Breakfast links: Solutions on the horizon

by David Alpert • June 2, 2009 8:36 am

Image from BaltiMorphosis.

Fix Baltimore yourself: Baltimore hopes to build its Red Line in the huge trench of the Franklin-Mulberry, a 1.5-mile "highway to nowhere" that demolished neighborhoods along the short segment that was built. What about going beyond just putting the line in the median? A new site invites people to use Google SketchUp to design their own, better designs. (BaltiMorphosis via Baltimore Brew, Jorge M)

Eurotrains ready to cross the Atlantic: European construction firms and manufacturers of high speed rail cars are anxious to expand in the United States, with the Obama administration's commitment of $13 billion to high speed rail. (Wall Street Journal, Ben)

Why Metro is greater than BART: Metro and BART were built around the same time, have almost the same length, and serve similarly-sized metropolitan areas. So why does Metro have 2.5 times the ridership? Simple: BART is almost entirely park-and-ride focused, while Metro has far more stations in a denser core. (The Map Scroll, Cavan)

Fairfax funding Tysons walkability: Fairfax County voted yesterday on spending $3.3 million to plan a denser, walkable street grid and circulator system in Tysons Corner. Supervisor Pat Herrity thinks that the county should put all the money toward more auto-oriented planing, instead. (WTOP, Froggie)

The last cyclist at Bethesda Naval has been silenced: After consulting with superiors, the author of the Two Black Tires blog has decided to stop writing about bicycling at Bethesda Naval. He was doing a tremendous job shedding light on the complete lack of bicycle planning in NNMC's BRAC plans. (Dudley)

Fenty kills lab, but person struck by vehicle: Ryan Avent picks up on the linguistic bizarreness of crash reporting. DCist reprints a headline from the Post, "Two women fatally struck by vehicles." Ironically, the immediately previous headline is "Fenty kills crime lab contract."

Experts push for transit funding: Various experts debate the question of whether the federal government should support transit agencies' operating costs. So far, all contributors have come down in favor. (National Journal, Michael P)

Arlington gets more buses: Most places are cutting transit service. Arlington is adding it. Next week, they'll inaugurate service between Shirlington and Clarendon/Court House, continuing their path of making Shirlington into a real transit-oriented area despite its lack of Metro. (Arlington Transit Blog)

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16 comments

Tags: Arlington, Baltimore, BART, Bethesda, bicycling, BRAC, budget, buses, DC, Franklin-Mulberry, high-speed rail, language, links, Maryland, public spaces, road safety, Shirlington, transit, Tysons Corner, Virginia, walkability, WMATA

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. 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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Is there a link for the 2nd to the last item?

by Steve on Jun 2, 2009 8:59 am

Oops, fixed. Thanks.

by David Alpert on Jun 2, 2009 9:10 am

There is. You just need to fix the URL.

by Froggie on Jun 2, 2009 9:10 am

Still broke, David...:o)

by Froggie on Jun 2, 2009 9:11 am

OK, now it's really fixed. :)

by David Alpert on Jun 2, 2009 9:15 am

I guess in BaltiMorphosis' plan people are just supposed to step out into the highway if they are on the right side of the rail line?

by Josh on Jun 2, 2009 9:27 am

The sidewalk on 20th between P and Massachusetts is closed to pedestrians, forcing people to walk on the street. I thought sidewalk closures were now illegal?

by KC on Jun 2, 2009 9:55 am

Baltimorphosis: nice catch about eastbound riders having to dodge cars!

I drive this route daily on my way to the MARC station at the trench's west end. My own criticism of the plan centers on the fact that this route currently experiences very heavy traffic during rush hour on the four lane surface street leading into the trench toward downtown. Obviously the rail line would releave some of this pressure, but I don't think it would relieve all of it. Many of the passing motorists are headed for MLK Blvd, which would still not be serviced by decent transit, and may in fact be headed for I-95 via the trench and MLK. Considering that those people already pass the MARC station to get to the freeway, I doubt they would be likely to switch to transit if this were built.

That said, I definitely support redeveloping the neighborhood around the proposed Red line. I'll have to play around with the Google Sketchup models when I get home to create my own urban utopia.

by BKO on Jun 2, 2009 10:12 am

No Baltimore, please.

by SG on Jun 2, 2009 10:28 am

BART also has competition in the form of Muni streetcars that surely carry a lot of the in-city traffic in SF. BART was designed with existing systems in mind, and is more a commuter-rail type system.

by ah on Jun 2, 2009 12:27 pm

That ART 77 bus is the solution that I wish I had had when I was working at Courthouse and commuting from Alexandria. I always felt a little bit guilty because I drove to work because the transit method was so circuitous and slow. 15 minute door-to-door driving, vs. 50 minutes on 1 bus and 2 Metro lines.

The new bus would have made the commute about the same length of time, but with 1 less transfer, so at least I could sit for awhile and read or do something halfway productive.

by spookiness on Jun 2, 2009 12:28 pm

The new Shirlington-Clarendon bus line is wonderful news for those of us Shirlingtonians who would love to visit Clarendon/Court House but hate dealing with the parking and so avoid the area. However, stopping the bus service at 7:55 pm really doesn't allow us to enjoy the restaurants (I don't qualify for the early bird specials...yet). Rather, it makes the assumption that people will use the bus primarily for commuting to the metro stations there (which don't need added traffic on the already overcrowded orange line). What gives? When will local transit planners realize that unless folks can be assured of making a convenient round trip on transit, they'll always opt for their cars? And I'm a TOD groupie by the way.

by Ellen on Jun 2, 2009 1:12 pm

I'm the transportation planner behind the BaltiMorphosis.com plan. It is gratifying to know that your readers' comments on our Franklin-Mulberry plan zero-in on relative details, and that the overall concept of building a community around a new transit line rather than just putting it inside a highway apparently passes muster. Yes, the transit line would have to bend a few feet at stations to accommodate the eastbound platform. Since it's light rail, the escalators could be elsewhere. Yes, the bottlenecks at the highway termini would need to be addressed. Two lanes in each direction are plenty for the thru traffic in the ditch itself, where there are no intersections. The photomontage is somewhat unclear about the number of lanes, but the room is there. Yes, the transit line will not be a suitable substitute for all or even most car trips in the corridor. That is why the transit line must be as well oriented to its adjacent communities as possible.

by Gerald Neily on Jun 2, 2009 2:51 pm

No Baltimore, please.

You do realize this is "Greater Greater Washington", not "Greater Everything Within The D.C. Border", right? I for one enjoy knowing about what's happening in Baltimore, since the two metropolitan areas are closely linked.

by wmata on Jun 2, 2009 8:30 pm

Building atop the highway would be okay, but not this travesty.

It would be perfectly moral for a future government to demolish such transport subversion, and pay 10 cents on the dollar, as this development is deliberate transport subversion.

Also, the people in the government responsible for this should be at a minimum fired.

by Douglas Willinger on Jun 3, 2009 12:01 pm

A major reason WMATA has so many riders is because it is free or heavily subsidized for federal government employees.

by wmata has unfair advantage on Jun 3, 2009 4:38 pm