Neighborhood Conservation Areas," where the plan "anticipated... maintenance of existing land uses and community character." In other words, their existing buildings will be joined by very few new buildings — and certainly no substantially different buildings. Perhaps not coincidentally, the homes of the most vocal citizens are usually slated for "conservation," rather than "land use change."

This policy keeps new buildings from refreshing the Neighborhood Conservation Areas to help them adapt to new circumstances, preventing their building stock from gaining diversity. This policy has also steered most new buildings to the Land Use Change Areas, many of which have seen so much new construction all at once that their building-stock age diversity has diminished as well.

Instead of bifurcating the city into lots-of-change and no-change areas, Jacobs urged that the built environment in both established and growing areas should gradually and continuously evolve:

Some of the old buildings, year by year, are replaced by new ones—or rehabilitated to a degree equivalent to replacement. Over the years there is, therefore, constantly a mixture of buildings of many ages and types... Densities should be raised—and new buildings introduced for this purpose—gradually rather than in some sudden, cataclysmic upheaval to be followed by nothing more for decades. The very process of increasing densities gradually but continually can result in increasing variety too, and thus can permit high ultimate densities without standardization.

A broader and more balanced approach to growth would accept that all neighborhoods – like the world around them and the people within them – are always going to change. It would make sure that all neighborhoods share the rewards and responsibilities of growth and change, including new and denser buildings. It would admit that no amount of intelligent design can ever match the beauty of evolution when it comes to creating a forest, or a neighborhood, or a city.

Top image: The Capitol Riverfront certainly fulfilled its designation as a Land Use Change Area. A more balanced approach might better encourage urban diversity. Image by the author.

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Posted by David Alpert (Founder)

https://ggwash.org/view/64863/which-dockless-bikeshare-mobike-limebike-spin-right-for-you

On Wednesday, September 20, DC three private, dockless bikeshare companies debuted in DC: Mobike, LimeBike, and Spin. A fourth, Jump, is launching Monday with electric-assist bikes. A group of GGWash contributors including Tony Goodman, Tracy Loh, and Canaan Merchant took the three already-launched services for a spin (or a mo? or a lime?). Here were our reactions:

How the bikes compare

• Gears: Mobike and Capital Bikeshare use 3-speed bikes. So are the LimeBikes I tried, but apparently some are 8-speed bikes. The 3-speed ones I rode are geared lower (not as fast) than the Mobike or CaBi bikes, so they're likely to be a bit better on hills but you'll mostly just be using gear 3 in flat areas.
  
  The Spin bikes, meanwhile, are single-speed. One speed might be okay in the flat central part of DC (but even there, I definitely missed the extra gears) but I doubt it'll fly in the hillier rest of the city. And if Arlington allows these, you'll need gears to get up those hills at Rosslyn (and others)!

• Construction: All of the bikes are heavier than most personal bikes but lighter than the rugged Capital Bikeshare bikes. It's too early to know how durable the bikes will be, but the general business model for the companies involves replacing them more often (2-5 years). I did already have some rides on all platforms where some bikes felt smooth and some weren't as smooth.
  
  The Mobikes are clearly more custom-engineered than the other dockless entrants. Instead of standard bicycle wheels with the net of metal spokes, Mobike wheels are a single piece of metal with 5 heavier spokes. Representatives say the method comes from automobile design and makes it unappealing to steal the wheels, since they won't work on other bikes. And Mobike puts most of its brake and shift lines inside the frame, so they're less likely to get cut. The Spin bikes, on the other end of the spectrum, had one line which snapped together and you could disconnect them easily. 

• Seats: Mobike and LimeBike have a lever in front of the seat you pull to lift it up and down. The LimeBike's mechanism has a spring, so it pops up easily but takes some force to push down. The number one complaint about the dockless bikes has come from tall riders. Neither of those two bike seats rise up high enough for people over about 6 foot to ride comfortably, and I heard secondhand of one very short person who said none of the seats go down quite far enough. So depending on your body type, you might find some or all to be infeasible or uncomfortable.
  
  Toby Sun, CEO of LimeBike, says this has been their number one type of feedback, and forthcoming bikes will have a different seat mechanism that can go higher. The Spin bikes have a standard quick release type seat. It does go higher, but to my surprise, you can pull the Spin bike's seat out completely. I hope that won't mean there will be a lot of seatless Spin bikes lying around! 

• Handlebars: The LimeBikes have more of a "beach cruiser" swept-back handlebar style. Capital Bikeshare, Mobike, and LimeBike all have a more upright design than most personal bikes people use for commuting; LimeBike puts the rider even more upright. Whether that's good or not will be a matter of personal preference.

