Breakfast links: Speak for transit

by David Alpert • October 26, 2009 9:03 am

Streetcar meetings map by BeyondDC.

Support streetcars tonight: If you live in Ward 1, or even if you don't, come support DDOT's streetcar vision tonight at 7 pm at the Columbia Heights Education Campus, 3101 16th St, NW. The meetings in Wards 4, 2, and 7 follow later this week, with 8, 5, and 3 next week. BeyondDC made a handy map of the meetings to help you find the one nearest you.

Rail safer than driving, in numbers: The Coalition for Smarter Growth compiled statistics showing how much safer rail transit is than driving. Even though press articles about Metro can't seem to say anything without picking on the system for safety, in relative terms, it's not the problem. (Coalition for Smarter Growth, Matthias)

More purple and green for PG: Prince George's County is adding some more transit to its master plan, including a Purple Line around from New Carrollton to Westphalia and National Harbor and a Green Line extension to Fort Meade via Konterra. They're still focused on building big developments at the edge of the region, but at least they want to send transit there. The revised plan also adds some bike trails. There's a public meeting on the plan tonight at 7. (Post, Cavan)

Pennsylvania Avenue L'Enfant's way?: Some Capitol Hill residents oppose potential redesigns of the Eastern Market Metro plaza, including some narrowing of Pennsylvania Avenue, because L'Enfant wanted wide streets. But besides the silliness of venerating an over 200-year-old plan, WashCycle points out that his plan calls for less space for cars than the current roadways, with large "tree-lined gravel paths."

Tysons' free lunch shuttles: So many office workers in Tysons have to drive to get to some food that there's a third rush hour around lunch. Fairfax is setting up two free shuttles in the middle of the day to connect major office parks to the two malls.

Day off for killing a kid: A Dallas police officer (not using lights or sirens) drives 70 mph in a 40 mph zone, and hits and kills a child on a bicycle. His punishment? A one-day suspension. (ScienceBlogs)

From Raleigh to Sprawleigh: Raleigh built part of an outer beltway, and it's generated miles of sprawl. So planners are now working hard to plan the rest of it, using the same old "will reduce traffic" arguments. (The Bellows)

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Tags: bike safety, buses, Capitol Hill, Dallas, DC, DDOT, Eastern Market Metro Plaza, events, Fairfax, Green Line extension, Konterra, links, Metro safety, National Harbor, Pierre L'Enfant, police, press, Prince George's, Purple Line, Raleigh, sprawl, streetcars, Tysons Corner, Virginia, Westphalia

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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Southern Wake is pretty nakedly development aid. I've been complaining about Virginia Beach's plans for its Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt for years on the same grounds, given little result.

by J.D. Hammond on Oct 26, 2009 9:37 am

I talked to one of the architects of the Westphalia project last week. They're anticipating transit for the project, in the "if we build it, they will come" fashion.

It might make more sense to direct the green line to Westphalia, rather than zigzagging light rail.

by цarьchitect on Oct 26, 2009 10:12 am

You'd think that in these recessionary times people, evev in Tyson's Corner, would be taking their lunch with them more.

by rdhd on Oct 26, 2009 10:17 am

It should be noted that Raleigh's outer loop, not to mention Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, is in part being driven by legislative requirements.

by Froggie on Oct 26, 2009 10:54 am

Good job PG on the transit plan, unfortunately that is the easy part. Now you have to find funding.

by Matt R on Oct 26, 2009 12:16 pm

as for Capitol Hill people opposing a re-designing of the plaza around the Metro station- what I see are a lot of car-oriented NIMBYs who refuse to take Metro, walk or bicycle.

A large number of residents around the EM Metro own not one car, but multiple cars.

What is ironic is than a majority of these residents consider themselves "progressive" or "democrats" along the party line issues- yet they all buyinto the standard anti-city anti-density hysteria akin to the thinking of the 1950's.

We DO NOT NEED a huge garage at Hines;
WE DO NOT NEED more surface parking in the neighborhood;

WE DO NEED more density
WE DO NEED dedicated bikeways
WE DO NEED improved and easier pedestrian access to Metro- w/o planting hedges or obstructions to make it harder to cross PaAve or to take shortcuts
WE DO NEED new streetcars around Capitol Hill/Nay Yard - which is AGAINST the wishes of the CHRS/ NIMBY elitists who all want a suburbia in the city for their cars.

by w on Oct 26, 2009 12:42 pm

On the PG Transport Plan:

http://www.pgplanning.org/Projects/Ongoing_Plans_and_Projects/Transportation/Master_Plan_of_Transportation.htm

Firstly, the PL is intended more as a feeder into Metro; not necessarily a line you'd want to ride past many stops. Hence, a connection into the Metro Lines beyond New Carrollton is a must -- especially if destined for National Harbor.

The plan does mention looking into Metro links at Branch Ave or Suitland. Suitland could be a bit of a haul, with numerous potential stops before the end destination of National Harbor. Branch Ave would likely entail running directly along the Beltway. The latter isn't too shabby if you want to go straight to NH, but you miss some potential ridership in the higher-density areas to the north of the Beltway.

I've been exploring three different alignments: one is essentially PG Co's plan of a circumferential Purple Line station. Another is a line out of Southern Ave which picks up the Forest Heights area. Another is out of King St, which also stops by P&R's at Eisenhower Ave before crossing Woodrow Wilson & continuing along my circumferential or turning toward NH.

One thing to possibly keep in mind (though I haven't explored cost or ridership yet) is a potential extension beyond NH down toward Indian Head... I foresee any master planned transit lines terminating in NH without a way out, in case there was ever a desire for one.

I'm still working on working out some technical issues with all three as well as the potential interlocking between all three alignments... I'll try and upload those next onto my website.

by Bossi on Oct 26, 2009 2:07 pm

No streetcar meetings for Ward 6?

by sara on Oct 26, 2009 10:29 pm

Ward 6 was first, last week.

by David Alpert on Oct 26, 2009 11:29 pm

On the PG Transport Plan:

http://philatransport.blogspot.com/2009/10/preview-of-southern-pg-co.html

Oops, turns out I had also been eying up Suitland for a line out to NH... must've gotten my stations mixed up. I spotted somewhere in their study mention of continuing south toward Charles County, but I can't recall seeing anything about continuing into Virginia.

If there was still intention of heading into Virginia, I'd still be curious to see how they intend to hit NH and get across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge... that's been keeping me scratching my head for a couple weeks now.

by Bossi on Oct 27, 2009 12:20 am