Posts about Reston

Bikeshare to Fairfax?: Fairfax is applying for funding to do a bikeshare feasibility study. Right now the focus is on bringing Capital Bikeshare to Reston. (FABB) (Comment)

Transit

WMATA might offer open data for all regional transit

by David Alpert • February 11, 2013 1:16 pm

WMATA planners helped STLTransit create an animation of transit across the entire Washington region. That's possible because WMATA has a single data file with all regional agencies' schedules. They hope to make that file public; that would fuel even more tools that aid the entire region.

Click full screen and HD to see the most detail.

One of the obstacles for people who want to build trip planners, analyze what areas are accessible by transit, design visualizations, or create mobile apps is that our region has a great many transit agencies, each with their own separate data files.

Want to build a tool that integrates Metrobus, Fairfax Connector, and Ride On? You have to chase down a number of separate files from different agencies in a number of different places, and not all agencies offer open data at all.

The effect is that many tool builders, especially those outside the region, don't bother to include all of our regional systems. For example, the fun tool Mapnificent, which shows you everywhere you can reach in a set time from one point by transit, only includes WMATA, DC Circulator, and ART services. That means it just won't know about some places you can reach in Fairfax, Alexandria, Montgomery, or Prince George's.

Sites like this can show data for many cities all across the world without the site's author having to do a bunch of custom work in every city, because many transit agencies release their schedules in an open file format called the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS). Software developer Matt Caywood has been maintaining a list of which local agencies offer GTFS files as well as open real-time data.

We've made some progress. Fairfax Connector, for example, recently started offering its own GTFS feed. But while DASH has one, you have to email them for it, and there's none for Prince George's The Bus.

The best way to foster more neat tools and apps would be to have a single GTFS file that includes all systems. As it turns out, there is such a beast. WMATA already has all of the schedules for all regional systems for its own trip planner. It even creates a single GTFS file now.

Michael Eichler wrote on PlanItMetro that they give this file to the regional Transportation Planning Board for its modeling, and offered it to STLTransit, who have been making animations showing all transit in a region across a single day.

This is one of many useful ways people could use the file. How about letting others get it? Eichler writes, "We are working to make this file publicly available."

Based on the STLTransit video, WMATA's file apparently includes 5 agencies that Caywood's list says have no public GTFS files: PG's TheBus, PRTC OmniLink and OmniRide, Fairfax CUE, Frederick TransIT, and Loudoun County Transit. It also covers Laurel Connect-a-Ride, Reston LINK, Howard Transit, the UM Shuttle, and Annapolis Transit, which aren't even on that list and which most software developers might not even think to look for even if they did have available files.

Last I heard, the obstacles to the file being public included WMATA getting permission from the regional transit agencies, and some trepidation by folks inside the agency about whether they should take on the extra work to do this or would get criticized if the file has any errors.

Let's hope they can make this file public as soon as possible. Since it already exists, it should be a no-brainer. If any regional agencies or folks at WMATA don't understand why this is good for transit, a look at this video should bring it into clear focus.

9 comments

Tags: Annapolis, data openness, Fairfax City, Fairfax Connector, Frederick, GTFS, Howard County, Laurel, Loudoun, PRTC, Reston, TheBus, transit, UMD, video, WMATA

And...: Walkable places help people live longer. (Streetsblog) ... New plans for Uline Arena include retail and offices. (Urban Turf) ... Reston gets pedicabs. (FABB) (Comment)

Restonians want less Silver Line TOD: A Reston group says the development planned around the Silver Line will bring too much traffic. County plans called for mixed-use development, but a task force suggests curtailing commercial growth. (Examiner) (Comment)

Development

Full steam ahead for suburban skyscrapers

by Dan Malouff • September 13, 2012 12:06 pm

Within the confines of the District of Columbia, the question of whether to allow tall buildings is a subject of much debate. But in the burgeoning urban centers of Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland, there is no question: more tall buildings are coming.

Alexandria's proposed Hoffman Towers. Image by DCS Architects.

For many decades Rosslyn has been home to the tallest skyscrapers in the Washington region. The taller of its Twin Towers is 381 feet tall. But soon that building will rank no better than 3rd tallest in Rosslyn alone, with the 384 foot tall 1812 North Moore and the 387 foot tall Central Place in construction or soon to begin.

Even with those new buildings, Rosslyn could soon lose its crown. Buildings as tall as 396 feet could soon be built around the Eisenhower Metro station in Alexandria. They would eclipse Alexandria's current tallest building, the 338 foot tall Mark Center Hilton.

Tysons Corner is in on the action too. It's tallest buildings right now are the 254 foot Ritz Carlton and the 253 foot 1850 Towers Crescent. But at 365 feet, a building in the proposed Scotts Run Station development will soon dominate.

