Washington DC’s Vision Zero Problem:

The Case of the SuperFresh Site Development near Spring Valley Shopping Center

Walking around the future construction site, the representatives of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) including the new director, Jeff Marootian, got a firsthand view of the alleys in which pedestrians, cars, and trucks would mix together in unsafe numbers. The representatives of DDOT listened and were very friendly, but in the end, they stated that alleys are meant to service buildings and not pedestrians. This, in a nutshell, is the District’s Vision Zero problem. When push comes to shove, vehicles are favored over pedestrians, even in alleyways. Although DDOT has an active pedestrian and bicycle unit, the regular staff still are not incorporating a mobility focus consistently into their more general work.

Measuring the Business Benefits of New, Improved or Extended Bicycle Trails

The value of new bicycle trails is often underestimated in terms of overall benefits, but this is particularly true for business generation. The lack of admission fees to directly measure the willingness to pay for new or improved trails means that it is not easy to measure business benefits of such trails. This is not a new issue and parallel difficulties in valuing public parks and other community venues. Standard techniques have been developed for measuring the willingness to pay for the benefits of public trails and greenspace (McConnell and Walls 2006; Krizek 2006). Although there are established ways to measure general benefits such as increase in home value, the measurement of benefits for local businesses has been less common. This article concentrates on ways to measure the business benefits of trails or trail improvements.

Gender Equity is an Issue for the Transform I-66 Trail Design

The main beneficiaries of the currently proposed Transform I-66 bicycle and pedestrian trail will be male bicyclists who feel comfortable riding near or in traffic. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) should build a trail that will be popular among a wider variety of bicyclists and pedestrians. This would then expand the benefits of Virginia’s investment in the trail.

The Lost Benefits of the Transform I-66 Multi-Use Trail

The widening of the I-66 Corridor in Virginia just north and west of Washington, DC offers the rare opportunity to finance a state of the art bicycle and pedestrian trail for commuters interested in getting to work, for children going to school and for casual riders wanting to get from one neighborhood to another. The Transform I-66 project will cost the state and private investors $3 billion, so sufficient funds are available to have a state of the art bicycle facility that does not detract from the main goal of the project, which is to widen and improve the I-66 corridor outside of the Washington, DC beltway. Unfortunately, the design of many parts of the trail means that for bicyclists and pedestrians the project will not be transformative.

The Legacy Trail Extension in Sarasota, Florida Will Be Worth nearly $200 Million

Recently I have completed a study of the costs and benefits of extending a new portion of a $58 million bicycle rails to trails project into downtown Sarasota, Florida. Despite high costs, this project—an extension of the existing Legacy Trail—is conservatively estimated to have just over $195 million of benefits for Sarasota County. This is an economic net gain of over $137 million for the county. The conclusion is that this public outlay for bicycle infrastructure should have benefits for Sarasota County that are well worth the investments.

Bicycle Climbing Lanes: Are They Useful Bicycle Infrastructure or Just Cheap?

Many cities are installing climbing lanes in an attempt to expand bicycle infrastructure. A climbing lane generally is a 5 foot wide painted lane beside a curb or parked cars for bicycles travelling uphill slower than normal traffic. Bicycles moving in the other direction (downhill) will be going faster, so they do not require a special lane. They can keep up with traffic and can share the lane with cars. This at least is the argument. The question is whether or not climbing lanes are useful for bicyclists or are they just a way for cities and municipalities to claim progress for improving bicycle infrastructure without serious investment?

A Primer on the Value of Bicycle Trails and Greenways

During my early work years I commuted braving the streets of Washington, DC, weaving in and out of buses, cars and taxis. Then in the 1990s the Capital Crescent Trail was completed from Bethesda to Georgetown (see Tunnel image above). This meant that I could avoid traffic for 5 miles from my home to downtown Georgetown before riding the last mile on city streets to the World Bank.

