Greater Greater Washington

Homelessness rising in DC as shelter budgets fall

Thu, 2 Jul 09 16:43 EDT

Homeless man. Photo by kimberlyfaye.

This morning, homeless individuals and advocates gathered to speak to the crisis in the lack of shelter for homeless individuals and families in DC. The Homeless Emergency Response Workgroup held a rally at Freedom Plaza at 10:00 am. They also released a report on unmet shelter need, a "Declaration of Inter-Dependence," and a letter to the Mayor and DC Council asking them to address the crisis.

A rise in homelessness in the District of Columbia is the latest evidence of the devastating impact of the economic downturn. The number of homeless families with children is up 25% this year, and 200 families are on a waiting list just to get into emergency shelter, according to the sign-on letter. Yet a main shelter for homeless families (at D.C. General) is slated to close because there is no funding to run it past the winter months.

A study of DC shelters in April by the Homeless Emergency Response Workgroup � a coalition of service providers, consumers, religious groups, advocacy organizations, and other community groups � found that many people were turned away due to lack of capacity, with a high of 79 turned away on one night. They also showed that shelters in the individual emergency system were in overflow on 18 of 31 nights in May 2009, compared with zero nights in May 2008.

Both shelter and day service providers have said this is one of the worst years in terms of increased need for services. Unlike in past years, the demand for shelter has not decreased with the warmer weather.

What do the organizers want? The letter to the Mayor and Council asks for in increase in shelter beds and an improvement in the quality of DC shelters. Equally important, it asks the city to live up to the legal mandate to track "unmet need" for shelter. The letter also supports increasing housing resources in order to solve homelessness, but recognizes that emergency shelter needs will continue and that the District needs to do a better job of assessing and meeting that need.

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Filling DC�s newest revenue hole (Jun 24, 2009)
DC funding depends on 2010 Census mail-back rates (Mar 25, 2009)
Food insecurity in the District (Feb 5, 2009)
Don't forget the homeless: Mini-walk for Charlie's Place today (Nov 2, 2008)
Are bus shelters too "urban" for Chevy Chase? (Sep 15, 2008)

Lost Washington: The McLean House

Thu, 2 Jul 09 15:01 EDT

By Kent Boese

The McLean House, located at 1500 Eye Street, NW, was perhaps the most opulent of the many great houses erected in Washington at the turn of the century. A Renaissance-inspired structure, the house covered one-third of a city block on the south side of McPherson Square.

The mansion incorporated the original house on the southwest corner of 15th and Eye Streets that was built in 1860 by Jonah Hoover. From 1865 to 1869, the house was occupied by Senator Edwin D. Morgan, a wealthy stockbroker and wholesale grocery merchant.

The house was leased by John Roll McLean in 1884, and he purchased it several years later. Subsequently, the home was enlarged in 1886, 1891, 1894, and 1896. McLean was the only son of Washington McLean, who started as a boilermaker in Ohio and made a fortune as a manufacturer of Ohio River steamboats.

The younger McLean got his start at his father's paper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, taking charge when the family moved to Washington. In 1905, McLean purchased the Washington Post, which deteriorated under his leadership.

In his personal life, McLean liked to entertain on a grand scale. To this end, he commission John Russell Pope to expand the house (which he'd already added on to four times) into a block-long Renaissance in-town villa in 1907. For the interior decoration, the leading New York designer Elsie de Wolfe was engaged.

Upon John's death in 1916, the house passed to his son Edward. Edward, a known alcoholic, had married Evalyn Walsh. Edward spent his last days in a Maryland sanitarium, where he died in 1941.

Evalyn Walsh McLean leased the house to the federal government in 1935 for use as office space for three of the New Deal agencies. In 1939, it was sold for $2 million and demolished for the Lafayette Office Building.

More photographs:

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Lost Washington: Wisteria House (Jun 30, 2009)
Lost Washington: Stoneleigh Court Apartments (Jun 18, 2009)
Lost Washington: Corcoran House (May 26, 2009)
Lost Washington: The Little Green House (May 15, 2009)
Then and Now: The Leiter House (Apr 13, 2009)

Cars: it's not black and white (except for police cruisers)

Thu, 2 Jul 09 12:42 EDT

Photo by World of Oddy.

Shortly after the parking minimums debate, anti groups started echoing a common theme: The DC government is trying to get rid of cars. At many individual meetings, from Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets to the ANC 2F task force on the ARTS Overlay, some residents have made statements like, "DDOT's declared policy is to get rid of cars," as though this were simply established fact.

That's baloney. Designing public policy to shift our transportation mix slightly away from driving and slightly toward transit use, walking and bicycling isn't a plot to ban cars. When airlines announce that they plan to cut capacity by 10%, people don't roundly declare it a secret plot to eliminate planes entirely. DC also reduced the loan guarantee assistance it provides to help lower income buyers get mortgages, but nobody wrote that this is a "war on homebuying."

Why does much of the rehetoric imply that either everyone must drive, or nobody? In a Capitol Hill email list discussion of David C's Safeway post, one resident argued that we need a lot of parking, saying, "It is naive to think that shopping at Eastern Market by using Metro or our feet, while holding down full-time jobs and raising families should be the norm. I happen to live on a subway line and it is still inconvenient."

And I know many people who do shop at Eastern Market by using Metro or their feet (or their bicycle). I also know people who drive. The beauty of a multi-modal transportation system is that not everyone has to use the same mode. There needn't be only one "norm." Maybe this particular resident does need to drive. She should be free to. But many people very easily fall into the trap of thinking that because a life choice wouldn't work for them, it must be bad. If we followed that thinking, then we'd have outlawed computers years ago, since large segments of the population still find them very confusing.

Similar thinking pollutes CakeLove founder Warren Brown's thinking about parking. He responded to our criticism yesterday, saying that Metro doesn't really work because to get from U Street to National Harbor, he would have to take a lengthy trip by train and bus. Of course, as we know, National Harbor is especially transit-inaccessible. Warren might be the only person in the region who regularly goes between U Street and National Harbor. I have no objection to him driving when he does.

Warren also writes that "driving is a fact of life." Eating salty foods is a fact of life, too, but no government agency hands out free pretzels, and when health advocates suggest we try to cut back on sodium, nobody claims they're trying to stamp out salt from the earth. For some reason, an argument keeps surfacing that because driving is part of life, the government ought to spend billions of dollars to remove whole buildings and replace them with empty spaces for them to put their vehicles. Moreover, nobody should have to pay to use that space. And if the government refuses to build those garages, or expects to recoup its costs by charging a market rate, it must be evidence of a secret plot to wipe out all cars and force everyone to ride a bicycle.

Update: I removed a mention of Tom's comment, as he clarified that he didn't mean it in the way I interpreted it.