North Bethesda Market II, soon to be the tallest building in the Maryland suburbs. Image from JBG.

In Maryland, North Bethesda Market I topped out last year at 289 feet tall, beating out Gaithersburg's 275 foot tall Washingtonian Tower and thus becoming Montgomery County's new tallest skyscraper. Its reign will be short-lived, as a new 300 foot tall ziggurat has already been proposed nearby.

And this week, big news is coming to Reston and Crystal City.

Fairfax County approved a 330 foot building in Reston yesterday that will become the tallest building in the Reston Town Center cluster.

Reston's next tallest building. Image from RTC Partnership.

Meanwhile, the Arlington County Board is scheduled to vote this coming weekend to either approve or deny a 297 foot building in Crystal City that would tower well above all its neighbors. Tall buildings have long been constrained there by restrictions due to Reagan National Airport, but those rules recently changed, so taller buildings are now allowed.

These aren't particularly tall buildings by the standards of large central cities. Baltimore and Virginia Beach both have buildings over 500 feet tall, and the world's current record holder is a whopping 2,717 feet. But still, the trend in the DC area is unmistakable; buildings are getting taller, and will most likely continue to do so.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

30 comments

Tags: Alexandria, Arlington, Crystal City, DC, development, Gaithersburg, height limit, Maryland, North Bethesda, Reston, Rosslyn, Tysons Corner, Virginia

Golf course to buildings?: The owner of Reston National Golf Course, which happens to be right next to 2 Silver Line stations, wants to know if it can build something in place of the golf course. Many residents (and Tom Jackman) aren't keen on the idea. (Post) (Comment)

CaBi in Fairfax?: Officals are discussing adding Capital Bikeshare to Fairfax County. Initial plans focus building first in Reston, and then perhaps Tysons Corner. (Examiner) (Comment)

Accenture moves to transit location: Accenture is moving its headquarters from Reston to Ballston. (WBJ) ... Years ago, the company moved from downtown DC out to Reston, so this restores Metro accessibility for its employees. (Comment)

Fairfax proposes deathtrap at Wiehle: To "improve" the area (read: help drivers drive faster) around the planned Wiehle Avenue Metro station, Fairfax DOT proposes letting drivers turn without stopping, a clear recipe for pedestrian and bike crashes. (FABB) (Comment)

Officer stubbornly parks blocking trail: A police officer parked right in the middle of a trail in Reston. When riders asked if he could move his car to an adjacent grassy strip out of the way, he refused. (FABB) (Comment)

Fairfax leaders take mode challenge: FABB has invited leaders to take a bike/car/bus challenge on Bike to Work day, testing which mode is faster and cheaper to travel between South Lake High School and Reston Town Center. (WABA) (Comment)

Reston designs its future: A task force has finished Reston's plan for how to evolve given the upcoming Silver Line, including more of a grid pattern, bike and pedestrian access, and a performing arts center. (Reston Patch) (Comment)

Lawyers Road diet successful so far: The low-cost bike-friendly improvements installed last year by VDOT on Lawyers Road in Reston has reduced the number of crashes as well as the speeds of the fastest cars. 70% of survey respondents said they now feel safer on the road. (Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling Blog) (Comment)

Reston rising: A new community group in Reston is pushing to increase density around its proposed Metro stations. The group building heights of up to 350 feet, to ensure that the expected 26,000 jobs and 7,000 residential units do not gobble up prized green space. But Reston founder Robert E. Simon, a prominent figure in the community, wants to preserve a "suburban feel." (Fairfax Times) (Comment)

Public meetings on Dulles rail: Next week the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority will hold public information sessions about the Dulles Metrorail project. The meetings are Monday and Tuesday evening in Reston and Sterling, respectively, the former accessible via Fairfax Connector, the latter transit inaccessible. (Sand Box John) (Comment)

Reap what you sow: While most Dulles Corridor commercial real estate languishes in the recession, Reston Town Center is a noticeable outlier. They might be onto something with that "urban living" thing. (Post, Cavan) (Comment)

Tysons vs. whom?: Tysons' future growth will probably come at the expense of farther-out communities, not DC and inner areas like Arlington, experts say. (Capital Business) ... Speaking of farther-out communities, there's a public forum today on development around Herndon's future Metro station. (Post) (Comment)

The doc explains: Why won't the Silver Line have stops at Wolf Trap and Reston Town Center? How will the Beltway HOT lanes work? (Post) (Comment)

Cycle crash in Reston: A cyclist was critically injured when he "collided with a Saturn sedan" in Reston along a stretch of road where cyclists go at near-car speeds but driver often aren't watching for cyclists. (FABB, Post) (Comment)

