Gordon Chaffin is a freelance journalist who focuses on infrastructure and traffic news and insights for Street Justice. You can support independent journalism by subscribing to Gordon’s newsletter. He’s offering a 20% discount to THIH readers. –Maria Helena Carey
Pedestrian crossing sign laying on the ground after being run over in DC’s Grant Circle. (Gordon Chaffin / StreetJustice.news)
CM Todd Moved Bikeshare, Hid from Neighborhood Commission
Last Wednesday’s Street Justice showed that DC Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd intervened to stop a Capital Bikeshare station installation for months. Todd and DDOT Director Jeff Marootian met in a private October meeting at the site. They choose a more dangerous alternative location than the spot proposed by agency staff. None of the substantive concerns for the original location were fixed. What allayed the “community concerns” was simply moving the CaBi station off of a block of apparently influential voters
ANC 4C debated the original location for months from December 2018, reaching a compromise in April after DDOT studied the safety of several alternatives. CM Todd intervened to stop the installation of that compromise, delayed the project for months without disclosing meetings or correspondence to the public, and did not respond to ANC inquiries.
Since publishing the article, a third source came forward to corroborate the allegations of Brandon Todd’s involvement and transparency to only anti-Bikeshare residents.
Arlington Group Starts Crafting Vision Zero Plan
On November 14, Arlington County’s Vision Zero External Stakeholder Group (“the Task Force”) met for the first time. This July, the County Board — the legislative Chamber which appoints the County Manager in a weak Executive system — adopted Vision Zero goals. [County Staff slides from that Board session.] The Vision Zero resolution tasked County staff to form a stakeholder group to work over the next 9-12 months and produce a formal plan of action. That plan to implement Vision Zero principles across County departments and planning processes would be adopted by the Board Fall 2020. [Full Story]
DC’s Scooter Funny Math and Permit Legal Issues
Surprised was the consensus reaction to DC’s 2020 scooter permit decision early this month. Two of the longer-tenured operators in DC — Bird and Lime — got passed over for ride-hailing companies who more recently deployed nearly identical scooters. Joining JUMP e-bikes was a company called Helbiz, which hasn’t operated yet in the U.S. despite trying for a while to break into the market. An application submitted by the company with a funny name finished 10th out of 11 in San Fransico’s mobility permit scoring this Autumn.
According to Street Justice reporting, DC mobility permit applicants were just as surprised as public stakeholders and users. DDOT’s review process produced eyebrow-raising results perhaps because of its arbitrary methodology which also sits in questionable legal space between administrative law standards of Requests for Proposal (RFPs) and Permitting Processes. DDOT’s summary evaluation results, released to the public this week, show more weight given to applicant promises of future operations than past performance across three years of shared mobility permitting in Washington. Moreover, the math on DC’s evaluation scores doesn’t work.