Recent Posts
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Expanded mezzanine planned for Union Station Metro
The northern entrance to the Union Station Metro is probably one of the most cramped in the system. And during peak periods it becomes very congested. The District Department of Transportation is working with WMATA to greatly expand the capacity and utility of the mezzanine. Because of the design constraints of the site, the northern mezzanine had to be shoehorned into a very… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Still out
Smart Growth couple to Columbia Heights; Why some golfers fear bike trail; Pepco’s blunders; In bikes; Peak of one peak; To th Examiner, it’s all Graham’s fault, no matter what; Gray: Too much process or just right?; And…. Keep reading…
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Metro by the numbers, part 1
Last week, Ryan McNeely at Matt Yglesias’s blog wondered how bad the DC Metro really is. He introduced a few metrics, though mainly compared Metro to the transit systems in New York, Chicago, and Boston, which are systems from a different generation. Among the metrics were weekday ridership per mile, fares, span of service, and passenger fatalities since 1990. McNeely… Keep reading…
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Students fix Foggy Bottom’s waterfront problems
Lydia DePillis’s constant attendance at community meetings turned up a fascinating plan from the Catholic University Urban Design Studio to improve some of Foggy Bottom’s biggest flaws: the mess of freeways between the neighborhood and the waterfront. A professor and team of students came up with the vision, which has no funding but which DePillis reports they… Keep reading…
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Should there be two WMATA Boards?
What is the WMATA Board supposed to be? Should it be a high-level policy board, which only looks at big picture issues and leaves specifics to the General Manager? Or should it be delving into decisions of staff to try to make sure any problems are rooted out? Should it be made up of a number of elected officials, like a legislature, which listens to citizens but is perhaps somewhat… Keep reading…
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What to do with Vermont Avenue’s orphan block?
Vermont Avenue between H and I Streets is an unusual place. It’s so underused as a traffic thoroughfare and such a prestigious location close to the White House that it is becoming clear it may be better suited to a life as something other than a mere street. Not only is this block of Vermont the very last block of the street, it’s an orphan — a segment disconnected… Keep reading…
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Recommendation to replace 1000 series wasn’t ignored
Jason Cherkis takes exception to my argument that the NTSB was being too harsh on the WMATA Board in its report yesterday. I argued that it wasn’t realistic for the WMATA Board to “psychically divine” that the safety reports the GM was providing them were omitting all the track signal alarms they were getting every day but ignoring. Cherkis says that WMATA… Keep reading…
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Free neighborhood shuttle could save DC money
Residents and workers in Southwest Waterfront want to restore a discontinued free shuttle bus, the Shuttle-Bug, that operated between G and M streets SW from Sixth Street to slightly past Third Street. The Shuttle-Bug connected thousands of residents in that area, including people with low incomes and older adults, to the Safeway, CVS, and Waterfront Metro station. Keep reading…
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WMATA Board not at fault for crash, but needs to step up
The NTSB’s meeting on the 2009 Red Line Crash continued this afternoon with even more troubling revelations. They also criticized the Board’s lack of safety oversight, which seems unfair for before the crash, but the Board does need to step up now that they know there are problems. WMATA top management seems to have tragically ignored safety warnings and potential… Keep reading…
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NTSB blames track circuits, safety culture for Red Line crash
The National Transportation Safety Board is issuing their official findings from the June 2009 Red Line crash today. In this morning’s session, they criticized WMATA officials, the agency’s safety culture, and even the Board and Congress in the strongest terms. They identify track circuit failures as the cause of the crash, and furthermore, these “parasitic… Keep reading…