DC Metro Stations, Ranked
This post was originally inspired by an article in today’s Washington Post detailing the paucity of dining options in DC east of the Anacostia River (I’ve written about this subject before). The article includes this damning map. The problem here is an old one: businesses tend to avoid the parts of DC east of the river, which are overwhelmingly black. They also systematically prefer the suburbs of Northern Virginia and Montgomery County to majority-black Prince George’s County. This got me thinking about the DC Metro, which I posted about last week. Which stations attract the most business and overall amenities? And could that possibly be ranked?
Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be one of those totally subjective online lists where I rank the DC area’s 86 metro stations (a quarter of which I’ve never been to) based on my own personal preferences. This is scientific, I swear! I used the simplest possible methodology: I plugged each of the station names into WalkScore, a wonderful website that uses a complicated algorithm to determine a particular location’s “walkability” on a 100-point scale. The algorithm is, of course, imperfect, and so is the resulting list. But at least it’s consistent, and it doesn’t take into account prejudicial factors like the demographics of the surrounding area.
The full list is after the jump, but here are some highlights:
Highest ranked station: Metro Center (100), in DC
Lowest ranked station: tie between Branch Ave and Morgan Blvd (18), in Prince George’s
Highest ranked suburban station: Bethesda (97), in Montgomery
Lowest ranked DC station: Fort Totten (43)
Highest ranked Virginia station: Clarendon (94)
Lowest ranked Virginia station: Arlington Cemetery (25), but you can’t really hold that against them
Highest ranked Prince George’s station: Prince George’s Plaza (88)
Lowest ranked Montgomery station: Grosvenor (34)
Most overrated station: of many possible nominees, I’m going with Judiciary Square (95)
Most underrated station: Woodley Park (78); I’m convinced it got screwed by Rock Creek Park, which most people would consider a major amenity! Also, the stations I spend the most time around, Columbia Heights and Georgia Ave (both 86), are definitely underrated.
Happiest surprise: Wheaton (89), which I’ve always liked but which rarely gets any respect
Most shameful: College Park (48), because University of Maryland students deserve better
Average score for DC: 79
Average score for Montgomery: 71
Average score for Virginia: 69
Average score for Prince George’s: 43
Complete List:
Metro Center: 100
Farragut North: 98
Farragut West: 98
Foggy Bottom: 98
Bethesda: 97
Federal Triangle: 97
McPherson Square: 97
Tenleytown: 97
Gallery Place: 95
Judiciary Square: 95
Mt Vernon Square: 95
U Street: 95
Clarendon: 94
Archives: 92
Court House: 92
Dupont Circle: 92
Silver Spring: 92
Cleveland Park: 91
Crystal City: 91
Eastern Market: 91
Takoma: 91
Virginia Square: 91
Shaw: 89
Union Station: 89
Wheaton: 89
Ballston: 88
Brookland: 88
Prince George’s Plaza: 88
Capitol South: 86
Columbia Heights: 86
Georgia Ave: 86
King Street: 86
Rosslyn: 86
Rockville: 85
Friendship Heights: 83
Van Ness: 83
Waterfront: 83
Navy Yard: 82
Rhode Island Ave: 80
White Flint: 80
Braddock Rd: 78
New York Ave: 78
Pentagon City: 78
Woodley Park: 78
Smithsonian: 77
L’Enfant Plaza: 75
Potomac Ave: 75
Federal Center: 74
Twinbrook: 74
Van Dorn St: 74
Reagan National Airport: 72
Medical Center: 66
East Falls Church: 63
Minnesota Ave: 63
Anacostia: 62
Congress Heights: 60
Largo Town Center: 60
Southern Ave: 60
West Falls Church: 60
Benning Rd: 57
Dunn Loring: 57
Huntington: 57
Glenmont: 55
West Hyattsville: 55
Pentagon: 54
Deanwood: 52
Stadium Armory: 52
Forest Glen: 49
Shady Grove: 49
College Park: 48
Eisenhower Ave: 48
Vienna: 48
New Carrollton: 46
Capitol Heights: 45
Fort Totten: 43
Franconia: 43
Greenbelt: 38
Landover: 38
Suitland: 35
Addison Rd: 34
Grosvenor: 34
Naylor Rd: 34
Cheverly: 32
Arlington Cemetery: 25
Branch Ave: 18
Morgan Blvd: 18
Kwestion for klion: why are Indian restaurants so expensive relative to other Asian cuisines? Masala art charges $15 for a cup of chicken tika masala.
because Indian restaurants began by marketing themselves to wealthy white patrons. they were not initially established for the working class. the same is not true for places serving other non european based foods.
Well, Masala Art is pretty expensive for Indian food even in DC (though it’s especially delicious).
If you break out the “Virginia” numbers into Arlington and Fairfax counties, and City of Alexandria, here’s what you get for average numbers:
Arlington: 76
Alexandria: 64
Fairfax: 55
So Arlington county is actually more walkable than Montgomery county, and very close to as walkable as D.C. And this is including places like the cemetery and airport. Quite a surprisingly result.
I find that unsurprising, actually. Arlington is very small and highly urbanized. It has 11 stations in an area maybe a third the size of DC, and with one or two exceptions, they’re all pretty developed areas. Some parts of MoCo are similar, but most aren’t.
Arlington is usually seen as the area’s model for urban planning, but of course it’s directly adjacent to downtown DC and has certain economic advantages DC lacks. Bethesda and Silver Spring are highly competitive business districts despite being some distance from downtown. But most of MoCo is as far from downtown as most of PG and most of Fairfax.
I divided the suburbs into three roughly even-sized wedges. In terms of proximity to the District, there’s no reason why, say, West Hyattsville shouldn’t be competitive with Clarendon or Bethesda, but in practice it isn’t. And while Dunn Loring or Twinbrook may not be great, they’re a lot better than Branch Ave or Morgan Blvd. Distance isn’t necessarily everything, either: Rockville and Wheaton do quite well for being outside the Beltway. So I think it makes sense to think of PG, MoCo, and NoVa as three comparable regions with meaningful averages. And sadly, PG is way behind the rest of the region in terms of transit-oriented development.
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great post!
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Wow, very cool idea. I may have to take it for my own blog about someplace totally different
You shouldn’t be too down on the 80s; they aren’t bad, just not as great.
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Great list, But I wouldn’t consider Bethesda to be a “suburban” stop. Sure it’s outside DC proper, but only about a mile or two.
I really wish Prince George’s county would do more developing around it’s Metro stations! Those walk scores are shameful!!