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    Maryland adopts a new license plate

    MD's existing plate
    Old and busted.

    The new design
    New hotness?

    Photo of existing plate from StateSymbolsUSA. New plate image courtesy MD MVA.

    Starting today Maryland has a new basic license plate. People registering cars in the state will from now on receive the red and blue 1812 design (bottom right), rather than the now-retired black and white design (top right).

    The bad news is whoa that’s an ugly license plate. The clip-art look wasn’t cool in the 90s and certainly isn’t cool now, and the best thing that can be said about that font is at least it’s not comic sans. The feedback in Dr. Gridlock’s poll on the subject is almost universally negative.

    The good news is that hey, it’s only a license plate. What does it really matter? Also, in 5 years the state will retire this design and start over. Apparently they’re just doing it to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, and will cease issuing the plates in 2015.

    My advice to the Motor Vehicle Administration: Bring back the person who designed the original Chesapeake Bay plate. Now that was an attractive piece of metal.

    June 14th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: transportation



    Should East Falls Church have a waterfront?

    As Arlington County prepares a redevelopment plan for East Falls Church, the City of Falls Church is considering its own options. One possibility is to use Four Mile Run as the centerpiece of an East Falls Church Waterfront District.

    Yes that’s right, a waterfront district. Falls Church may be 6 miles from the Potomac, but why let that stop them?

    The waterfront plan was prepared by Virginia Tech students as an academic exercise, but the idea so intrigued Falls Church city leaders that they are seriously considering it as a vision for future planning.

    The idea is to redevelop the low-density industrial block between West Jefferson Street and Four Mile Run (see map) as a series of mid-rise mixed-use buildings, with a park along the side of the creek.

    rendering of potential redevelopment
    Rendering of a possible East Falls Church waterfront at Four Mile Run

    In truth, it will take years for the City of agree to a plan, convince the landowners, find a developer, get financing, and construct the project. This is an idea, not an action proposal. But it’s a really good idea that seems to have legs. It meshes well with other likely redevelopment around the East Falls Church Metro, and could in the long term be a real winner.

    It’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

     Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.


    June 11th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: master planning, proposal



    Glover Park to talk streetcars

    Glover Park ANC 3B will be taking up a resolution supporting streetcars at its meeting tonight. Local residents may find the meeting interesting, and may want to consider speaking in support.

    June 10th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: events, transportation



    ‘Streetcars vs. homeless’ is a false dilemma

    click to enlarge

    In a post at the Washington Post Local Blogging Network, I discuss why it is foolish to suggest that the District should divert money from infrastructure to social services, because infrastructure is an investment that pays off in terms of economic development, which in turn simultaneously reduces the need for social services while providing the city with the money it needs to pay for them.

    June 9th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: economy, social, transportation, washpostblog



    It’s ‘Capital Bikeshare’ after all

    DDOT has announced via twitter and facebook that the new 1,100 bike regional bike-sharing system will be named “Capital Bikeshare”.

    The announcement follows a survey and call for suggestions that generated tremendous public response.

    The decision to go with “Capital Bikeshare” is a safe bet for DDOT. It’s not the cutest or the funniest suggestion, but it won’t offend anybody, and it will be easy to market.

    Assuming all goes as planned, the bikes will look like this (courtesy DDOT). I’m definitely picking up a Circulator vibe.

    June 9th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: transportation



    We’ll all just move to Denver*

    Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says he will vote against the climate bill he helped to write, which dramatically reduces the likelihood that Congress will be able to pass a bill to, y’know, avert global catastrophe. Ain’t partisanship super?

    In honor of Mr. Graham’s decision to give the finger to future generations, here are some images from geology.com’s sea level rise mapper. At least we’ll know who gets screwed over the most.

    Climate scientists have so far pegged likely sea rise over the next century at somewhere between one and two meters. Here’s what a two meter rise would do to DC:

    2 meter sea rise map, Washington, DC

    That’s not so bad. East Potomac Park is gone, some Pentagon parking lots go under, and the White House gets a reflecting pool. Hardly worth paying more for gas.

    Here’s New York (left) and Ocean City (right):

    2 meter sea rise map, New York 2 meter sea rise map, Ocean City, MD

    Except for some flooding around the Battery, Manhattan survives. Jersey’s Meadowlands become Meadow Bay, however, and all that’s left of Ocean City is Coastal Highway. Totally the best part.

    Now New Orleans and The Netherlands:

    2 meter sea rise map, New Orleans 2 meter sea rise map, Netherlands

    Well, nobody likes them anyway.

    But hey, that 2-meters-in-a-century assumption is based on the slow gradual model of climate change. If something big happens, like say the Greenland ice sheet melts, we’re looking at more like a 7 meter rise. Here’s what that does to DC:

    7 meter sea rise map, Washington, DC

    Goodbye, Southwest. Maybe we’ll get a water polo team to play in the Nationals stadium.

