Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Building a Culture of Cycling

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Arlington County has set the goal of becoming the most bicycle-friendly community on the East Coast, and it has devoted serious resources to make it happen. The task takes more than building bike lanes and painting sharrows — it takes changing the culture of transportation, as explained in this video produced by the county.

The hoped-for payoff: Arlington will be able to absorb tens of thousands of new residents and employee without impairing the ability of citizens to get around. The county is vulnerable charges of wasting money on frivolities like million-dollar bus stops but it has done a brilliant job of proving that density need not cause congestion.

— JAB

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19 responses to “Building a Culture of Cycling”

  1. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    It a damn sight better than the county’s million dollar bus stop.

    PS – What is going on with the investigation into who took the money there with the bus stop? I got my suspicions but anybody know for sure now? Or this the county trying to deep six that scandal like so many others in Virginia?

  2. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    Thanks to the RestonWeb and research of Bob Bruhns research posted there, here is what I have found on the status of the “investigation” into how Arlington County managed to pay almost a million dollars for a bus stop.

    On April 4, 2013, Arlington County issued a press release stating:

    “Arlington County … and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) … have agreed to review the design, construction and associated costs of the recently completed … Super Stop transit station. WMATA managed the construction as a reimbursable project for Arlington County, who designed the project. “We will have a full, independent review of the process and the costs associated with the project. The review also will help us pinpoint ways that Arlington could cut costs moving forward,” Donnellan said. “We will make those findings available to the public … while we engage bus riders and look for efficiencies that will reduce the costs of building future stops.” See arlnow.com/2013/04/04/69973/
    —-

    On June 24, 2013, the investigation changed. WMATA dropped out of the “investigation. And Arlington County announced that it would:

    “launch a comprehensive review of the performance, cost, design and construction of the … Super Stop prototype starting this week. The goal of the review, first announced on April 4th, is to facilitate the construction of the remaining planned stops faster, at lower cost and with improved functionality where necessary. The assessment takes on a three-pronged approach with distinct processes that include: Financial and performance assessment, Community consultation process aimed at the users of the stop, and Design review. The financial and performance review and design review will use independent, third-parties to ensure unbiased reporting and focus.

    The findings from the overall assessment will be used to determine how to proceed on future Super Stops. The review and outreach process is slated for completion in late fall 2013. The County Manager, after consulting with Arlington County Board Members and WMATA … will announce her decision later this year. See arlingtonva.us/releases/arlington-county-review-of-columbia-pike-super-stop-program-underway
    —

    The “investigation” arises out of Arlington County’s 2012 approval for spending $20.86 million to build 22 super bus stops which began from decisions announced in a July 7, 2007 Arlington County Press Release that:

    “The Arlington County Board today approved an agreement with VDOT … to improve and upgrade 75 bus stops and shelters in the County, many on major transit roads … (and also) … the Board authorized an additional $85,500 for construction engineering services, including design revisions and consulting during construction of three “Super Stops” along Columbia Pike. (WMATA) will actually build the stops … (which) are far larger and have more passenger amenities than typical bus stops (including) … electronic displays providing real time bus arrival and passenger information … (and) will serve both Metro and ART passengers traveling along Columbia Pike, the second phase of major transit improvements for Columbia Pike (started) in 2003 …”

    This 2007 press released claimed that the design drawings for the Super Stops were finished and that additional funds would be paid to the designer for construction engineering services as the stops were built.

    —

    All this remarkable verbiage is pregnant will possibilities. See “Arlington County’s $1 Million Dollar Bus Stop” article archived on this website.

    1. reed fawell III Avatar
      reed fawell III

      The proper archived article referred to is: “Arlington’s $1 million Bus Stop”

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    re: ” Arlington County’s 2012 approval for spending $20.86 million to build 22 super bus stops”

    so this is not really about ONE bus stop which means it’s probably not about cost-overruns or bad designs, etc… although I suppose it could be some sort of a sweet-heart deal for the companies doing the work.

    but building new bust stops in a place like Arlington probably involving acquiring land and I bet land is Arlington, even small parcels but located in dense areas is not cheap.

    is there a breakdown of costs available ?

    1. reed fawell III Avatar
      reed fawell III

      “is there a breakdown of cost available?”

