1 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (DDOT) + + + + + PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED D.C. CIRCULATOR MAJOR SERVICE CHANGES + + + + + THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2018 + + + + + The Public Hearing was held in the Miracle Theater, 535 8th Street, SE, Washington, DC, at 7:30 p.m., Sean Egan, Deputy Associate Director of Transit Operations, DDOT, presiding. PRESENT: SEAN EGAN, Deputy Associate Director for Transit Operations, DDOT DAVID KOCH, Transportation Analyst, DDOT CIRCE TORRUELLAS, Citywide Planner, DDOT SAM ZIMBABWE, Chief Project Delivery Officer, DDOT ALSO PRESENT: RACHEL LESNIAK, Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning DAVID MILLER, Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 7:31 p.m. 3 MR. EGAN: All right. If everyone 4 could please take their seats, we'd really like 5 to get started. So, good evening, everyone. 6 On behalf of the District Department 7 of Transportation, I'd like to welcome you to 8 tonight's public hearing for the major service 9 changes that we're proposing. 10 So, my name's Sean Egan. I'm the 11 Deputy Associate Director for Transit Operations 12 at DDOT, and I have some other DDOT colleagues 13 that I'm joined by here tonight, that some of you 14 met during the Q & A session. 15 So, I'm joined by Circe Torruellas, 16 there, who's the Manager of the D.C. Circulator 17 Program, as well as Sam Zimbabwe, who's the Chief 18 Project Delivery Officer for DDOT. 19 So, if you have additional questions 20 after the presentation and speakers, please come 21 and see us. We'll also be supported by our 22 planning team from Foursquare Integrated Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 3 1 Transportation Planning, who will be facilitating 2 the event for us tonight. 3 So, just to give you a quick 4 understanding of what we're going to be doing 5 tonight, we're going to give a brief overview of 6 the Circulator system. 7 We're going to talk about the 2017 8 transit development plan process. We're going to 9 explain the major service changes, and then, the 10 public hearing process. 11 So, after this brief presentation, 12 there will be an opportunity for public comment. 13 So, the DC Circulator has six easy to understand 14 routes. 15 We provide high frequency service, so 16 that's service every 10 minutes, all day. We 17 have a simple and affordable $1 fare structure, 18 and we have distinctive, comfortable buses for 19 our riders. 20 So, our goals for the system are to 21 provide high quality service to maximize the 22 financial and operational return on investment, Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 4 1 to promote economic activity in existing and 2 developing activity centers, and support a 3 transit-oriented lifestyle, and to strengthen the 4 surface transportation network across the 5 District for all users. 6 So, the recommendations that you see 7 here tonight are the result of our TDP process. 8 That's a transit development plan. 9 So, every three years, we look at our 10 system and look at ways that we might be able to 11 improve our system. So, the previous version was 12 done in 2014, and this is the 2017 version. 13 So, in late 2016, we began the 14 development process. We looked at our service to 15 determine areas where we needed improvements. 16 We did some preliminary 17 recommendations that looked at the constraints of 18 our service, the number of buses that we have, 19 the funding that we have for buses, and how we 20 could make the best use of those resources. 21 We got input from our stakeholders, 22 and then we put all of that together to do a Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 5 1 Phase 1 public outreach that we did during June 2 of 2017. 3 So, we got input, we went out to 4 community events and high ridership locations 5 across the District. We got input from more than 6 2,600 respondents through that public process in 7 June of 2017. 8 We took those comments under 9 consideration, and we revised the recommendations 10 based on that feedback, and we released a draft 11 report in September of 2017. 12 We asked for comments on that, and we 13 got more than 800 comments from the public on the 14 draft report in September. We made some 15 additional revisions, and then we released the 16 final report in December. 17 So, just to give you a sense of the 18 system that we have in place, we provided over 19 five million trips in 2016. With that said, the 20 system is struggling with on-time performance. 21 That's primarily due to maintenance issues. 22 So, when buses are out of service for Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 6 1 maintenance, they're not available, and that's 2 hurt, really hurt our on-time performance. 3 So, the major initiative that we're 4 doing with that is to solicit a new contract for 5 the service, for the operations and maintenance. 6 Our new solicitation is focused on 7 improving safety and training, and really focused 8 on system performance and addressing the 9 shortfalls that we see. 10 So, the two routes that drew the most 11 focus from our analysis were the Potomac Avenue 12 Metro-Skyland via Barracks Row, and the Union 13 Station-Navy Yard Metro routes. 14 So, what we see on the Potomac Avenue 15 Skyland route is low ridership. We see poor on- 16 time performance, and we see trip generators. 17 So, those are areas where there's 18 activity that aren't providing ridership 19 throughout the day. So, there's not enough 20 ridership, based on the activities that are 21 happening in the corridor to support the 10 22 minute ridership all day, or 10 minute service Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 7 1 all day every day. 2 And we also experienced significant 3 delays on Good Hope Road during rush hour. We 4 see a lot of similar issues on the Union Station- 5 Navy Yard Metro. 6 The low ridership, particularly on 7 midday, and on the weekends, again, the ridership 8 activity areas aren't providing all day service. 9 We see a lot of commuter use, but not 10 as much midday and evening use of the service. 11 And then, we have a high number of bus stops per 12 mile, so that slows down the service and makes it 13 less attractive to customers. 14 So, the major service changes that 15 we're proposing are on the Potomac Avenue Metro 16 Skyland route, the Union Station-Navy Yard Metro 17 route, the Georgetown-Union Station route, and 18 then, to the paper passes that are valid only on 19 the Circulator. 20 So, if you look at the Potomac Avenue 21 Skyland route, you can see the line with the 22 white down the middle of it is the current route. Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 8 1 So, the current route, we talked about some of 2 the challenges that that's having. 3 So, what we wanted to do was to look 4 at ways that we could serve some activity centers 5 that would be providing ridership all day 6 everyday. 7 And so, could we reconfigure that 8 route to serve Union Station, as well as Congress 9 Heights? 10 So, this will provide a one-seat ride 11 from east of the river to Union Station, a faster 12 connection using Massachusetts Avenue and 8th 13 Street between Union Station and the Navy Yard 14 complex. 15 It reduces overlap with existing 16 service on Pennsylvania Avenue and Good Hope 17 Road. And when we did go out to the public, the 18 majority of the respondents in both June and 19 September gave us positive feedback on this. 20 So, this would serve from Union 21 Station, Eastern Market, Barracks Row, Navy Yard, 22 downtown Anacostia, Stanton Road, and then the Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 9 1 Congress Heights Metro. And it would replace the 2 existing Metro Bus 94 service. 3 So, and the, on the Navy Yard route, 4 instead of starting at Union Station, the route 5 would start at Eastern Market. 6 It'll continue down 8th, like it does 7 today, and west, past the Navy Yard, all the way 8 to the Southwest Waterfront, serving the 9 Waterfront Metro Station, and some of the new 10 development that we're seeing in the Southwest 11 Waterfront area, and then coming up to L'Enfant 12 Plaza to connect with five Metro rail lines, VRE, 13 and a number of bus services. 14 So, it would have a new, there would 15 be a new connectivity between Eastern Market, 16 Barracks Row, the Navy Yard, Southwest 17 Waterfront, and L'Enfant Plaza.