(15 comments · share or email)

National Harbor to cyclists, pedestrians: Drop dead (Jun 9, 2009)
Does RPP force new residents to drive? (May 26, 2009)
Entire level of DC USA garage has never been used (May 29, 2008)
No new subsidized parking in Bethesda (Apr 26, 2008)
Less parking at 14th and U would solve many problems (Feb 15, 2008)

Capitol Hill Town Square team presents options

Thu, 2 Jul 09 11:02 EDT

Eastern Market metro plaza, from bing.

Last night, the Capitol Hill Town Square project team presented three options for improving the plaza where Pennsylvania Avenue intersects 8th Street, at the Eastern Market Metro station. The plans ranged from minor landscaping improvements and traffic calming to modifying the route of Pennsylvania Avenue through the site.

The study began with residents and business groups who envisioned turning this plaza into a "town square" for the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Currently, busy Pennsylvania Avenue bisects the area into two very separate sections, and the disjointed feel divides the commercial corridors on 7th and Pennsylvania northwest of the site from Barracks Row on 8th to the south. Other squares from the original L'Enfant Plan, like Stanton Square, became true parks thanks to the roadways running around, rather than through, the site.

Current site layout.	Option 1: Current with improvements.
Option 2: Triptych.	Option 3: Central Park.

The first option keeps the current arrangement with two separate parks on opposite sides of Pennsylvania Avenue. New and better landscaping would add trees, consolidate the paved part and creating a circular plaza in the eastern park. "Stronger plantings" in the Pennsylvania Avenue median would dissuade midblock crossings from 8th Street north of the plaza to the Metro station, where many people cross today.

Along with the other two, this option includes some traffic calming. The transportation analysts from Gorove/Slade concluded that Pennsylvania could become three lanes on each side instead of the current four, calming traffic without diverting cars onto side streets. They also recommend removing the short segments of D Street between 8th and Pennsylvania on each side, creating larger pedestrian plazas in front of the Hine site and Barracks Row.

Option 2, the "Triptych," would build an oval in the center of the plaza, creating three parks. Pedestrians would have to cross fewer lanes at any one time, and this option (as well as the third) create more direct walking paths from the north to the Metro station, removing the temptation to dash across Pennsylvania midblock.

The third option, "Central Park," involves fully diverting Pennyslvania around the edge of the square to create a single, large park. 8th Street would be closed to cars, but still available to emergency vehicles.

To minimize noise impacts for the residents on D Street, Pennsylvania Avenue would not actually use the D Street right-of-way, but would run parallel. A planted barrier would separate the two and reduce noise impacts on the houses. Nevertheless, as one resident pointed out during the question period, according to the team's diagrams, such a barrier would probably reduce noise to the first floor of nearby houses but not as much to upper floors, which often contain bedrooms.

Pedestrian flow for the Triptych and Central Park options. Thanks to David C. for the photos.

Several people, including resident Kathy Henderson, called the Triptych the most "visually appealing" option, and I agree. As with a potential circle at North Capitol and Irving, a circle (here oval) borrows the design language of many other parts of DC (though Capitol Hill's vernacular does use squares more than circles). That options could create something with a greater sense of place than the current arrangement, while keeping cars far from nearby houses.

Next: Residents' reactions.

(30 comments · share or email)

Build a circle at North Capitol and Irving (May 5, 2009)
North Capitol study plans "gateway", disappoints neighbors (Jan 14, 2009)
Capitol Hill residents weigh in on Town Square (Oct 8, 2008)
Capitol Hill may get a town square (Jul 30, 2008)
Capitol Hill parking problems from Shoup misapplication? (Jun 9, 2008)

Breakfast links: Attention deficit

Thu, 2 Jul 09 09:07 EDT

Paint Branch Parkway in College Park. Photo by thisisbossi.

MATD?: Car and Driver tested reaction times of texting, reading, and being intoxicated while driving. They found that drivers' reaction times while texting was much, much worse than being intoxicated. Participants' reaction times ranged from twice as bad to 20 times as bad. (How We Drive)

Unsafety in College Park: After a bicyclist was hit and injured at Paint Branch Parkway in College Park, officials are looking for additional safety measures. The Gazette article includes a perfect example of the human agency paradox, where people tend to describe cyclists using human terms but "cars" as objects: "The man was crossing the street ... on a bicycle May 21 when he was struck by a car." (Gazette)

Cities growing, but anti-city assumptions still exist in reporters' heads: Big cities are now growing faster than other areas, according to the Census. For some reason, AP reporter Hope Yen says in the lede that this stems from "an economic crisis that is making it harder for people to move." The experts quoted in the article, however, explain that a lot of the growth comes from the growing desire among many people to live in those cities, as opposed to it being too hard to go elsewhere. (AP, JTS, Michael)

Fairfax County City?: Fairfax County executive Anthony H. Griffin has suggested having Fairfax County become an independent city. Among other things, that could give the county more control over transportation, including the ability to raise taxes to pay for improvements that Virginia has failed to provide. However, if I understand Virginia law correctly, they'd still be very restricted in which taxes they could choose. Finally, they'd need to come up with a name, as Fairfax City is already taken. (Post, Joshua D, Liz)

Metro bits: NextBus is working okay, but still has some warts (Post) ... The track circuit which failed in the Metro crash had just been replaced (Examiner) ... Ridership declined briefly after the crash, but has basically returned to normal. (Unsuck DC Metro)

Council clippings: Jim Graham suggests capping the number of taxicabs ... Yvette Alexander won passage of a bill to require video surveillance in gas stations (Examiner) ... the Council also reasserted its power over its cable station after the Mayor aired a deposition Councilmembers had asked not to be aired. (Post)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

(22 comments · share or email)

Metro crash roundup (Jun 23, 2009)
Vienna council candidate: "undesirables" mean cars, not people (May 4, 2009)
Two cases where reporters, police don't dismiss crashes (Apr 7, 2009)
Fairfax County proposes bus route cuts (Mar 24, 2009)
Sharon Bulova for Fairfax Chair (Feb 2, 2009)

Then and Now: 519 and 521 Rock Creek Church Road

Wed, 1 Jul 09 16:01 EDT

By Kent Boese

Then: 519 and 521 Rock Creek Church Road, NW, newly completed and offered for sale in this ad from May 29, 1910. Ranging from $4,950 to $6,250, the only major differences in these homes besides the price is the size of the lot and the choice of smooth stucco, textured stucco, and red brick.

Now: 521 Rock Creek Church Road sold on March 26, 2009, for $525,000. It was originally listed nearly a year earlier for $703,500, if memory serves.

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Then and Now: Corner of Kennedy & 7th Street, NW (Jun 5, 2009)
Then and Now: Third Church (May 29, 2009)
Then and Now: Park Place, NW (Apr 20, 2009)
Then and Now: Granite and peaches (Mar 27, 2009)
Klingle: Even more cars in Rock Creek? (Mar 25, 2008)

A cheaper route to Metro core capacity, part 3: More complex service patterns

Wed, 1 Jul 09 14:25 EDT

If Metro separates the Yellow and Green Lines to add capacity across the Potomac, we could align service various ways. What about a hybrid of the two?

