Posts about Maryland
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Dinner links: Make BRT not war edition
Rapid buses coming rapidly: WMATA has a priority list of 24 corridors to get the rapid bus treatment including limited-stop express service and “signal priority” technology to hold yellow lights for buses, reports BeyondDC. Last night, Jim Hamre of WMATA presented details to Maryland’s Action Committee for Transit. Tops on the list for DC are the 16th Street… Keep reading…
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Late night links: familiar battle lines edition
Moran, Oberstar defend transit: Virginia’s Burke Connection covered Monday’s town hall meeting in Tysons. Oberstar, the chair of the House Transportation Committee, got most of the quotes in the article, defending light rail and criticizing the federal funding formula which ignores many factors. And, like all pro-transit officials, he expressed a clear hope that… Keep reading…
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Dinner links: You should go to Monday’s hearings edition
Graham isn’t against streetcars: Despite reports in the press, Jim Graham assured BeyondDC that he isn’t opposed to the Anacostia streetcar line. He just wants to ask questions. It’s a good opportunity to educate the Council on the need for streetcars there, on H Street, and elsewhere. Monday, July 14, 10:00… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: People aren’t so dumb edition
It might be well past breakfast for you, but thanks to fog in Boston and AirTran’s crappy customer service, I got home at 3 am last night, so it’s breakfast time for me. Keep reading…
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“Mall people” and Montgomery County’s downtowns
Imagine, DC reimagines Langley Park with a stronger street grid, a transit center for the Purple Line and buses. Could Langley Park, like Silver Spring, transform from a depressed, sprawly, and mostly low-income set of strip malls into a desirable and more diverse destination? Keep reading…
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Lunch links: Building one freeway, tearing one down edition
Formula sunk the ICC bike trail: The WashCycle has more details on why the ICC bike trail was dropped for “environmental reasons”. It’s another example of stupid, overly narrow federal funding formulas that lead to distorted outcomes. Keep reading…
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Catalyzing strip-mall sprawl into a mixed-use boulevard
How do you transform a low-density corridor of strip malls into a walkable, mixed-use community? That’s the question facing Rockville, whose Pike runs alongside the Red Line but is filled with one-story big-box retail and choked with traffic. It could be so much more, and Rockville agrees. Over the past few months, they’ve held community meetings (one of which I attended)… Keep reading…
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MoCoCo picks developer over transit-oriented activist
The Montgomery County Council narrowly passed over Action Committee for Transit President Ben Ross, a Smart Growth advocate as well as the leading Purple Line activist, for a spot on the Montgomery County Planning Board. They instead elected Joseph Alfandre, developer of the New Urbanist but non-transit-oriented Kentlands community in Gaithersburg. Maryland Politics… Keep reading…
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Mid-morning coffee links: tragedy of the commons edition
Is more chaos more safe? Too many road signs can, counterintuitively, be less safe than uncontrolled intersections, says an article in the Atlantic, using (slightly improperly) the analogy to the “tragedy of the commons”. The basic premise is right; according to George Branyan, Pedestrian Program Coordinator of DDOT, uncontrolled intersections (no traffic lights)… Keep reading…
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Burtonsville residents debate mixed-use and “undesirables”
Just Up the Pike attended a recent charrette on improving the village center in Burtonsville. Located along Columbia Pike (Route 29) a little west of Laurel, Burtonsville saw its biggest draw, a farmer’s market, move to Laurel. The main crossroads at Routes 29 and 198 is a collection of low-density commercial buildings. Keep reading…