Why would GSA focus on TOD? What't the point or benefit? Won't they just wall themselves off from the community, as they have done in Suitland, so there is no easy pedestrian access between the federal offices and local community restaurants and businesses?

by D.C. Russell on Aug 16, 2011 8:56 am • link • report

That price tag for underground tunnel on the Custis Trail seems pretty steep. I used to run through that intersection a lot so I know how busy it can get. Never assume a vehicle is going to yield to you.

by Fitz on Aug 16, 2011 9:04 am • link • report

@ Custis trail: All of Rosslyn is a danger to bikers. Car drivers speed, change lanes, hurl around corners, and have little to no consideration for anybody but themselves.

by Jasper on Aug 16, 2011 9:33 am • link • report

Interesting to note that those small towns aren't really small towns at all when you consider that they are all firmly within the DC metropolitan area and the ones in Fairfax at least are a part of one of the nations largest counties. Then again these lists always have home values and median incomes as the main component of the list regardless of anything else.

by Canaan on Aug 16, 2011 9:36 am • link • report

TOD/Metro: I don't think it is GSA -- they have a deal in place with Forest City.

Bikeshare: I'm assuming this is same Rockville program that was discussed before. Using money for low-income commuters isn't a good choice for funding.

Custis trail: I'm assuming Jasper is complaining about the part of Rosslyn he walks through. The development in question however will never happen. Neither will a tunnel.

by charlie on Aug 16, 2011 9:39 am • link • report

@Fitz & Jasper -

I totally agree with you. I too used to run across that intersection nearly daily and it is very dangerous. Rosslyn is a pedestrian nightmare but, in this case, as much as I'd like, I'm not so sure we should be blaming drivers. Look at how Rosslyn's roads are designed/built - auto sewers designed to maximize speed and throughput. I admire and think Arlington does a great job in many ways. One thing they need to do (and they are slowly working on it, it seems) is redesign Rosslyn's roads to end the carnage.

Get it? Cars... carnage? Oh, I crack myself up! ;-)

by DC, not Brookly Dodger on Aug 16, 2011 9:45 am • link • report

As someone who works in a GSA facility in PG County near a metro station, I say it's a lost cause. No employees live near here, and there is nowhere safe to go eat. It isn't even safe to walk to the metro after dark, which is right up the road. This building has been here since the 70s, and the neighborhood is still a dump. Look at Suitland. MEGA dump. I was once there for a meeting and they locked down the whole facility because a car jacking suspect jumped over the fence INTO the facility. I had to wait 40 minutes for the FPS to capture him.

by Matt Glazewski on Aug 16, 2011 10:10 am • link • report

RE:Custis

I agree with Charlie -- neither the proposed building nor the tunnel will ever happen. A more realistic solution to that intersection is some sort of traffic light that makes right-turning cars and thru bikers take turns using the intersection.

@ Small Towns

I have no faith in a ranking that puts Herndon and Manassas Park in the top 100 but not Charlottesville and Harrisonburg (the best two small towns in VA for my money). In general, in my opinion, the best small towns are all university towns (boulder, ithaca, madison, chapel hill, etc.)

by Falls Church on Aug 16, 2011 10:23 am • link • report

@Falls Church

Completely agree about the small towns. Any list that includes Manassas Park as a good place to be obviously has no clue. If anything historic Manassas could possibly fit on the list, but Manassas Park???

by SMB on Aug 16, 2011 10:35 am • link • report

RE: GSA TOD

I don't know whether it's a facility run by GSA, but the IRS campus at New Carrollton is a good example of the potential for federal building metro-based TOD. The campus is well-connected to the metro station and the area seems reasonably safe. There's tons of empty space and surface parking and decent demand for walkable lunch options from the several thousand employees who work at the three IRS buildings and the CSC building across the street. There's also a light industrial park about a 25 minute walk from metro that houses more government contractors among other professionals, who could also use some walkable lunch options.

The positive and negative is that the station is part of a huge square that is cutoff from the rest of the area by the beltway, 50, 450, and 410. The positive is that you could create a metro-based village that has natural barriers from the rest of the area which can be sketchy in parts. The negative is that your development will be restricted to the space in the square (but it's plenty of some decent TOD).

by Falls Church on Aug 16, 2011 10:36 am • link • report

TOD is good, but I don't want more far flung federal office complexes. Going to Suitland or New Carrollton can easily turn a 90 min meeting into something that sucks up most of my day between off peak metro timing and security theater.

by Kate W on Aug 16, 2011 11:25 am • link • report

That price tag for underground tunnel on the Custis Trail seems pretty steep.

That's funny. I thought it was a bargain. What other projects can you do for a little over $1M.