Squalish diagrammed a potential service pattern where some Blue trains take the 14th Street bridge, while others go past the cemetery to Rosslyn. Likewise, some Silver trains go through the Rosslyn tunnel, while others go past the cemetery the other way to 14th Street.

Squalish's diagram shows most (2/3) of the Blue and Silver trains going past the cemetery, but fewer could as well. Most trains would follow the more direct route into DC, but a few would use the cemetery track to switch places. We'd have some service past Arlington Cemetery, allowing people to transfer, but not so much as to let the merges and unmerges slow the whole system down.

To make things simpler for riders, we should give a single color to all trains following a particular route through Arlington and DC. If one color follows two paths, it should only do so at the periphery. I recommended the same for the proposed "Blue Line Split".

Click to enlarge.

Nevertheless, this could definitely confuse riders. There are now, eight services, six involving the Virginia side: Dulles-New Carrollton, Dulles-MV Square, Vienna-New Carrollton, Franconia-Largo, Franconia-MV Square, and Huntington-MV Square. Whereas calling Franconia-Greenbelt service "Yellow" only affects those going to the four stations south of King Street, none of which draw tourists, this would also affect the 14 stations on the Orange and planned Silver Lines, including everyone going to Tysons or Dulles Airport.

Most likely, Metro would need to begin giving trains secondary designations, such as numbers, as New York does, with one number for the Orange Line to Vienna service and a different number for the Orange Line to Wiehle Avenue or Route 772.

(9 comments · share or email)

A cheaper route to Metro core capacity, part 2: Virginia service patterns (Jun 30, 2009)
A cheaper route to Metro core capacity? (Jun 29, 2009)
What was up with the one-way Orange-Blue? (Oct 7, 2008)
Brown Line: We don't need a new color (Oct 7, 2008)
Proposed "Blue Line split": why blue? (Mar 12, 2008)

Bikes at National Harbor: Better too little, too late than never?

Wed, 1 Jul 09 13:06 EDT

Hopefully, a temporary tie-up.

By Stephen Miller

Last month, National Harbor was unprepared for cyclists and pedestrians accessing the waterfront resort via the new Wilson Bridge active transportation crossing. The sustained demand for bicycle and pedestrian access has led the property's management to make changes, including the installation of temporary dismount signage and makeshift bike racks where the crushed clamshell surface trail known as the Harborwalk reaches the "downtown" area of the complex. Developer the Peterson Companies says that permanent bike racks and dismount signage will be installed at this location by the end of July. In addition, Director of Marketing Rocell Viniard says that National Harbor security and event staff, who at the beginning of June weren't even aware of the existence of bike racks within the facility on Waterfront Street, have been trained on the new bicycle policies.

However, the developer still seems reluctant to pave the Harborwalk. Viniard tells me that "the Harborwalk will not be paved in the near future" nor has any decision been made to pave it, since the pathway was originally intended for leisure walks and jogs by hotel guests and residents. National Harbor management needs to realize that the Harborwalk is no longer a dead-end path. It's the connection between National Harbor and a first-class bicycle and pedestrian facility on the Wilson Bridge, with the potential to bring thousands of new customers from Alexandria and the Mount Vernon Trail. Providing these customers with substandard facilities indicates that National Harbor doesn't want their business.

(1 comment · share or email)

Trail signs should work like street signs (Jun 18, 2009)
National Harbor to cyclists, pedestrians: Drop dead (Jun 9, 2009)
National Harbor bus reroute deepens inequality (Apr 16, 2009)
DC USA: SmartBike yes (eventually), racks in garage no (Aug 25, 2008)
Donna Edwards: for better buses, against National Harbor (Jun 12, 2008)

Sidewalks belong everywhere, even where Fenty friends live

Wed, 1 Jul 09 11:25 EDT

Tamarack St. Photo by thisisbossi.

Residents of the North Portal Estates neighborhood thought they were getting a nice, new street reconstruction, including sidewalks to keep themselves and their children safe. That is, until one politically-connected resident intervened personally with Mayor Fenty. Now, DDOT has just finished reconstructing several main streets in the neighborhood as wide roads for cars to speed, without protection for pedestrians heading to work, school and stores.

North Portal Estates is DC's northernmost neighborhood, nestled into the northern corner of the city where the streets are named for trees and flowers. The neighborhood consists of single-family houses a short walk from Silver Spring, where many residents, such as Katherine Trimble, use Metro to get to work. She walks downhill along Tamarack Street to reach 16th and enter Maryland. Many cars, too, drive downhill, and often at high speed, making many residents feel unsafe in their neighborhood.

In March, DDOT representatives told the neighborhood that sidewalks would be part of the planned reconstruction of Verbena and Tamarack Streets and East Beach Drive. Many residents welcomed this news. Some others, including the leaders of the North Portal Estates Civic Association, argued that the neighborhood doesn't need sidewalks. DDOT has a policy of installing sidewalks on at least one side of every street when they do a reconstruction.

Soon after, however, pedestrian advocates learned that DDOT had dropped the sidewalks on direct orders from Mayor Fenty. According to sources within DDOT, a politically influential resident affiliated with the civic association asked the Mayor to delete the sidewalks. Without any official public notice, DDOT made the change. The crews have just wrapped up their work, finishing the curbs without sidewalks and repaving the streets. Residents will have to dodge speeding cars for decades more until it's time again to redo those streets.

Streets just reconstructed without sidewalks in red.

Sidewalks should be a part of every street reconstruction. Even in more suburban parts of the city, people walk, and our street designs should encourage them to. Where neighborhoods have no sidewalks, the streets are almost always plenty wide to add sidewalks on at least one side without shrinking anyone's front yards or destroying trees.

Last year, Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced a bill to require sidewalks on at least one side of every street when DDOT reconstructs a street. The Council didn't act on the bill last year, because DDOT assured them it already had a policy in place. Now that we know the Mayor will waive the policy for friends, it's time to pass the bill. The Council is holding a hearing this afternoon on this year's version.

However, the draft bill still leaves too much wiggle room for exceptions based on politics. It lets DDOT "issue a finding that it is impractical or unnecessary to install a sidewalk if the Director determines that the physical site conditions would make it impossible or unduly expensive to construct the required sidewalk, or if it would lead nowhere and would be highly unlikely to serve any pedestrians." That's a loophole big enough to drive a road crew through.

Instead, the bill should set specific, objective standards for those situations where a project may continue without sidewalks. Those standards could factor in the zoning classification (commercial street should always have sidewalks), the street classification (collector streets should always have sidewalks), the number of residences (even more than a handful is enough), and whether a street is dead-end or is near a school or park.

