Posts by Ben Ross — Contributor
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How one house explains zoning in Montgomery County
The history of Montgomery County zoning can be told in one house. The story starts in the 1930s, a few years after Montgomery County adopted its first zoning ordinance. A developer named George Sacks began to build on a large tract of land he owned just south of downtown Bethesda. Keep reading…
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One man zoned huge swaths of the DC region for sprawl, cars, and exclusion
Harland Bartholomew’s legacy demonstrates with particular clarity that planning is never truly neutral; value judgments are always embedded in the objectives engineers set for themselves. Keep reading…
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On the Capital Crescent Trail, there’s a battle between safety and motorist entitlement
In October 2016, Chevy Chase resident Ned Gaylin was struck and killed by a driver while bicycling through the intersection of Little Falls Parkway and the Capital Crescent Trail in Montgomery County. The former mayor called safety improvements there an “intentional traffic jam.” Keep reading…
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The Washington Post fails to ask the hard questions about highway widening
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) asserts that widening the Beltway and I-270 by adding four privately-financed toll lanes would vastly speed up traffic on the untolled lanes. Frustratingly, the Washington Post, in its news pages and in a Sunday editorial, uncritically repeats these specious claims. Keep reading…
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One man zoned huge swaths of our region for sprawl, cars, and exclusion
Bartholomew’s legacy demonstrates with particular clarity that planning is never truly neutral; value judgments are always embedded in the objectives engineers set for themselves. Keep reading…
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Ross: The urbanist case for Marc Elrich for Montgomery County Executive
Montgomery County voters have to choose between sitting at-large councilmembers Marc Elrich and Nancy Floreen for county executive on November 6. The Greater Greater Washington community is far from unified in its view on this race. To help readers think about the issues, we're bringing you a pair of opinion pieces by members of our community who are backing different candidates. Keep reading…
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We spent 31 years fighting for the Purple Line. Here’s what we learned.
The Purple Line brings a transformational promise of convenient transportation and livable communities to the Maryland inner suburbs. And that's not all. The successful conclusion of the 31-year struggle for the light rail line has a much wider significance. Keep reading…
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The peculiar fight over density at the Bethesda Metro
Clark Enterprises, a company that formerly owned the biggest road construction contractor in Montgomery County, is fighting against a new building planned atop the Bethesda Metro station. Keep reading…
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To make streets walkable, empower pedestrians to cross anywhere
To make streets walkable, we need to re-think the basic principles of how people on foot and people in cars share the roadway. This is the fourth and final post in a multi-part opinion series. To make streets truly walkable, we need to totally rethink how we run them. Crossing on foot should be legal anywhere and anyplace. Traffic lights should be red-yellow-green, with no walk signals. Keep reading…
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Timing signals to work for pedestrians is impossible
To make streets walkable, we need to re-think the basic principles of how people on foot and people in cars share the roadway. This is the third post in a multi-part opinion series. Walk signals are not only unsafe and inconvenient, they’re also incapable of making pedestrian travel efficient. Engineers simply don’t have the time or resources to correctly configure… Keep reading…