I think the tunnel has about a 50% chance of happening, but probably not soon.

by David C on Aug 16, 2011 11:42 am • link • report

@charlie, re: CaBi

Using money for low-income commuters is a good choice for funding.

by David C on Aug 16, 2011 11:44 am • link • report

@David C ; sigh. We've had this argument before:

1) How do you manage usage fees? the CABI model is 30 minutes or less. Giving someone a "membership" means you're on the hook for fees. How do you manage that?

2) a major justification but forward is having bikes in Rockville is going to sell more Rockville residents on the benefits. So you taking money from the poor and giving it to the middle class. Nice.

3) If you want to encourage bike use, buy them a bike. Remember, bikeshare is a transit substitute, but does a poor job as a commute substitute.

Alta may have some way of handling the first concern. Certainly I've heard rumors of "corporate memberships" which might work the same way. Or you tie it into a prepaid card that can only be used for bikeshare fees (say $10 for the year)

Putting a pod of bikes out there in Rockville by itself is also not the wisest move.

by charlie on Aug 16, 2011 12:06 pm • link • report

We've had this argument before:

I know. You lost.

How do you manage usage fees? the CABI model is 30 minutes or less. Giving someone a "membership" means you're on the hook for fees. How do you manage that?

You limit those with free memberships to 30 minutes of less, or they lose their membership. Or you pay overage fees with existing transit subsidies. It's not an impossible problem to solve.

you taking money from the poor and giving it to the middle class.

No you're giving the poor a cheap, clean, healthy way to travel AND creating bike share for the middle class. I guess this money couldn't be used to support buses, because middle class people might ride the bus?

If you want to encourage bike use, buy them a bike.

That's not the goal. The goal is to encourage mobility. And bikeshare improves mobility at a price/person rate that is impossible for a free bike program to beat.

by David C on Aug 16, 2011 12:20 pm • link • report

@ charlie:I'm assuming Jasper is complaining about the part of Rosslyn he walks through.

Incorrect assumption. I drive, bike and walk in Rosslyn. Driving is terrible because there are too many intersections, and poor indications leading to many non-locals having to make terrible lane changes.

Walking is terrible because cars hurl around you making their right turns. Gateway park was a good idea, but poorly worked out without the water running.

Biking is even worse. Lynn has a half-ass bike lane, that does not allow for safe left turns. The Custis trail is nothing more than a sidewalk with a line of paint on it. Crossing Lynn @ 29th and the GW Parkway ramp are both terrible because cars only look for pedestrians and not for faster moving bikes. Especially at Lynn & 29 cars simply play chicken with bikers.

Arlington really needs to reinvent Rosslyn traffic. I've thought about massive roundabout through all of Rosslyn from Key Bridge to Wilson with only right turns, while closing all "inner" streets except for transit, taxi and sluggers, but I can not guess to whether such a circle could handle the traffic volume that needs to get through. On the other hand, the current situation can't really either.

Perhaps they need to consider an extended Magic Roundabout? That might not be helpful though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_%28Swindon%29

by Jasper on Aug 16, 2011 12:22 pm • link • report

TOD is good, but I don't want more far flung federal office complexes.

The political reality is that federal office space will always be dispersed geographically (within DC metro and within the country) because federal agencies want to curry favor with congress members from multiple states. For example, the reason the IRS campus exists at New Carrollton is because of Sen. Mikulski. So, we need to work within the constraints of that reality in our planning.

by Falls Church on Aug 16, 2011 1:44 pm • link • report

What the article on SW development failed to mention is that there are two types of "live aboard" residents on the SW Waterfront. Some live in actual boats, and those are fine and should stay. But others live in run down barely (if at all) seaworthy pieces of junk that are an eyesore today and will be if they are included in the future development. Some of the "boats" aren't even boats at all, just shacks plopped on barges. In one case, a government contracting firm (MSI) actually has its offices spread out among a bunch of floating boxes that are no more boats than are the stalls at the fish market.

There is nothing wrong with people living on an actual boat, or people visiting DC and staying on their boat while it is docked. That is part of what a marina is. But when you allow people to keep floating wrecks or allow people to essentially build a cheap home (with no real construction standards, etc) on a floating barge, what you get is a floating trailer park.

DC doesn't allow trailer parks and no major redevelopment plan would ever get approved if it included some of these "house boats" on land. Yet I fear that in the name of preserving the live aboard community, the SW Waterfront will be stuck with these eyesores forever.

Its one thing to eat at a waterfront restaurant and look out over a diverse collection of sailboats, motor yachts, cabin cruisers, and fishing boats. Its another thing to dine within sight of rusted listing hulks and plywood shacks.

I hope, for once in the history of SW, DC gets this one right.

by Jaye David on Aug 16, 2011 5:56 pm • link • report