D.W. Rowlands - D.C. Policy Center

D.W. Rowlands is a human geography grad student and Prince George’s County native, currently living in College Park. More of their writing on transportation-related and other topics can be found on their website. They also write for Greater Greater Washington, where they are on the Elections Committee. In their spare time, they volunteer for Prince George’s Advocates for Community-Based Transit. However, the views expressed here are their own.

D.C. Policy Center contributors are independent writers, and we gladly encourage the expression of a variety of perspectives. The views of our contributors, published here or elsewhere, do not reflect the views of the D.C. Policy Center.

Written By D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Demographics

2020 Census self-response rates in the Washington, D.C. region

About 95 percent of U.S. households will fill out their 2020 Census information using forms mailed to their house that they will reply to via the internet, phone or mail. In the Washington D.C. region, the self-response rate from these forms varies greatly depending on location, density, race, population and income. What…

May 18, 2020 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | D.C. History | Transportation

The regional transit proposals that predated Metro, from express buses to monorails

The Washington region today seems unimaginable without Metro, but the system we have today was hardly inevitable. Initial proposals for a subway system date back to the FDR administration, when the federal government’s expansion during the New Deal and World War II led to an increase in the District’s population. It still…

February 24, 2020 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Housing | Regional Dynamics | Transportation

Where the Washington region achieves walkable density

Population density can say a lot about an urban environment, and it’s often used as a signal of how walkable a place is. But common density measures don’t truly capture how easy it is to walk from one location to another. Transit planners often approximate “walking distance” as half a mile. If…

February 19, 2020 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | D.C. History | Demographics | Regional Dynamics

How the spatial distribution of education levels in the region has changed since 1970

Previously: How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970; How household incomes in the D.C. area have changed since 1980; How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970 In November, I found that the spatial distribution of wealth in the D.C. area has remained relatively constant over…

January 14, 2020 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | D.C. History | Demographics | Regional Dynamics

How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970

Previously: How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970; How household incomes in the D.C. area have changed since 1980 Today, the Washington region is known for having very diverse suburbs, including Prince George’s County, the largest suburban county with a majority of Black residents in the country. However, 50…

January 13, 2020 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | D.C. History | Demographics | Regional Dynamics

How household incomes in the D.C. area have changed since 1980

Although the spatial distribution of wealth in the D.C. area has remained relatively constant over the past 40 years, with the richest neighborhoods stretching to the northwest on both banks of the Potomac and the poorest neighborhoods inside the Beltway east of 16th Street NW, the number of very rich and very…

November 13, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | D.C. History | Demographics

How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970

Historical distributions of population in the D.C. metro area D.C.’s population growth has slowed since the 2009 boom ten years ago, but the population still continues to climb. In December, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that D.C.’s population reached 702,455, officially passing the 700,000 mark. As District Measured has noted, D.C.’s…

July 24, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

For circumferential transit in the District, try crosstown bus lanes

This article is the seventh and final post in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, and part six. While extensions to the Purple Line and rail transit along the Beltway are popular ideas for improving transit within and across the D.C….

March 19, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Here’s where rapid bus service could best connect Maryland’s suburbs

This article is part six in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, part three, part four, and part five. Maryland’s suburban areas have a dearth of transit connections, but better rapid bus service could help link many parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. As I discussed in…

March 15, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Northern Virginia needs better suburb-to-suburb transit. Here’s where rapid bus service could help.

This article is part four in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four. While Maryland’s Purple Line is the biggest suburb-to-suburb transit project in the region, Virginia also has a number of corridors that are good candidates for this kind of connection. Northern Virginia…

March 8, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Why it makes sense to extend the Purple Line to Largo, but not National Harbor

This article is part four in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, and part three. While the idea of a Purple Line extension to Tysons Corner garners a lot of excitement among transit advocates and political leaders in the region, those in Prince George’s County tend to favor…

March 6, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

The best way to build a Purple Line link between Bethesda and Tysons Corner

This article is part three in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. This one deals with the possibility of extending Maryland’s Purple Line across the Potomac River to Tysons Corner. Read part one and part two. Although the Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton isn’t expected to open…

March 1, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Our region needs better suburb-to-suburb transit, but a Metro loop isn’t the best option

This post is part two in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read the first post here. The Washington region has a dearth of transit connecting its suburban areas, as I wrote in my first post in this series. Some people have latched onto the idea of extending the…

February 27, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Why the Washington region needs better suburb-to-suburb transit

The Washington, D.C. region has one of the best transit systems in the U.S. But even when it’s working perfectly, its radial layout does a poor job connecting non-downtown destinations. In a series of posts beginning today, I’ll lay out the case for better suburb-to-suburb transit. Despite Metrorail’s recent ridership meltdown, our…

February 21, 2019 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Metrorail is no longer the second-busiest rapid transit system in the country

Discussion of Metrorail’s fall in ridership has become commonplace over the past several years. However, since transit ridership has been falling nationwide, it is worthwhile to note that its ridership has fallen significantly even compared to other systems. Furthermore, by the possibly-more-useful statistic of ridership per route mile, Metrorail’s ridership is clearly…

February 7, 2018 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

D.C. could roll back the coming Metrorail fare increase for residents at a relatively low cost

One topic that came up in the recent fight over the fiscal year 2018 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) budget—and that tends to come up whenever subsidies for WMATA are discussed—is that the District of Columbia’s government is generally more eager to pay for Metro than the governments of Maryland and…

May 3, 2017 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Metrorail changes mean even shorter hours than other transit systems

WMATA claims that reduced hours are necessary to properly maintain the system, but most other cities’ rapid transit systems manage with longer operating hours and later closing times. Along with fare hikes, bus service reductions, and reductions to Metrorail’s frequency, the new budget that the WMATA Board approved on March 23rd and…

April 19, 2017 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Metro should carefully consider the costs of further off-peak service cuts

Along with fare increases, WMATA’s proposed fiscal 2018 budget includes cuts to Metrorail and Metrobus service as a way to close the authority’s budget gap. Reducing the total number of vehicle trips per day is an effective way to cut operating costs for a transit system. However, doing so also reduces the…

March 27, 2017 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

Lowering fares on MARC and VRE could increase commuter rail ridership and decrease Metrorail overcrowding

Although Metrorail has been losing ridership in recent years due to poor service and SafeTrack-related disruptions, it still has the second-highest ridership in the country among rapid transit systems. In fact, population growth trends suggest that ridership is likely to grow on the western branch of the red line and in Northern…

March 16, 2017 | D.W. Rowlands

Articles | Transportation

WMATA plans to raise rates, but Metrorail’s fares already among highest in the country

In what has become a yearly ritual, WMATA’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposes Metrorail service cuts and fare increases: up to $0.10 for rush-hour trips and $0.25 for non-rush-hour trips. Determining the “right” level for transit fares is a complicated and, ultimately, political question: it depends on governments’ willingness to provide tax…

March 1, 2017 | D.W. Rowlands