Posts by Dave Murphy — Contributor
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My favorite streets in DC, part 1
Last week, I listed some of my least favorite streets in DC (part 1, part 2). But the District also has many of the finest city streets in the world. From Georgetown to Anacostia, Waterfront to Brightwood, Chevy Chase to Brookland, The Mall to the Atlas District, Washington, DC has hundreds of fascinating streets that exude the spirit of the nation and the soul of the city’s… Keep reading…
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My least favorite streets in DC, part 2
Yesterday, I listed ten of my least favorite streets in DC. Here are the ten that topped the list: 10) Michigan Avenue NW/NE Michigan Avenue is born on a high speed interchange that is an affront to the Park View neighborhood, imposing on its view of the McMillian Reservoir. From there, it separates a hospital center fit for Gaithersburg West from a prime tract of real estate… Keep reading…
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My least favorite streets in DC, part 1
For 30 years, I have been walking, driving, and riding the streets of the District of Columbia. For the most part, they are among the best in the country. But no city is perfect, and DC certainly is no exception. Here are 20 streets that I find to be dirty, ugly, unsafe, traffic-choked, under utilized, or just plain not doing what they are supposed to be doing. I chose to forgo the interstates,… Keep reading…
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Can MARC serve Fort Meade?
Fort Meade is a transit black hole with growing traffic and horrible parking. I worked on Fort Meade for the better part of a decade. It made me hate commuting more than any Beltway traffic ever did. It is virtually impossible to get there without a car, and the parking is years of expansion beyond critical mass. The disastrous runoff and increasing traffic are wreaking havoc on the… Keep reading…
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Imagine an infill station at Lamond-Riggs
Northern DC has a huge swath of relatively dense, urbanized areas with little direct access to Metro, including the Petworth, 16th Street Heights, Brightwood, Manor Park, and Lamond Riggs neighborhoods. The reason for this situation is the lack of any line running underneath Georgia Avenue, which once had a streetcar. There are commercial corridors along this route on Georgia… Keep reading…
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Should the federal government snowproof Metro?
Most federal employees are now in their fourth consecutive day without work. It costs $100 million per day in lost productivity to shut down the federal government. Keep reading…
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Superblocks near Metro, Part 1: Prince George’s
Sprawl development comes with many impersonal, mobility-limiting, traffic inducing accouterments. Seven lane roads, grass berms, curb cuts, enormous setbacks, corporate drive-thru fast food restaurants, strip malls… the list is long and ugly. But perhaps the most basic symptom of poorly thought-out suburban planning is in the street grid: the superblock. Superblocks… Keep reading…
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Imagine a streetcar on Alabama Avenue
DDOT’s streetcar vision reaches all eight wards across DC and includes several lines in River East, but still misses many neighborhoods that could soon become the best opportunities for walkable development. River East has experienced a great deal of suburban-style development in the recent past. Affordable housing is often not accessible to the six Metro stations… Keep reading…
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Is a Green Line extension wise?
Commenters raised a variety of objections to the possibility of extending the Green Line to Fort Meade, as Prince George’s County is proposing. Some argued that the corridor was not viable to support Metro, it was already served by the Camden Line of MARC, and that it’s too far away from the city. For full disclosure, I am employed at Fort Meade, and I was stationed there… Keep reading…
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Imagine the Green Line to Fort Meade
On Monday night, Prince George’s County voted on its transportation master plan update, including a recommendation to extend the Green Line to Fort Meade. The master plan calls for creating, extending, or widening several highways throughout the county, greenfield development outside the Beltway, and some other Cold War-era fixes to Prince George’s transportation… Keep reading…