Sneak Peek at Imagine, DC Transit Vision

Further explanation forthcoming, but at the GGW meet-up in Silver Spring tonight, a couple folks asked me about it, so here it is

What is on it?

-Potential extension of existing and under construction Metro Lines (including Silver), separated from each other to maximize capacity
-Two Metro Light Rail lines, the Purple Line (proposed) and the Black or "Columbia" Line (which hits Columbia Pike in MoCo, Columbia Heights, and Columbia Pike in VA)
-A vision for DC streetcars (red), Ride-On streetcars (light blue), streetcars for municipalities in Prince George's (various blues and purples), ART/DART (light green) and Fairfax Connector (white)
-Southern Maryland Area Rail Transport (SMART light rail, in yellow)

What's not on here yet:
-Corridor Cities Transitway
-MARC/VRE
-Baltimore Transit
-A "Pink Line" heavy rail inner loop
-A "Brown Line" crosstown light rail

I probably won't add these, it doesn't mean I don't think we should have them:
-Tram/Streetcar stations
-Intercity/HSR/MagLev
-Rapid/express bus (vision supplants most of this with rail anyway)
-Redevelopment and suburban ruralization that would ideally accompany this sort of plan
-Bicycle facilities (not my wheelhouse... yet)
-New/changed/removed freeways, parkways, and interchanges, as well as newly tolled roads

Here's a disclaimer: I am not under the delusion that this vision is feasible, politically expedient, affordable, cost effective, or in any other way possible. But I imagine it would be able to quickly and safely transport most of the area's growing population after gas prices breach the threshold of affordability.












Sorry I am currently incapable of putting together a beautiful graphic like many of my fellow transit nerds at BeyondDC, Track Twenty-Nine, or Greater Greater Washington, but hopefully the arrangement I have thrown together on GoogleMaps will  give people an idea of what I'm going for here.

Imagine a streetcar on Alabama Avenue

When DDOT unveiled its Streetcar vision in October, I was little disappointed by the amount of service in River East. Indeed, the area's reputation has been mired in negativity for quite some time, which has lead to, for better or worse, a very different kind of land and economic development in Wards 7 and 8. This is evident in the distribution of services proposed by DDOT.

River East has experienced a great deal of suburban style development. Wickedly suburban. Affordable housing is often not accessible to the six Metro stations that serve this third of the city. Isolated affordable housing can often turn out to be frighteningly similar to ill-fated housing projects. Requiring people of lower income to rely on automobile transport greatly increases their cost of living, further exacerbating the poverty. But shiny new developments in River East, for all their efforts at civic improvement, are still focused around the automobile.

What really disappointed me about DDOT's plan is that all the streetcar lines appear to run THROUGH River East. Along the Anacostia River, perhaps, but they fail to connect many of the neighborhoods to the system, including several that are not very accessible to Metro. This plan would lead me to infer that Congress Heights and Fairlawn are and will be for the foreseeable future dependent on the rest of the city to be a viable place to live. The lines connect River East to the rest of the city, but they don't connect River East to River East. Not as much as it could, at least.

With DC's population rocketing past 600,000 and developers running out of "River West" real estate to develop, Benning, Deanwood, Anacostia, Washington Highlands, Hillcrest, Fort Dupont, and the rest of River East's many neighborhoods will becoming increasingly attractive for development. But the same type of dense, walkable, transit-oriented, traditional neighborhood design is not possible if River East goes as underserved by streetcar as it is by Metro (6 stations versus 31 in the rest of DC and not transfer stations). So I conceived a line that would make it feasible to live in Congress Heights and work in Capitol Heights without taking Metro all the way to L'Enfant Plaza first. I give you a proposal for a ninth streetcar line, the Alabama Avenue line:


View River East Streetcars in a larger map

Blue indicates lines laid out in the DDOT plan, purple indicates possible future streetcar extension laid out in the plan, and red is the Alabama Avenue line. Obviously, significant portions of the line also run along Southern Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue. It connects prominent neighborhoods to Metro stations and other streetcar lines. It puts more of the rail transit infrastructure within walking distance for District residents who will benefit most from its service and economic development. It is intended to interact with the neighborhoods as places where a significant portion of the District now lives and could potentially work in the future.

