The opening of a new psychiatric hospital at Saint Elizabeth’s campus in Southeast DC is surely a piece of very good news for hospital residents, who for years have endured functionally obsolete and altogether inadequate facilities.

But did it have to look so much like a prison?

Has anyone studied the psychological effects of living in a mental hospital that
could just as easily be a prison or an elementary school?
Click the image for more renderings.

Is it wrong that I am seriously considering shelling out $25 for this foot-long model Metrobus available from WMATA?

If it is wrong, do I want to be right?

I wonder if this would be less expensive to maintain than Metro’s constantly breaking escalators.

This is in Stockholm, by the way.

The diesel light rail in Oceanside, CA is a dramatically different type of train than DC Streetcars.

In the ongoing debate about streetcar wires, some people have suggested that DDOT abandon electric systems altogether and use diesel. After all, if New Jersey can run a diesel light rail operation, why can’t we?

Valid question, but there’s an equally valid answer: Diesel trains are slow to start and stop. Very slow. Anyone who’s ever ridden VRE or MARC’s Brunswick line can attest. They are good for long-distance trains that stop infrequently, but less ideal for any system with frequent stations. The acceleration and deceleration times slow down the trip too much for all riders, and mean trains can’t keep up with car traffic moving along city streets. Remember that trains are a lot heavier than buses; it takes more gas to move them.

New Jersey’s RiverLine diesel light rail is 34 miles long, with 20 stations. That averages to more than a mile and a half between stops. California’s Sprinter diesel light rail is about the same, with 15 stops in 22 miles. Both those routes serve inter-city travel; they are hybrid systems with as much in common to commuter rail as traditional light rail. DC’s streetcar lines are an entirely different animal. Our 8 lines will average less than 5 miles long each, and they’ll have multiple stops per mile. Diesel just isn’t a viable option, unless all others fail.

So yes, there are some trains in the country that use diesel successfully, but these trains are dramatically different from what DC is building, and if you want your trip along H Street to take less than an hour, DDOT needs an electric solution.

Try again, Examiner, this time without supporting lawbreakers.

Take a look at the Examiner’s headline today. Drivers pay price for blown budgets. Examiner is apparently upset that in this time of recession, governments are punishing people who break the law. To quote:

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is seeking higher penalties for dozens of traffic violations in an effort to generate nearly $30 million. The plan is highlighted by a photo radar push to collect $40.7 million this year and $56.8 million in 2011, a 40 percent jump…

“They’re using motorists as their ATM machines, ” said John Townsend, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman. “It’s patently wrong.”

Let’s be absolutely clear about this. Examiner and AAA are trying to paint people who break the law as victims.

No.

People who break the law are not victims. They are criminals. If you don’t want to pay a big fine, don’t break the law. The headline should read Criminals Pay Bigger Price For Being Criminals, or to repeat what we all learned in kindergarten: Crime Doesn’t Pay.

Examiner interviewed Richard Layman of Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space near the end of their article-in-defense-of-lawbreakers, who gets it right when he says:

“I wish that our friends at the AAA would be advocating for increases in these fines every year regardless of these budget issues because the average motorist breaks a law every day, ” said Richard Layman, a local bike and pedestrian planner. “The real problem is the roads are designed to allow high speeds all the time regardless of context.”

If there is any way that drivers are victims in this situation, it’s that too many roads are designed to encourage high speeds. It is admittedly unfair for a street to have a design speed of 70 miles per hour and a posted speed limit of 45 mph. Streets shouldn’t be designed that way, and those that are should be rebuilt more reasonably. But regardless, it is still up to drivers to follow the law, and it is irresponsible for Examiner to imply that drivers are somehow entitled to drive faster than the law allows.

DC’s Zoning Administrator issued a ruling that DCRA will no longer grant Building Permits or Certificate of Occupancies for restaurants, bars, diners, coffees shops and carry-outs along 14th and U streets (plus adjacent commercial side streets) because of zoning regulations restricting the availability of space to eating and drinking establishments to 25% of the linear frontage of the greater 14th and U Street area.
– Welcome to MidCity

This is a tough game, because nobody wants to discourage investment in the city, especially in places that are historically underdeveloped. On the other hand, there are some good reasons why this 25% rule is a good one.

One of the most basic tenets of urbanism is that a healthy mix of uses should be encouraged, and while people normally think of “mixed use” as meaning the residential/commercial mix, it also applies to the type of commercial. Healthy city neighborhoods need a mix of commercial types just as much as they need a mix of land use types. If a neighborhood becomes overrun with too many of one type of storefront, that means there is less room for every other type. If a commercial district leans too heavily on restaurants and bars, that means it probably doesn’t have enough hardware stores, clothing stores, book stores, barber shops, or home goods stores to meet the day-to-day needs of neighborhood residents. And neighborhood commercial districts that force neighborhood residents to travel elsewhere for their basic needs aren’t doing their job as neighborhood commercial districts.