• Baskets: All three bikes have four-sided wire baskets in front. Some contributors said they prefer that to the CaBi baskets, which only have two sides and require you to strap things in with the bungee cord. (Of course, that's better if you want to carry something long and thin!)
  
  The LimeBike baskets are slightly larger than the others, which Sun says is a selling point for their bikes. The Spin ones are a bit smaller, with Mobike in the middle. The Mobike basket has one bonus: a fold-out cup holder.

• Sounds: The bikes have an alarm which sounds if they're moved more than a few feet. Companies bill that as a tool to keep people from stealing them.
  
  The Spin one is really quiet, and wouldn't deter anything. Mobike's is louder but still doesn't play for that long; I'm not sure if that will really deter much. (Of course, if it went on for a long time, that could be annoying if someone just moves a bike that's in the way!)
  
  LimeBike's alarm is the most compelling: a voice actually says it will call the police if you move the bike. (I hope they didn't call the police when I moved one 3 feet to get a better picture!) They also play a little jingle when you unlock them. The first time, it's fairly long, and I was worried that it'd be super annoying, but it's short the rest of the time and kind of endearing.

How the apps and services compare

• Pricing: Mobike, LimeBike, and Spin all offer 30-minute rides for $1. Mobike and LimeBike (use code HELLODC for LimeBike) are offering free rides until the end of September. Single rides on Capital Bikeshare are $2 (though single rides make up less of CaBi's business model).
  
  Mobike requires you to put in some money (at least $1) to start using the app (and you have to put $1 on to get the free rides). LimeBike lets you sign up and take a free ride (even after September) without entering any credit card information, and Spin requires a credit card but you don't have to pre-pay.
  
  Mobike and LimeBike offer  discounts if you put more money on the account: for $5 you also get a free ride; $10, it's three free rides, and for $20, six.
   
• Memberships: Besides the single-ride charge, LimeBike and Spin offer monthly memberships for $29-$30 a month. (Compare that to Capital Bikeshare's $85 annual membership; $30 a month comes to $360 a year or over four times the price.) 
  
  Mobike doesn't have memberships, but it has a "points" system where you earn points for taking rides, reporting broken bikes or bikes parked in bad spots, or inviting other people. But if you do bad things like "abandoning the bike when intercepted by police," you lose points. The wording suggests you can get cheaper rides if you have a higher score, but it doesn't specify if that's happening now or what discount you get.

• Payment: All of the apps take regular credit cards. Spin takes ApplePay as well, while the other two do not.
   
• User interface: The Mobike app also feels more spartan in its verbosity and a little clunkier in some subtle ways. For instance, my Wi-Fi was flaky, and when I, say, clicked the button to add money, it just did nothing; when I turned off Wi-Fi, it worked fine. But basically, the apps are about the same. Some people have reported trouble getting the apps to show the bikes. I've noticed there tends to be a lag between loading the map and the bikes appearing, but none of the apps show an icon telling you it's still loading, so you might not know if there are no bikes or just no data yet.
   
• Privacy: The Mobike and LimeBike apps initially seem to require that you give them permission to track you even when you're not using the app, at least on iPhones. If you say "no" to the prompt to let it have your location even when not using the app, then the map won't scroll to your area.
  
  For any app, is a bad privacy practice which Uber just abandoned after forcing it on users earlier this year. But actually, you can set them to only see your location when using the app (a better setting): for iPhones, go to Settings, Privacy, Location Services, then pick the app and set Allow Location Access to While Using the App. Then it works fine.
   
• Geofencing: You're not supposed to lock up the bikes on National Park Service land, like the Mall, or outside DC. I was able to do it anyway on both Mobike and LimeBike, the only two I tried doing this for. The Mobike app shows a boundary around DC excluding the Mall and related federal lands, while the other apps don't have the line. But the line doesn't appear to have actual functional effect.

It seems some LimeBikes, at least, have already been spotted on the wrong side of the Potomac:

According to Sun, the LimeBike CEO, rather than having the software prohibit locking in the wrong place, they instead just will send a rebalancing crew to remove bikes that are parked where they shouldn't be. They sent one to pick up these bikes in Arlington, for instance.

Needed: A single app

I installed all three apps on my phone, but it's annoying to switch between them just to see which company has a bike near where I am. There's an open data standard, called GBFS (General Bikeshare Feed Specification), inspired by the similar GTFS standard for transit which lets all kinds of apps tell you what transit lines are near you and when the vehicles will arrive.

So far, the companies do not support GBFS, but representatives for some of them said they are considering it. If the companies did support GBFS (either because they choose to or because regulations require it, which they should), you'd still have to open that company's app to reserve and pay, but at least you'd be able to find the nearest bike on a single app, or maybe a TransitScreen. And, researchers could analyze things like which services have good availability in various parts of the city.