Where the city will ultimately have a streetcar network, River East will only have lines. The Alabama Avenue line would create a network that would compliment the existing Metro stations and the already-planned streetcar lines. It may not generate enormous ridership projections right now, but it would certainly draw more walkable urban development to Alabama Avenue and the other proposed corridors. We plan roads in anticipation of future development. Why can't we make that same investment with our streetcar network?

Cross-posted on Imagine, DC

Core Capacity & Freemark's Pink Line

The Transport Politic often showcases unique and clever transit solutions visualized by the site's author, Yonah Freemark. Recently he looked into the WMATA system and made an interesting proposal: a separated Blue Line, and running along it, another investment, a so-called Pink Line. Though Freemark's plan would add invaluable capacity and connectivity to our system, I believe a similar vision could be achieved without building another costly Potomac Crossing. That's not to say we shouldn't, but perhaps a closer term solution might look more like this:


View Pink Line in a larger map

The existing Potomac crossing where the Yellow Line connects Downtown and Pentagon City is underutilized and ought to have it's capacity increased before another crossing is built. This alternative combines the cross-Arlington connectivity that Freemark envisions without the circuitous route back through Rosslyn. This investment could be increased even more if the Green and Yellow Lines could be separated downtown, which might prove cheaper than the Blue Line separation. Another advantage would be that this line could just be an extension of the Silver Line, which would eliminate the need for a new line color.

New track miles are most valuable in the core. Unfortunately, they're also generally the most expensive new track miles. But the benefits to the entire region are huge across the entire system, making it a worthwhile investment. And it's about time we started considering "the rest of Arlington" more a part of the core.

Imagine the Beltway at New Hampshire Avenue

The Beltway is a dangerous road full of daunting lane shifts and bottlenecks that bring the ire of even the most seasoned drivers. The area around its junction with I-95 receives a lot of attention, but the problems on its northern counterpart often go ignored.

Westbound 495/95 is four lanes until the interchange with US-1. Both ramps from US-1 to The Beltway create additional westbound lanes, making it six lanes wide at the 95/495 split. Four lanes continue westbound. The ramps from Southbound 1-95 swell the roadway back to six westbound lanes. One lane splits off as an exit for northbound New Hampshire Avenue. A flyover ramp replaces it, creating a weave-style merge for cars entering the westbound Beltway from NH northbound and exiting the Beltway southbound. After the interchange, the highway quickly bottlenecks from 6 lanes back to four. Sound confusing? Try diving it.

A driver who wants to exit the Beltway at New Hampshire Avenue northbound must cross two lanes of traffic even if they were in the far right lane before the I-95 merger. For drivers wishing to head southbound on New Hampshire, they must still cross an extra lane of traffic and then contend with merging across the cars entering the Beltway.


View NH Av Interchange in a larger map

My idea would be to remove one westbound lane where northbound 1-95 splits off to the north, making the stretch between northbound I-95 and southbound I-95 three lanes. When the two southbound lanes join the Beltway, it will be five lanes wide.

Next, remove the exit to southbound New Hampshire Avenue, eliminating a dangerous merge area. Instead, direct that traffic down the northbound exit to a left turn, much like the Georgia Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, and University Boulevard exits off the westbound Beltway. The intersection at the end of the northbound exit is already signaled, it would only need provisions for left turning (southbound) vehicles.

In addition to making this interchange safer for Beltway drivers, it creates a safer environment for pedestrians on New Hampshire Avenue. Not by much, but it would be a start. But just for kicks, I threw in a small street grid, in hopes that Hillandale may one day be a little more pedestrian friendly. They already have a LEED Gold building, perhaps more positive change is on the way.

