Results tagged “transportation”

    

On Tuesday, the District Department of Transportation released the above images of the city's three streetcars being loaded up for shipping. That's good news, considering D.C. taxpayers have been paying to store the streetcars in the Czech Republic for over four years now. DDOT says these images show the streetcars being loaded onto flatbed trucks in the Czech Republic and then arriving in Hamburg, Germany. They are expected to make it to D.C., by ship, in mid-December.

Law-breaking, wasting public funds and an elected official who's increasingly unpopular -- the story had everything you would want in an exposé. So when WTOP's Mark Segraves reported Monday that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty used a police escort and clogged up area roads on his daily bike ride, everyone jumped on it. Including us.

The authors (and dare we say, the readers) of this web site often get pretty exercised over pedestrian and cyclist safety issues, especially when so many of these kinds of accidents seem to involve city bus drivers. But a new study of relative pedestrian safety finds that D.C. is actually one of the safer cities in the country to be traveling through without an automobile. According to Transportation for America, a transportation advocacy group, walking in Washington is less dangerous than in 31 other metro areas in the U.S.

New York businessman Joel Azumah wrote to DCist today to let us know that his discount bus line, modestly dubbed TransportAzumah, will be launching several new routes servicing D.C. this month. Refreshingly, these routes will not be servicing New York. Instead, Azumah plans to offer non-stop bus service from D.C. to Wilmington, Philadelphia and Boston.

    

The District Department of Transportation is busy installing a new contraflow, south-bound bicycle lane on 15th Street NW, which will extend from U Street NW to Massachusetts Avenue NW. Initial work began on Monday, and DCist spotted the work crew out just above P Street this afternoon as they put down the directional bike lane symbols.

The District Department of Transportation on Wednesday announced the ten projects that have been selected to receive funding through DDOT's Transportation Enhancement Program. The funding includes grants ranging from $50,000 to $579,500 that go toward making improvements on a variety of transportation related projects. Funding for the program is provided through the Federal Highway Administration. A full list of the selected projects from the DDOT announcement is after the jump.

The Post has a story today reporting the installation of touch-screen video credit card machines inside 200 area taxi cabs, the first we've heard of such devices being adopted by a local cab company. Granted, it's a Maryland cab company, Barwood Taxi, but we've gotta be willing to start somewhere, we suppose. By all accounts based on the experiences of other cities, like New York and Philadelphia, that have mandated credit card machines in taxis, the devices are a win-win for drivers and passengers alike. The self-use machines have a tendency to increase tipping, and drivers no longer have to carry around so much cash to make change, something any semi-regular D.C. taxi customer can tell you is often an issue inside this city.

Did you know that Segway riders are banned from riding on sidewalks within the Central Business District? What about that some small fraction of disabled people regularly ride Segways? These are the true and exciting facts that can be learned from this Examiner story today on a little bit of D.C. Council business that went down yesterday. See, it turns out that Miles Groves, the president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, is a chronic pain sufferer and a Segway rider. Groves uses a Segway to get around the city easier, and was recently given "a polite warning" by a police officer that he wasn't supposed to be riding on the sidewalk. Not included in the Examiner story: the phone call Groves presumably placed to Tommy Wells, champion of alternative transportation. And Wells came to the rescue yesterday, convincing the Council to pass emergency legislation to give disabled Segway riders a pass on being forced to ride in the street.

We've heard from several readers who spotted fliers around town in the last week advertising a taxi cab strike in the District today. The strike is reportedly to protest the effect the current taxi meter rates have on cabbie income (many argue they now make less money). WTOP has also heard about the strike, but they say participation is spotty, so you can still get a cab if you need one. Given the unique nature of D.C.'s taxi business, it's almost impossible to account for all the different taxi driver alliances and groups out there, let alone the independent, unaffiliated drivers. So you tell us: were there fewer cabs on the streets this morning, or did you not even notice?