      Larry asks the central question. With that information, its easy to get to the bottom of the remarkable bus stop disaster. And, of course, there is a cost breakdown. And of course it is not being made available.

      Why? Because those in charge in charge do not want to make it available.

      Project procurement, the design, the value engineering, the bidding, the selection among the bids, construction and performance management – all of this revolves ultimately around the line item breakdown of the costs of successful bid, and the ultimate result cost, time, and performance wise.

      This is what the county is afraid of apparently. And rightly so. This project has been a ridiculous disasters from start to finish. And there is no excuse for it. No excuse by anybody, up and down the line of county government. Why? Because you cannot justify Arlington County’s 2012 approval for spending $20.86 million to build 22 super bus stops based on a process which began from decisions announced as early as July 7, 2007.

      So it will be interesting to see who the scapegoats are, if any, and how the whitewash is executed, and what happens next after that.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        Reed – are there not a bunch of these stops planned and they’ve budgeted about million for each one?

        doesn’t that imply that there is some kind of overall budget process as opposed to a one-of-a-kind bad job?

        1. reed fawell III Avatar
          reed fawell III

          Yes, and excellent point.

          A one of the kind “bad job” might somehow be explained, abet by gross incompetence or theft, or even perhaps some enormous upfront cost that might or might not be justifiable.

          But here we have an elaborate plan for 22 grossly overpriced and poorly designed bus stops. The strong implication is that someone planned to milk taxpayer money big time on 22 jobs, and someone consented or agreed to allow them to get away with this outrageous rip off of public monies. Why?

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            but to have all 22 to have the same cost problems would seem to be a very different kind of problem than a one-of-a-kind mess.

            It appears that they have purposely budgeted a million per – ahead of time – based on known, anticipated costs as opposed to a badly under-estimated and/or cost-overrun on a single project – problem.

            so this is an explicit, on-purpose plan… right?

            that’s why I was thinking that land-costs could be a component because like you I do not see how construction costs for a bus stop could be that much… unless they have a building with lights, heat, plumbing, rest rooms,etc..

            is there an actual picture of what these stops look like?

          2. reed fawell III Avatar
            reed fawell III

            Larry your 7:10 a.m post appears right on. There are pictures of the bus stop all over the net. They spent most of the summer broken apparently, and don’t work in the winter either, nor in the rain. By and large they are a total waste of money even at $10,000 a pop.

    2. Jason Poblete Avatar
      Jason Poblete

      These things happen because the county has close to $700,000,000 cash on hand — taxing too much. I’d like to see an open and frank discussion about refunding some of that money to folks, not more $1,000,000 bus stops or Bike Share stations in private residential neighborhoods. Most Arlingtonians who cycle own a bike.

      1. reed fawell III Avatar
        reed fawell III

        Well, this is certainly a ringing endorsement of Smart Growth. Smart Growth in Arlington now builds wealth so efficiently for all concerned that its government is now giving its money away, and otherwise wasting vast quantities of its money. So, for example, the County Government hires seven or eight people to be in charge of bicycles, brags about the fact, and give the rest of its money away to its “private” friends for favors.

        This is not the Arlington County that I remember growing up and later working there. That Arlington was a very thrifty, competent and honest place. That Arlington County would die of shame before it would put out these press releases full of dissimulation, and double talk nonsense.

        1. reed fawell III Avatar
          reed fawell III

          And this time during the late 1970s and 80’s, when Arlington was a very thrifty, competent and honest place, was the time when Arlington pulled its horribly broken downtown out of the ashes, and began to built a new downtown against fierce odds and completion, starting its long journey of building things that created great wealth for the future to where that future has arrived today.

          Why is Arlington now wasting all of that wealth built by others? Why is not Arlington investing it wealth wisely? Futures don’t need million dollar bus stops. Futures are destroyed by million dollar bus stops.

          So what now has gone wrong? And why? And why are leaders now seemingly unwilling to fix the problem, and lie about it instead.

  4. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    Larry –

    I doubt it the high cost about buying land. Hopefully even those who spend a million dollars to build a bus stop do it within a public right of way, thus using ‘free land” instead of buying highly expensive private urban land.

