Posts tagged Los Mentality
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National links: The late Nipsey Hussle understood cities, and the people who live in them
Nipsey Hussle’s dream of racial and economic equity for his neighborhood spanned across music and media. Planners in Vancouver are widening sidewalks to accommodate more people in the densifying city. Transgender and nonbinary teens are vulnerable to homelessness. Keep reading…
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Getting a ‘D’ grade is actually pretty good for highways
Listen to any discussion of highway congestion and you will inevitably hear about Level of Service (LOS), which assigns a letter grade to the congestion level of road segments. Letter grades start with ‘A’ for free flow and run down to ‘F’ for “failing” (congested) roads. Simple enough…except that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Keep reading…
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To make people-friendly streets, think beyond just cars
To make streets that are safe and comfortable for everyone rather than just speeding drivers, we need to measure them differently. In Montgomery County, one councilmember has a few suggestions on how to do that. Like many places around the country, Montgomery County uses two tests of congestion: Level of Service (LOS), which measures how many cars can go through an intersection,… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Housing progress or failure?
Halfway to affordable housing goal; Luxury over affordability; Pot enforcement highest in SE; No LOS in California; Bike lanes free up sidewalks; Who commutes by bike?; Bored at BWI? Go bike!; How Singapore seniors cross the road; Chocobo-oriented development?; And…. Keep reading…
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A pro-sprawl movement surfaces in Montgomery County
Do urban living arrangements have no place in Montgomery County? Should the county favor automobile travel to the over other forms of transportation? An influential group of local activists say so. At a zoning hearing three years ago, former councilmember Rose Crenca declared, “When did we vote to change SUBURBAN to URBAN? For those who prefer an urban environment,… Keep reading…
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Engineers find a new approach to solve traffic congestion and pedestrian delays
This article was posted as an April Fool’s joke. Drivers and pedestrians alike often have to face unacceptable levels of delay when they drive or walk around roads in the state of Maryland and Montgomery County. Engineers recently announced new approaches that they believe will make these problems disappear. The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) is developing… Keep reading…
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With fat lanes, traffic engineers kill in the name of safety
DC resident Jeff Speck wrote Suburban Nation, the best-selling book about city planning since Jane Jacobs. Greater Greater Washington is pleased to present 3 weekly excerpts from his new book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Contrary to perceptions, the greatest threat to pedestrian safety is not crime, but the very real danger of automobiles… Keep reading…
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Traffic tests confound Montgomery council
Montgomery County has tried several times to find a working “adequate public facilities ordinance,” rules that aim to ensure new buildings don’t jam up roads. They’ve never succeeded, and a new version won’t either. At a County Council meeting Monday, legislators struggled with another proposed revamp of the law, which the county DOT originated… Keep reading…
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Greenbelt sector plan defeats its own walkability goals
What do you get if a planner writes the first part of a plan, and then a highway engineer writes the second part without bothering to read the first? You get something that looks like the preliminary draft of the Greenbelt Metro/193 Sector Plan. Whether the two parts have disparate authors who consulted or not, the result is a contradictory plan. The plan, from the Prince George’s… Keep reading…
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Breakfast tweets: Less is more
Today, we’re trying an experimental format for the links: Twitter style. US DOT: Lowest traffic fatalities in 60 years (Transportation Nation, @marctomik) “We don’t want to come off as NIMBYs.” But Arlington residents don’t want a homeless shelter in their backyard (Post, @_jpscott) The London Tube’s central Zone 1 is very pricey,… Keep reading…