Now that I am retired, I ride extensively and both for pleasure and fitness on the Capital Crescent Trail, the C&O Canal towpath in Washington, DC and the Legacy Trail in Venice and Sarasota Florida. My experience over many years--first adventure, then commuting and now riding for pleasure and health--is that these trails provide significant value in terms of safety, convenience and beauty. They also benefit the environment. I would definitely be willing to pay more in taxes for quality pedestrian and bicycle trails, not just for my own use, but also for the vibrancy they add to my community.

I am not alone. People generally think highly of bicycle and pedestrian trails. One survey in Florida finds that 95% of bicyclists and even 85% of non-bicyclists agreed that good facilities add value to their communities (Winters, Hagelin and Avery 2004). There are some good reasons for this. Trails encourage participation in healthy and enjoyable activities such as walking and riding a bike. Greenspace corridors with trails help the environment by providing habitat for local species and reducing water runoff. Tourists are attracted to bicycle byways resulting in local hotel stays and food purchases. If located in urban areas, trails with few road crossing become bicycle highways allowing locals to shed their cars and commute to work on bikes.

Trying to value of the benefits of such trails is difficult because in most cases no admission fees are charged for entering trails. Complicating matter even further, all bicycle trails are not created equal. For instance, the Pinellas Trail that starts in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida is a protected bike lane with no surrounding greenspace. The same trail changes dramatically over the course of the next 40 miles as it heads towards Tarpon Springs. The over 25 year old trail goes through parks and rises over busy highways on dedicated bridges. At points it has two paths, one for bicyclists and one for pedestrians. The Allegheny Passage is a 150 mile trail that runs from downtown Pittsburgh up and over the Allegheny Mountains and down into Cumberland Maryland. It changes from an urban trail to one that passes through some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.

The characteristics of the neighborhoods surrounding trails seem to make a big difference in terms their desirability and consequently their value (Nichols and Crompton 2005; Anderson and West 2006). Sometimes it is even necessary to evaluate separate parts of trails to accurately assess their economic and social benefits.

Because bicycles trails don’t charge fees, measuring the monetary value of a trail has to be done in more indirect ways. This isn’t a new issue in economics. There are some established economic techniques to measure the value of public trails (and roads and parks) which don’t charge admission.

Different Ways to Measure Benefits of Trails

Several studies have tackled the issue of how to measure the benefits of bicycle trails. One in particular stands out in providing a nice framework for measuring the benefits of bicycle and pedestrian trails (Lindsey et al. 2004). This study of trails in Indianapolis focuses on real estate values, but also describes other benefits of trails such as improved health, reduction in traffic, improvement in the environment and increased tourism (Table 1).

Not all benefits need to be measured in every single study. In fact, most academic studies concentrate on one or two benefit categories. Benefit consultant reports tend to be more comprehensive examining all the hardest to measure benefits. A good example is an economic report on the Miami Underline Trail that measures the monetary value of construction, park operations, existing real estate value and new development. The report also discussed tourism and environmental benefits, but it does not analyze them in detail.

A good strategy is to concentrate on the main expected benefits of a new trail given its location, quality and characteristics. A trail cutting through a wheat field is unlikely to raise real estate values, but a green corridor going through a residential area probably will have an impact. An urban path may bring more traffic to local businesses and may draw people out of their cars for commuting to work. The characteristics of trails along with their locations greatly impact which category of benefits are most important.

Surveys generally are necessary in order to quantify the benefits of trails. This might include a formal study of real estate prices, a survey of rider and pedestrians using the trail or interviews with local business owners concerning customers that come from the trail.

Caveats for Measuring Benefits of Trails

Care should be taken when using different techniques for measuring the benefits of trails and bike paths. Sometimes the techniques and measures overlap and this can result in double counting of benefits. For instance, the health benefits of trails may be the reason people desire to live near a trail. They want to be close to a trail to facilitate their exercise. Thus, the rise in real estate values may already reflect at least part of the health benefits of a trail.

