Posts about VirginiaRSS
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VA wants more rail, needs money
Virginia communities are vying to get one more daily commuter train to Washington, reports the Post. Amtrak is willing to run another train from Lynchburg to Union Station via Charlottesville, Culpeper and Manassas, or from Newport News via Williamsburg and Richmond. Unfortunately, Virginia only has money for one or the other. Keep reading…
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Fairfax, PG worst for pedestrian safety
The Coalition for Smarter Growth crunched the numbers on car crashes that hit pedestrians, the percentage of crashes that are fatal to the pedestrian, and the rate compared to the total numbers of pedestrians on the road. Keep reading…
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Get involved this week in PG Co., Arlington, DC
It’s the first week of the month and that means lots and lots of great opportunities to speak up in local government! Keep reading…
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Alexandria gets a “trolley”
The first time I went to Old Town Alexandria, I thought, “there needs to be a trolley along King Street from the Metro to the waterfront.” Well, now there is. Sorta. It’s really a bus dressed up as a trolley, which DC Metrocentric sneers at but I think has merit: a dinging trolley probably would be more appealing to visitors who shop at the high-end boutiques and chain… Keep reading…
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Arlington looking to legalize accessory dwellings
Accessory dwellings are rentable units inside another home, like a basement apartment or an upper floor with a separate entrance. These are common in DC, but illegal in Arlington. What’s Up Arlington reports an intiative underway to change this law. Keep reading…
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Post streetcar map
The Post has a good map of proposed streetcar and BRT routes, modeled off the ones from DDOT and others that I use in my map. Via Richard Layman. Keep reading…
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Greater Greater Pentagon
Ryan Avent speculates about how the Pentagon site could be a lot better: Keep reading…
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BRT won’t work for Tysons & Dulles
Paul Weyrich, the leading conservative advocate for rail, argues for the Metro extension and against BRT in a Post op-ed. Keep reading…
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Strike two for NoVa transit
The Post’s Get There has a list of the transportation projects in jeopardy now that the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the law authorizing the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Between an anti-transit USDOT and a largely anti-transit state legislature, it’s tough to be Northern Virginia. Keep reading…
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Tysons stepping away from the edge
Tysons Corner is the classic Edge City, and perhaps the original inspiration for the term. They’re the cities created entirely around the automobile, the mall, and the suburban office park style of architecture—what Christopher Leinberger calls the “Futurama vision” of the shiny new America that looked so exciting in the 1950s. Now that we’ve… Keep reading…
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Greater Baltimore & Washington Transit Future version 2
This map shows what the transportation system of the Baltimore-Washington area would look like if most of the proposed improvements are built. In particular, it includes the Silver Line to Dulles; several new infill Metro stations; turning MARC and VRE into transit-like service with frequent trains that run through from Maryland to Virginia so all commuters can reach Union Station,… Keep reading…
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Greater Washington Transit Future: a multimodal fantasy map
Update: Version 2 is now available. Dan at BeyondDC was one of several people to comment that Metrorail is not the most cost-effective way to provide transit. In fact, it’s pretty darn cost-ineffective. So while it’s fun to dream about Metro lines everywhere, what’s a more achievable transit vision? There are two areas officials want to improve transit,… Keep reading…
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New Partners: Frustrating Transit Administrators
I jumped in to a panel on streetcars fairly late. It featured people from Portland, Tuscon, and other cities that have recently deployed streetcars. When I came in, they were expressing major frustration with the FTA and its decisionmaking. Keep reading…
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Maryland worried about new transit-hostile FTA
According to the Post, Maryland officials are nervous that the Federal (not-so-excited-about-)Transit Administration will reject the Purple Line or the Corridor Cities Transitway (along I-270) as it did (or at least delayed) the Silver Line to Dulles, even though the Purple Line will cost significantly less. Maryland already delayed the Purple Line application process one… Keep reading…
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Alexandria wants new Metro stations
Members of the Alexandria City Council want developers to contribute to new Metro stations as part of potential new developments in Potomac Yards (between National Airport and Old Town Alexandria) and Eisenhower Valley (where the Blue Line goes west from Old Town to Van Dorn Street). Via Ryan Avent. Keep reading…
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“Structure of voids” and chain restaurants in Ballston
Last weekend, we visited a friend who recently bought a condo in Ballston. Zachary Schrag highlights the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor as the region’s biggest success from Metro’s original construction, creating a new transit-oriented Smart Growth development around the subway, and it’s true: there were people and shops and other signs of life everywhere,… Keep reading…
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Three projects to watch
All over the region, consulting organizations are going through the legal requirements for Environmental Impact Statements, necessary for any major project: convening public scoping meetings, collecting input, evaluating alternatives, and so on. They’re doing this in downtown Columbia, along Rockville Pike, and on both sides of the 14th Street Bridges, used by I-395,… Keep reading…
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Sprawl to fight immigration
Should the free market decide how many people live in one house? Or the government? The Post’s Marc Fisher reports on a flood of anti-immigrant bills introduced in Virginia’s General Assembly. One, from Republican Bob Marshall, would prohibit more than four unrelated people from living in one house (whether legal, illegal, native-born American, or even “the… Keep reading…
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Dulles rail decision from a backroom deal?
Is the DOT and FTA trying to force Virginia to sell the Dulles Toll Road? Did the FTA work out a deal with private investors ahead of time to reject public financing? BeyondDC picks up on an interesting angle from the Post’s report that private investors are floating an idea to finance the Dulles rail extension by privatizing the Dulles Toll Road (which will require raising tolls). Keep reading…
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Sen. Wyden’s favored economic stimulus: road resurfacing
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a progressive Senator from America’s most Smart Growth-oriented city of Portland, apparently feels that the best economic stimulus would be more money for road resurfacing. No wonder America has such a hard time weaning itself from road-building. According to Bloomberg, Oregon’s senior Senator thinks “infrastructure spending—specifically… Keep reading…
