Breakfast links: Montgomery County follies

by David Alpert • October 7, 2009 8:17 am

White Flint. Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Pushback on the Gaithersbungle: Momentum is slowing for the Science "City" plans at Gaithersburg West. Critics of the plan have been getting signfiicant ink, from Planning Board member and Kentlands developer Joe Alfandre, ACT's Ben Ross, and others. MDOT and SHA are worried that the plan will bring a lot of traffic to areas without enough infrastructure, and the Montgomery Housing Opportunities Commission believes it will exacerbate an imbalance between jobs and housing in the area. And Councilmember Phil Andrews has come out against the plan's scale. (Post, Gazette, Examiner, Cavan)

Examiner bores into Medical Center tunnel: Bill Myers covers the outrage over MCDOT's clandestine behavior changing the pedestrian access to Medical Center Metro into a grade-separated car interchange.

Leggett: Walkable places bad if they interfere with driving: County Executive Ike Leggett and MCDOT's analysis of the White Flint plan sound like something out of the 1950s. They're afraid that denser development will just slow down existing commuter traffic through the area, especially to the BRAC site which they're working hard to make more car-oriented, and believe that the best way to reduce pollution is to move more traffic faster instead of helping people live near work and Metro. (Friends of White Flint)

Faster than driving: In 1907, it was faster to get from Falls Church to DC by trolley than the same trip today by car or bus. (Marginal Revolution, Ken Archer)

What women want (in bike infrastructure): Women represent a small minority of bike commuters, but use off-street bike paths at much higher rates. Researchers are looking at this and other disparities to identify ways to help more people bicycle. (Scientific American, Gavin Baker)

Bloody Monday for pedestrians: A woman got off a bus in Trinidad on Monday and started to cross the street. But another bus driver passing the first bus then struck her. The woman has died. (Post, DCist) ... And a car driver hit and killed a pedestrian on Route 1 in Fairfax, also on Monday. (Post)

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19 comments

Tags: bicycling, buses, development, Fairfax, Falls Church, Gaithersburg West, gender, Ike Leggett, links, Maryland, Medical Center access, Montgomery, pedestrian safety, Phil Andrews, road safety, traffic, transit, Trinidad, Virginia, White Flint

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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The new downtown Rockville and Silver Spring both added high density housing, shops, resturants, and some jobs, but little new traffic.

In fact most examples of car based devlopment are awfull. Take any major strip mall type shopping center. Traffic in those parking lots is awfull, and the white oak shopping center is one of the worst out there.

by matt on Oct 7, 2009 9:02 am

The trolley may have been faster in 1907, but the blog posting is inconclusive. Do you have any other sources that compare travel times by transit then and now?

by Matthias on Oct 7, 2009 10:19 am

Does anyone know if the bus was empty (out of service) or traveling with passengers?

by Jazzy on Oct 7, 2009 10:29 am

Of course, the Capitol limited from DC to Chicago took 15 1/2 hours in the 1920s and takes 17 1/2 hours now.

by ah on Oct 7, 2009 10:40 am

Is the Capitol Limited a train? Wasn't the stimulus money going to boost trains and high speed trains around the country? I wonder what the status is with all that.

by Jazzy on Oct 7, 2009 10:44 am

Help! I'm a reporter at Fox Five trying to reach David Alpert for a comment on the "Medical Center Secret Plan". Anyone have a cell phone number or email address for David?
Cell is best way to reach me: (redacted)
email: (redacted)
(Note: I cannot reply directly to email from my Blackberry. I can receive, but not reply. Don't ask.)

by John Henrehan on Oct 7, 2009 10:48 am

Jazzy, I don't think this is an issue of the quality of tracks or rolling stock. The old Capitol Limited was run by the B&O on tracks they owned, but Amtrak has to pay CSX to use those same tracks. This means that CSX's freight has priority on those rails in a way that it didn't before, and the Capitol Limited can pretty much expect delays. Those expected delays are now built into the timetable.

by tdcjames on Oct 7, 2009 11:11 am

Thanks. Tracks, rolling stock? Eegads! your knowledge level is likely way beyond mine!

