Breakfast links: Anything for security
MARC will sniff your bags
MARC will start doing random checks at stations with bomb-sniffing dogs. The program will eventually be expanded to MTA’s Light Rail and Metro stations in Baltimore. This isn’t responding to any particular threat, but the MTA got some federal money to do it. MARC warns passengers to leave extra time to catch trains. Is this a prudent precuation or another example of adding security just for security’s sake? (Baltimore Sun, Matt’) (Tip: Matt')
Park Service reluctantly accepts trees in their bollard preserve
NCPC has approved a security design for the Martin Luther King Memorial. The National Park Service wanted a long line of bollards, but NCPC pushed for an island with trees instead. Why are our park officials so reluctant to design facilities that look like, well, parks? (Post)
More on the Mall
Congress has approved yet another museum near the Mall, a National Women’s History Museum, for the current parking lot along 12th Street, SW between C and Independence. (DCmud) … A private fund has taken over maintenance and landscaping at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (AP, Arslan J) (Tip: Arslan J)
Quick, build strip malls before we decide not to
Fairfax City is considering a Master Plan to create a walkable boulevard, but that hasn’t stopped them from approving three huge strip malls that detract from the potential to create such a walkable boulevard. (Fairfax Suburbanista)
Resident discounts for ICC tolls?
Three Maryland delegates are proposing ICC toll discounts for residents who live near the ICC and are affected by construction. Most drivers quoted for the story don’t think they should have to pay anything. (ABC7)
Boyds for transit
The Boyds Civic Association voted unanimously on October 15 to ask the Maryland Department of Transportation to study ACT’s all-transit alternative to the widening of 270. This contradicts the general expectation that residents of Boyds, a rural community in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve near the I-270 corridor suburbs of Germantown and Clarksburg, would favor highway widening over transit. (Monocacy Monocle)
Way ahead of us in Germany
An American visiting Germany discovered that nobody would dream of throwing away batteries, the escalators use sensors to turn off when nobody is using them, and if your VW breaks down, the dealership will let you choose between a free taxi ride, subway fare, or a loaner bike to get around in the meantime. (Nat.org, DC Dan) (Tip: DC Dan)