    New York and Florida:

    7 meter sea rise map, New York 7 meter sea rise map, Florida

    Manhattan loses a few blocks on either side, but the outer boroughs really suffer. Fort Myers and Naples are gone, but it’s kind of cool that Lake Okeechobee is a bay.

    Hopefully you don’t know any of the 40 million people who call the Nile Delta home:

    7 meter sea rise map, Egypt

    But you know, that’s awfully unrealistic. 7 meters from Greenland? Come on. Everybody knows that if Greenland goes, there’s a good chance West Antarctica could go too. That’s more like 12 meters. Here’s 12 meters of new Potomac:

    12 meter sea rise map, Washington, DC

    :shrug: Sorry, Alexandria.

    New York and Northern California:

    12 meter sea rise map, New York 12 meter sea rise map, Northern California

    Manhattan’s rapidly losing ground now, and Brooklyn is about as big as Manhattan used to be. Most of the City of San Francisco survives, but all its suburbs are gone and Sacramento is at the bottom of a new sea.

    Hope nobody is too attached to central London:

    12 meter sea rise map, London

    And you know what, if you’re one of the 160 million people in Bangladesh then you have only yourself to blame:

    12 meter sea rise map, Bangladesh

    You can recreate all these maps at geology.com. It’s fun! Sort of like disaster mode on SimCity, except it’s the real world!

    * Note that if this happens, Denver will be a desert. You wouldn’t want to live there either.

    June 8th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: environment, featured post



    * Not applicable in the Gulf of Mexico

    I assume this is a real picture. It came to me as a lulzy email.


    sorry, no enlarging

    June 8th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: environment, fun



    Side-by-side comparison of PA Ave bike lane plans

    I had been planning to write about the new design of the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes, but Greater Greater Washington beat me to the punch. That’s OK. Instead of duplicating GGW’s lengthy review, I’ll just toss up the graphic I’d been working on, which illustrates the differences between the plans.

    click to enlarge
    Same location. Old plans on the left, new plans on the right. Click the image for a bigger version.

    The two images show the same location. The horizontal street is Pennsylvania Avenue and the vertical one is 6th Street, NW. Note that in the new plans, the bike lanes replace the median rather than run on either side adjacent to it, which allows westbound Pennsylvania Avenue to retain all four of its auto lanes.

    Of course this is just one location, but it’s illustrative.

    June 8th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: transportation, urbandesign



    Architecture isn’t art

    The architect who designed the original signage for Metrorail’s famous vaulted subway stations is apparently upset that newer signs intrude upon his artistic vision. Architect Massimo Vignelli considers the station name signs hanging from the vault walls to be visual pollution that degrade the vaulted sculptural masterpieces. “Get rid of it”, he says in regards to the offending signs, as well as almost all advertising.

    Vignelli seems to have fallen into a classic trap of modern architects: He think he’s an artist. This is a big problem, because architects aren’t artists, they’re artisans. Artists are charged with creating unconstrained beauty, while artisans are charged with making functional things beautiful. Art is a part of architecture, of course, but architecture has real constraints based on actual programmatic, functional needs of habitation and urbanism. It’s much, much more than art. So-called architects who aren’t adequately taking those needs into consideration aren’t doing their jobs.

    Gee Massimo, sorry real life intruded upon your artistic sensibilities. Maybe in the future if you’re so concerned with sculpture and so unconcerned with functionality, you should give up on architecture and focus on, you know, sculpture.

    A tangent thought: Putting aside the functional necessity to know what station you’re at (facepalm), I have purely aesthetic gripes with Vignelli’s design. I do think that Metro stations are indeed geometrically beautiful, but they’re also so dreadfully under-lit and desaturated of color that signs and advertising actually make them more interesting. I love it when one of the rare ad-wrapped railcars rolls through, because finally there’s some color to look at.

    June 7th, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: architecture, transportation



    Everybody has transit fever

    click to enlarge

    With all the talk about the Silver and Purple lines, streetcars, and all the other exciting transit projects in the works around DC, it’s clear that we are in the midst of a major infrastructure investment. As I explain in today’s post at the Washington Post Local Blogging Network, that trend extends to the Mid-Atlantic region and all across America, with major new transit investments under way in cities such as Phoenix, Honolulu and Houston.

    June 3rd, 2010 | Permalink | |
    Tags: The New America, transportation, washpostblog



    Features
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    Transit Vision: BeyondDC's plan for regional transit expansion
    Streetcars vs Buses: Why streetcars are better
    Renamed Metro Stations: No bloody slashes, dashes or unnecessary acronyms

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