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Assessment of Community Planning for Mass Transit: Volume

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Assessment of Community Planning for Mass Transit: Volume Critical History of Transit Planning and Decisionmaking The following history covers the decisionmaking extent the Metro system grew out of a determined process for Washington’s Metro rapid rail system effort by civic-minded Washingtonians to stop new from its beginning in the 1950’s to the present day. freeway construction. The system’s purpose was to The discussion centers around three key decisions: reduce auto trips between suburbs and downtown, (1) studies leading to the decision to study rail primarily to benefit those parts of Washington that transit in 1960, (2) planning for selection of a would have been destroyed to make room for new specific system, concluding in 1968, and (3) highway routes and parking garages. The system evolution of the financial commitment that allowed was not designed specifically to help downtown construction to begin. The narrative ends with a business or to make commuting from the suburbs status report on the debate over how to pay for easier. Most downtown business interests sup- completion of the system. ported Metro only as part of a “balanced” transpor- tation system. Inner city interests have influenced Although the history focuses on the evolution of the system design only since it was officially formal decisionmaking, it also briefly explains the adopted. Metro planners extended the system to political context of Metro planning. To a great the suburbs to get maximum patronage, yet Public oppostion to new urban highways was a major stimulus to Metro rail transit in Washington, D.C. 66-889 0 -76-3 9 suburban commuters would have been equally or Metropolitan Area Transportation Study,5 which better served by new highways. Suburban jurisdic- was a cooperative effort of area highway tions supported Metro in part because they had to departments begun in 1948. Partly in response to spend relatively little to get it. this public concern about the implications of growth, Congress in 1952 created two comprehen- sive planning bodies to help guide development. The National Capital Planning Commission DECISION TO STUDY TRANSIT (NCPC) and the National Capital Regional Plan- ning Council (NCRPC) were instructed to prepare This section covers the period of transit planning comprehensive plans for the capital city and for the ending in 1960 when Congress created an agency to region that would include plans for the movement plan a rail system for Washington. A collage of goods and people. b NCPC concluded later that assembled by WMATA shows headlines from year that more detailed information was needed Washington newspapers dating back to a 1909 Post before an adequate mass transportation plan could feature story called “Why Not a Real Subway be developed. Congress waited until 1955 to oblige System for Washington?” Rapid transit was with a $400,000 grant for the two planning alternatively supported and discouraged in various agencies to conduct a survey of present and future public plans over the years, but it was not until 1952 mass transportation needs.7 that Congress authorized a special study of transportation needs in the national capital area. The Transportation Plan—National Congressional funding for this Mass Transporta- Capital Region of 1959 tion Survey was finally granted in 1955. The NCPC and NCRCP appointed a Joint Steering survey’s 1959 Mass Transportation Plan roughly Committee to oversee the Mass Transportation outlined a network of new freeways with busways Survey, created an advisory committee of transpor- and two basic rapid rail routes, along with tation experts, hired a director and a small staff, and organizational alternatives for carrying on the commissioned studies by a number of consultants. planning effort. Congress quickly acted to create a The most influential member of the group was Federal agency to take the next steps. Harland Bartholomew, chairman of NCPC and a member of the Joint Steering Committee of the Early Studies survey, who was a strong believer in rail transit. He was also a strong believer in the merits of objective Serious discussion about the possible need for study, and he expanded the scope of the survey rapid transit appears to have been motivated by the beyond “mass transportation” needs to include the surge in population, its spread into the suburbs, and appropriate role of the private automobile. The rising automobile ownership in the late 1940’s and goals of the survey, as he articulated them, were to early 1950’s. make a “profound effort to ascertain the relative A study published in 19444 recommended a 7.1- scope and function of the automobile, the bus, the mile system of streetcar subways to augment the streetcar, rapid transit, and other newer concepts surface network but concluded that rapid transit of transportation” and plan accordingly to provide was not likely to become necessary in a city with adequate future transportation in the national such a low population density. However, the report capital region. suggested the subway tunnels could be modified to The study presented a multimodal orientation. A hold rapid rail trains if future conditions mandated. general development plan was created; an economic The real catalyst for rapid transit planning in the base study prepared; alternatives selected, tested, Washington area was the spectre of traffic conges- and packaged into a recommended system; and a tion raised by several reports on regional transpor- financing and organization study conducted, tation needs published by the Washington 5 See “A Recommended Highway Improvement Program,” Washington Area Metropolitan Transportation Study, 1952. 