    I suspect the possibilities here are threefold:

    1. A brinks truck pulled up to Arlington County’s public treasury building and drove off with a million dollars using tactics known as a heist, and/or

    2. WMATA diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the project by charging an extortionist management fee, arguing that these were federal funds anyway and took the public money simply because WMATA is short of cash. (“Arlington’s $1 million Bus Stop” archived herein), and/or

    3. Grossly irresponsible amounts of public funds were disbursed willingly by Arlington County to contractors for project “services’ allegedly rendered.

    I suspect that 1 and/or 2 were done with the full knowledge of the Arlington County Board of Supervisors. And I deem the County’s actions here to be little different in practical affect from the “heist” described in 1 above.

    I also suspect the County has known the truth behind this matter from the beginning and has ever since been engaged in a public relations white wash.

    I also suspect that thousands of people in Northern Virginia know what happened (or very likely happened) because these sorts of tactics that waste and improperly divert public monies from infrastructure projects have been quite common is Northern Virginia for more than a decade.

    I suspect that well over $5 billions dollars have been wasted this way over the past decade, all wasted and diverted improperly in Northern Virginia.

    And I also supsect that this fact is widely known. Recall the saying that a fish does not know that it swims in water. Same applies here. Destructive and improper business practices that divert and misapply public monies are so widespread in Northern Virginia that people now take it for granted. But, in practical affect, it is no better than outright theft.

  5. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    Correction to 5th paragraph above – it should read:
    I suspect that 2 and/or 3 were done with the full knowledge of the Arlington County Board of Supervisors. And I deem the County’s actions here to be little different in practical affect from the “heist” described in 1 above.

  6. Jason Poblete Avatar
    Jason Poblete

    Why does it take so many words to tell us the name of the County Commissioners that proposed approved the project?

    1. reed fawell III Avatar
      reed fawell III

      Yes, Jason, talk about “words that speak far louder than words”, look at this classic example of dissimulation and mad run for cover:

      “The review also will help us pinpoint ways that Arlington could cut costs moving forward,” Donnellan said. —“… The goal of the review, first announced on April 4th, is to facilitate the construction of the remaining planned stops faster, at lower cost and with improved functionality where necessary.”

      So Arlington County is going to launch an investigation on how to build a bus stop for less that $1,000,000!!!! Any damn fool can tell Arlington County how to build a cheaper bus stop.

      Why doesn’t the county tell its citizens what the hell happened, who’s getting fired for what happened, who’s going to jail for what happened, and what steps have been taken to insure this never happens again in Arlington County? Citizens should be marching on the Courthouse, demanding straight answers quick.

  7. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    is the first one already built/finished?

  8. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    Yes, and it was built despite the fact that Arlington County knows how to build an attractive, efficient, functional, and easy to build bus stop for $12,500. And this $12,500 can be built far faster, far cheaper, at far less risk, and when build will work far better, and do all of the things that a bus stop needs to do and should do. The $12,500 bus stop was built by Arlington County soon after the one million dollar bus stop was build. It was built just last August in a spot where the county intends in the future to build another one million dollar bus stop.

    To see it and read about this $12,500 brand new Arlington County Bus Stop go to arlnow.com/tag/bus-stop/

    That$12,500 bus stop can be built twice as large for likely around $20,000. Given that fact, why does the county want to pay up to $1,000,000,000 a pop for each of some 20 bus stops that do not work, and that will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain over their lifetimes?

    What is corrupting our procurement systems, and our governments, and our collective mental health, to cause them and us to overspend public monies by these vast amounts? Where have our common senses and our collective values, and our competencies gone to?

    Cannot these vast sums of wasted monies be spent in far more productive ways? Why are we spending these huge amounts of monies to build things that do not work, and that can be built better for a fraction of the cost?

    For example, why did we spend upwards of $1.6 billion dollars (if not far more when all of the collateral damage to the airport is added up) to build a Crystal Mover System to carry people 25000 at a public airport (Dulles)? Why did we spend and waste such huge amounts of money that will harm us for generations when we could have done the same job for a faction of the cost, at far less risk, and almost negligible disruption to the airport?

    What is causing us to harm ourselves and waste our wealth this way?

  9. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    correction:”For example, why did we spend upwards of $1.6 billion dollars (if not far more when all of the collateral damage to the airport is added up) to build a Crystal Mover System to carry PASSENGERS 2500 FEET TO A TERMINAL at a public airport (Dulles)

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