July 15, 2008
Transit on Tuesday: The General Assembly Fail Edition
I don't think I've ever seen a group work so hard to do nothing. It was doing nothing taken to an art. They had since February to come up with something and they came up with nothing. It was like a 'Seinfeld' episode, the show about nothing. - Virginia Governor Tim Kaine
Well, we were planning to bring you some of the "highlights" from the recent special session of Virginia's General Assembly - but it seems that Marc Fisher of the Post beat us to it yesterday. But no hard feelings - Fisher's column is highly recommended reading for anyone out there, Virginians in particular, who feels slighted at the Assembly's ninth failure in just a few years to pass a transportation bill that does anything to alleviate the gridlocked status of Northern Virginia. The massively failed special session concerning Virginia Governor Tim Kaine's $1 billlion funding plan will end up costing taxpayers $117,000 - and it's believed that Kaine, hilarious soundbites aside, will give up the ghost and move on to energy and environmental issues when the Assembly next convenes in January. But as Fisher notes
...energy and transportation are essentially the same issue. Our heating and gas bills have a direct impact on our freedom to move around...By the time we're shelling out $6 for gas, the public's eagerness to see real movement toward energy independence and real alternatives to getting in the car will be far more powerful than it is today.No matter how right Fisher is, the key issue here is that the political schism between Northern Virginia and the rest of the Commonwealth creates an air-tight deadlock which prevents any progress from being made. The sooner both sides realize that transportation funding is tantamount and entwined with nearly every other major economic issue in this election cycle - jobs, commercial development, housing costs, the environment, gasoline consumption, and on and on - the quicker that movement, regardless of party, can be made. Also, it should be interesting to see how Virginia's status as a swing state in the upcoming Presidential election will affect the Assembly's next meeting in the winter - since the state's vote could be used as a mandate to represent either candidate's pro- and anti-transit ideals.
Since there's a significant financial and human ripple effect which flows through to both the District and Maryland, here's to hoping the Assembly and the Governor can solve their "Seinfeldian" conflicts.
photo by Bill Jones Jr.
Metro's Rolling Stock: Melodrama in Spades: You know, one of our favorite things about Metro is that there's seemingly no end to the intricate details you can learn about the system. The trains that we sit and stand in all the time are no exception - especially those Rohr trains that have been grinding the tracks since Metro's inception in 1976. For instance, did you know that the system's four money trains - which carry the deposits from farecard machines to drop boxes within the system - are numbered 8000 through 8003? Or that train number 1028, separated from its "mate" at the Federal Triangle incident in 1982, now has a role as the "feeler car," testing the system clearances? Perhaps our favorite is train 1076, which doesn't have anything going for it after its "mate" was lost in the accident at Woodley Park in 2004 - Metro's lovable loser, that train 1076.
So, really, we're just waiting for Pixar to do a movie based on a Metrorail car losing its "mate," finding redemption in some glorious way. Aww.
Engines and Cabooses: Phst, don't they know that Maryland drivers are Satanic beings, incapable of restraint?... AAA: Growing number of drivers over 65 causes unique challenges... Purple Line supporters take offense that the Chevy Chase Country Club purportedly runs a grassroots website campaign against the line... Metro looking to increase reserve bus fleet from 23 to around 100... D.C. considers raising fines for drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians, which we mentioned previously in May.
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seriously, what would it take for nova to pull a wva and become its own state? is that doable? was wva simply a semi-legal artifact of the civil war?
maybe we wouldn't hate on a reliably dc-lite (politically) virginia as much as we do the old dominion as it currently exists.
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Well, to do it the W.Va. way, we need to find some people to suddenly declare themselves the government of Virgina and then have the president say "why yes, you ARE. What can I do for you?" A couple of signatures here and there and quicker than you can say "the south shall rise again," you've got yourself a new state.
I'm not sure that qualifies as even "semi" legal. But what the hell. Sounds like fun.
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Cool. That way, they'd HAVE to grant DC Statehood to offset the extra star that the State of Northern Virginia would create on the flag.
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No, IMGoph, I'm sure you'd hate on us just the same.
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now bob, what in the world makes you think that?
for the record, there's no way i could hate on the state of nova as much as the original virginia, assuming they leave bristow and nissan in the old state.
bring that with you, and all bets are off.
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I just saw one of those money trains a week or two ago. There's very little light on in the train, and then a bunch of guards with shotguns stepped out. It was surreal.
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IMGolph: Here's the part of the Constitution you're idea runs into:
Article IV Section 3. "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress."
I would imagine it is a thorny Constitutional issue. The clause on not forming new states from established states is it's own clause without making an exception (like the last clasue). And, after all, secession has been proven to be not allowable (the Civil War took care of that), but you aren't talking about seceeding from the Union, just VA. And WVA does show a path, even if it was during an extremely unique time period in the country's history.
In short: You want to make a Constitutional issue out of it, you won't hear a complaint out of me. :)
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Since NOVA is the cash cow of the Commonwealth, there's no way Richmond would let us go, no matter how much they hate us. So I suggest an armed revolt.
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To all federal employees.
"The Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act was considered on the floor of the House. Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Tom Davis (R-VA) offered an amendment to increase the maximum reimbursement given to federal employees who use mass transit for commuting purposes from $115 (the current maximum benefit amount for DOE employees) to $220/month. The legislation also mandates that agencies offer this benefit."
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That NHTSA study is ridiculous: "In fact, the elderly are one of the safest driving groups. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2006 there were 62 passenger-vehicle driver deaths, out of a population of 650,568 people 65 and older, in Maryland."
Using age and accidents per year is an inane way to calculate driver safety. Statistically, the more you drive the higher your changes of getting into an accident. There's no way you can compare the driving habits of commuters who take 495 in rush hour to and from work, and a grandma who drives 3 days a week to the grocery store and back; yet, that study treats them the same.
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What if DC and NoVA worked together to make their own state?
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i don't think that would be a bad idea, mho. really, including PG and montgomery counties couldn't hurt too. might as well have all the jurisdictions that work together to make this region work in one, big, joined mess.
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Re: The Chevy Chase country club douchebaggery. . .
About a month ago, there were some petitions rotating around downtown Bethesda railing against the Purple line. They were supposedly being distributed by concerned bikers, but now I wonder if that was also fake, or partially propped up by the golf crowd.
Note, I live in Friendship Heights, and want the Purple line in a hard, hard way.
~EEE~