This is something that private shopping malls have known a long time, and it’s one of the advantages they have over urban neighborhoods that led to the mall’s dominance in the latter part of the 20th Century. Ownership controls the exact mix of tenants in order to serve every need under one roof and reduce shopper’s desire to ever leave or go anywhere else. Every good mall has one or two sports apparel stores, one or two formalwear stores, one or two jewelry stores, etc. And of course a food court. But unless it’s an older mall struggling to survive (and therefore not picky about who signs leases), there is never more than a couple of stores for any one niche. They want to hit every niche, so they can capture as many markets as possible. In the short term that means some potential tenants have to be turned away, but in the long term it makes the whole mall more healthy. It’s a form of delayed gratification that the major commercial developers of the country are very, very good at.

Of course, we don’t really want our neighborhoods to all look like shopping malls, lest they all look exactly the same. Been to one Lids and you’ve been to them all. But that having been said, DC is generally a city that is overserved by restaurants and underserved by actual stores. And while it’s OK for some neighborhoods to develop specialties (such as 14th Street emerging as a furniture district), it’s in the city’s long term best interests to have as diverse a collection of retail as possible.

Zoning has always been a blunt tool, and maybe the zoning for Mid City needs to be more sophisticated. It’s entirely possible that 25% is the wrong ratio. But in discussing the matter we should remember that there are legitimately good reasons why livable neighborhoods don’t want every storefront to be the same.

 Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.

Update: Ryan Avent responds thoughtfully, suggesting that higher residential densities are a better way to encourage commercial diversity, and that as a regional specialty district for nightlife, U Street in particular increases investment in the whole city.

An S9 limited-stop bus using the Metrobus Express livery.

Ridership is up on WMATA’s three flagship bus corridors that have limited-stop operations during rush hour. Since initiating limited-stop operations, ridership is up 8% on the 16th Street line, 9% on the Georgia Avenue line, and 3% on the Pennsylvania Avenue line. These are big numbers, considering it costs virtually nothing (and may save money) to run buses that stop less frequently but use all the same existing infrastructure otherwise.

If we can get these sorts of results just by rearranging the service, imagine what results we might get with a dedicated lane.

The Washington Post yesterday featured an article discussing streetcar wires, and specifically the opposition to them from the (official) National Capital Planning Commission and (unofficial) Committee of 100.

Here is one of the views that the aforementioned groups want to protect so much that they rank it as a higher priority than improved urbanism, reduced congestion and pollution, economic development, access to jobs, and overall mobility:

Google Street View image of H Street, NE. NCPC and the Cmt. of 100 think streetcars here will wreck the “beautiful character of the monumental core”.

The position of NCPC and the Committee of 100 really is mind-boggling. Yes, there are some places where wires might be inappropriate, but this clearly isn’t one of them, so why oppose wires here? Do they think suburban-style auto repair and fast food shacks are beautiful? Is the strip-mall and asphalt character of suburban highways really their vision for what Washington’s central neighborhoods should be? The only other explanation for such dogmatic opposition to a plan that would help H Street redevelop into an actually beautiful urban place is mere kneejerk reactionism. When even sensible compromise solutions are disregarded, it raises the question of just what opponents are actually thinking.

Update: Tracktwentynine and IMGoph remind me via twitter that Georgetown is included in the wire ban, in addition to the L’Enfant city. Considering that one of DDOT’s proposed streetcar lines would run on K Street in Georgetown, this means NCPC and the Committee of 100 are opposed to streetcar wires underneath the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. They literally want to protect this view from streetcar wires:

Another important view plane that must be protected at all costs, according to people who expect to be taken seriously. Google Street View image of K Street, NW.

On April 2, Metrorail broke the record it set on April 1.

Here’s the new list of the top 5 ridership days:

1. Jan 20, 2009 – 1, 120, 000 trips – Obama inauguration
2. Apr 2, 2010 – 891, 240 trips – Cherry blossoms
3. Apr 1, 2010 – 877, 890 trips – Cherry blossoms
4. Jan 19, 2009 – 866, 681 trips – Obama inauguration
5. Jul 11, 2008 – 854, 638 trips – Women of Faith march

Future Potomac ferry. Image from americanrivertaxi.com.

Way back in 2005 DDOT floated the idea of a ferry system for the Potomac River that would taxi passengers between the various waterfront destinations inside the beltway. The idea was so interesting that I made a map for BeyondDC.

For one reason or another, it never happened. Since that time a small ferry network has sprung up to serve National Harbor, but the DC system has remained a dream.

Now a company called American River Taxi says it will launch a DC-oriented ferry system in the second quarter of this year. They plan to initially serve Georgetown, the Southwest Waterfront, Nationals Stadium, Alexandria and National Harbor with a fleet of 2 boats, with plans to grow to 8 boats and serve additional destinations such as Poplar Point and National Airport within a few years.

No word yet on what sort of fares or service frequencies to expect, although with 5 stops and only 2 boats it’s hard to imagine headways shorter than every hour or so.

One potential complication could be the “ART” acronym, which the ferry system could use, but which is already claimed by Arlington’s bus system.

Hat tip to JDland for breaking the news.