Posts by Matt Johnson — Editorial Board Alum
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Rail implicated falsely by reporters’ use of active voice
Writers and commenters here at Greater Greater Washington frequently note the onset of the windshield perspective in reporters, columnists, and other bloggers. In news stories, drivers are frequently left out in favor of their car, which seems to have been the sole party in the accident. Recently, I’ve also noticed a frequent misleading use of verbs or the active voice to… Keep reading…
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Washington’s rails, part 3: Maryland’s wish list
Last week, the State of Maryland submitted a request for $360 million in stimulus funding for rail improvements to the Northeast Corridor (MDOT press release). Of course, Maryland is not the only applicant, so it is likely that some of these projects will not be funded. However, the list includes seven important projects which will improve the travel of commuters, inter-city (Amtrak)… Keep reading…
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Washington’s rails, part 2: CSX’s “National Gateway” for freight
In the last installment, I described the Washington and Baltimore rail networks and their limitations. CSX hopes to surmount some of those limitations with their “National Gateway” initiative, which would upgrade freight rail infrastructure to accommodate double-stack container cars. Keep reading…
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Washington’s rails, part 1: The network
When the railroad first reached Washington in 1835, the Capital was a very different place. Over the next century and a half, urbanization, alternative transportation, and major shifts in commerce have dramatically changed the situation facing railroads. Yet the railroad infrastructure in the Washington-Baltimore area has seen little change since the turn of the century. The… Keep reading…
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Metro motifs, part 3: Other design motifs
The underground vaults and above-ground station roofs may be Metro’s most distinctive design element. But in addition to having a commonality of design in station architecture, the system has many other common design elements. Pylons (columns): Perhaps the most recognized symbol of Metro is the brown pylon. There are two types of these columns. Inside the station,… Keep reading…
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Metro motifs, part 2: Above-ground stations
Monday, we looked at the designs of Metro’s underground stations and their signature vaults. The above-ground stations cannot have the large vaults, but Metro’s designers took steps to maintain architectural continuity. Gull Wing I: In order to maintain the connectivity of the architectural elements of the system, the surface and elevated stations had a vault-like… Keep reading…
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Metro motifs, part 1: Underground stations
Hundreds of thousands daily pass through the hallowed halls that are our Metro. The public spaces of our city’s subway platforms are unique in the world, and are associated with Washington wherever one goes. Metro’s stations are the public spaces that link the rest of the region together. Here, similarity of design means that places as far flung as Alexandria and… Keep reading…
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Washington’s state-named avenues
Last week, I wrote about the system of street naming in Washington. From A Street to Verbena Street and from Half to Sixty-Third, our lettered and numbered streets make it difficult to get lost with their logical progressions. But our transverse diagonal avenues confound everyone from tourists to suburban motorists. Not only do they break all the grid rules, they even manage… Keep reading…
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Passenger flow for individual Metro stations
In late July, I wrote about passenger flows on the Metro system. Unfortunately, the study had to cope with limitations in the data from Metro. Better data would certainly yield more informative results, we can perhaps glean some more information from the existing data. Some readers asked about breaking down the data to create flow maps for individual stations. To estimate… Keep reading…
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Washington’s systemic streets
Visitors and residents of Washington, DC know, to one degree or another, about the city’s street naming conventions. Most tourists know that we have lettered and numbered streets. And to some degree, they know there is a system, but it doesn’t stop them asking us directions. But most out-of-towners and even many residents don’t understand the full ingenuity… Keep reading…