Transportation in Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D.C. has a number of different modes of transportation available for use. Commuters have a major influence on travel patterns, with only 28% of people employed in Washington, D.C. commuting from within the city, whereas 33.5% commute from the nearby Maryland suburbs, 22.7% from nearby Virginia suburbs, and the rest from Washington, D.C.'s outlying suburbs. [1]
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[edit] Commuting
Commuters have a major influence on travel patterns in Washington, D.C.. As of 2000, 671,678 people were employed in Washington, D.C., with only 28% commuting from within the city. 18.7% of people working in Washington, D.C. commute from Prince George's County and 14.8% from Montgomery County, Maryland. 13.2% come from Fairfax County, 6% from Arlington County, and 3.5% from Alexandria. Smaller numbers of commuters come from the outer suburbs, including 2.4% from Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and 2.3% from Prince William County, Virginia, 1.6% from Charles County, Maryland, 1.3% from Howard County, Maryland, and 1% from Loudoun County, Virginia. [1] Of the 260,000 Washington, D.C. residents that were employed as of 2000, 24% commute to jobs in Montgomery, Prince George's, Fairfax, and Arlington Counties, as well as Alexandria. [1] Of those that work in Washington, D.C., 44.8% drive alone to work, 21.2% take Metro, 14.4% carpool, 8.8% use Metrobus, 4.5% walk to work, 2.7% travel by commuter rail, and 0.6% ride their bicycle to work. [2] 35.4% of households in Washington, D.C. do not own a car, and rely on public transportation. [3]
[edit] Streets and highways
City streets in the District of Columbia are organized primarily in a grid-like fashion with its origin at the United States Capitol. The north-south roads are primarily named with numbers (ie. 1st Street, 2nd Street, etc), while the east-west roads are primarily named with letters (ie. A Street, B Street, etc). Among this network of streets, there are diagonal roads; these roads are named after specific states in the United States. Within this grid, all streets are a part of one of the four quadrants, the center being the Capitol Building. There are a Northeast (NE), Northwest (NW), Southeast (SE), and Southwest (SW). All roads end with this suffix at the end of their title. For example, there are a 4th Street NE, 4th Street NW, 4th Street SE, and 4th Street SW.
Exceptions to this nomenclature include the names of the streets that line the National Mall. The north side of the mall is lined by Constitution Avenue, whereas the south side of the mall is lined by Independence Avenue. Both streets follow the NE, NW, SE, SW rule.
Major interstates running through the area include the Capital Beltway (I-495), I-66, I-95, I-395, I-295, and I-270 (which does not reach D.C., terminating at I-495). Other major highways include the Whitehurst Freeway, and Anacostia Freeway in D.C., the George Washington Parkway in D.C. and Virginia, the Suitland Parkway in D.C. and Maryland, US Route 50, the Clara Barton Parkway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Maryland, and the Dulles Toll Road in Virginia.
[edit] Rail
[edit] Washington Metro
The Washington area is served by the Washington Metro public transportation system, operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). WMATA also operates Metrobus, a regional bus system. The Washington Metro connects with both commuter rail and intercity rail systems at Union Station.
[edit] Commuter rail
MARC provides service from Union Station to Baltimore on the Camden and Penn Lines. MARC's Brunswick line provides service between Martinsburg, West Virginia and Union Station. All three lines of Maryland's MARC train system begin at Union Station in Washington; service is also provided to New Carrollton, College Park — University of Maryland and Greenbelt stations in Prince George's County; and Silver Spring and Rockville stations in Montgomery County.
VRE commuter trains provide service from Union Station to Fredericksburg and Manassas, Virginia. Virginia Railway Express trains also stop at several Metro stations, including L'Enfant Plaza, Crystal City, King Street, and Franconia-Springfield.
[edit] Amtrak
Amtrak provides service on the Northeast Corridor to Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, with the Acela Express, Metroliner, and Regional service. As well, the Vermonter provides service to Burlington, Vermont, via New York City. The Palmetto provides service to Florida, and the Crescent stops in Washington, D.C., enroute between New York City and New Orleans. The Capitol Limited provides rail service between Washington, D.C. and Chicago. Connections to Amtrak are offered at Union Station in Washington, at New Carrollton Station in Prince George's County, at Rockville in Montgomery County, and at King Street Station in Alexandria.
