Japan - Greater Greater Washington

And...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:17:00 EDT

How many official transit maps have laughing volcanoes? (Transit Maps) ... Metro really should explain why it got Daylight Saving Time wrong. (Post) ... The Libertarian Party wins ballot access in DC.

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And...

Sat, 19 May 2012 10:39:00 EDT

by David Alpert

An artist makes portraits of subway riders using only paper and scissors. (NYT) ... Montgomery gets an interim planning head, Rose Krasnow. (Gazette) ... One resident is unhappy with the choice of BRT for the the Corridor Cities Transitway. (Patch)

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And...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:45:00 EDT

by Eric Fidler

A Japanese cafe is designed to look like the street in front of it. (ArchDaily) ... Politicians blame DoD for BRAC moves that Congress originally approved. (Examiner) ... Repairing earthquake damage to the National Cathedral will run into the millions. (Post)

Comment

Earthquake! (Aug 23, 2011)
DC earthquake history dates back to 1828 (Aug 24, 2011)

Wireless streetcars from Japan

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:30:00 EDT

by Erik Weber

Japanese manufacturer Kinkisharyo has its sights set on US markets with an ADA & Buy America compliant streetcar to debut in 2010. With mention of "wireless battery power propulsion designed in" and a paint scheme conspicuously similar to DC's, it's almost painfully obvious who the target is. (Steve)

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Learning from Walk Scores

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:08:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Montgomery's planners look at how their disconnected street grid creates some pockets of low Walk Score very close to otherwise highly walkable places (The Straight Line) ... Japan's real-estate sites organize listings by subway station and show walking distances to each. (Walk Score)

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Robot turns snow into bricks

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:11:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Local governments don't plow sidewalks and bike trails partly because standard snowplows don't fit and they don't have smaller equipment. Japanese inventors created a robotic snowplow that also solves the problem of where to put snow by squeezing it into bricks suitable for kids to build igloos with. (Inventors)

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Really high-speed rail

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:05:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Japan has always been a leader in high-speed trains. Their latest plan: a maglev from Tokyo to Osaka. It would make the trip, 20% farther than DC-NYC, in just 67 minutes. The Acela Express takes 168 minutes. (The Mainichi Daily News, Nazo)

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"Treat the next person"

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:14:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A cafe in Japan (created temporarily as an art project) offers snacks and drinks. However, once you place your order, you instead get whatever the previous person ordered. No asking the other person or ordering twice. (Cabel's Blog LOL via Marginal Revolution).

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Transit smart cards, improved

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:18:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Tokyo's transit smart card, the Suica also lets users pay for goods in vending machines and stores. Users can also swipe near poster advertisements to get more details emailed to them, and can connect to Web services to download or visualize their movements. Some of these uses and the agency's ability to use the data raise privacy concerns. (ReadWriteWeb, Rob P) ... Transport Canada highlights the huge gains in transit ridership that resulted from joint student IDs and transit smart cards at three universities.

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Give the robot your bike

Tue, 05 May 2009 17:08:00 EDT

Here's what we could do with the unused parking space at DC USA: build an enormous robotic bike parking system. We covered this before, but now there's an even better video with more information (though also ads). This system grew the Tokyo neighborhood's already-high rate of bicycle usage by another 20%. (Hard Drive, Nat)

Comment

DC USA: SmartBike yes (eventually), racks in garage no (Aug 25, 2008)
Change car parking to bike parking, suggests Georgetown bike shop (Dec 12, 2008)
Draft zoning would mandate bike parking (Apr 8, 2008)
Bike parking scarce at DC USA (Mar 10, 2008)
"Bike Rack Raising" 11 am at DC USA (Mar 13, 2008)

Streets are different in Japan, too

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:23:00 EDT

In Tokyo, there's no on-street parking at all, because the roads are too narrow. Also, instead of gutters between the sidewalks and the traffic lanes as in most countries, the gutters are right against the buildings, with small ramps bridging them at entrances. (How We Drive, Planetizen)

1 comment

Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)
Hyattsville approves sidewalks over objections (Jul 22, 2008)

Japan's roads to nowhere

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:23:00 EDT

Japan has far more roads and expressways than other industrialized nations, many in places where nobody needs them, or people need a walkable street instead of a high-speed expressway. Who made them do this? Americans.

1 comment

Weekend reading: someone is wrong on the Internet

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:38:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Photo by Prince of Petworth.

More obnoxiously judgmental? Prince of Petworth discusses the curb cut-gorging townhouses on P Street between 16th and 17th, leading to a debate about curb cuts followed by "which blog commenters are more obnoxiously judgmental," on PoP or Greater Greater Washington.

No Facebook for Annapolis: The Maryland General Assembly will block Facebook and MySpace for members and staff at their office computers. They claim that viruses prompted this, but the Baltimore Sun says Republicans think there were political reasons. Either way, legislators who use Facebook to communicate with the public will lose this valuable tool.