4 Transportation Survey and Plan for the Central Area of Washington, 6 Public Law 592 (66 Stat. 781), National Capital Planning Act D. C., J. E. Greiner Co. and DeLeuw, Cather & Co. in cooperation of 1952, amending the Act of June 6, 1924 (43 Stat. 463) as with the District of Columbia Department of Highways; the amended. D.C. Department of Vehicles and Traffic; and the Public Roads 7 Public Law 84-24 (69 Stat. 33), Second Supplemental Administration, Federal Public Works Agency, 1944. Appropriations Act of 1955. 10 Altogether 10 consultant firms were involved, and DECISION ON SYSTEM SELECTION the result was the Transportation Plan—National Capital Region, transmitted to Congress by the 8 The basic configuration of Washington’s regional President on July 10, 1959. rapid rail system was determined by National Capital Transportation Agency (NCTA), the The 1959 plan recommended a major highway Federal agency created by Congress to undertake building program along with both rail and bus transit planning in 1960. In short, NCTA proposed transit. It called for 248 miles of new freeways, 80 a regional transit system whose 25-mile core was miles of which had not appeared on earlier plans, at authorized by Congress in 1965. Shortly a cost of $1.8 billion. Another $86 million was afterwards, the jurisdictions of the region succeed- earmarked for express bus operations. A 33-mile ed in formalizing an interstate compact organiza- rail system, half in subway, was estimated to cost tion. This organization, called the Washington $476 million. Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), began a technical evaluation process in early 1967 The proposed plan was the subject of Con- that led to the adoption, in March 1968, of the 98- 9 gressional hearings, where it met with generally mile Regional Metro System. favorable comment. However, the discussion contained elements of all the issues that would be The National Capital Transportation Agency’s argued over the coming decade: in particular, the November 1, 1962, Report to the President relative appropriateness and feasibility of highway The proposals of the NCTA generated far more transportation versus rapid rail, the role of the intense controversy than the earlier findings of the Federal Government versus private enterprise in Mass Transportation Survey. The debate was transit development, and the need to forge regional grounded in the ongoing argument over where and cooperation in transportation planning. how many new freeways ought to be built to serve the District and surrounding areas. The NCTA The Joint Committee decided to recommend a report tended to polarize the discussion by coupling temporary Federal agency to develop plans and its proposal for an extensive rail network with locate proposed routes for a comprehensive recommendations that several key highways, transportation system. The system thus designed including the Three Sisters Bridge across the would be owned by an interstate compact. The Potomac, be dropped from area highway plans. compact idea grew out of an effort that was The fact that Congress also was considering underway at the time to create an interstate national legislation to aid urban transit during this organization to coordinate transit regulatory period brought overtones of national significance functions. The National Capital Planning Act of to the local debate and sharpened the antagonism of 196010 was subsequently passed and the National the arguments on both sides. Capital Transportation Agency created to take on the transportation planning tasks. The NCTA work was principally a staff effort, although numerous consultants contributed over the agency’s 5 years of operation. The most critical portions of the NCTA 1962 report (system planning, traffic forecasting, and engineering) s A list of the studies included in the Mass Transportation Survey and the consultants who prepared them is: were done in-house. Darwin Stolzenbach, a General Deueiopmenl P/an (John T. Howard). freeway opponent who had been a senior analyst Economic Base Study (Council for Economic and with Operations Research, Inc. of Silver Spring, Industry Research, Inc.). Md., guided the technical proceedings. Policy Fu/ur-e Transportation Demand (William Smith & control was exerted by a five-member advisory Associates). Highway Transportation Engineering (DeLeuw, board required by the 1960 Act. The chairman and Cather & Co.). dominating force of this group was Frederick Flnanclng and Organization (Lnstitute of Public Gutheim, a well-known architectural writer.
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