16 feet is a lot when you're looking for a bike

I found myself wandering around the intersection of 15th and K for a while, where the Mobike app clearly showed a bike (it appeared literally in the middle of K Street, where it definitely was not). I never found that one, actually, but ended up at a different cluster a block or so away. The app lets you make the bike "ring," but if it did, I certainly couldn't hear it over the truck, car, cafe, and construction noise at a bustling downtown spot like that.

All of the services deal with this problem, because GPS is only precise to 16 feet. CaBi stations are big, and hard to miss. A single bike, if you just know it's somewhere on one side of the street or the other along the block, can be a tricky game of "find that bike."

Rebalancing?

The permit to operate in DC requires all of the dockless systems to have bikes in all wards of the city. LimeBikes are now all over, while the other two still seem to be concentrated in the central part of DC, and as of Monday morning I can't find any Mobikes or Spin bikes east of the Anacostia (or in upper northwest or northeast).

It's still early, but this is something to watch. 

CaBi still matters

Ironically, on launch day I passed a Capital Bikeshare bike just parked on the sidewalk as if it were a dockless bike. Sorry, CaBi bikes didn't all turn dockless.

CaBi isn't yet going to disappear. As above, if you're a frequent user, the $85 annual unlimited membership can be a great deal (ride more than once every 4.3 days and you save money over the dockless companies' per-ride charge). CaBi might have to drop its $2 single-trip price, though.

CaBi is still the only operator in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Montgomery County, and soon Prince George's County and the City or Fairfax. And while it's still too early to really know, there still aren't a lot of dockless bikes in low-density parts of the city.

What have your experiences been? I'll also be trying electric bike service Jump soon and will post my thoughts.

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https://ggwash.org/view/64863/which-dockless-bikeshare-mobike-limebike-spin-right-for-you

Posted by Matt Gontarchick (Contributor)

https://ggwash.org/view/64906/breakfast-links-future-of-washington-region-economy-depends-on-better-transportation

Greater Washington’s economic future depends on better transportation

A recently-formed group of local business executives say the Washington region is lagging behind other large metropolitan areas in a few key indicators. They say transportation networks must improve for the region to stay competitive.  (Robert McCartney / Post)

Curbing gentrification in Anacostia with a community land trust

Some worry that opening the 11th Street Bridge Park in 2019 will spark huge increases in Anacostia's property values. The park's creators have established a community land trust that is already purchasing land parcels to help keep homes affordable.  (Mary Hui / Post)

High-speed ferry system could ease regional congestion

A proposed high-speed ferry system that would connect the District to Prince William County could ease congestion in the region, offering commuters an alternative to jammed roadways and packed train cars.  (Luz Lazo / Post)

Businesses in Purple Line’s path say compensation is insufficient

Business in the path of the future Purple Line say that the $60,000-maximum compensation package that Maryland offers comes nowhere near recouping relocation costs.  Many business owners are immigrants without a financial safety net.  (Katherine Shaver / Post)

The region isn’t cooperating on Amazon’s HQ2, other issues

Hope that the region's jurisdictions would come together in a joint bid for Amazon's second headquarters has largely faded away. It's a sign of a persistent trend against cross-jurisdictional unity that makes it difficult to address critical regional issues like Metro funding.  (Aaron Gregg / Post)

Montgomery makes a “sober” bid for Amazon’s HQ2

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett says the county would be a great pick for Amazon's second headquarters due to its educated workforce and transit network. Leggett also mentioned Shady Grove, White Flint, White Oak and Rock Spring as potential sites.  (Andrew Metcalf / Bethesda Beat)

Selling a skeptical public on more housing

Putting a human face on the effects of a restricted housing supply and communicating its impact on local businesses could help address housing shortages, argued GGWash's David Whitehead at a recent panel discussion.  (Jeremy Harper / Urban Land)

App scores cities by car-free friendliness

A new app called MobilityScore helps users understand how easy it is to get around without a car. It breaks down transit options available within a one-mile radius of any given location and gives a score ranging from zero (no mobility choices) to 100 (excellent mobility choices).  (Eillie Anzilotti / Fast Company)

Hogan’s highway widening might worsen congestion

Smart growth advocates are unhappy with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's plan to widen the region's major highways and introduce HOT lanes because it will only make congestion worse. State officials say bus and rail system don't go far enough to address traffic problems.  (Martin Di Caro / WAMU)

Bowser announces bid for a second term

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced her bid for reelection in 2018, pledging to ensure that all District residents benefit from the city's economic prosperity and touting gains in affordable housing. She has no opponents to date.  (Peter Jamison / Post)

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