The bill should also require public notice and hearings before any project proceeds without sidewalks. If DDOT fails to meet these standards, the bill should prohibit spending any money on the project. It's too bad DC laws need such clear measures, but as we've seen from inclusionary zoning or fire trucks on cable TV, Mayor Fenty has shown few qualms about flouting the expressly stated wishes of the DC Council.

(23 comments · share or email)

Does Fenty believe in the "unitary executive"? (Apr 21, 2009)
Missing sidewalks stir debate (Apr 7, 2009)
Unexpected tree removal alarms neighbors (Mar 5, 2009)
Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)
Assuring sidewalks vs. assuring good sidewalks (Oct 30, 2008)

Gaithersbungle, part 2: Old, tired formulas generate old, disastrous solutions

Wed, 1 Jul 09 09:58 EDT

Bye, bye Md. countryside. Photo by bettinche.

The Montgomery Planning Department just recommended widening I-270 between Rockville and Clarksburg to 12 lanes, and adding two new lanes north of Clarksburg. The project would cost $3.8 billion, and would be a disastrous move for the County. The analysis relies on antiquated Level of Service analysis that downplays the side effects of the widening on sprawl, and ignores other alternatives such as pricing existing lanes which would alleviate congestion more cheaply and with much less damage.

Widening 270 would fuel the greatest expansion of auto-dependent sprawl in Montgomery County in over a generation. In 1980, foresighted Montgomery County leaders created the Agricultural Reserve, protecting 90,000 acres of farmland in the county's rural area. They created a program to transfer development rights from agricultural land to the denser, downcounty areas, to focus growth around existing infrastructure and existing jobs.

The Reserve excludes several large areas around Clarksburg and Germantown, and as the Planning Board notes, the County has added significant amounts of new housing there, as well as in Frederick County. However, the report ignores the huge, real effect of induced demand. New lanes would spur even more auto-dependent single-family homes out in these areas, homes very, very far from jobs. The development would put pressure on future County leaders to narrow the Reserve. And, most of all, it would drive even more sprawling growth in Frederick County.

Instead of seeing freeway expansion as driving demand, the Planning Department report simply takes development as static and focuses almost entirely on vehicular Level of Service (LOS). That's entirely the wrong measure.

Planning Staff have taken a small bite out of LOS-centrism in the proposed Growth Policy, recommending a change in the standard from D to E. But if you're only designing a transportation network with the goal of moving as many cars as possible as fast as possible, you end up with distorted answers. As the saying goes in transportation planning, "If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places."

The staff report dismisses the "no-build alternative" simply because it will not relieve congestion on the roadway. But it doesn't challenge the basic assumptions that speeding the drive from Frederick during rush hour should be the County's priority with $3.8 billion.

Worst of all, the staff never consider better options, like congestion charging on existing lanes. FHWA itself concluded that charging tolls on 270 during peak periods could move enough "discretionary" car trips to other times to alleviate the congestion problems on 270. Freeways behave somewhat paradoxically, where very small changes in demand cause big changes in congestion. Brookings just released a paper recommending a road-use pricing system.

Next: Another way to improve transportation in the corridor, for less than $3.8 billion.

(24 comments · share or email)

Gaithersbungle: Planning Board staff latest to ignore better way for Gaithersburg (Jun 29, 2009)
Highway departments set on HOT lanes (May 8, 2009)
Breakfast links: Make a difference (Jan 7, 2009)
MoCo planners considering congestion pricing (May 27, 2008)
Let's solve traffic jams by creating more! (Apr 5, 2004)

Breakfast links: 14th, car-centrism, and you

Wed, 1 Jul 09 08:38 EDT

Photo by Wayan Vota.

Noise on 14th, from bars and politics: One 14th Street liquor license fight has concluded, and another is just beginning. In the first, Bar Pilar and Saint-Ex successfully sought to change their liquor license. Residents east of 14th charged that Dupont ANC Comissioner Ramon Estrada, his video camera-wielding partner, and former DCCA board member Phyllis Klein were inappropriately employing delay tactics to block the negotiated voluntary agreement. The newest fight will surround the planned Local 14 bar near 14th and Swann, whose proposed rooftop deck until 2 or 3 am has residents concerned. (14th & You)

Huge garage better than daytime neighborhood activity?: CakeLove, located just two blocks from Metro and whose business thrives thanks to the many residents and workers in the area, advocated tearing down the Reeves Center to replace it with a giant parking garage. The daytime office workers in that building patronize area businesses and help keep them successful, especially the non-bars; if anything, 14th Street needs more daytime activity. They're still linking to this article from their directions page, which also encourages people to double park. How about advocating for some 15-minute restricted parking or performance-based parking, which would really help their business? (Geoff H, Melissa)

DC, MD fix it first; VA widens it first: Smart Growth America evaluated states' stimulus spending from the first 120 days. DC is spending 41.5% of its share on transit or bike/ped investments, and dedicated 100% of its road budget repairing existing infrastructure rather than adding new capacity. Maryland put only 6.1% to transit/bike/ped, but also used 100% of its road budget for repairs. Virginia, on the other hand, put 5.2% to transit/bike/ped but only 60% of its road budget to repairs, with the other 40% going to building new capacity, despite 54% of its current roads not being in "good" condition. (Gavin Baker)

Pedestrian strikes front of fast-moving police cruiser: Last year, a DC police officer driving a cruiser struck and killed a pedestrian; now, the family is suing, claiming police altered the crash scene. Reporter Michael Neibauer notices that the police report used especially ridiculous language, claiming that the pedestrian "ran into the right side of a marked police vehicle" without also mentioning the cruiser's speed. That's pretty close to "A person struck a bullet moving in the opposite direction." (Examiner)

And...: Arlington has banned the County government from buying bottled water, as the bottles involve fossil fuel consumption to make and transport, then often end up as litter (Gavin Baker) ... Metro is moving the 1000-series to the centers of trains, but has to shuffle cars between yards before they can complete the task (Post) ... How would you recommend train operators announce when 6-car trains will be pulling to the end of the platform, forcing those standing at the wrong end to walk down? (Get There)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

(52 comments · share or email)

Breakfast links: avarice and indifference (Feb 11, 2009)
Police report for Connecticut & Nebraska crash (Feb 4, 2009)
Novak sorry he has cancer, not sorry he hit a pedestrian (Sep 8, 2008)
14th and U project moving forward (Feb 29, 2008)
Less parking at 14th and U would solve many problems (Feb 15, 2008)

Lost Washington: Wisteria House

Tue, 30 Jun 09 16:01 EDT

By Kent Boese

Once located on the northwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 11th Street, NW, the Wisteria House was built during the Civil War (ca. 1863) for hardware merchant William Thomas. Thomas added a two story portico in 1869. The Wisteria was brought to Washington from China and was a gift to Thomas by a naval officer.

Click on an image to enlarge.