Imagine a Better Rail Link to Frederick

I have always hated Interstate 270. Always. It is a little confusing with the local and HOV lanes. It is much, much wider than it ought to be, creating huge bottlenecks in northern Montgomery County and at the Beltway. It is preposterously ugly, unbearably congested, and I feel particularly unsafe driving it. It is, in my humble opinion, very poorly planned. The last thing we need is more of it. But that is what they want to give us.

Lots of people travel this corridor in both directions every day. Frederick County has a population of a quarter million and growing. The Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick corridor has a population encroaching on five times that number, or roughly 20% of the Metropolitan area population. Downtown DC and Frederick are about 40 miles apart from each other. So this is a long corridor with a lot of people on it. A transportation solution must be found.

Obviously MARC's Brunswick Line is not getting it done. Its circuitous route through Brunswick adds several additional miles to the trip. Stops at small stations like Garrett Park, Washington Grove, Boyds, Barnesville, and Dickerson. Only 7000 people are riding this line daily (warning: pdf), and it is pushing its capacity. Even MARC's 2035 plan (pdf) only raise the capacity 26,000 per day (pdf). Meanwhile, between 75,000 and 108,000 vehicles clog I-270 every day. Imagine if we were talking about a solution that was faster than an expanded freeway or an improved MARC.

Widening I-270 is a colossal failure of an idea. Creating a bigger bottleneck at the Beltway for commuters from Frederick is just going to increase the number of cars that will sit on the parking lot that is 270 southbound in the morning. Here is my vision for a rail solution:


View Frederick Line in a larger map

If local transit (light rail, buses, etc.) ferried these commuters to a few stations, the trains could make fewer stops and travel at higher speeds. A system like this, I envision an average speed of 90 mph. Eight stops along the way, that's it. Stops at major transit centers and major suburbs along I-270.

There is nothing on the books for a direct high speed service between DC and Frederick. There are plenty of other transit priorities at this time. And I understand that some people have no choice but to drive to their jobs. I am one of them. But I live six miles from my job. If I am going to subsidize someone else's extra-long commute, I want to do it with a system that will work, not one that will only increase the number of cars that are wasting fuel while sitting idly on a congested freeway.

Imagine A Seperate Green and Yellow Line

Naturally, there has been much written about the terrible Metro crash on the Red Line earlier this week. Had this been a nasty pile-up on the Beltway, we might have heard about it by by this point, we probably would have stopped talking about it by now, and it certainly never would have been international news. It is out of the ordinary, tragic, and was a failure of public infrastructure, unlike traffic accidents, which are usually the failures of individual drivers (we'll forgo the argument that fault may lie in road design). The fact that service disruptions continue on the Red Line is another reminder of this horrible accident. After all, these disruptions have a far greater impact on Metro than a bad traffic accident has on area highways.

If there is an accident on US-29 in Montgomery County, I can drive on Georgia or New Hampshire Avenues. But the stations that were shut down the past couple days isolated eastern Montgomery County from the rest of the Metro System. Originally, I tinkered with a map showing a separated Yellow Line for the sake of greater capacity and more geographic coverage for the Metro System. This week's accident has shown that adding redundancy to the system can be just as valuable as adding capacity.

Realizing the need for more redundancy on the system in the wake of this tragic crash is not an original idea. The Purple Line would obviously create alternate routes throughout the system. The Purple Line is both necessary and long overdue, however separating the Yellow and Green Lines would add capacity to existing track, much like separating the Blue and Orange Lines. In the case of the Yellow Line, it would allow for increased capacity on its Potomac River Bridge. If separated, the entire Green Line and the Yellow Line north of Pentagon would have the same capacity as the Red Line.

Here's what I would do with a separate Yellow Line:


View Separate Yellow Line in a larger map

This alignment is not 100% original either. Bringing Metro to North Capitol Street and Georgia Avenue is in no way a new idea. In these cases, however, people seem to want it for the geographic coverage, and not the additional capacity or system redundancy. Coverage is good, it brings transit to a new area. Capacity and redundancy, however, improve the entire system.