Some methods for measuring trail benefits are easier than others. A number of data sources are available for measuring increases in real estate prices surrounding trails. This includes tax records and real estate pricing sites. However, modeling of the real estate prices is a bit complicated. To estimate the impact of trails on real estate prices it is necessary to control for such factors as size of home, number of rooms, number of bathrooms, quality of local schools and others variables that can impact price. Also, the price increase must specifically be attributed to the creation or existence of a trail. This can be measured either by examining the value of homes before and after the trail is built or through statistical techniques that control for factors that impact home values.

The increase in tourism generated by trails will result in additional local income. To get the details right, surveys are necessary to estimate spending due to a trail. This would involve estimating the addition number of hotel stays and spending on food. Questions are necessary identifying those who traveled from a distance to ride on the trail. It is not enough to just count trail users because many may be local riders.

The contingent valuation method listed the table is not easy to implement. Contingent valuation surveys show random samples of people different types of scenarios (pictures of before and after a trial such as figure 1). Then the same people are asked how much they would be willing to pay per year or month for the change. This sample also should have different strata for those who live near and distant from the trail or greenway corridor. The benefits can be estimated by the number of people that are represented by the sample.

Future Extension and Existing Legacy Trail, Sarasota Florida

(Photos: Doug Barnes and Cardno 2014)

The caveats are important, but they are not insurmountable. For each trail situation a good strategy is to identify the key benefits and then delve more deeply into them. For instance, a trail running through a suburban area is likely to have a significant impact on real estate values, but one running by forests or farmland probably will have marginal impact on land prices. A trail running through an already existing state park or forest area is likely to have little environmental impact, but one in an urban area may contribute significantly to reduced water runoff and species preservation.

In later posts I will be dealing more specifically with each of the benefits that can result from trials or greenways. This includes increase in real estate values, health benefits, business and tourism.

As the links become available I will post them here. In the meantime, you can sign up to receive of new post through the link at the bottom of this posts.

References

Anderson, Soren and Sarah West. 2006 “Open space, residential property values, and spatial context.” Regional Science and Urban Economics. 36: 773–789.

Cardno, Inc. 2014. Legacy Trail Extension Feasibility Study, Sarasota, Florida. Report prepared for the Sarasota County government and financed by Friends of the Legacy Trail, Sarasota, Florida.

HR & A, Advisors, Inc. 2015. Creating Value Through Open Space: The Economic Impacts of The Underline. Report prepared for Friends of the Underline, Miami, Florida.

Lindsey G, J. Man, S. Payton, and K. Dickson. 2004. “Property values, recreation values, and urban greenways” Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration 22(3):69–90.

Nichols, Sarah and John Crompton. 2005. “The impact of greenways on property values: Evidence from Austin, Texas.” Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 321-341.

Winters, P, C. Hagelin and J. Avery. 2004. Statewide Survey on Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities. Report Prepared for Florida Department of Transportation Safety Office, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

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Financing Bicycle Infrastructure: The Case of the Legacy Trail Extension

Oscar Scherer Park Near Legacy Trail

With a feeling of common purpose, I’m sitting amongst a sea of yellow in the first-floor meeting room in Sarasota County Administration building in Florida. The call by the Friends of the Legacy Trail and the local bicycle organizations to attend the February 15, 2017 meeting is an overwhelming success. Not only are there about 100 supporters of the extension of the Legacy Trail in the room, but 300 sent emails and many others made phone calls. The call to action was issued because of the possibility of a 2-year delay in the financing of the Legacy Trail Extension to Sarasota.

Looking down on all the yellow shirts, the commissioners clearly get the message. Commissioner Alan Maio near the end of the meeting declares something to the effect that, “I suppose I shouldn’t say this, but please don’t send any more emails. There were 300 of them and we had to read them all.” Afterward, he mused that he was happy that only three of them were not very polite. The implication is that the commissioners are already on board with the Legacy Trail Extension Project.

