The Post’s big Metro-section story today is about seat hogs on the Metro – people who take up more than one seat in crowded trains. Seat hogs are naturally a frequent target of rider-on-rider scorn, perhaps second only to the dreaded escalefter.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with people spreading out as long as there are several seats available. You’re only a seat hog if people on the train are being forced to stand for lack of enough seats.

But since we’ve all seen plenty of hogs on crowded trains, what should we do about them? Can we do anything?

The Post article discusses SeatHogs.com, at which frustrated riders post pictures of the most blatant offenders in the hopes that the prospect of being publicly shamed will dissuade potential hogs. Funny, but it seems unlikely to work. The odds of any given hog being shamed are too small.

If I see a seat hog and I want to sit, I’m not generally shy about asking them to move. Occasionally I even ask hogs to move when I’d otherwise be happy to stand, just on principle. No one has ever refused. But I wonder if this tactic doesn’t actually contribute negatively rather than positively. After all, if hogs are trained to think it’s acceptable to do their thing unless someone confronts them, then riders who happen to be too introverted to feel comfortable asking someone to move will be increasingly out of luck.

So if neither shaming hogs nor asking them to move are really ideal solutions, is there one out there?

On Monday the Washington Post ran a story about mayoral politics and Ward 4, in which a Brightwood resident is quoted saying “I’m all for Vince Gray. I’ve been here for what, 40 years? Never in my life have I seen things in D.C. all turned around.” In today’s edition of the Washington Post Local Blogging Network, I suggest that if Gray is running on the platform of returning District government to its “pre-turned around” power structure – the structure that gave us Marion Barry – then that is a really excellent reason to vote for Adrian Fenty.

The National Park Service has released its new Master Plan for the National Mall. I have only briefly skimmed it so far, but one interesting page deals with the visual vistas NPS deems important. Check out this map:

Important vistas according to NPS. Click the map for a larger version in pdf format.

The map’s blue lines are “vistas [that] are identified as contributing features of the L’Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, D.C.”, while the yellow lines are “other important vistas”.

This could prove important for streetcar planning if indeed DC solves its overhead wire problem by adopting the common sense hybrid solution, whereby wires power trams for most of their routes, with short gaps at the most important vistas.

If the National Park Service’s plans can be considered authoritative, this map illustrates how they affect the 7th Street / 14th Street / Georgia Avenue streetcar line (the only one to cross the National Mall):

Streetcar conflicts with NPS vistas.

Such incidental conflicts can be easily avoided with existing, inexpensive battery technology, while still allowing the most affordable and efficient power system (wires) to be used throughout most of the system. It’s a real win-win idea.

Why yes, there *is* a British Petroleum-themed board game in which the goal is to drill as much offshore oil as possible while trying to avoid a series of potentially disastrous environmental calamities.

But we still believe them when they say nobody saw this coming.

Holy cripes, this is actually real.

The DC City Council unanimously passed legislation today that will permit streetcar wires on H Street and Benning Road, Northeast. This is the same legislation that was introduced in June and co-sponsored by 12 of the 13 Council members.

Kudos to the City Council for recognizing common sense on this issue, and not allowing knee-jerk reactionaries to win the day.

The world will not end because there are wires along this red line.

American River Taxi, the soon-to-be Potomac river ferry service, has a fancy new web site that provides proposed schedules and hours of operation. I’m sure BeyondDC is not alone in looking forward to this fun new form of transportation for the region.

But about that acronym, ART. Very clever, but already taken by the local bus operation serving the western bank of the Potomac River.

Did ART talk to ART before deciding on a name? Does ART even know that ART exists? Does ART have a copyright that will cause ART trouble? Will riders have to specify which ART they want when asking for directions or looking up information online?

I’m all for new transit options, but come on. When you’re a start-up company looking to get a foot-hold on a new market, do some research into what’s already there.

As expected, Northrop Grumman choose a suburban office park for its new corporate headquarters, rather than a Metro-friendly location. At least all their employees used to Los Angeles traffic will feel right at home.

This is the building they choose, right off Route 50 in Fairfax County:

Truly a paradise.
Aerial image from Bing Maps.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.

A VRE train. Most things are the same.

VRE has officially changed operators. Today marked the first day of service run by a company called Keolis, rather than by historic operator Amtrak. The change in contractor saves VRE money.

For this first week of Keolis service, everything is the same as it was under Amtrak, but starting next week there will be some changes.

The most noteworthy change is that since Amtrak no longer runs VRE, VRE tickets will no longer be accepted on Amtrak trains (correction: only applies to certain Amtrak trains – see comments for more details). Amtrak will still run its Virginia intercity trains of course, and will continue to stop at the same stations, but you’ll need an actual Amtrak ticket to ride. One new VRE train is being added to the Fredericksburg line to compensate, but it’s still a loss.

Otherwise, the changes are fairly minor. Several train schedules are being shifted between 1-5 minutes, and several Fredericksburg trains are being re-numbered.

Initial bike-share locations in Arlington.

Arlington’s County-sponsored transportation blog CommuterPageBlog published yesterday the likely specific locations for the 14 bike-sharing stations that will be Arlington’s initial portion of the new regional bike-sharing system. The 14 stations will be located in and around Crystal City.

The first stations in the shared DC / Arlington program are due to open by September, so presumably more information will be released in the coming weeks. CommuterPageBlog and The Bike-Sharing Blog are always good sources of information on the roll-out.

Given the post earlier this week about Washington’s unbuilt highways, I thought it would be interesting to republish this discussion of mid-century urban renewal from the Adams Morgan Heritage Trail Booklet. The booklet is available free to download from Cultural Tourism DC, and is similar to the historic marker on the sidewalk in Adams Morgan.

Click the image to download the booklet in pdf form.