Over the weekend the Wall Street Journal published an article about a recent study showing that more roads cause more traffic rather than reducing congestion, as intended. The study isn’t really news, considering several others have already shown the same thing. It’s called induced demand, and it’s a pretty well-understood phenomenon at this point.

Naturally some people have missed the memo, such as suburban politicians who wrongly equate road-building with “congestion reduction”.

Click the image below to view in glorious full size the Helpful Guide to Picking Up Urban Planners, because between all those public meetings we need lots of lovin’. Sweet, sweet, lovin’.

Thanks to Irish Breakfast for the lulz.

This is Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, patron saint to urbanism, and icon to those who hope for better cities.

I ran across this picture hanging on the wall at the Council of Governments building. It shows a “Capital Flyer” commuter bus from the late 60s or possibly early 70s in front of a big building with a Sears sign. Southwest Mall, maybe? I’m not sure. Interesting, in any event.

Transitways don’t have to be ugly. They don’t even have to be paved. There are many examples around the world of grass-track transitways for light rail or BRT, and a lot of local interest in using them here. Maryland is actively considering grass tracks for the Purple Line, and the idea could theoretically be applied to the Corridor Cities and Crystal City transitways as well.

Since apparently some of the opposition to transit in King Farm is based on the absolutely incorrect misconception that all transitways must consist of massive concrete barriers, here are examples of grass transitways from around the world.

New Orleans, LA – By tinydr	Fort Collins, CO – By BeyondDC
Kenosha, WI – By kschmidt626	Concept for Purple Line – By State of Maryland
Porto, Portugal – By gradiate	Paris, France – By collilnchurcher2003
Strasbourg, France – By GEO.Hellas	Barcelona, Spain – By Daniel Sparing

Even BRT can be accommodated in a grass transitway, as Eugene, Oregon’s Emerald Express illustrates:

Eugene, OR BRT – By City of Alexandria, VA

Eugene, OR BRT – By rob_wrenn

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.
 
 
 

This was the scene at the Bike to Work Day pit stop in Farragut Square around 9:00 am.

Did you participate? How did it go?

King Farm Blvd and its extra-wide median, designed and built specifically to accommodate a transitway.

If the Corridor Cities Transitway is built, it will be built along the King Farm Boulevard alignment that has been planned for decades, despite opposition from the Rockville City Council.

The King Farm neighborhood of Rockville was designed and built in the 1990s, specifically with the intention that a future Corridor Cities Transitway extending west from Shady Grove Metro station would serve as the spine of the community. King Farm Boulevard, the neighborhood’s main street, was intended to be the alignment of that transitway, and was constructed with a wide grassy median to accommodate it. For 16 years the City of Rockville steadfastly supported and planned around having the Corridor Cities Transitway in King Farm.

Then in January of 2011 a small number of neighborhood activists complained, and the City Council reversed years of planning to request that Maryland reroute the transitway outside of King Farm.

In April, the State of Maryland responded. Rockville has its answer, and it’s a resounding ‘no way’.

According to Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley, any realignment outside of King Farm would increase costs, reduce ridership, lengthen trip times for riders, and would not meet Federal Transit Administration regulations. Swaim-Staley puts simply: “A King Farm Boulevard option is the most reasonable and effective for the project.”

Good work, MTA, for following through with a good decision and not bowing to a truly ridiculous example of anti-transit paranoia.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.
 
 
 

Man in a suit on a bike. Photo from Copenhagen Cycle Chic.

Bike to Work Day is Friday, and in honor of the event today’s Express has a nice spread about how you don’t need to wear spandex to ride a bike. That’s correct. But then they go on to list a bunch of specialty products you can buy to look stylish while cycling, which sort of misses the point of the skip-spandex ideology.

I’m sure the products Express lists are wonderful and stylish and even potentially useful, but the whole point of skipping spandex is that bicycling doesn’t require specialty products at all. Bikes are a form of transportation just like buses and taxicabs, and just like buses and taxicabs you don’t need to do or own anything special in order to use one. Just hop on and go.

So good try, Express. I appreciate that you’re halfway there (and I appreciate that a free paper has to make money through advertising). But the most stylish way to bike to work is in your regular clothes.

Greater Greater Washington’s contest to design a new Metro map is officially underway. There are 17 maps to view and vote for, including one from BeyondDC. You can go to GGW and choose your favorites from now until Friday night.

In order to keep voting based purely on map quality, I won’t say which submission is mine until later, nor will I say which others I think are the best. I will say that I think three maps stand out as particularly good.

Comments about the map contest should go to GGW, but if you want to try and guess which submission is mine, anyone who correctly identifies it in the comments here at BeyondDC will win… um… nothing. But it might be fun.