Bump in the Road towards the Legacy Trail Extension

The support by the commissioners is not really surprising given that the Legacy Trail Extension will have many benefits for Sarasota County and Sarasota city in particular. In fact, past studies on the benefits of trails have concluded they are among the most popular public park facilities that can be funded by government agencies. The connection with the existing Legacy Trail (considered a sunk or already paid for cost) will benefit the economics of a new trail extension. Connecting the existing Legacy Trail to a major population center means it likely will become a major commuting route. The new extension will cut through areas with more commercial activity, so this should help business development. Property values will rise along the new trail as people want to move closer to it for both recreational and commuting purposes. Thus, the public and country commissioners support the project and the potential benefits of the trail are quite high. So what is the problem?

End of Legacy Trail and Beginning of New Extension, Sarasota, FL
Photo by Doug Barnes

The bump in the road-or more aptly the trail-no doubt was caused by sticker shock. At the February 15, 2017 meeting the commissioners revealed that a contract (a letter of intent that is legally binding) had been signed for $38 million by Trust for Public Land to purchase the land corridor owned by CSX Corporation. Eventually, this land will be turned over to Sarasota County. In addition, it is estimated that construction will be about $15 million. Although this would be a small part of the county’s 1 billion dollar budget, it is a lumpy investment. Dealing with major initial expenses whose benefits will trickle in over a long period of time is always a problem for infrastructure projects and the reason why they are often financed by loans or bonds.

Extending the Capital Crescent Trail in Washington, DC

My experience with such trails is to a large extent based on a trail I ride on every week when I’m home in Washington, DC. Similar to the future Legacy Trail Extension, the Capital Crescent Trail runs from Bethesda to Georgetown through the heart of Washington DC. This trail is now over 25 years old and has become a major commuting route for bicyclists. The number of annual riders now exceeds 1 million. Because it was created over 25 years ago it is not nearly as well designed as the Legacy Trail. At 10 feet wide (compared to Legacy Trail 12 feet) and with pavement cracks caused by tree roots, it is clearly in need of resurfacing. For anyone interested I have written a short history of the trail for this site.

Capital Crescent Trail, Potomac River and a distant Washington Monument
Photo by Doug Barnes

The fact that this major bicycle artery into Washington, DC even exists is a miracle. The trail is in two jurisdictions: Montgomery County and the District of Columbia. An article in Bethesda Magazine gives a short history of the project.

In 1988, Montgomery County purchased the right-of-way from the D.C. line to Silver Spring under the National Trails Systems Act. Two years later, the National Park Service purchased the other portion of the right-of-way, stretching from the Maryland-D.C. border to Georgetown. The 7-mile trail from Bethesda to Georgetown was paved with private and public funds, and was formally dedicated in 1996. 

The National Park Service which owns quite a bit of land in the District (i.e., Capital Mall, Rock Creek Park, and C&O Canal) stepped forward to purchase the land in Washington, DC. Montgomery County and the National Park Service each had to pay about 10-12 million for land acquisition. This would be much higher in today’s dollars.

All this wheeling and dealing was coordinated by the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail. Today after over 25 years the existing trail is finally to be extended into Silver Spring, Maryland. An extension of that trail is planned pending approval of a controversial Purple Line light rail from Silver Spring to Bethesda. For years this unpaved route has been called the Capital Crescent Interim Trail. Under the new project, the bike path will be completed and paved all the way to Silver Spring at a cost of $90 million paid mostly by Montgomery County.

Funding Bicycle Transportation Infrastructure

Sitting in a sea of yellow at the county commissioner’s meeting on the trail I’m struck by a larger issue. Why does it take mobilization of bicycle-friendly groups such as the Friends of the Legacy Trail or the Coalition for the Capital Crescent for bicycle projects to be funded? Shouldn’t the department of transportation or public works (either city, county, or state) have public funds available for such local projects? The answer to this question is that progress is being made all across the country on financing local bicycle infrastructure, but unfortunately, we still have a long way to go.