In 1878, Thomas moved to Saint Louis. The new owner was Gustavus Ricker, a businessman with investments in marble, iron, and railroads. Ricker removed the original gable roof and added a third story with a flat roof in 1882.

Upon Ricker's death, his widow continued to live in the home until her death in 1922. The house was razed in 1924 to make way for the Wisteria Mansions Apartments.

(2 comments · share or email)

Lost Washington: The McLean House (Jul 2, 2009)
Lost Washington: Harvey's Restaurant (Jun 23, 2009)
Lost Washington: Stoneleigh Court Apartments (Jun 18, 2009)
Lost Washington: Corcoran House (May 26, 2009)
Lost Washington: Crandall's Joy Theater (May 12, 2009)

Are people using the Seven Corners pedestrian bridge?

Tue, 30 Jun 09 13:54 EDT

By Steve Offutt

On May 20th, Fairfax County finally opened the pedestrian overpass at Seven Corners.

According to officials at the ribbon cutting, the original discussions for the overpass began 25 years ago. "All in," including engineering, design, and other costs, the bridge cost $8 million. (In the original post, I reported a price tag of $2.6 million.

The bridge still needs some pedestrian improvements, such as the paths from the bridge to the stores. At left is the sidewalk leading away from the stairs; at right is the sidewalk from the ramp. Both just end abruptly with the Starbucks and B&N beckoning across the lot.

Despite the fact that this area is quite unfriendly to pedestrians, it actually gets a lot of pedestrian use. Here are the statistics I gathered on two different dates, Thursday, May 21 from 10:05 to 11:05 AM and Tuesday, June 16 from 1:30 to 2:30 PM. Both days were excellent weather with temperatures in the 70s.

See the end of the post for some caveats about these statistics.

In both cases there were more users at the Patrick Henry crossing than on the bridge itself, underscoring the continuing need to make that intersection safe and pleasant for pedestrians. I was surprised that no cyclists used the bridge. Perhaps they simply aren't yet aware of the new option.

According to the Pedestrian Program Manager, county also plans to add signals and crosswalks at Seven Corners itself, which would be a definite improvement to the worn footpaths and crossing-fingers-that-the-light-is-red situation that exists there now.

The people who made the "Mad Dash" across Route 50 did so in three locations: 6 of them crossed between the bridge and Seven Corners; 2 crossed between the bridge and Patrick Henry and 2 crossed 50 yards or so east of Patrick Henry.

The bridge will, of course, require maintenance, and hopefully the county has budgeted for that. Already the bridge has become a magnet for graffiti. There was already at least one overflowing trash receptacle. Over time, if the county lets the facility become run down, many people will choose not to use it any more. After only a month, this one seems to already be neglected.

Caveats on table data: Data was gathered while sitting on the bridge. Accuracy as follows:

Bridge users: 100% accurate
PH Drive: Likely undercounted by 10-20% due to distance and sight line. Better data on second date due to learning curve.
Seven Corners: Likely undercounted by a lot due to sightline and inability to see parts of the crossing area
Mad Dash: 100% accurate; no way anyone could cross without being seen.

(20 comments · share or email)

Seven Corners pedestrian overpass opens tomorrow (May 19, 2009)
Seniors testify about vital pedestrian needs (Feb 23, 2009)
Pedestrian hit at Comet Square; driver "cited with a violation" (Feb 4, 2009)
Arlington collecting bicycle and pedestrian traffic data (Feb 3, 2009)
Fairfax, PG worst for pedestrian safety (Apr 23, 2008)

NextBus is live!

Tue, 30 Jun 09 12:57 EDT

Take a look and post your thoughts in the comments. You can get to the real-time map of bus positions by clicking the (somewhat easy to miss) link in the upper right.

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DDOT: NextBus not the answer for Circulator (Mar 17, 2009)
Catoe: NextBus beta "doesn't make sense for Metro" (Mar 6, 2009)
RAC tonight: service cuts, NextBus (Mar 4, 2009)
WMATA removes NextBus public test (Mar 3, 2009)

Pimp my Safeway: Redevelopment potential for the Capitol Hill Safeway

Tue, 30 Jun 09 12:01 EDT

The National Capital Brewery Building in 1917.

By David C

This past spring, Georgetown's "Social Safeway" closed so that it can be torn down and rebuilt. The new Safeway will be a two-story building with street-facing stores along the sidewalk, the grocery store on the second floor, and parking behind. Farther up Wisconsin, a Giant supermarket is also pursuing a new urban design that will "replace bland, single-story buildings and large surface parking lots along Wisconsin Ave and Idaho Ave with an appropriately scaled mixed-use project that will engage the street with many individual stores and residences." These are good plans and we need to urbanize more suburban-style grocery stores in the District. The next such site should be the "UnSafeway" at 415 14th St, SE.

This Capitol Hill Safeway's site has a colorful history. In the late 19th century it was the site of a brewery that in 1891 became Albert Carry's National Capital Brewery.

The main brewing building was 135 ft. tall, not including the flag towers, 94 feet wide and 137 ft. deep. A substantial stables and a huge icehouse operation flanked the building. On opening the brewery had nine large wagons pulled by 30 "Percheron" horses. The ice house was powered by two, 80 horsepower, steam engines and could produce 50 tons of ice running at maximum. The brewery's output capacity was a staggering 100,000 barrels annually. Since a barrel contained about 30 gallons, the brewery produced and sold more than 24 million pints of beer in its heyday."

It operated for more than 20 years (serving as the site of a notorious murder mystery in 1912). After Prohibition, like many other breweries, it was converted to an ice cream factory — the Carry Ice Cream Company. It was a complete success. Meadow Gold bought the company in 1918, becoming one of the first companies to sell the Dixie Cup.

At some point (various sources disagree) it became a Sanitary Grocery, and later became a Safeway. The Brewery was knocked down, and a one level grocery store opened its place. The grocery's entrance is set far back behind a parking lot, and a long blank wall faces D Street.

Image from Google Street View. Click for interactive version.

But the Safeway Company has an opportunity to capitalize on this underdeveloped site. They could move the grocery store entrance to the sidewalk along 14th Street, and turn the store 90 degrees so the narrower edge faces 14th. The store would back onto Guellet Court, across the street from a parking lot.

This would free up space along D and ~~13th~~ 14th for retail, including the retail already inside the store. Currently, in addition to a grocery store, the Safeway houses a pharmacy, a Starbucks, a liquor store and a bank. All of these could moved outside the store and onto D Street, wrapping around the corner onto ~~13th~~ 14th along with other neighborhood appropriate retail. Starbucks, or other such retail, could spill out onto the wide sidewalks.

Left: Potomac Avenue Metro neighborhood. Safeway in the upper left.
Right: Possible Safeway plan. Images from Google Maps. Click on an image to enlarge.