No matter. But, what's the latest on the stimulus vis a vis massive upgrade to the rail system (for passengers) in the US?

by Jazzy on Oct 7, 2009 11:18 am

I think the old Metroliner was as fast or faster than the Acela between NY and DC.

I agree with Matthias, that blog post was inconclusive at best. The comments also seem to get the trolleys mixed up with the W&OD line. I doubt that a surface trolley, even with an ROW, was faster than Metro's heavy rail. Particularly considering that the trolley lost the ROW once it got to the District.

by Reid on Oct 7, 2009 11:28 am

A link to the Scientific American article is here.

by Peter Smith on Oct 7, 2009 11:52 am

John Henrehan, you can reach David at info@ggwash.org.

by Michael Perkins on Oct 7, 2009 11:56 am

The original post on MR asks whether it was faster from Fairfax or Clifton--which don't have Metro--to DC.

Dunno about those destinations, but the Post in 1902 pegs the time from 13th & Pennsylvania to Mount Vernon by trolley at 55 minutes. According to wiki there were a ton of stations along the way.

by alexandrian on Oct 7, 2009 12:45 pm

I can't wait to read that Scientific American article after work, but let's just say I like the daredevil aspect to bike commuting. I don't want to get hurt, but there is a bit of thrill to snaking through traffic and using all the physical advantages of a nimble bike to get from here to there faster than anyone else on the road. And feeling the wind...

by Ward 1 Guy on Oct 7, 2009 12:49 pm

The primary reason that the Capitol Limited--and most other trains--run slower now than in the 1920s is that in the 1940s, the Federal Railroad Administration imposed a speed limit of 79mph on track and trains without in-cab signaling and other infrastructure improvements. There are now something like 10 categories of track, each with a different speed limit. As tdcjames points out, most of the national network trains run over freight-railroad owned tracks, and the freight railroads don't have any incentive to invest in track infrastructure that would permit faster trains. There are a couple of state-supported lengths of higher-than-79mph track in Illinois, Michigan, and California (and perhaps elsewhere), and of course the Amtrak-owned NE corridor permits higher speeds as well.

by thm on Oct 7, 2009 12:56 pm

I got in touch with John. Thanks all.

by David Alpert on Oct 7, 2009 12:57 pm

@thm: Why Obama hasn't gotten the FRA (which finally seems to be moving from the "oh-no-let's-be-totally-about-crash-avoidance" stance under the Bush administration) to lift those arcane regulations amazes me. If he's so serious about high speed rail, lifting those would be a good start.

What I would give for a unitary executive whose beliefs met with this blog. Instead we get the worst people who take up that stance.

by Jason on Oct 7, 2009 1:01 pm

Jazzy, I see you have posted on this issue, but we have been trying to contact you regarding a post you made a month ago about the accident where the jogger was hit by the bus at Dupont Circle. We represent the jogger, and in your post, you mentioned you knew someone who had seen the accident. We are looking for witnesses, so would appreciate it if you would please call me or ask the witness to call me at 301-229-7350. Thank you. Susan Gail

by susan gail on Oct 7, 2009 2:02 pm

The intersection at Rt 1 and Backlick where the car driver killed the pedestrian is kind of crazy. It's in the middle of Fort Belvoir, but it's a small pocket of non-fort. With several apartment buildings, a small motel, some shops and houses north of Rt 1.

The speed limit coming from the south is 50, and it goes to 45 just north of that intersection, and coming from the north it's 45 until right after the intersection. That intersection is also has one of the major entrances to the base.

It's a small pocket of near-urban density in terms of pedestrians trying to cross to get the bus, walk to work, or go to the base, surrounded by almost a country road because it's going through the base. I'm not sure how it could be improved, but it seems like VDOT or the Army needs to do work on it.

by Byron on Oct 7, 2009 2:55 pm

Byron: agree that VDOT should do some improvements, but no amount of improvement is going to stop a pedestrian from being hit and killed if they're walking A) outside the crosswalk and B) against a green traffic light. Both of those were reported in this particular case.

by Froggie on Oct 8, 2009 10:13 am