Breakfast links: What the future has in store

by David Alpert • May 21, 2009 7:47 am

Photo by renalid.

Metro cell service coming to some stations: By mid-October, the 20 busiest Metro stations should provide coverage for all cell phone carriers. The remaining stations and tunnels won't all be finished, however, until 2012. (Post, Joey)

Google Street View Trike: Google has deployed a camera-laden tricycle to capture car-less streets for Google Street View. This would be great for local shared-use trails. (Wired, mooniker)

Smart Growth in Waxman-Markey: The climate change bill in the House of Representatives contains some promising provisions on smart growth. Section 841, "Greenhouse gas emissions reductions through transportation efficiency," directs states to develop GHG reduction plans and submit them to EPA, including smart growth and nonmotorized infrastructure measures, and encourages "Complete Streets" policies. However, it doesn't actually require the states to meet any particular targets in this area. (House Energy and Commerce, Erica)

Triangular parking: Paul S. suggests revamping the RPP streets in Mount Vernon Triangle to reflect new development, adding meters onto streets which now contain retail storefronts. (The Triangle)

Outdoor movies aren't gone: Screen on the Green may have been canceled, but NoMA is still showing outdoor movies this summer, as are Rosslyn, Crystal City and Strathmore.

Making the median: New Hampshire Avenue in Petworth is getting its long-awaited median. (Petworth News)

Blogging salon tonight: Tonight, I'll be discussing "the role of the Internet in urban advocacy" with other DC urban bloggers at the Next American City salon. $20 at the door gets you admission plus a one-year subscription to the magazine. 7 pm at The Space, 903 N St NW.

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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Before we get started on how mobile phones on the Metro will ruin everybody's riding experience, let's note that the CDMA carriers (Verizon + Sprint) have been down there for years and the vast majority of users are emailing or texting. It'll be easier for professionals working in the office parks in the burbs (hello, Silver Line) to live in town and take the Metro out to their jobs if they can be productive along the way. I have a hard time listening to podcasts on my ipod on the train, so I'm not too worried about multiple people trying to actually have a conversation.

Anyways, network connectivity is why I love the bus over driving.

by HM on May 21, 2009 9:38 am • link • report

Me either, HM. It's generally too noisy to do much talking. I'm glad it will be available to all carriers for those times when you need to make a call, but I doubt it will become a system of yackers (it already would have as you point out).

by ah on May 21, 2009 10:01 am • link • report

The link to the Next American City salon points to a seemingly irrelevant photo on Flickr.

by James on May 21, 2009 1:14 pm • link • report

Oops, fixed.

by David Alpert on May 21, 2009 1:16 pm • link • report

Google Street View Trike: Google has deployed a camera-laden tricycle to capture car-less streets for Google Street View. This would be great for local shared-use trails. (Wired, mooniker)

Great to have a carless street, but I think google street view is creepy, and draw inspiration from the English town that revolted against it.

On another topic, today's Examiner reports that people with families live further out and have to drive to work more regularly than singles who dominate the dense areas. Don't have the link to it. It might be an oversimplified reporting of a poll but this is the reason I so often find myself questioning those who automatically say density is better - because many times we're talking about transforming an already denser than average place that is family friendly to a place where singles can hang out.

by KC on May 21, 2009 2:04 pm • link • report

Its good to have service from all carriers in there but I doubt it will happen it would mean

Sprint having Wimax, CDMA, IDEN

ATT GSM & LTE

Verizon CDMA & LTE

Tmobile GSM LTE

It would take a lot of effort to keep up the old systems and building a new system there at the same time in the case Verizon and for the rest they would have to build 2 systems since there current customers would not be able to use there new networks since most would not have upgrade to wimax or lte

by kk on May 21, 2009 4:13 pm • link • report

Wow, I was thinking of volunteering for Google to bike the entire C&O Canal with such a device.

I can imagine the scrutiny and harassment the Google cyclists will face when biking by the Capitol and other Federal building with because-I-say-so security forces.

by Monumentality on May 21, 2009 7:11 pm • link • report