Posts tagged Baltimore
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Top posts of 2018: Rail in the region used to be far more robust. Here are all the railroads we had in 1921.
In 1921, you could take the train from downtown DC to Annapolis, from Baltimore to Harrisburg, or Winchester to DC. I built a subway-style map of the rail service our region once had. Keep reading…
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The Washington region has good transit compared to others, a new “opinionated atlas” says
Christof Spieler, an urban planner and former Houston Metro board member, has written one of the best transit/planning books I’ve read in a long time. Its articulate descriptions of what makes for good transit and well-researched profiles of 47 metro areas give you the foundation necessary for having an insightful conversation. Keep reading…
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Ask GGWash: Should I commute between Baltimore and DC?
I just spent the past year living in Baltimore and commuting to work in DC. Since housing is so expensive in the District, a lot of people have asked me whether I would recommend commuting between the two cities. Keep reading…
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Cemeteries are a matter of land use—and also a matter of justice
One of the most complicated (and perhaps uncomfortable) conversations people can have is about death. How will we choose to remember others or have others remember us? As urbanists, we can look at this topic from another lens too: the way we use land for our burial rituals, and how those practices might shift as our population grows and our housing shortage increases. Keep reading…
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Better transit, congestion pricing, and 18 other big ideas from a business group’s transportation blueprint
The super-Washington region, including DC, Baltimore, and Richmond, should improve the MARC and VRE rail systems including running service through DC. It should finish networks of trails and try congestion pricing in DC and adjacent parts of Arlington. It should improve bus service, promote employer incentives to not drive alone, increase equity, do more with technology, and better fund and govern transportation in the region. These are some of the recommendations from a wide-ranging new Blueprint for Regional Mobility, released Monday by the Greater Washington Partnership. Keep reading…
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How does access to frequent transit correlate with property values in Baltimore?
Almost a year and a half ago, Baltimore's bus network was redesigned to emphasize high-frequency corridors. While it's unclear whether frequency has actually improved due to problems with buses running far behind schedule, I recently decided to make a map to see how much of Baltimore is served by frequent transit, and how this corresponds to property values. Keep reading…
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Why people are excited about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, and why you should be skeptical
A 15-minute trip between the two cities is an exciting vision, to be sure, and Musk has a lot of fans of his ideas because of his track record of making some of his ideas a reality. Unfortunately, this project likely isn't one of those. The few parts we know about (and we don't know much) neglect some transportation fundamentals. Keep reading…
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Election links: The final week before the general election
One week left until the election! This week, Michael Bekesha's campaign to win over skeptical Democratic voters hit a snag, the Washington Post editorial board backs Bowser against her Council adversaries, and candidates around the region make their final pitches to voters. Get out there and vote for urbanists! Keep reading…
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Here are three things you need to know to get land-use woke
Increasingly our national dialogue about housing affordability is looking at land use as both the problem and the place for solutions. America’s history of land use is fundamentally racist, exclusionary, and exploitative, and if we’re going to have conversations about where to go in this policy space, we need to discuss what got us here. Keep reading…
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Prince George’s sends fewer students to Maryland’s flagship university than other counties. Why?
Although the state's flagship university, the University of Maryland, College Park, is located in Prince George's County, the county sends significantly fewer students as a fraction of its population to UMCP than other area counties do. Keep reading…