Recent Posts
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Breakfast links: Local developers learning
Parking minimums can bring profit maximums; Scaling down with the Joneses; Health projects funded instead of BRAC; “Hipster Express” ties U Street, Brooklyn; Food fights; Not another Adams Morgan!; Drivers not behaving in bike lanes, so remove the lanes?; Sincerest form of flattery. Keep reading…
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Vacation behind missing Struck in DC tweets
There wasn’t a grand conspiracy behind DC Fire & EMS stopping tweeting pedestrians and cyclists struck; the employee who does it, Pete Piringer, was just on vacation. He said he does them whenever he notices one in the reports, but is working to make it more automatic. Sadly, the reports of pedestrians and cyclists struck have already resumed. Keep reading…
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WMATA staff suggests “no 0-value sales” SmarTrip option
The WMATA Board will again discuss whether to drop the price of SmarTrip cards, and whether to allow negative balances, at its meeting tomorrow. Staff is recommending they either keep offering cards for $5 with $0 balance like today, or sell cards for $5 with a $2.50 balance. The Board voted to drop the price of SmarTrips from $5 to $2.50 a few months ago, originally on incorrect information… Keep reading…
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Metrobus farebox audit reveals payment and data problems
Many bus operators are not correctly counting bus passengers or unlimited passes, a recent audit by WMATA’s Inspector General found. The audit examined the quality, accuracy and timeliness of data collected by Metro’s bus fareboxes and found problems with bus ridership and financial data in some key areas. Bus operators are not consistently recording the… Keep reading…
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Real-time Capital Bikeshare map
An amazing map site shows real-time usage at Capital Bikeshare stations, along with how empty and full stations have been over the last 48 hours. You can also see 15 other cities, which gives a fascinating look at how the density of bike sharing varies between cities. Keep reading…
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Let’s convert Scott Circle into Scott Square
Scott Circle is the worst of downtown’s five main roundabouts. The roads are a hostile mess that pedestrians avoid at all costs, and the green spaces are chopped into such small and disconnected fragments that there’s not a useful park among them. There isn’t even a single marked crosswalk leading in to the circle itself. In its current form Scott Circle is… Keep reading…
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What should we expect from elevators and escalators?
An audit confirmed what most riders already knew: Metro’s escalators and elevators are not working like they should. The audit identified a number of places where maintenance processes and training could do a better job for maintainance and repair of escalators and elevators. The audit itself hasn’t been released, but according to Assistant General Manager… Keep reading…
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Metro putting bus passes on SmarTrip cards
Yesterday, WMATA announced that SmarTrip users would be able to load 7-day bus passes onto their cards starting October 17. Transit users will be able to jettison one card from their wallets. Passes extend for 7 days from when they’re first used, as opposed to the current system where they have to run from Sunday to Saturday. Users can load two consecutive… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Cabinet shuffling
Rheesigning; Peck for City Administrator?; Road rash of crashes; VA liquor plan gets worse; Get yer historic DC maps; Ban stoplights?; And…. Keep reading…
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Autumn streets: 16th Street
Over the next few weeks I’ll be taking advantage of the reasonable temperatures, blue skies, and low humidity of autumn to prepare a series of photo essays on some of Washington’s more famous or interesting streets. 16th Street from Mount Pleasant to the White House is the first installment. Keep reading…