Perhaps I added a few too many stations, but they are just suggestions. While this would add service to the North Capitol Street and Georgia Avenue corridors, it would add redundancy to both the Green and Red Lines via Silver Spring, Georgia Av/Petworth, Union Station, and L'Enfant Plaza.

If this line existed already, the station closures on the Red Line might only have meant an additional transfer for Montgomery County commuters instead of the shuttle services to which Metro resorted after the crash.

Imagine Grosvenor

I have often heard the question as to why Montgomery County's western Red Line has not enjoyed the vibrant urbanism or Arlington's Orange Line. There are several reasons for this, of course. The Red Line's stations are much further apart and further from the downtown core. MD-355 does not have the supporting road network that Wilson Boulevard enjoys. MD-355 also has several obstacles to maintaining urban continuity, such as the Georgetown Preparatory School campus, The Naval Medical Center, Rock Creek Park, and the Beltway.

But the constant comparisons between the two areas have perhaps driven Montgomery County to try to live up to the Orange Line. The White Flint plan has been taking effect in recent months, complimenting the 2007 completion of Rockville Town Square. But these two developments are islandscompared to the continuous row of urbanism in Arlington. It will be difficult to fill in the gaps, as the Red Line's stations are further apart, but it can be done.

Which brings me to Grosvenor, at the southern end or Rockville Pike. It is an important station, as it is the western terminus for half of the Red Line's rush hour trains, and thus recieves more service than any station to the north. It serves Strathmore Hall, MoCo's prominent center for the performing arts. But don't expect to get dinner nearby the idyllic odieum, there is nowhere to eat in walking distance. In fact, apart from some town houses, some apartments that would make LeCorbusier hot and bothered, and a couple of huge private school campuses, there isn't much near Grosvenor station. There is, however, ample space.

The Georgetown Prep campus (one of the oldest in America) is a solid obstacle against integrating TOD around Grosvenor to the planned urban fabric of White Flint, but it could grow them much closer together, and make Grosvenor a bit more of a desination stop. Surface parking replaced with parking garages, a more continuous street grid, and a couple bistros near Strathmore Hall might make this possible. It could also make the Metro station more accessible to the nearby Garret Park community. As it stands, several nearby amenities in walking distance are inacessible to pedestrians because of the overt suburban design of the area. not the least of these amenities are the two high schools practically touching the station.

Here is what I imagine for a road network that would support this sort of development in Grosvenor:


View Larger Map

Unfortunately, I presume that the station's location at a major interstate junction (I-270 and I-495) would be expected to have enormous parking requirements. Given the affluence of the area, however, I wonder if this parking could be consolidated into garages so that a walkable development could emerge. I also fear that this would be nearly impossible to accomplish without the destruction of a lot of housing stock, primarily because of the wasteful land use of the existing developments, which are laid out with the towers-in-the-park mindset. Unfortunately, the "park" in towers in the park is usually automobile parking.

Grosvenor will probably never see anything quite this urban, but hopefully someone will invest in the ample dead space, taking advantage of the Metro station and performing arts center. Perhaps a high end restaurant could become the hot reservation on performance night. Until then, Grosvenor will just be a questionably placed station at the junction of Rockville Pike, the 270 Spur, and the Beltway, not a destination station.

Light Posting Lately; The Metro Vision Update

Apologies for the light posting lately. I have been working a recession-induced second job, and much of my transit-nerd time has been devoted to poking around in Google Earth tweaking my Mass Transit Vision. I don't have much graphic design experience (read: I have none) and I'm slowly and painfully trying to learn how to use Inkscape, so it will be a while before I can post. it.

Shown right: a very early concept sketch.

Since I have gotten quite a few inquiries on this project, I thought I'd share some information. First of all, it won't be something we're likely to see in my grand-children's lifetime. It would probably cost a trillion or more to construct, and it would have far more capacity than this area could support with its current infrastructure and population. I haven't measured its current length, but I know it would be over 500 miles of track. I'll even go so far as to say it would be irresponsible to even study may of the proposed changes.

