Breakfast links: More tickets

by Steven Yates • March 7, 2012 8:39 am

Photo by ckphotography on Flickr.

School bus cameras on the way: Montgomery County will soon install cameras on school buses to automatically catch drivers that illegally pass the bus, and fine them $250. The county already has manual lower resolution cameras on buses, but those are only used for issuing warnings. (Examiner)

Councilwoman gets ticket after all: Prince George's County Councilwoman Karen Toles will receive a reckless driving citation after only getting a warning for going 105 on the Beltway. (NBC4)

More bike lanes: After installing less than a mile of bike lanes last year, DDOT looks to be getting a move on with bike lanes between 16th and Connecticut on Columbia Road NW and between D and I on 4th St SW. (PoP, Garrett, TheWashCycle)

Will PBR be served at housing forum?: Looking to connect with young working professionals, Arlington is hosting a "Housing 4 Hipsters" event to tout income-based deals on housing in a casual, happy-hour atmosphere. (ARLnow, Fitz)

Redskins won't make One City: Wooing the Redskins will not build One City, but rather divide residents. The crime-ridden, control board-supervised DC the Redskins left is not one that needs them back to redeem itself today. (Post)

No cloture, no Mica: The Senate failed to reach cloture on its transportation bill because Republicans wanted to force it to be more like the House bill. Meanwhile, House leaders have pushed John Mica aside and given control of the House's bill to ~~Bud~~ Bill Shuster, who has a more extreme view. (Streetsblog)

Faster roads bad for cities, seniors: Designing roads to increase vehicle speeds takes up more space than grids of streets, hurting cities, and is less safe for seniors, despite what highway boosters like AASHTO say. (Streetsblog)

And...: The Silver Line will cost slightly less than previously thought. (Post) ... Several DDOT employees live car free. (d.ish) ... A comic has the best take yet on the absurdity of the Lorax hawking SUVs. (Boing Boing)

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12 comments

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Steven Yates grew up in Indiana before moving to DC in 2002 to attend college at American University. He currently lives in Southwest DC.

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The bus I was riding was caught behind a car double parked in rush hour on M st last night. At lesast 10 minutes of honking. Bus mounted camereas a a no-brainer. I'd tinker with penalty system (one fine for rush hour parking, another for actually blocking a bus). You still need police on the ground however -- either to get the driver to move, or tow the vehicle in question.

by charlie on Mar 7, 2012 8:46 am • link • report

Arlington is way too square for hipsters. There's nothing to gentrify!

Although, I guess it would be really ironic to live there if you are a hipster.

by Nick on Mar 7, 2012 8:47 am • link • report

Bill Shuster, not Bud. Bud is Bill's father, and was an earmark king back in his day. Drive through southern central Pennsylvania and you're bound to see a few pieces of infrastructure named after him.

by Tim on Mar 7, 2012 9:14 am • link • report

Great piece from DeBonis; we need to keep up the pressure to ensure that Reservation 13 becomes the kind of neighborhood that will benefit the surrounding areas and the whole city rather than a professional sports facility.

by Joe on Mar 7, 2012 9:15 am • link • report

@Nick

Dude, you just blew my mind.

And if they really wanted to attract hipsters, instead of "housing 4 hipsters" they should have called it "colloquium of the mustache host and associated habitats." Now THAT would get you a hipster crowd.

by LoLo on Mar 7, 2012 9:44 am • link • report

If you call something "housing 4 hipsters" by definition, it is not for hipsters. Once you define a hipster, it dies. Like the uncertainty principle.

PBR??? More like DC Brau.

Great news about a couple of minor bike lane additions. But, what about those L&M cycletracks?!?!

by Falls Church on Mar 7, 2012 10:22 am • link • report

Many DDOT employees are carless by choice.

by Steve Strauss on Mar 7, 2012 10:37 am • link • report

@ Falls Church DC Brau at an Arlington event? WTF?

Also, it's the "4" that really lets you know it's a hipsters only event...

by @SamuelMoore on Mar 7, 2012 11:05 am • link • report

Debonis' Redskins article is more blah blah blah. It's no secret that there is little Gray will be able to do that will capture his "One City" campaign. The anti's will have it no other way.

I'm not sure how much of a story the DDOT testimonials are..as they relate to the car-free lifestyle @DDOT. I imagine the same can be said for most DC residents who don't (but are able to) own cars.

by HogWash on Mar 7, 2012 11:34 am • link • report

About that "more tickets" headline -- and, for that matter, the bit about faster roads -- the cameras on the buses are an excellent idea to enforce a wholly justifiable safety rule that is inherently unsafe to violate -- to protect children who are not good at protecting themselves. The same is not true for many of the speed cameras, which all too often are placed in locations or in directions that are calculated to catch violators without impacting safety in any real way. If the idea is to get folks to slow down generally, that doesn't happen -- people learn where the cameras are and just slow down then before speeding up again. That's how I approach the so-called "work zone" on the north side of the Beltway.

As for making the roads safer for seniors, I think the critical analysis offered on the linked blog is just wrong. The recommendations would help senior drivers. Wider lanes -- the blogger says they do nothing to avoid the events that put accidents in motion.. This is not so. One huge problem seniors have is staying in their lanes. Drifting into other lanes is a huge road hazard, which wider lanes lanes would significantly reduce. I grew up just off the Bronx River Parkway. It's extremely curvy, and has the narrowest lanes of any highway I've ever driven on. You have to be constantly on alert for drivers drifting out of their lane. In fact, there are several stone bridges over this road which is two lanes in each direction. The lanes do not narrow under the bridges, but motorists drive as if they do. Though there are two lanes, it's highly unsafe to pass through one of these overpasses with another car on your right, because that driver will be panicked by being forced to stay in his/her lane.

My mother is 86 and says she isn't scared of driving on fast highways, but won't drive at night and is terrified of hitting pedestrians that she wouldn't see in time...on local roads and parking areas.

Straighter roads, wider lanes -- do allow or faster speeds. We shouldn't fear that, and we shouldn't artifically hold down the speed limits that are calibrated for different roads.

by Fischy (Ed F.) on Mar 7, 2012 11:57 am • link • report

@ Falls Church

I emailed DDOT today to ask about the status of the L&M cycletracks. I haven't heard any news in many months and would like to know the status too. Haven't yet heard back from DDOT though.

by Sam on Mar 7, 2012 11:59 am • link • report

Housing for Hipsters--yes, let's prioritize those who choose to be poor instead of those who do not have much choice in the matter.

by Beatbox on Mar 8, 2012 10:54 am • link • report