Breakfast links: Solutions on the horizon
Fix Baltimore yourself
Baltimore hopes to build its Red Line in the huge trench of the Franklin-Mulberry, a 1.5-mile “highway to nowhere” that demolished neighborhoods along the short segment that was built. What about going beyond just putting the line in the median? A new site invites people to use Google SketchUp to design their own, better designs. (BaltiMorphosis via Baltimore Brew, Jorge M) (Tip: Jorge M.)
Eurotrains ready to cross the Atlantic
European construction firms and manufacturers of high speed rail cars are anxious to expand in the United States, with the Obama administration’s commitment of $13 billion to high speed rail. (Wall Street Journal, Ben) (Tip: Ben)
Why Metro is greater than BART
Metro and BART were built around the same time, have almost the same length, and serve similarly-sized metropolitan areas. So why does Metro have 2.5 times the ridership? Simple: BART is almost entirely park-and-ride focused, while Metro has far more stations in a denser core. (The Map Scroll, Cavan) (Tip: Cavan)
Fairfax funding Tysons walkability
Fairfax County voted yesterday on spending $3.3 million to plan a denser, walkable street grid and circulator system in Tysons Corner. Supervisor Pat Herrity thinks that the county should put all the money toward more auto-oriented planing, instead. (WTOP, Froggie) (Tip: Froggie)
The last cyclist at Bethesda Naval has been silenced
After consulting with superiors, the author of the Two Black Tires blog has decided to stop writing about bicycling at Bethesda Naval. He was doing a tremendous job shedding light on the complete lack of bicycle planning in NNMC’s BRAC plans. (Dudley) (Tip: Dudley)
Fenty kills lab, but person struck by vehicle
Ryan Avent picks up on the linguistic bizarreness of crash reporting. DCist reprints a headline from the Post, “Two women fatally struck by vehicles.” Ironically, the immediately previous headline is “Fenty kills crime lab contract.”
Experts push for transit funding
Various experts debate the question of whether the federal government should support transit agencies’ operating costs. So far, all contributors have come down in favor. (National Journal, Michael P) (Tip: Michael P)
Arlington gets more buses
Most places are cutting transit service. Arlington is adding it. Next week, they’ll inaugurate service between Shirlington and Clarendon/Court House, continuing their path of making Shirlington into a real transit-oriented area despite its lack of Metro. (Arlington Transit Blog)