It’s awful that U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters plans to slash transit spending to pay for roads that fewer and fewer people will use, but at least there’s good news from the states. Maryland, for example, just shifted to transit a pot of $340 million in unallocated transportation money that in past years would have gone almost entirely to roads. The state also approved another pot of $369 million for MARC upgrades. Together that’s almost three-quarters of a billion dollars that 5 years ago probably would have been spent very differently.

The tide has turned – or is turning – in much of the country. Peters and the rest of the roads-before-people brigade are fighting a rear guard action that, assuming a wizard doesn’t intervene and magically lower gas prices forever, is destined to lose. The next generation will wonder what they were thinking.

Here’s the deal, MTA: Give us these on the Purple and Red lines, we won’t raise a stink about Gaithersburg getting the shaft.

According to the Gazette, BRT is becoming the favored option over light rail for the Corridor Cities Transitway. Though the Gazette tries to paint the decision as one based on the merits of BRT over light rail, the real reason for the decision is that with massive amounts of Maryland transportation dollars sunk into the ICC, with Feds hostile to transit, and with the Purple line and Baltimore’s Red line competing for the measly transit money that does remain available, the Corridor Cities Transitway is most likely to be the odd one out.

Much as we hate to admit it, because BRT is *not* better than light rail, the decision to do BRT in Gaithersburg is probably a good one *if* it means we get light rail in Baltimore and Silver Spring. Even with the best possible alignment in place instead of the existing seriously flawed one, the CCT would still be clearly the least promising of the three competing transit corridors, given its location in relatively sparse, auto-oriented suburbia.

Given the constraints, we can live with BRT for the CCT (for now), but let’s not kid ourselves. It ain’t about providing the best service, it’s about providing what service we can for not very much money. We do wonder, though, what people will think of new highways and cheaply-produced transit when gas hits $10 / gallon.

USDOT thinks you shouldn’t ride the train so much.

Apparently it’s berate the Federal Government day at BeyondDC. From Streesblog, via Avent:

Like a burned-out addict stealing to support a meth habit, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said yesterday that due to declining gas tax revenues, the Highway Trust Fund would need to borrow money from its mass transit account to pay for road projects. Today’s big news story was buried at the bottom of page A17 in the New York Times:

Gasoline tax revenue is falling so fast that the federal government may not be able to meet its commitments to states for road projects already under way, the secretary of transportation said Monday.

The secretary, Mary E. Peters, said the short-term solution would be for the Highway Trust Fund’s highway account to borrow money from the fund’s mass transit account, a step that would balance the accounts as highway travel declines and use of mass transit increases.

So in the crazy world of Mary Peters, it’s a big problem that Americans are driving less and riding transit more, because that means we can’t build so many roads. Her even crazier solution to that non-problem is to take money away from successful, increasingly popular transit programs and use that money instead to fund more of the same roads on which people are no longer driving. BeyondDC doesn’t know what ridiculous world that is, but it ain’t the one we live on.

Earth to Mary Peters: Your job is not to build roads. Your job is to move people. Stop putting the needs road builders ahead of the needs of the American people. Whatever credibility you had, you have lost thanks to this ridiculous proposal.

You are aware, BeyondDC assumes, that the National Mall is an important symbol of American greatness. We also assume you are aware that the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol is a beautiful and integral part of the Mall, and that summer is when the Mall is most full of visitors.

We are therefore baffled by your proposal to drain the Capitol Reflecting Pool during summer months.

BeyondDC understands that sitting water causes disease in birds, and that something needs to be done to the pool to guarantee that its water doesn’t poison local foul. We respectfully suggest, however, that the visual costs of a hulking, empty concrete basin right in front of one of America’s most significant monuments makes draining the pool an unacceptable solution.

We understand the alternative is to install a pump system that circulates water, but that you are hesitant to take that action because simply draining the pool during the summer is cheaper and easier.

Respectfully, it is not your job to do what is cheapest or easiest. It is your mission to “preserve the cultural resources of the park system for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations”. What does it say about America if at one of our nation’s most sacred spaces we don’t think it’s worth the time or effort to install a simple water pump in order to preserve the beauty of that space?

It is safe to assume we speak for most of America when we say: This is the National Freaking Mall! Spend a few extra dollars!