Metro is hosting a public meeting tonight to gather input from riders on how to improve bicycle and pedestrian access to Metrorail. If you walk or bike to Metro or have even just thought about doing so, WMATA encourages you to show up at Metro Headquarters (in the Lobby Level Meeting Room at 600 5th Street NW) from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. tonight to offer your feedback. They are especially interested in hearing from cyclists, as one of the main purposes of the bicycle and pedestrian study they're conducting is to look at how Metro can make improvements to bicycle access. Tonight's public workshop comes at a difficult time to be gathering public opinion on Metrorail, given the latest news on the reliability of the system's track sensors.

In case you missed this nugget in Sunday's Examiner, Kytja Weir reports that the Tri-State Oversight Committee responsible for oversight of WMATA would like to see some proof that Metro's decision to move its older, 1000-series rail cars to the middle of its trains is really making things any safer. The newspaper got hold of a letter sent to Metro on Friday which noted that the committee had previously requested that the agency perform a study to determine whether moving the older rail cars would be prudent way back in November, long before the June 22 crash, but WMATA failed to act on the request. Since no formal study on the effectiveness of moving the rail cars has yet to be performed, the committee is scolding WMATA for going ahead with the plan without enough information.

Metro will close the Takoma Metro station today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and again on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as part of the ongoing NTSB investigation. From WMATA: "While the Takoma Metrorail station is closed, the Red Line will be divided into two segments, with trains running between the Glenmont and Silver Spring Metrorail stations, and between the Fort Totten and Shady Grove Metrorail stations. Shuttle buses will take riders around the accident investigation work, and make stops at the Fort Totten, Takoma and Silver Spring Metrorail stations."

One day into to the official relaunch of WMATA's Next Bus service, and we've heard a lot positive feedback from bus riders about the usefulness of the system. But some problems with the real-time Metrobus arrival tool are already apparent.

We didn't get this quote down during this morning's press conference, but City Desk provides:

NTSB’s Debbie Hersman this morning confirms that the the striking train was a 1000-series car and that the struck train was a mix of 3000- and 5000-series. She notes that the NTSB has "long been on record" about the crashworthiness of the 1000 series. "We recommended to WMATA to either retrofit those cars or phase them out of service," she says. "Those concerns were not addressed."

UPDATE: City officials are sticking to seven confirmed dead, despite earlier news reports that nine people died. The two additional reported deaths may or may not have been due to confusion about the two critical patients -- we'll continue to monitor reports.

The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board voted unanimously today to add the Purple Line to its long-range transportation plan, a key approval in the lengthy process to build the new line. Whether the proposed 16-mile line connecting Bethesda to New Carrollton will be light rail or bus rapid transit is still an open question, but a decision on that could happen as early as the end of the summer, assuming the next step, an environmental review process, doesn't drag on and on.

Pretty great news for those of you who regularly travel between D.C. and Baltimore: transportation officials say they've reached an agreement that will allow SmarTrip users to use the cards seamlessly on the Maryland Transit Administration system in and around Baltimore, WTOP reports.

Written by former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent

The Examiner ran an interesting piece this morning on the results of a 2007 survey that suggests that Metrorail riders in the D.C. metro area are wealthy (they have a whopping median income of $102,110) and college educated (80 percent!), while Metrobus riders are less well off: their median income is $69,620, and 59 percent have a college degree. First things first: the most obvious point to be made here is that even Metrobus riders in the D.C. area appear to be very, very well off according to this survey. I mean crap, I realize that figure isn't an average income, but I now feel like one of the poorest people on the bus.

Frustrating but entirely predictable update on Metro's federally mandated cell phone service expansion plan from the Examiner's Kytya Weir today. You'll recall that as part of a $1.5 billion funding package passed by Congress last fall, Metro is required to expand cell phone service coverage to all major companies, including Verizon, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile, to the 20 busiest underground rail stations by October. But of course as Weir writes, it turns out the entire project will "remain a patchwork of service for up to three more years." You will be able to use your phone inside those 20 stations by the end of the year, but not in the subway tunnels adjacent to those stations for a long time later. Metro isn't required to have service up and running in all 47 of their stations until October 2010, and the entire system, including tunnels, until October 2012. So in other words, you'll soon be able to make calls regardless of your service provider while you're standing on many station platforms, but at least for the next couple of years, don't necessarily plan on continuing those calls once you board a train.