What to build in Fairfax?: Fairfax businesses say the County has cut down the Tysons plan too much (Examiner) ... One Planning Commissioner suggests limiting Tysons Corner plans to only 20 years instead of 40, then deciding the next 20 later (Post) ... The Reston Association has a few quibbles with development plans for Wiehle Avenue. (Connection) (Comment)

Town Centers the future of suburbs?: Rockville Town Center is doing well, but has a way to go; Reston's is a "home run," while Fairfax City's isn't as much. Katherine Shaver and Miranda Spivack write an excellent, balanced article looking at the successes and challenges of mixed-use, walkable suburban centers that meet the needs of the growing demographic groups of empty nesters and young people without children. (Post) (Comment)

Lawyers calmer, slimmer in Reston: Adam Tuss files a nice report on the Lawyers Road road diet and similar projects elsewhere. Cathy Hudgins repeats her "win-win" quote. According to FABB, the road has become much less of a racetrack since the lane went in. (WTOP, Stephen Miller) (Comment)

Move cars faster, geese or no geese: A man in Reston stopped to help some geese to cross a four-lane divided highway. Police arrived, yelled at the man, and wrote him a ticket for jaywalking. The judge agreed that he violated the law against blocking traffic, but as long as he has no more tickets for six months, it'll be dismissed. (Post, Andrew) (Comment)

Road dieting is healthy: The Post's Robert Thomson explains the planned changes to Reston's Lawyers Road, with illustrations. The road will change from two car lanes in each direction to one car lane and one bike lane each way, plus a center turn lane. Catherine Hudgins calls it a "win-win." Thomson preempts the likely driver response that the road seems more dangerous, saying, "Drivers get used to it." (JTS) (Comment)

Transit

Breakfast Links: Narrowing, tunnelling, and bulldozing streets

by Joey Katzen • June 15, 2009 9:00 am

Georgetown Metropolitian's rendering of a possible Georgetown Metro station, adjacent to the PNC bank branch

Suburbs going multi-modal: Fresh off the heels of Virginia's cul-de-sac ban, VDOT plans to convert two lanes of Reston's Lawyers Road into two bike lanes, plus a center turn lane. The Reston Association has also recommended reducing the speed limit from 45 to 35 miles per hour. For context, as recently as 1967, Lawyers Road was a one-lane dirt path. (Restonian, Joshua D)

Piercing Georgetown's street veil: The Georgetown Metropolitian has brainstormed various places where a hypothetical split Metro Blue Line might provide street access in Georgetown without tearing down an historic building, including in the PNC parking lot, adjacent to the Canal, or directly on Wisconsin Avenue. The quick study doesn't consider an all-elevator option akin to Forest Glen or Brooklyn's Clark Street station. (JTS)

Legal action expected: Once more, "Tysons Tunnel," a group opposing the under-construction elevated Metro Silver Line through Tysons, is threatening legal action. Backed by the Sierra Club and another unnamed "watchdog" group, Tysons Tunnel is planning to sue based on provisions of Virginia's Public-Private Transportation Act, as a way to have the plans reevaluated and redrawn with a tunnel. (WBJ, JTS)

Then, fleas. Now, Caterpillars. The WMATA-owned property at Florida Avenue and 8th Street NW which presently hosts a weekend flea market, is about to be under contract. Bannecker Ventures expects to close within 60 days on the land, begin construction in summer 2011, and offer move-ins in Fall 2011, for a 120-unit apartment building with 20,000 sf of ground-level retail. This is the same property for which WMATA solicited proposals last summer, unsuccessfully. (Geoff H)

Bulldozing cities: My cousin, in town for the weekend, asked if there would ever be a way to end the traffic on DC's radial freeways. I responded, "not likely, as such relief would require bulldozing the outer suburbs" (as the existing transportation demand will otherwise continue to be there forever, and any widening will induce more exurban road construction), but this act is taking place right now in a number of American cities, including Detroit and Flint, Michigan. Hopefully the governments will limit the destruction to the outer, less sustainable, neighborhoods while preserving the core areas. (Telegraph, Steve, MarkM)

And ... Virginia Rep. Cantor continues to propose eliminating pedestrian and bicycle enhancements (VBF, Jaime) ... The Prince of Petworth asks his readers to comment on whether public housing has failed in DC (Eric H) ... In a case study of "new" urbanism, the Oregonian studies how the architecture of modern buildings in Portland near streetcar routes mimics the city's historic streetcar-adjacent architecture.

