May 4, 2006
Transit on Thursday
Today we mull the thought of a fare increase, ruminate on the way to Dulles, throw some love to Fairfax, and consider buying a hybrid.
Photo by vicbel.
Fare increase?
No one likes to think about those two little words, but inflation and rising costs make them more or less inevitable. It is really only a question of when. While gas prices are getting a lot more people onto Metro, the cost of powering all those buses and trains isn’t getting any cheaper. So far, it looks like all those extra fares have provided the revenue Metro needs to cover its costs. Our man Dan Tangherlini is telling WTOP that as a result, we shouldn’t see any increase until 2008. The Washington Times once again proves its relevance with today's editorial, essentially saying that if Metro hits a financial crunch it should raise fares. Thank you, Captain Obvious.
VA Delegates create Anti-mobility Caucus
When the Governor first announced a deal to let the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority use toll revenues to build Metro out to Tysons and Dulles, a handful of Northern Virginia officials immediately opposed the plan. They vowed to scuttle the deal, only to find out that they didn't actually have the power to do it. In response to complaints, Kaine has invited far more community input, leading most holdouts to drop their opposition. But several Delegates are still standing strong, claiming that the state could have gotten a better deal from a private company.
Yesterday, Kaine's Transportation Secretary defended the deal, arguing that the private firms were just after toll revenue, not the best interest of the region. Accordingly, none had guaranteed the rail line would be built.
It might be a coincidence, but many of those still opposed to the plan are part of the group blocking transportation funding in the state budget. Are these guys just pro-traffic and air pollution, or what?
Apparently, hybrids cause traffic, too.
If you're thinking about buying a hybrid car, now's the time. In two months, no more hybrid owners will be allowed to ride in the area's many HOV lanes. The shift is in response to criticisms that an increasing number of HOV users are driving alone in hybrids, which defeats the purpose of the lanes by increasing traffic. We understand the issue here, but this sounds like an enforcement nightmare...just sayin'.
Fairfax gets rails and trails. Sweet!
Getting around Fairfax and Arlington is only going to get easier as the region moves forward with plans for streetcars and opens a new 40-mile bike and jogging trail. Last week, County Board members approved plans to begin the initial work developing a streetcar line on Columbia Pike. The same day, the new Cross Country Trail officially opened, traversing the county from the Occoquan River to the Potomac. The county also earmarked money in the budget for a new bicycle coordinator, who will help map out and mark the county's extensive network of trails and parks. Celebrate National Bike Month and check it out!
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Wow. A car with out tourists. What line was this? I want to ride it sometime.
TC
The filename/alt text says orange line. Mouse over it to see for yourself.
What, no discussion of the ridiculous delays this morning on the Orange Line? Our conductor said it was backed up from Federal Center to Vienna. Considering that it took me 1h and 15 m to get from Vienna to Metro Center, I believe it.
That picture reminds me.. are those cars with fewer obstructions coming anytime soon?
Jeff - Thanks for the hint. The 'alt text' feature isn't working in Firefox for some reason.
Devon - What time was the backup? I got off the Orange Crush around 0620 today and every thing was running smooth then.
TC
I got on in Vienna at 8:30am - and wound up halting right before West Falls Church. You missed all the fun :)
Yeah, when are those new cars coming, anyway?
Jeff - Thanks for the hint. The 'alt text' feature isn't working in Firefox for some reason.
That is because alt text is not supposed to show up in the tool tip. It is only supposed to display if the image is not present. If you want text to display in the tool tip, the correct command is 'title' with a picture. IE correctly does this if 'title' is present but if it is not, will display alt. After much discussion, Firefox developers went with the standard and do not use alt text. Make sense?
Devon - I don't ride the orange line and didn't see any news about it on the internets. Sorry I missed all the fun! If you have any good tips in the future, email them to me and I'll do a little sleuthin' to see what's up.
Limiting hybrid use makes sense to me. The first goal of HOV is to cut down traffic. The potential environmental effect is secondary. And besides, there's more environmental benefits in car pooling than in hybrids. If too many hybrids are causing the traffic reduction benefits to diminish, then they should be limited. Besides, I imagine most people buying hybrids will do so anyway (unless of course they read the Wired article pointing out how much lower actual MPGs are delivered by hybrids than advertised).
I wonder if the HOV priviledge sticks with the car after resale. Will people start advertising used cars as having HOV rights? That's a nice way to plump up your resale value.
TC, that's because Firefox developers think ALT text should be, you know, alternative text for when the image isn't being displayed, not supplemental information. If you want text that appears when you mouse over an image, the TITLE attribute works fine.
Currenly, you have to have clean fuel tags to drive in HOV lanes in Virginia (which you can get for a hybrid, but it's not automatic). As tags don't stay with the vehicle when you sell it, there would be no way of grandfathering the right to drive in HOV lanes.
A few things.. real MPGs are always lower than the EPA method, no matter what the car, although hybrids seem to be more affected. See: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/fuel-economy-1005.htm
On ALT tags, there is an FF extension that will put ALT in a tool-tip if you want that behavior.
Are you sure that tags can't stay with the car? I know when I bought my car from my father, I kept the same plates. Maybe there's a family exemption, but I suspect people simply choose not to transfer the tags. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't choose to transfer the tags with the car.
Or better yet, can't you keep your old tags for a new car? Ordinarily this wouldn't matter, but if there are these new rights associated with pre-July 2006 plates, they're going to have to set out some rules.
It does look like it's possible to transfer the plates now:
http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/citizen/vehicles/cleanspecialfuel.asp
However, the new regulations may not allow it. (At any rate, clean fuel plates are not issued in the same way as regular plates.)
Actually, this is a car on the Red Line.
No news on the plans to open a south Metro elevator entrance at Bethesda? This would link up with the Purple line! http://www.innerpurpleline.org/Bethesda.htm
I was stuck in a lab that required me to use IE at the time so I posted what was working for me without thinking about it.
I have had to right click for that for Firefox at home. Alt text is what gets picked up for text reader software right? or does title for that?
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