[edit] Bus
[edit] Metrobus
Metrobus is a bus service operated by Metro, consisting of 176 bus lines serving 12,301 stops, including 3,133 bus shelters and nearly every Metrorail station. In fiscal year 2006, Metrobus provided 131 million trips, 39% of all Washington Metro trips.[4]
[edit] DC Circulator
DC Circulator is a downtown circulator bus system with three routes connecting points of interest in the city center.
[edit] Inter-city bus
The Union Station station is two blocks from Washington's Greyhound Lines station, which is also served by Peter Pan Bus Lines. A bus stop for the Chinatown bus lines is near Gallery Place - Chinatown and the Verizon Center. The Greenbelt Metro Station also has a bus line that commutes to the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which connects Metro to the Baltimore area's MTA buses and light rail system. MTA also serves limited parts of Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland.
[edit] Student transportation
Additionally, several Metrorail stations offer connections to Home Ride, a bus service which connects Virginia Tech, Radford University, James Madison University, and the University of Virginia to the northern Virginia area. Many students at these schools are originally from the northern Virginia area, and especially for freshmen and other students without cars, HomeRide offers an attractive method for getting home on weekends.
[edit] Airport transportation
Metrorail's Yellow and Blue Lines serve Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Express bus service from L'Enfant Plaza, West Falls Church and Rosslyn is provided to Washington Dulles International Airport. Baltimore-Washington International Airport is served by express bus from Greenbelt, and by rail from Union Station by MARC and Amtrak, although MARC's service only runs Monday-Friday. There is also a planned station for Dulles airport on the new Silver Line
[edit] Cars
[edit] Slugging
[edit] Car sharing
In December 2001 Metro initiated a relationship with Flexcar, a private company which operates car sharing networks in several North American cities. A competitor, Zipcar, began service in the region contemporaneously. With either service, cars are parked at major Metrorail stations and made available for rental on an hourly basis, with the goal of reducing car dependency and increasing transit ridership.[5]
[edit] Air
Washington, D.C. is served by three major airports: two are located in suburban Virginia and one in Maryland. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (IATA: DCA, ICAO: KDCA) is the closest — located in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Hains Point, and accessible via Washington Metro. The airport is conveniently located to the downtown area; however it has somewhat restricted flights to airports within the United States because of noise and security concerns. Most major international flights arrive and depart from Washington Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD, ICAO: KIAD), located 26.3 miles (42.3 km) west of the city in Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia. Dulles is the second busiest international gateway on the Eastern Seaboard. Dulles offers service from several low-cost carriers including JetBlue, although the low-cost selection decreased greatly when Independence Air (which was headquartered at Dulles) folded in January 2006. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (IATA: BWI, ICAO: KBWI), is located 31.7 miles (51.0 km) northeast of the city in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near Baltimore. It is the Washington/Baltimore region's largest airport in terms of passengers served. BWI is notable for its variety of low-cost carriers, such as Southwest Airlines, and its mix of international carriers, such as Mexicana and Iceland Air.
General aviation is additionally available at several smaller airfields, including Montgomery County Airpark (Gaithersburg, Maryland), College Park Airport (College Park, Maryland), Potomac Airfield (Friendly CDP of Prince George's County, Maryland), and Manassas Regional Airport (Manassas, Virginia). Since 2003, the general aviation airports closest to Washington, D.C. have had their access strictly limited by the implementation of the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c County-To-County Worker Flow Files. Census 2000. United States Census Bureau.
- ^ Table B08406. SEX OF WORKERS BY MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION FOR WORKPLACE GEOGRAPHY - Universe: WORKERS 16 YEARS AND OVER. 2004 American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau.
- ^ Table B08201. HOUSEHOLD SIZE BY VEHICLES AVAILABLE - Universe: HOUSEHOLDS. 2004 American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau.
- ^ WMATA Facts (PDF)
- ^ WMATA History (PDF)