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

56 comments

Tags: architecture, bike lanes, Blue Line, Eric Cantor, Georgetown, links, Portland, public housing, Reston, road diet, Shaw, Silver Line, streetcars, Tysons Corner, VDOT, Virginia, WMATA

Bicycling

Weekend reading: Walk and ride, or not

by David Alpert • October 18, 2008 7:58 am

Image from FABB.

Walk to the bus station? Heresy! Reston has a bus station and bike rack right next to the W&OD Trail, but instead of building a connection, the county put in a fence. Remind you of Owings Mills? (FABB via WashCycle)

Two more for walking: Maryland Delegate William Bronrott (Montgomery) and Senator James Rosapepe (Prince George's) want some school construction money to go toward pedestrian safety for schoolchildren, along with more of the state's school transportation aid instead of for buses and driving. (WTOP)

Transit, not so much: People might walk to school, but it'll be harder to ride transit, as Maryland cuts buses, mid-day and weekend MARC, holiday service, and more. Of course, the ICC still hasn't been cut (though new bonds are on hold). (Post Get There)

What's your neighborhood like? A cute tool lets you see which neighborhoods are like others in other cities (via DCist). Their methodology doesn't capture the intangibles—this is something that should really be done via wiki or something. I remember first visiting Barracks Row and thinking, "Aha, this is the South End of DC!" What other neighborhood in another city is most similar to yours?

7 comments

Tags: bicycling, bike trails, education, links, MARC, Maryland, pedestrians, Reston, Virginia

Development

Breakfast links: Development outside the beltway edition

by David Alpert • September 12, 2008 10:07 am

Largo Town Center Metro. Photo by cmh0150 on Flickr.

MD cuts everything but the one project they should: Facing a shortfall in gas tax revenue due to people driving less, Maryland is cutting transportation projects across the board except for the ICC, which is "protected" under its financing agreement. With people trimming their driving, the ICC is exactly what Maryland no longer needs, while the Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway, which suffered cuts, become even more necessary. (Post)

PG's existing towns already have centers: Imagine, DC critiques Prince George's current pattern of building large, mostly-isolated "town centers" far from transit (as we discussed around Konterra). Metro stations and existing towns along MARC are the right places for development.

Respecting Reston's residents: Community groups in Reston are concerned about development plans the county is preparing to guide future development in Reston. This article in the Connection quotes what sound like some typical anti arguments about density and traffic, but also others who sensibly want to minimize traffic by making the Dulles (RCIG) corridor more mixed-use. (Ben T.)

Herndon admits bicyclists are people too: Outraged cyclists complained when a Herndon councilmember proposed banning bike parking downtown, intended to repel day laborers. In response, Herndon's mayor has created a pedestrian and bicycle committee and promised to improve bicycle conditions. (Via WashCycle)

Some buses only 50% on time: WMATA didn't even have the capability to measure its bus on-time performance until now, and it has discovered what we all already knew: Metrobuses aren't very reliable. Turns out they're only on time about 75% of the time on average, with some routes performing down around 50%. (Post)

4 comments

Tags: bicycling, buses, development, Herndon, ICC, links, Maryland, Prince George's, Reston, Smart Growth, sprawl

Roads

Breakfast links: Envision the future edition

by David Alpert • August 20, 2008 7:36 am

An office park in Reston. Photo by PiAir on Flickr.

EveryBlock launches in DC: You can now get a feed of publicly-accessible information (like crime reports, requests for service from DDOT, DPW, etc., new real estate listings, and more) around any address.

I'm not finding the default feed for my address that useful, because I don't need to see everyone's requests for trash pickup, don't want to buy another house, and don't care every time someone posts a review of Komi or Sushi Taro on Yelp, but I'm looking forward to playing with it more and figuring out which information I really want. (If only the requests for parking enforcement had more detail, now that would be really interesting).

Pepcomobiles? An entrepreneur is trying to remake the auto industry to be more like the cell phone industry, but with electric cars: a network of charging stations where selling power, not vehicles, is the business model. Via Ryan Avent.

SF to consolidate bus lines, add expresses: SF Muni released their Transit Effectiveness Project report, which will improve service on important bus lines and consolidate others. When there is a low-frequency bus on every street, nobody has a good option for where to wait. Will WMATA do the same?

Mixed-use Dulles corridor might be impossible: Most Reston development along the Dulles corridor is office-only, thanks to Fairfax County pressure, and it might be impossible to change it to allow mixed-use development around future Silver Line stations. A change requires 90% of landowners to agree. Tip: Ben T.

NYT op-eds on mobility: Ryan Avent (guest blogging for Ezra Klein) reviews a trio of op-eds in the New York Times about transportation, some okay, some terrible, but none considering the real solution to their problem: congestion pricing.

5 comments