Arlington Support of Regional Transit Projects Key to Job Growth

Arlington County sits at the center of a regional transportation network that spans three states, multiple counties, independent cities, and extensive federal land holdings.

As we all face the challenge of improving aging and congested infrastructure, Arlington especially needs to reach across borders and promote transit projects elsewhere in order to serve its growing population and employment base while meeting its target of keeping rush-hour traffic at no more than five percent over 2005 levels in 2030.  Encouraging movement of more people with fewer vehicles is key in meeting this goal.

Top priorities are:

• Phase II of the Silver Line, with stops from Reston out to Ashburn.
• Projects in the region’s core to reduce Metro crowding as outlined in WMATA’s Momentum plan to keep new riders from an expanded system moving efficiently through the core.
• Transportation demand management strategies for in-bound commuters, including carpools and vanpools, as well as telework and non-traditional work schedules for those who live in areas without high-quality transit.

The Business Case

One of the reasons that Arlington needs to continue showing leadership in regional transportation investment is that it relies so heavily on the regional transportation network to maintain its role as a center for jobs.

In our new Business Leaders Survey, we found that the majority of Arlington business leaders are happy with the transportation system available to them and their employees. When asked to rate its quality, 73 percent gave the transportation system a rating of “good” or “very good.” Leaders were especially happy with the range of transportation options available.

Those high marks are important, because those same leaders most frequently named “quality of transportation system” as “important” or “very important” in making location decisions.

However, in focus groups as part of the survey, business leaders also expressed the concern that not all of their employees enjoy the benefits of the high-quality transportation system that serves Arlington.

We know from 2010 State of the Commute Survey that a minority of Arlington’s workers also live in the county (PDF 1.3 MB) – 51 percent reported coming from other parts of Virginia, 20 percent from Maryland, and 7 percent from the District.

This means that transit availability in other parts of the region has an important impact on the Arlington economy and transportation system. When we look at the entire population of Arlington workers and where they live, we see that the business leaders are right to be concerned about uneven access to a high-quality transportation network that includes transit.

Identifying Where Transit Benefits Would Benefit the Most Commuters to Arlington

Last year, the Brookings Institution took a look at access to jobs via transit in the D.C. metropolitan region. It found that while many residents were fortunate to live in areas where bus and rail were viable commute options to the region’s job centers, many of Arlington’s workers live in areas where transit is a poor way to get to work.

Brookings was examining transit access to jobs using the Census Bureau’s Public-Use Microdata Areas (or PUMAs)  for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan statistical area, as shown in the following map.

Brookings researchers then looked at how many of the region’s jobs could be reached on the region’s transit systems within 90 minutes and calculated a “combined access score” for each PUMA. Areas with better transit access to jobs received a higher combined access score.

When we combine the Brookings data with Census Bureau data about home and work locations, many of the places where Arlington’s employees call home have poor transit options, as depicted in the graphic at the top of the page.

The implication here is that if Arlington is going to encourage its commuters to move from single-occupancy vehicles to transit, then it needs to be cheering on transit development in Loudon, Prince William, and other parts of Fairfax as well as within its own boundaries.

For more information about proposed transit and transportation demand management projects in the region, take a look at the 2012 Super NoVa Transit and TDM Plan, and the Coalition for Smarter Growth’s “Thinking Big, Planning Smart” report (PDF 3 MB). Graphics by Stephen Crim of Mobility Lab