Below the grocery store could be a parking garage, accessible from Guellet Court, and large enough to meet the needs of residents and shoppers, with Zipcar and bike parking of course. The site is close to the Potomac Avenue Metro and major bus lines, and located in a walkable and bikeable neighborhood. Therefore, many shoppers won't need to drive to the store.

Two to four floors of housing could sit atop the store. The historic row houses along E Street in the southeast corner of the block, could form the end of a new, longer row stretching to just east of Guellet Court, leaving space for a loading dock.

Safeway would stand to make a fortune. In addition to monetizing the largest commercial parking lot on the Hill, Safeway would add to its customer base. Perhaps the new development would even include a Capital City Brewery Company and a small ice cream shop — for old time's sake.

(25 comments · share or email)

14th and T heading toward big-box furniture (Oct 25, 2008)
Gateway Market: "Chicago-projects quality" (Jul 31, 2008)
Plus �a change, NIMBYs (Jun 17, 2008)
From Social Safeway to Sidewalk Safeway (Jun 16, 2008)
Wisconsin Ave Giant is a great project (Jun 3, 2008)

A cheaper route to Metro core capacity, part 2: Virginia service patterns

Tue, 30 Jun 09 10:03 EDT

One of the possibilities from Metro's core capacity study involves a short 9th Street tunnel from L'Enfant Plaza to Mount Vernon Square. That could be a cheaper way to add Metro capacity across the Potomac, the system's current bottleneck. It wouldn't add service to much-needed areas like the McMillan/AFRH area of DC, (though allowing that possibility in the future), but would address the impending overload of trains from Virginia once the Silver Line opens.

If we could run more trains over the 14th Street bridge, where would they go in Virginia? I can see two possibilities: convert the Arlington Cemetery segment to a shuttle train, or add connections to route the Silver Line over that segment as well as the Blue Line.

The shuttle train option

Click to enlarge.

The Blue Line could simply run over the 14th Street Bridge with the Yellow Line to the new section. Silver and Orange share some tracks, Blue and Yellow others, with no other merges. To replace Blue at Arlington Cemetery, create a shuttle train

To avoid having the shuttle merge and unmerge with Orange/Silver at Rosslyn and Blue/Yellow at Pentagon, Metro would need to add a new platform at each station. Probably this could work with just a single platform inside the station, with a switch as close as possible. Trains would come in, unload and reload, then reverse out to make room for another train. Such an arragement would limit the capacity on the line, of course. Ideally, the platform(s) would go right across the platform from one of the two existing tracks in each station, minimizing the walk necessary to tranfer.

Pros: This requires fewer merges than in the current arrangement. Also, all merges happen outside of the highest ridership core areas, minimizing delays.

Cons: Commuting from Alexandria to "Orangeton," or southern Fairfax to Tysons, becomes more difficult, requiring either two transfers or a trip through DC.

The new connections option

Click to enlarge.

Squalish got this one. In Metro's earlier core capacity study, they suggested adding some track connections for service flexibility. Those included a connection from Court House to the Arlington Cemetery tracks, and another one from the other end of those tracks to the 14th Street Bridge. If we built both of those, then the Silver Line could use the track in the opposite direction from the Blue Line, to get from Court House to L'Enfant Plaza.

Pros: There are lots of services going to lots of places. Riders along Rosslyn-Ballston or King St-Pentagon can choose either bridge. And except going to and from Yellow Line stations south of King Street, riders can go between any two Virginia stations entirely within Virginia with at most a single transfer.

Cons: Lines are merging and unmerging a lot, which creates operational challenges. Silver and Blue each have to share tracks with three other lines for part of their routes. If all lines are running at capacity, then at Pentagon (for example), a Silver Line train needs to reach the wye just as a Blue Line train reaches it from the other direction, or else one of the trains will have to wait, delaying all later trains.

Next: A hybrid option?

(41 comments · share or email)

A cheaper route to Metro core capacity, part 3: More complex service patterns (Jul 1, 2009)
A cheaper route to Metro core capacity? (Jun 29, 2009)
Brown Line: We don't need a new color (Oct 7, 2008)
What WMATA is really suggesting (Apr 28, 2008)
Proposed "Blue Line split": why blue? (Mar 12, 2008)

Breakfast links: Stand up and be counting

Tue, 30 Jun 09 08:15 EDT

PostSecret via BeyondDC.

Entitled Driver Syndrome alive and well: BeyondDC finds this PostSecret postcard which reads, "When I see cyclists in the middle of the road on my way to CHURCH, I'm tempted to knock them down!" Meanwhile, some drivers in Boulder, Colorado plan to drive really slowly on the wrong side of the road to interfere with an organized bicycle ride. (BeyondDC, WashCycle)

Count bikes and peds Thursday and Saturday: Arlington is doing another round of counting bicycles and pedestrians, this time on July 2 and July 4, "one of the busiest times of the year for active transportation." GGW readers helped Arlington out with previous rounds, and they could use our help again. They need volunteers for 2-hour shifts at 7-9 am or 4-6 pm on Thursday, July 2nd, or from noon-2 pm on Saturday, July 4th. They perform the counts at roughly 20 locations across the county. If you're interested, email bikepedcounts@arlingtonva.us.

Safeway Avenue, NW: Last weekend, Safeway held a "Barbecue Battle" in downtown DC. This involved closing Pennsylvania Avenue to traffic between 9th and 14th Streets, along with several side streets. Pedestrians couldn't cross the site unless they paid the entry fee. Reader Dan was trying to walk from the Folklife Festival to Metro Center, and had to wait 15 minutes for a Metro train at Federal Triangle instead. Should we be walling off large parts of downtown for private events?

Maryland may actually start being smart: The chair of the Maryland House Environmental Matters Committee wants to put some real teeth into the state's Smart Growth law. Currently, there's a policy of promoting development near the state's urban areas and transit infrastructure, but it isn't really being followed. This year, a new law started tracking development, but the legislature dropped the part of the law that would have required 80 percent of development to go in "priority areas." (Gazette)

Development updates: The Montgomery Planning Board approved 2.2 million square feet of development right at Twinbrook Metro. This second phase, mostly comprising office buildings, will add to their existing residential projects in the area. (DCmud) However, zoning laws are also forcing them to build more parking than the market will demand, supplanting additional housing. On the other side of the Beltway, Prince George's has approved the 6 million square foot Westphalia development, another mixed-use but auto-dependent "enclave" next to Andrews AFB. (WBJ)

Metro morsels: A Post editorial calls on Congress to provide the $150 million a year in dedicated funding that they promised (Gavin Baker) ... A person jumped in front of a Metro train yesterday at Forest Glen, again shutting down the beleaguered eastern Red Line. The line is open again this morning. (Gazette, Post)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

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The other Purple Line fight: Wayne Avenue (Jun 8, 2009)
Arlington wants your help counting bikes and pedestrians (Apr 29, 2009)
The Corridor Cities Transitway and the future of the middle suburbs (Dec 29, 2008)

Then and Now: Trew Motor/Studio Theatre

Mon, 29 Jun 09 15:01 EDT

By Kent Boese

Then (left): The Trew Motor Co ca. 1920, located on the northeast corner of 14th and P Streets, NW.

