Category: Transportation
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An Electrifying Plan for Shockoe Bottom
by James A. Bacon Mayor Dwight C. Jones unveiled this morning a $200 million public-private project to build a new baseball stadium and spark revitalization of a neglected corner of Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom district. The project includes 750 apartments, a Kroger grocery store, a 200-room Hyatt Hotel, a parking deck and a slavery memorial. The…
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Bicycle Wars
by James A. Bacon The bicycle wars are coming to Virginia as cyclists literally fight to take back the streets. For decades the issue was settled — the streets belonged to automobiles, with pedestrians confined to sidewalks as second-class citizens. Bicycles didn’t figure into street design at all. But those days are over as increasingly…
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Whither McAuliffe on the Bi-County Parkway?
Over at the D.C. Streets Blog, Katie Pierce asks whether Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe will give thumbs up or thumbs down to the Bi-County Parkway. The answer: Nobody knows. (She quoted me in the article but I didn’t shed much light.) Still, it’s interesting that D.C. Streets, a pro-smart growth publication with a focus on Washington’s…
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GOP Road Kill
Among the more interesting election results from Wednesday, Democrats trounced three Republican candidates for Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. The county split close to even in the gubernatorial and lieutenant governor’s races, indicating that the Democrats sweeping to power in the board of supervisors rode were not riding on Terry McAuliffe’s coattails. The vote was…
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How Will McAuliffe Govern?
by James A. Bacon Terry McAuliffe, the governor-elect of Virginia, has a tough job ahead of him. Democrats picked up only one seat in the House of Delegates, leaving Republicans with 66 seats, or a veto-proof majority. Most likely, he will have to work with a Republican, Mark Obenshain, in the attorney general’s office. He…
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Why Conservatives Hate Smart Growth
by James A. Bacon Last week I attended the annual meeting of the American Dream Coalition in Washington, D.C., which hosted some of the leading conservative and free-market thinkers in the fields of transportation, land use and urbanism. These are people with whom I normally feel a philosophical affinity. But there was one thing I…
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More Awesomeness in Richmond
Another reason I love my home town: Richmond has 40 miles of world-class single-track bicycle trails. I’ve been on a few of them, although, I do confess, I don’t ride nearly as fast as the two guys in this short video! (Nor can I do the neat wheelie tricks up and down stairs.) What I…
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The Road to Wealth Destruction Revisited
There’s an interesting new wrinkle in the never-ending debate over the Charlottesville Bypass, a project that has been stalled for a year or more while the Federal Highway Administration figures out whether to approve the project or send the Virginia Department of Transportation back to the drawing board, effectively nixing it. A real estate agent…
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Will Wetlands Controversy Swamp the Commonwealth Connector?
The Virginia Department of Transportation has spent $192 million on design and other work on the U.S. 460 Connector but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has yet to give a permit for the project, which would destroy an estimated 480 acres of wetlands. VDOT officials quoted by the Virginian-Pilot‘s Dave Foster say work is…
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The Tallest Bridges in Virginia
The tallest bridges in Virginia are now under construction in Buchanan County at the Kentucky border. The project, known as the Route 460 Connector Phase 1, entails the construction of twin, 1,700-feet-long bridges spanning Grassy Creek. The bridges will stand 250 feet tall upon completion in the summer of 2015, according to the Virginia Department…
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Fiscal and Economic Benefits of Smart Growth
This “Meet the Experts” interview, filmed by Smart Growth America, dates back to the New Partners for Smart Growth conference early this year. But the themes are enduring. I make the case for smart growth as a strategy for lower-cost growth and economic development. — JAB
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Subsidies As Usual for Mass Transit?
by James A. Bacon Glen Bottoms, executive director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation (ACCPT), takes exception to my recent post, “Eviscerating Rail Transit.” Although he doesn’t budge me from my main conclusion — that we need to stop building rail transit projects that cannot pay for themselves — he raises a number…
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The Megabus Disruption
James A. Bacon In 2006 the Megabus inter-city bus line opened its Chicago hub serving a handful of Midwestern cities. Today the company has 300 buses operating in 100 cities across the United States and Canada. Not only does the bus line now serve millions of riders annually, the so-called “Megabus effect” has inspired numerous…
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Eviscerating Rail Transit
by James A. Bacon Art Guzzetti, public policy director for the American Public Transportation Association, gamely walked into the lion’s den Sunday evening when participating in a debate at the American Dream Coalition annual conference attended by fiscal conservatives and free marketeers from around the country. He was the consummate gentleman, he never lost his…
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MWAA Gets Its Kicks on Route 606
by James A. Bacon Construction of the “Dulles Loop,” 18 miles of high-capacity roadway around Washington Dulles International Airport, will take a big step forward with the recently announced $106 million widening of Rt. 606 along the airport’s western edge. Financing will come from multiple sources, including $40.5 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation,…