Metro serves an important role for people who are car-free. And in fact, those 106 miles of track make it possible for many people to be car-free in the first place.
But Metro is only one half of the equation; you still need the places you visit to be physically close to the Metro station. Just how Metro-accessible are the places that you want to visit? I created a tool that lets you explore the answers.
Let’s say you’re new to DC and don’t want to have to buy a car. One of the first decisions to make is finding a dentist. The lists offered by insurance companies aren’t always mappable, and when they are, they might not show where the Metro stations are. By using my Metro Places app, you can narrow down your search to a particular segment of a Metro line.
Here’s what happens when you look for dentists within three stops of Clarendon, and not more than 500 meters (about a third of a mile) from the station.
East Falls Church, on the left, does not have any dentists within 500 meters, but the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor offers many choices, as does Foggy Bottom across the river.
The information comes from Google Places, which is similar to Yelp, but is also not 100 percent reliable or accurate. But for painting an overall picture, it does the job. Because Google Places limits how many times per second I can ask for information, it’s not easy to get information for the entire system, but with a little patience I can eventually collect data for all stations.
The program also lets me look at the results as a heat map, which might be easier to read than clusters of icons when zoomed way out. So, let’s check the available of Metro-accessible dentists for the entire region:
You can quickly see which segments of the Metro system make it easy to live car-free. But let’s look for things besides dentists. There are 96 different categories I can look for. Here’s a heat map of Metro-accessible grocery stores:
And Metro-accessible bars:
The pattern seems to remain fairly consistent. It turns out what we’re mapping is transit-oriented development, or TOD for short. I can also combine types of places. This map combines gyms, “hair care,” and banks:
Clearly the most TOD is in the core of the city, which makes sense. For this map, I zoomed in a bit closer on a heat map of Metro-accessible restaurants:
The Rosslyn-Ballston corridor stands out not just because each of the five stations supports a strong retail community, but because the stations are close enough to create a walkable boulevard where you’re never too far from commercial activity. Compare that with the gap between the National Airport and Braddock Rd stations, which is primed for activity with the future Potomac Yards infill station.
The Red Line does the best job of bringing TOD outside the downtown Washington core. Though it’s unfortunate that Fort Totten has such low TOD potential, given that it’s a transfer station.
Bringing TOD to the far ends of Metro lines would also help Metro’s finances. When traffic goes primarily in one direction, Metro still has to pay for empty trains to go in the opposite direction. TOD could help fill those empty seats with paying customers, an easy way for Metro to double its fare potential.
[Editor’s note: Michael has a followup post at his blog, which maps Metro Stations Ripe for Development.]
Does Metro help you live a car-free life? What sort of places do you think are most needed near Metro stations?