Now (right): The Studio Theatre.

(2 comments · share or email)

Then and Now: The Old Dutch Market (Jun 26, 2009)
Then and Now: Corner of Kennedy & 7th Street, NW (Jun 5, 2009)
Lost Washington: Crandall's Joy Theater (May 12, 2009)
Then and Now: 14th and U (May 11, 2009)
Then and Now: Lincoln Theatre (Apr 27, 2009)

Mutual benefit: DC needs to reform unemployment insurance now

Mon, 29 Jun 09 14:41 EDT

"No Jobs" sign. Photo by louisiana.

By Elissa Silverman

The District's unemployment rate topped 10 percent in May, the highest it has been in 25 years. Sadly, only about a third of jobless workers in DC end up receiving unemployment benefits.

There's good news, though: The federal government is offering DC $18 million to help these folks get help. So should we try to get the money for them now or wait until later?

Almost all of us, especially given these difficult economic times, would want the help immediately.

Except, apparently, the District of Columbia. The District has yet to make the needed reforms to its unemployment insurance program to get the extra federal funds.

The money is tied to the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act, part of the economic recovery bill signed into law by President Obama last February. It gives DC and the states a financial incentive to expand unemployment benefits to three key groups of people who are currently excluded: those who leave their job due to domestic violence or other family reasons, those who lose a part-time job and are looking for part-time work, and those who are permanently laid-off and in need of extended training. The recovery act also encourages states to expand benefits for unemployed workers with dependents.

To sum up, the feds want to give money to hard-working Americans who lost a job and need a little extra help to get through this recession.

Sound good?

Twenty-five states think so. They have expanded their unemployment assistance to include at least two of the four categories of workers above, which qualified them to receive two-thirds of their incentive money. The District hasn't yet done so. The deadline to qualify is August 2011.

Why is the District waiting?

DC did get one-third of the approximately $27 million available because it already had in place a provision allowing workers to count their most recent earnings in their unemployment application, known in technical jargon as the "alternative base period."

But there's no reason for DC to be sluggish about getting the other $18 million. (The money can only be used for the unemployment system and can't be used to cover DC's budget shortfall.) Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. Council, particularly Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry, who oversees the Department of Employment Services, need to push DOES to make decisions and bring forth the necessary legislation to put these reforms into place.

It's a win-win: More District workers receive more money, which they will spend and help stimulate the economy.

Who wouldn't want that?

(2 comments · share or email)

Filling DC�s newest revenue hole (Jun 24, 2009)
Children should not be the breadwinners (May 20, 2009)
Show me the (performance parking) money! (Sep 18, 2008)
Sen. Wyden's favored economic stimulus: road resurfacing (Jan 26, 2008)
The federally tilted playing field on transportation (Sep 10, 2007)

A cheaper route to Metro core capacity?

Mon, 29 Jun 09 12:26 EDT

Metrorail will reach its capacity by 2030. The Orange Line is already just about maxed out in Arlington. We can build light rail, BRT, streetcars and other modes to relieve the pressure, but Metrorail will remain the fastest and most desirable mode. The separate Blue Line would relieve some of the pressure, allowing for more trains through Rosslyn. However, a new Potomac tunnel and subway across DC would cost billions. If we can't fund that, is there a cheaper way?

How about separating the Yellow Line instead? The Yellow Line plan Dave Murphy suggested last week, and some of your comments, suggest a possibility. If we separate the Yellow and Green lines in DC, then Metro could put many more trains over the 14th Street bridge. According to Metro planners, this option would involve building a shorter subway tunnel from the 14th Street bridge to the Convention Center along 9th Street.

While the tunnel at Rosslyn is already at its capacity, the 14th Street bridge isn't, because all its trains must merge with Green Line trains from Branch Avenue. Metro can squeeze a few more Yellow Trains in if they reduce Blue trains, but not that many. If the trains didn't have to compete with the Green Line, the 14th Street bridge could carry many more trains from Virginia.

The new Yellow Line could connect to Green, Blue, and Orange at L'Enfant Plaza, stopping on a new platform just west of the existing station. Metro already wants to link Metro Center and Gallery Place with a walkway; the new line could stop along there as well to connect to all other lines.

For the other two stations, walkways probably aren't necessary. We could give them different names (Convention Center West?) However, the stations are extremely close to the existing ones, unless we put them in different spots. One advantage of lining them up and even giving them matching names is night service. When the Yellow and Green Lines are running at low frequencies, it would make more sense for Yellow trains to merge with Green, as they do today, to give each station more service (and save money by closing some entrances).

While this plan mostly benefits Virginia, it does do some good for DC and Maryland as well. The Green Line south of L'Enfant won't be able to carry more trains, even as development picks up in the Capital Riverfront area and, hopefully, in River East and Prince George's County one day. A separate Green Line would let all stations benefit from more frequent service. Finally, ending the Yellow Line at Convention Center always leaves open the possibility of extending it through DC and into Maryland along some route one day.

One big question mark remains. Yellow Line trains also have to compete with Blue Line trains for space between Pentagon and King Street. If we add trains over 14th Street, they have to go somewhere on the other end. How would we handle service on the Virginia side? I've come up with two possibilities, which I'll show tomorrow. What can you come up with?

(35 comments · share or email)

A cheaper route to Metro core capacity, part 3: More complex service patterns (Jul 1, 2009)
A cheaper route to Metro core capacity, part 2: Virginia service patterns (Jun 30, 2009)
Getting more out of Metro with "skip-stop" (Mar 4, 2009)
What WMATA is really suggesting (Apr 28, 2008)
Proposed "Blue Line split": why blue? (Mar 12, 2008)

Gaithersbungle: Planning Board staff latest to ignore better way for Gaithersburg

Mon, 29 Jun 09 10:47 EDT

This shouldn't be Montgomery's future. Photo by Sam Beebe.

Planning officials are continuing their blind rush toward building cookie-cutter, sprawling, traffic-generating development patterns in and around Gaithersburg. We've already discussed how SHA only really considers more lanes as a solution to congestion on I-270, and the Planning Board only considered suburban office-park density for the JHU Belward Farm development. Now, the Planning Board staff has issued their recommendations for the area, which disregard everything the region has learned about development since World War II.

The Planning Board staff recommends widening I-270 by up to four more lanes, two in each direction. Between Clarksburg and Rockville, they suggest adding four express toll lanes, which would make I-270 a full 12 lanes wide, possibly even with extra space to grow to 14. North of Clarksburg, they recommend two reversible toll lanes, for a total of six lanes.

