Transit on Thursday: Love Your Local Development Blogs
There have been a lot of interesting, local ideas about the future of public transportation in the D.C. metro area floating around the internet this week, so Transit on Thursday has gathered them all up for your perusal.
As a starting point, Dr. Gridlock (Robert Thomson) of the Washington Post posted a very detailed map that outlines the next big forays in D.C. area transit - streetcars and bus rapid transit, or BRT. Of course, you really have to project for these ideas, as the implementation of these routes and services probably wouldn't be set until the year 2030, according to DDOT. Instant gratification aside, his map neatly shows off how the area could enhance its cross-city routes (you know, like that L'Enfant dude wanted). Personally, not having to change lines or wait for an unreliable bus to go from Woodley Park to Shaw to Eastern Market and back again would be pretty nice. How about being able to sweep north on 16th Street during rush hour - that would be pretty useful. Of course, the really exciting part is that experimentation with these transit options are not far off - there have already been BRT studies commissioned in Prince William County, and new streetcars will begin construction in Anacostia this summer.
But there are plenty of other ideas not being supplied by DDOT. For instance, BeyondDC, one of our favorite sources for developmental features, put up it's own vision of the future of D.C. area mass transit, following a long line of other potential plans put forth at Greater Greater Washington, amongst other web sites. Touted as a "transit vision," there's a significant discourse on the reasoning behind the plan - notably that "Like pre-industrial medicine focusing on bloodletting, highway engineering is junk science." The vision really picked up steam when a dialog about them broke out in the comments over at former DCist editor Ryan Avent's blog - if you like to keep current on the state of local transit, the back-and-forth is kind of required reading.
The area has the brains to help build a better system of public transportation - now, hopefully, the powers that be will take the best of what these ideas provide into consideration.
After the jump: more local love, plus Dulles Rail's last precious gasps of air.
Photo by m hoek.
So, Where's Your Metro Stop Rank?: Speaking of great local transit analysis, Rob Goodspeed, DCist Editor Alumnus and Master of Color Coded Bar Graphs, posted a fascinating analysis of Metro ridership by station yesterday. His findings? 37 percent of Metro stations (mostly areas in which there is little room for growth or other readily available transportation options) average less than 5,000 riders per day. The problem, as Rob puts it, is:
If the entire system is subsidized by taxes, these stations are the most deeply subsidized. Given the huge expense of the station construction, maintenance, and staff, is it acceptable to let these stations remain underutilized?What do you think? How would you encourage ridership at these stations?
Dulles Rail Project On Its Last Wheels: We noted it in yesterday's Go Home Already, but yesterday's withdrawal of a lawsuit by Tysonstunnel.org is another sign that the proposed Dulles Rail extension is as good as dead in its current form. The project, which has a backstory that you'd have a hard time making up, is now suffering from the almost certain loss of $900 million in federal funding - and when your enemies start conceding that a fight isn't wort fighting anymore - well, the idea has lost it's legs. It should be noted that the project - estimated to cost $2.5 billion as recently as January of this year - had ballooned to a cost of about $5 billion.
Engines and Cabooses: Alexandria will be providing a new free trolley line beginning April 1 - the trolley will run between Old Town and the King Street Metro station, seven days a week, between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. - but we're more excited about the link it will provide with the water taxi service from the National Harbor...Getting around will be pretty tough this weekend - we'll have a more detailed post on street closures later today, so stay tuned...New major rehabilitation project for the George Washington Parkway is in the works.