Love,
BeyondDC

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey has a really spiffy catalogue of historic maps in very high resolution. The downloadable version of the 1891 streetcar map reproduced below, for example, is almost 9, 000 pixels high.

Cool.

Never parallel park again.

Smart Cars are cool. Fair enough. But so wasteful! Why bother with that second seat since so many people drive alone?

Enter the Commuter Car, a one-seater that makes even the Smart Car look like an SUV.

Why not?

Click for our “Framing The Mall” special feature.

The National Mall of Washington, DC is indisputably world famous. Our monumental core is not just the symbol of our city, in the minds of many Americans it *is* our city. But if the Mall is the symbol of Washington, is it also the city’s heart and soul? The Mall, celebrated as it is, functions practically as a separate entity from the rest of the city. Tourists tend to stay within its confines, while residents rarely bother. That’s a real shame. In a better world, the functioning city and the monumental core would work together. Rather than a gap in the urban fabric, the Mall would be the great central civic space of the city.

Working towards that goal, the National Capital Planning Commission has drafted a Framework Plan for the Mall. The draft, which is open for public comment until October 10, gets the big question right: Rather than trying to expand the gap in urban fabric with new malls, it tries to close the gaps that exist now by activating underused spaces near the Mall.

That having been said, the draft needs refinement. BeyondDC has a whole litany of comments, first among them that the plan treats transit infrastructure as something to be hidden from view rather than something to be embraced and built-upon.

For more information about the plan, to download the plan, and to read all BeyondDC’s specific comments, go to our new special feature, Framing The Mall.

The developers of Carlyle, near King Street Metro in Alexandria, are proposing a 33-story skyscraper. Details are sparse. What we’ve got is here and here. Washington Business Journal says the tower will be 330 feet tall, which would make it about the same height as the Masonic Monument and the Hilton on Seminary Road, but without an actual elevation to work off of we suspect BizJournal is just multiplying 33 by 10, and that 330 feet is a rough estimate at best. For comparison, Rosslyn Central Place, which as proposed would become the tallest tower in the DC region, will be 384 feet tall, but about 30 stories.

Photo from WMATA.

Behold the new Metrobus paint scheme. It obeys the current fashion trend sweeping transit agencies around the country: eliminate horizontal-stripe-on-a-white-field, replace with solid colors and curved lines. Examples abound.

The new livery is more noticeable, therefore more effective. That makes us fans. We’d prefer, however, that WMATA focus on getting unique livery to all its limited routes, where a different paint scheme can illustrate different service, rather than onto normal routes.

Way more info at DCist.

Part of the Anacostia segment. Click for the full map (pdf).

Thanks to Greater Greater Washington, we know that no decision to build or pull the Anacostia streetcar was made at yesterday’s public hearing, and that unless somebody introduces an actual piece of legislation the plan to construct the Anacostia line is still in place. We further know that the route settled upon for the Anacostia line is less than ideal, but that it’s easy to build and ready to go right now. If built, the Anacostia line would be essentially a commuter shuttle to Bolling Air Force Base, and not very useful otherwise, at least until more of a system can be built around it.

A lot of transit advocates are asking why the District is building an imperfect segment first. They ask why not build H Street, or Georgia Avenue first, visible locations where high ridership is guaranteed.

BeyondDC doesn’t think that’s the right question. Not right now, anyway. The planning for the Anacostia line is complete, something that cannot be said for any of the other segments. It may be a shame that two years ago officials decided to plan Anacostia first, but shikata ga nai, it’s done. With that planning having been completed and construction in Anacostia ready to begin, the real pertinent question instead becomes do we want this line at all? If we don’t care whether the Anacostia segment is ever completed, then fine, let’s drop it now and never look back. If, on the other hand, we intend the Anacostia segment to be part of the final city-wide system that we hope to build and operate decades from now, then the time to build the Anacostia line is now, since any delay will only increase the cost.

If we choose the “wait and get something perfect” option, then in 10 or 15 years when it finally becomes time to build the Anacostia segment, we will do so, it will cost more, and we will end up with the same system but at greater expense.

That’s silly.

Assuming we want the Anacostia segment as part of our final system, then there is no good reason to delay. Build the thing now, and move on to H Street ASAP.

In the mean time, count on Arlington to get the Columbia Pike streetcar up and running quickly so we have a more successful demonstration project. We need that NVTA money, Richmond.