Category: Transportation
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Time for Some Tactical Suburbanism
by James A. Bacon Tactical urbanism is the term used to describe small, inexpensive, often temporary, urban improvements that make life more colorful, fun or livable. They include such things as guerilla gardening, parklets, pavement to parks, pop-up retail, pavement-to-plaza, de-paving and chair bombing (the latter would be the creation of public seating, not the…
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No Easy Answers for NoVa’s I-95 Corridor
Traffic flow in the Interstate 95 corridor in Northern Virginia has improved since completion of the “Mixing Bowl” project (at the intersection with the Interstate 495 Capital Beltway) and travelers could see even more improvements when the I-95 express lane projects open for service. But several sections of I-95 still will operate at failing levels…
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A Closer Look at Virginia Auto Ownership Patterns
Last week I published maps produced by the Vizual Statistix blog showing the breakdown of car ownership per household across the United States. Virginia appeared as the only East Coast hot spot on the map, with exceptionally high rates of automobile ownership compared to other states. Only limited conclusions could be drawn, I lamented, because…
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Can McAuliffe Thread the U.S. 460 Needle?
Will Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe reverse one of the biggest legacies of the McDonnell administration, construction of the new U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk? The $1.4-billion, Interstate-grade highway, upon which the McDonnell administration has already lavished $200 million, has cleared all significant hurdles but one: approval by the Army Corps of Engineers. But the project…
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Exposing the Black Friday Parking Myth
by James A. Bacon The Strong Towns blog has published a brilliant piece of crowd-sourced content on the topic of Black Friday parking. Here’s the issue: Smart Growth advocates are highly critical of local government regulations that mandate a minimum number of parking spaces around retail establishments. The resulting expanses of parking lots, they say,…
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Map of the Day: Cars Per Household
What is the most car-loving location east of the Mississippi? You guessed it — this is a Virginia blog, so I wouldn’t have brought it up if the answer weren’t the Old Dominion. The Vizual Statistix blog mapped the average number of vehicles per household for each county (and in Virginia, independent city) and, not…
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Tysons’ Parking Quandary
by James A. Bacon As the first phase of the Rail-to-Dulles Metro line nears opening day, potential riders are asking a basic question: How will they get to the Metro stations? Tysons, the location of four of the five new rail-transit stations, has not geared up to provide new parking. But the higher-density, mixed-use, pedestrian…
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What Are Those Dag Nabbed Old Folks Doing Now?
Virginia typically ranks well in lists of top states for retirees, observes Hamilton Lombard at the StatChat blog, but more 65- to 74-year-olds left the state than moved in over the past decade. As for the college towns that are reputed to be such great retirement magnets, Blacksburg and Charlottesville haven’t seen much of an…
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The Zimmerman Telegram
Chris Zimmerman’s message upon leaving the Arlington County Board for Smart Growth America: Smart Growth is good for economic development, and other localities can benefit by Arlington’s example.
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Investors Take their Licks from Toll Road Projects
by James A. Bacon Private investors have pumped about $27 billion into toll-road deals in the United States since 2003, estimates the Wall Street Journal in an article today. Many of them have gone bust. The root problem: Not enough drivers. During the go-go years of the 2000s when traffic counts were soaring and real estate…
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Brace Yourself for the Internet of Things
by James A. Bacon The “Internet of Things” is one of the hottest buzz words in the global technology sector today. The phrase refers to a phenomenon, the mass proliferation of Internet-connected devices, that is as world-altering as the invention of the personal computer and the rise of the World Wide Web. Economy and society…
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Virginia Congestion-Rating Methodology in the Works
by James A. Bacon In 2012 the General Assembly passed a bill sponsored by Del. James L. LeMunyon, R-Chantilly, that called for rating significant transportation projects on their ability to reduce congestion. The idea promptly disappeared into the labyrinth of Virginia’s transportation bureaucracy. At the time, the issue seemed academic — the commonwealth was fast…
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Smart Cities around the World Are Saving Money Now. How about Your Home Town?
by James A. Bacon Suggested reading for every elected official, senior administrator and department head in Virginia government: “Smart Cities Readiness Guide” published by the Smart Cities Council. This easy-to-read document walks government practitioners (and interested citizens) through the process of using sensor, communications and analytic technologies to collect, communicate and crunch data. Proven smart…
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Second Thoughts on the Shockoe Bottom Baseball Plan
by James A. Bacon I should have known: Mayor Dwight Jones’ plan to build a new baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom was too good to be true. Two days ago, I posted a generally up-beat appraisal of the proposal on the grounds that it would generate up to $187 million over 20 years while costing the…
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An Updated Metric for Housing-Transportation Affordability
by James A. Bacon One of the most important insights of the Smart Growth movement is that the household costs of housing and transportation are intertwined. You can buy a less expensive house if you are willing to live far from the urban core with its more desirable location and higher property values. But you…