Tobago, DC? цarьchitect figured, if DC has a Trinidad, it needs a Tobago. He suggests the area between Van Ness and Tenleytown sometimes called Wakefield or North Cleveland Park.

Why can't we be like leafcutter ants? Leafcutter ants don't get into traffic jams, even on narrow paths like tree branches. That's because they patiently wait behind slower-moving ants instead of going around them, Wired explains. If cars behaved that way, say scientists, traffic would move more smoothly too. Via Planetizen.

5 comments

Which way for one-way streets and reversible lanes? (Jan 14, 2008)
Congo wants circular driveway at 16th and Riggs (Jan 12, 2011)
More details on New Hampshire Ave contraflow bike lanes (Aug 8, 2008)
Preservation "incompatible" with historic preservation (Jan 11, 2008)
What's wrong with 17th Street? The northern end (Jul 29, 2008)

Sustainable Transportation Five, please step forward

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:41:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Five unnamed but heroic Democratic Senators refused to support Boxer and Inhofe's amendment to add $50 billion in highway spending to the stimulus. According to Streetsblog, they insisted on these criteria:

Five DC superheroes. Photo by Custom Lego minifigs on Flickr.

Allocating a minimum of 30 percent of the total to clean water and public transportation/passenger rail. Of the total funds allocated to highways and bridges, 10 percent would have to be set aside for Transportation Enhancements, i.e. bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
Giving the Secretary of Transportation discretion to redirect funds from states that were not adhering to certain criteria to states that were adhering to them. The criteria Dems and enviros wanted to see, for example, would not have allowed states to receive funds by showing that a project improves vehicular Level of Service.

Remember, Level of Service (LOS) is an outdated metric that assumes the only objective of roads is to move the maximum numbers of cars as fast as possible. When transportation departments focus on LOS, they end up with wider intersections and more lanes that reduce walkability and pedestrian safety and promote sprawl.

According to Streetsblog, the Boxer/Inhofe amendment is "nearly dead", though nothing is certain yet. Update: Infrastructurist reports that Inhofe hasn't given up. The Bond amendments to cut rail programs also appear to be going nowhere.

I'd love to know who these five unnamed Senators are so that we can thank them for their enlightened approach to transportation.

In other stimulus news, The New York Times this morning reports that Japan's stimulus in the 1990s failed to revive its economy. Economists both inside and outside Japan disagree on whether "didn't go far enough... [or] was a colossal waste." According to the article, they built "increasingly wasteful roads and bridges" instead social services. The article doesn't mention transit at all, whether in the wasteful or the more useful category. Tip: Greater Greater Dad.

In a Boston Globe op-ed, Ed Glaeser argues for a separate infrastructure bill to create the transportation network we need, and for limiting the stimulus to items like repairing decaying infrastructure that we can actually begin right away.

6 comments

Oh, right, the environment (Feb 5, 2009)
Stimulus compromise won't cut transit (Feb 7, 2009)
Boxer to ask for $50 billion more for highways (Feb 3, 2009)
Senate committee backs infrastructure, but not bike lanes (Jan 27, 2011)
High-speed rail, here we come (Feb 12, 2009)

Afternoon links: (Rail)road to the future

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:13:56 EDT

by David Alpert

Photos by Suzan Tobin.

No to new roads: Friends of the Earth has launched a campaign to keep roads out of the upcoming federal stimulus. "The road-building lobby is attempting to hijack [the stimulus] bill and divert billions of dollars to the construction of new, unnecessary roads, highways and bridges that would deepen our nation's dependence on oil and increase greenhouse gas emissions," they write.

Yes to high-speed rail: You probably saw this Monday, but USDOT is talking to contractors about designing a new high-speed Northeast Corridor rail link. Congress funded the study (but not yet the line itself) in October. Via DCist.

No to a Shell: Tomorrow at 1 pm, DDOT's Public Space Committee will consider the proposed Shell gas station at 14th and Maryland, NE. Right near the revitalizing H Street corridor, that major corner should have some retail or apartments, not a gas station. The hearing is at 1 pm, 941 North Capitol St, 7th Floor. Via Frozen Tropics.

Convert those garages into cafes: Suzan Tobin suggests in Planning Magazine that suburbs can become mixed-use quite easily, by legalizing accessory retail, like cafes, bookstores, or flower shops in the garages of today's houses.

Driving makes you fat: So says a new study by University of Tennessee and Rutgers researchers, reports Jalopnik. Tip: Joel.

How about one at DC USA? Check out this amazing bike parking system in Japan. Via BoingBoing; tip: Alex.

15 comments

Positive resident activism: Shell no! (Aug 29, 2008)
Stimulus compromise won't cut transit (Feb 7, 2009)
Afternoon roundup (May 28, 2008)
LaHood, Biden meet with governors on high-speed rail (Jun 3, 2009)
Stimulus draft released; $30B for highways vs. $10B for transit (Jan 15, 2009)