As for the Corridor Cities Transitway, which makes this a "multi-modal" corridor study, they recommend using Bus Rapid Transit on a circuitous route, winding through many far-flung office parks between Gaithersburg and Rockville. They also dropped two planned CCT stations, in Gaithersburg and Germantown.

The I-270 widening would require demolishing many new townhouses, which represent some of the densest housing that's been built in this area, to fuel more sprawling, detached housing development in Clarksburg and north to Frederick County. Meanwhile, estimates predict this version of the Corridor Cities Transitway to carry fewer than half the riders of the Purple Line. Despite JHU's claims that many of its workers would take transit, this plan is just a recipe for a slow, poorly used transit line and huge numbers of new auto trips.

This isn't what Montgomery County needs. The county should look instead to the greater foresight its own leaders had in past decades, when it focused much of its growth in creating new, walkable, truly transit-oriented places like Bethesda and Silver Spring. If Montgomery County really wants to develop the Rockville-Gaithersburg-Germantown corridor, it should instead plan to enhance the existing MD-355 corridor with mixed-use, walkable development and high-quality transit, and use congestion pricing to manage demand on I-270. That would push housing and job growth onto the corridor, where residents can use transit, instead of forcing them to drive from Clarksburg and beyond.

Tomorrow, we'll look in more detail at the I-270 plan, followed by a closer look at the Corridor Cities Transitway.

(11 comments · share or email)

Gaithersbungle, part 2: Old, tired formulas generate old, disastrous solutions (Jul 1, 2009)
Sprawl is the only option at the Planning Board (May 27, 2009)
Olde Towne Gaithersburg: He who hesitated was lost (Apr 13, 2009)
JHU Life Sciences Center: show me the transit! (Jan 27, 2009)
The Corridor Cities Transitway and the future of the middle suburbs (Dec 29, 2008)

Breakfast links: Vox populi

Mon, 29 Jun 09 08:53 EDT

Petworth doesn't want to look like this for a Sunday. Photo by Ekey84.

Make no little plans for Summer Streets: The Petworth ANC and Northwest Current didn't like DDOT's idea of closing Kansas Avenue for a Summer Streets program later this year, despite very low traffic there on weekends and ample alternate routes. Richard Layman says we need more population density for Summer Streets. How about finding a suitable route through Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, Dupont and Foggy Bottom, and then across the Mall to Near Southeast and Capitol Hill? Some people will complain no matter what, but that would hit many of the most bicycle-heavy neighborhoods. (RPUS)

Buses are confusing, what else is new?: We can learn a lot about what's confusing in our bus systems by the experiences of newer residents. Noah Kazis wanted to ride from Union Station to the ballpark but got tripped up by old maps which showed the N22 instead of the Circulator. Noah also suggests a more schematic bus map. (Here's one for Circulator.) (TheCityFix DC)

Is NextBus data proprietary?: One company calling itself "NextBus Information Systems" claims that SF Muni's arrival information is their own intellectual property. But that company isn't the same as the actual NextBus company, and Muni insists that the data is public. Nonetheless, at the first company's request, Apple took down a bus prediction app from the iPhone app store. (SFAppeal)

In search of an official modernist champion, you mean: Roger Lewis wants to see some American leaders really embrace architecture, like Daniel Patrick Moynihan. But he really wants one who loves modernism, criticizing Britain's Prince Charles for pushing for one design over another. (Post)

Rails and trails: Washcycle summarizes a Finish The Trail series rebutting anti-Purple Line forces' arguments about the Capital Crescent Trail. ... A growing number of Virginia organizations are petitioning the Commonwealth to include pedestrian and bike facilities along with future rail projects. (VBF, Gavin Baker) ... That might include high-speed rail to Richmond, the subject of another petition for high-speed rail on the DC-Richmond corridor, a project Virginia plans to submit for a competitive stimulus grant. (Joey)

And...: People are moving to the new development by the ballpark, but slowly (DCmud) ... On this date in 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which pushed the federal funding match to 90-10 and ushered in the modern interstate era (FHWA, Stephen Miller) ... FIFA's top issue to get ready for the World Cup in South Africa? Transportation; a park-and-ride system hasn't worked well during the Confederations Cup.

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

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Where's My Bus?: NextBus for Circulator (Jun 26, 2009)
DDOT: NextBus not the answer for Circulator (Mar 17, 2009)
Circulator thrombosis (Mar 16, 2009)
WMATA removes NextBus public test (Mar 3, 2009)
Jim Graham's northern Circulator (Sep 11, 2008)

Where's My Bus?: NextBus for Circulator

Fri, 26 Jun 09 15:45 EDT

Photo by JLaw45.

DC just launched Where's My Bus, a NextBus-type service for the Circulator. Unlike NextBus, it won't predict how long it will take for the next buses to arrive; instead, it tells riders how far away the next buses are.

This wasn't your typical, slow, expensive, complicated, closed government information system. According to the press release:

The DC Government developed the Circulator bus mobile application in house, completing the project remarkably quickly and at minimal cost ... As an "open source" application, any municipality with a similar bus system and real-time GPS data can adapt and implement the application at minimal cost ...
All Circulator data is being made publicly available to encourage other developers in our area to build their own, better applications. The intention is that the tools made available by the District Government would be replicated by other transit agencies across the country, allowing it to transform the way transit information is shared.

DC is working on an iPhone application, which they hope to launch in late summer.

Once Metro launches NextBus, it would be great to find ways to integrate the two. Can NextBus load in the Circulator data as well, or at least provide links from its interface? Most likely, that would take substantial inter-agency coordination and cost WMATA money in development costs. A better approach would be for Metro to create a simple Web services interface to NextBus, allowing other applications to query it for data. That would allow enterprising developers to build applications that show the fastest bus route from one point to another on Metrobus or Circulator.

(12 comments · share or email)

DDOT: NextBus not the answer for Circulator (Mar 17, 2009)
Circulator thrombosis (Mar 16, 2009)
Metro "punts": Will release transit schedule data for Google and others (Mar 11, 2009)
RAC tonight: service cuts, NextBus (Mar 4, 2009)
WMATA removes NextBus public test (Mar 3, 2009)

Then and Now: The Old Dutch Market

Fri, 26 Jun 09 15:01 EDT

By Kent Boese

Click on an image to enlarge.

Then (left): Photographed ca. 1920, the building on the southeast corner of 20th and P Streets, NW, was occupied by the Old Dutch Market.

Today: Surprisingly, the building is still there, though its use as a market is long gone. It's one of the few survivors that didn't get replaced by One Dupont Circle.

(2 comments · share or email)

Then and Now: The O Street Market (Jun 24, 2009)
Then and Now: Corner of Kennedy & 7th Street, NW (Jun 5, 2009)
Lost Washington: Crandall's Joy Theater (May 12, 2009)
Then and Now: The Portland Flats (May 6, 2009)
Then and Now: 3615 Warder (Apr 15, 2009)