This weekend sure is a busy one. What with the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade is on Saturday morning, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run and 5K Run-Walk on Sunday morning, plus Wizards, DC United and Nationals games all happening on Saturday night, off-peak hours this weekend on Metro are likely to resemble rush hour. In order to keep up, Metro has no weekend track work scheduled, and they've instituted a number of service changes.

WMATA this week announced a long list of Metrobus route service changes that will go into effect starting Sunday, March 29. Among the highlights: the N22 Navy Yard Shuttle Line and the 98 Adams Morgan-U Street Link will be discontinued to make way for new Circulator routes (starting dates for those lines still have yet to be officially announced); the S9 16th Street Express Line will begin operating during peak weekday hours (on Monday); the 53, 70, 71, 90, 92, 93, and 96 bus routes will be modified to start or end at a different stop; and the L2, the 79 Georgia Avenue Metro Extra Line, and S1 lines will see increased frequency during the morning rush. Consult Metro's full list of bus route and schedule changes to see if your route is affected.

Man, what a day. Just to update those of you still reading at this late hour: Metro is now reporting "emergency track work" at Mt Vernon Sq 7th St-Convention Center. Trains are sharing the same track between Mt.Vernon Sq and U Street-Cardozo stations, causing delays in both directions, and as of 7:10 p.m., they don't expect it to be fixed for at least 2 more hours. Add this Green/Yellow line delay to the existing problems on the Orange line between East Falls Church and West Falls Church, and you've got a really long late evening commute for all the workaholics still at their desks (or, preferably, those of you heading out to bars). Good luck out there.

It's been a tough morning for WMATA crews working to clear the derailed maintenance vehicle from tracks outside the Courthouse Metro station—the estimates for when this problem is going to be cleared up keep getting pushed back. Here's the story so far, as told through emailed METRO Alerts:

Back in December we reported that BoltBus and Megabus had moved their stop from 11th Street NW just above G Street to around the corner on G Street NW between 9th and 10th, right next to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. The move sparked a little bit of controversy, as it wasn't clear whether the location was any better in terms of interrupting traffic, and some customers were reportedly uncomfortable with its proximity to the soup kitchen across the street. Well Penn Quarter Living reports that after Megabus relocated a third time, to 9th Street NW just above H Street along the side of the old convention center site, as of today BoltBus will follow them there. BoltBus's web site confirms the move to 9th and H Streets at the old convention center parking lot.

I've been following all the transportation plans and announcements for weeks. I've poured over Metrobus corridor plans, street closure maps, parking restriction maps, Metrorail station closures, bridge closure rules, jumbotron locations, and lists of security checkpoint entrances. And to all of you out there still sitting there, at 10 p.m. on Inauguration Eve, wondering exactly which way you're going to get down to the Inauguration festivities tomorrow morning, all I can say is, best of luck to you.

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The AlertDC system, responding about four hours late to the game, is reporting that the water main break at 16th and L Streets NW that throttled downtown traffic this morning is not estimated to be repaired until 6 p.m. at the earliest. That means you should plan on your trek home possibly being as infuriating as the trip to the office was this a.m. DDOT is still advising motorists to avoid 16th and 17th Streets downtown.

Penn Quarter Living reminds us that as of Monday, popular discount bus lines BoltBus and MegaBus moved their shared stop two blocks from its previous location, from 11th Street NW just above G Street to around the corner on G Street NW between 9th and 10th. With the rush to get out of town for Christmas in full swing today, do note the change if you're riding one of these two bus lines up I-95. You'll recall that back in June, DDOT attempted to relocate all commercial bus lines to a single location at L'Enfant Plaza, but later backed off the plan due to public outcry. Do you think this new G Street location makes a better bus stop than 11th Street? Neither DC2NY nor any of the Chinatown lines have moved their stops.

$68,000. That's how much money WMATA earned from web advertising in the last fiscal year. It's also, according to the Examiner, what the agency says is keeping Washington's public transit riders from being able to use Google Transit, a story which has picked up considerable steam since Greater Greater Washington got it started and we reported on it last weekend.