INTRODUCTION

This is the latest in the series of Northern Virginia Annual Transit Performance Updates.  The series has been evolving since it was first prepared by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission in the early 1980s.  What was originally a transportation services coordination plan became a comprehensive document full of transportation facts and information.  This year’s document is the eighteenth version of the Annual Update Series and continues the tradition of compiling performance data from many sources and presenting it in a consistent and easy to use format.  This report carries the series to a new level with its conversion to a web-based format. 

In addition to this introduction, this report is made up of three major sections.  The “Transit Services” section includes annual and daily ridership information for 11 distinct and interconnected rail and bus transit systems in Northern Virginia.  In some cases monthly data are also provided and for the Virginia Railway Express, Metrobus and Metrorail, station and route specific data are shown.  Information is also provided about the use of transit services for persons with disabilities.  The emphasis is on FY 2002 and FY 2001 (with fiscal years beginning on July 1 of each preceding calendar year), but time series data are also provided for annual ridership totals going back to as early as FY 1993. 

The “High Occupancy Vehicle Facilities and Use” section develops data on the share of transit and ridesharing in                commuting corridors in Northern Virginia, and reports travel time savings and person-carrying capacity, among other details.

Finally, the “Access to Transit and HOV Facilities” section provides details about park-and-ride lots and bike and pedestrian access.

Appendices list acronyms and abbreviations, methods and sources and links to transportation-related organizations.
     
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission was created in 1964 by the Virginia General Assembly. 
Its mission is:
To serve the public by providing a forum for elected officials to achieve an effective regional transportation network.  Focusing primarily on transit, NVTC will develop strategies, identify funding sources, advocate for additional funding, prioritize allocations, oversee transit systems such as VRE and WMATA, and pursue new transit programs.  NVTC will work to improve mobility, reduce traffic congestion, protect the environment and stimulate the regional economy by increasing transit and ridesharing use.

Among the commission’s current activities of particular interest are:

Appointing Virginia’s members of the Board of Directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metrorail and Metrobus) and through co-ownership of VRE, providing board members and financial oversight of that rapidly growing commuter railroad;

Managing $100 million of state grants and other revenues for NVTC’s member jurisdictions to pay for transit services;

Managing a program to provide free bus fares on forecast Code Red Ozone Alert Days that helps the region meet federal clean air standards;

Using state and federal funds, purchasing 365 SmarTrip-compatible fareboxes for use by Northern Virginia’s local bus systems beginning in mid-2003 as part of a regional fare-collection network (with 300,000 SmarTrip cards already issued by WMATA, currently 60 percent of peak period Metrorail customers are using these cards);

Completing a consultant study of the performance of new transit technologies to guide future investments in this region;

Managing the financial aspects of the ongoing demonstration of a new transit system in Falls Church (the system, known as GEORGE, uses new exhaust gas recirculation filters that cut diesel emissions substantially);

Assisting in the bus fare buydown program in which the commonwealth provides over $800,000 annually to reduce bus fares in compensation for lost transit revenues resulting from a 1996 decision to ease the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) requirements on I-66.  Fares were reduced in the I-66 corridor in FY 2001, the I-95/395 corridor in FY 2002, and the Dulles corridor in FY 2003.  For FY 2004, fares will be reduced in the Route 1 corridor;

Increasing its emphasis on public education through an upgraded website, e-mail alerts, media releases, transit performance database and this web-based transit performance report;

Assisting local transit systems in developing coordinated emergency response plans and enhanced security.

For more details about the commission, its background, membership and accomplishments, check www.thinkoutsidethecar.com.

Figure 1 shows the jurisdictions that are part of the Northern Virginia Transportation District. 
The district comprises 1,000 square miles with a population of 1.5 million.