County Commissioners Meeting on Legacy Trail Extension
Photo by Friends of Legacy Trail

Full credit should go to the local bicycle organizations such as the Friends of the Legacy Trail for filling the gap in financing local bicycle infrastructure projects and advocating for the right projects in Sarasota County. The recent wave of yellow at the county commissioners may have avoided a possible delay, or even cancellation, of the Legacy Trail Extension project. As it stands now, the county would be crazy to void an existing contract that apparently is 15% under the appraised value of the land. Keeping together this land also is a unique opportunity for promoting recreation and commercial development of areas near the trail. Integrated into new multimode traffic planning models it also would lead to a reduction in the commuting traffic clogging city streets in Sarasota.

With $20 million due for the purchase of the right of way in December 2017, there is more work to be done. The next step is to figure out how to raise the money for the extension of the Legacy Trail. In addition, it is important to consider how to make more bicycle infrastructure as a more serious part of state, county, and city budgets. Safer and better bicycle infrastructure in Sarasota County would surely make bicycling as common as walking down a city street or driving a car to the local store. It’s a complementary activity that should part and parcel of infrastructure development, rather than an add-on competition for city or county funds.

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Importance of the Legacy Trail Bicycle Bridge in Venice, Florida

I'm adjusting the seat of my bike at the side of the Legacy Trail near Venice, Florida, and I notice near 80 year old woman unsuccessfully wobbling up the bridge on her bicycle. One-half way up the bridged her bicycle begins to wobble and she comes to an unsteady halt. She turns around and comes back down and stops right beside me to adjust her helmet. The new bridge rises over the Route 41 bypass highway (Tamiami Trail). This bridge is the only "hill" on the entire trail. She looks over sheepishly.

"I guess I'll need more of a run up to climb over that bridge."

I say, "Nothing wrong with that. How's the trail? It's our first time riding it."

"This's really a beautiful trail and it's nice to get out in the air for some exercise. Except for this bridge it's flat and straight. The trail has a few crossings, but it's safe. Sometimes I have trouble getting up and over this bridge. I don't like pushing my bicycling uphill, so I'll need a running start."

Unlocking Bicycle Neighborhoods in Washington, DC

(Photo: Doug Barnes)

I braced myself as I saw another article on bicycling in the Washington Post. I was expecting press coverage of bicycling akin to what I have documented in a previous article. In separate opinions Washington Post columnists didn’t want to see bicycles either on city streets or on its sidewalks. I guess that means bikes and their riders should float like angels above the traffic leaving the roads and walkways to cars and pedestrians.

A Changing Narrative: Connecting Bicycle Neighborhoods

But finally in a January 2017 article the Washington Post began to catch up with the bicycle boom. The title of this article asked the question, “Is biking stressing you out? Here’s how planners are trying to make things better.” The article has a clear pro-bicycle tone, and makes the point that it's important to connect neighborhoods severed by major thoroughfares. Another article gave guidance on how to get around by bike on for events at the inauguration day of Donald Trump. This news column from Dr. Gridlock had the headline “Biking is a good option for inauguration and the Women’s March, but there will be challenges.” It was nice to see some positive press coverage by the Washington Post.

The Bicycle-Traffic Conundrum in Washington, DC

A local wave of indignation against bicyclists spread across Washington, DC after the local NBC station reported that over 1,500 bicycles in DC had tripped red traffic light cameras with impunity over the past year. This follows a flurry of comments two years ago when Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy called bicyclists bullies and later wrote bicyclists should be banned from the city center. Just before that Washington Post writer John Kelly asked bicyclists to please stop riding on my sidewalk, a plea that was repeated in 2016 by Frederick Kunkle. To be fair Washington Post reporter Ashley Halsey pleaded for toned down the coverage of poor bicycle behavior. A recent article by Kunkle with the provocative headlines that bicycles blow through red light cameras actually is a balanced report of the views of AAA and the Washington Area Bicycle Association.