The concept I'm working has a core system with thirteen (!) lines, none of which share any track (i.e., separated the Green, Yellow, Blue, Orange and Silver lines from each other) so as to maximize capacity. There are six heavy rail and seven light rail/street car lines, a couple of the latter are spurred at the ends. I extended every single end of every existing and planned heavy rail line, though mostly only a station or two here and there. There are also several infill stations, particularly on the new separated routes. The light rails incorporate plans like the Anacostia Light Rail, the Columbia Pike transitways (both in VA and in MD), The Purple Line, and other DC streetcar proposals. There are two Purple Lines, in fact, both of which loop around the city (the Silver Spring-New Carrolton is the outer line). Much of it is completely unfeasible because it would require a fantastic amount of expensive tunnelling, right-of-way acquisition, engineering, and construction.

I expanded on MARC and VRE (but removed the Camden Line) and removed some of the smaller stations, treating them more like an integrated express service. Most of the smaller stops (like Riverdale and Clifton) were replaces with light rail stops. I put four Metro Lines at Union Station and likewise concentrated rail traffic to other MARC/VRE nodes like Silver Spring, L'Enfant Plaza, Rockville, New Carrollton, and King Street to emphasize their role as express lines.

Shown right: a later concept.

Also included in this plan are five supplemental services. In Maryland, the Corridor Cities Transitway, a series of light rail or BRT lines through Montgomery County (which I called Ride-On) and a light rail loop through Southern Maryland. In Virginia, I threw in a series of light rail/BRT lines for Fairfax and Prince William Counties, as well as an Aerotram along the "Techway" corridor from Shady Grove in Rockville to Dulles International Airport.

I have always felt like others' transit visions lack service in Prince Georges County and River East, so there is a concentration in those areas. I placed transit stops in close-in traditionally planned communities like Hyattsville's Arts District, Takoma Park, Old Town, and other places.

Denser areas that are poorly planned (Seven Corners, Tysons, Eastern MoCo, etc.) received lots of transit assuming they would be redeveloped into more transit oriented areas. Parts of the system are very far flung (Columbia, Fort Washington, South Riding, Woodbridge, Gaithersburg, Odenton, etc.)

I don't know if I'll include them initially, but I also have an integrated plan for Frederick, Annapolis, Baltimore, and the Atlantic Beaches.

Shown right: the current iteration of the project.

Basically, my goal was to visualize a Washington Metropolitan area that could support a population at least twice its current size, while allowing most of the city and closer-in region to comfortably live without a car. Hence its infeasibility. It has been a fun and interesting project so far, even if it has been overkill.

If anyone has the free time to teach me Inkscape, I would be much obliged, and would gladly provide a meal in exchange. Sadly I lack the graphic skills of the many other transit visions that have inspired me to embark on this project.

So please bear with me as I work my two jobs and attempt to get this into a nice readable map for everyone.

Imagine Prince George's Plaza

Though nowhere near up to par with Arlington's Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, Old Town Alexandria, or the central business districts of Bethesda and Silver Spring, Prince George's Plaza might be the best example of transit-oriented development in Prince George's County. It combines a Metro station with heavy retail, medium density housing, and a walkable street grid. Unfortunately, those things are not integrated with each other.

I love the City of Hyattsville. As soon as I can afford to do so, I plan on moving there. It has a ton of potential. Potential, however, means room for improvement.

Anecdotally, I was told by a Hyattsville Police officer that the city plans to annex and redevelop the suburban style medium-density apartment complexes north and west of the mall. In this same conversation, the officer, who was advising me on where the city experienced most crime, cited garden style apartment complexes like these (like Kirkwood near West Hyattsville station or the apartments on the southwest corner of University and Adelphi) as the worst offenders. I can only assume the isolation of the buildings behind PG Plaza makes them ideal places to engage in criminal activity.

Generally, I don't like the idea of putting heavy transit near a mall. Malls are inherently car-oriented, and over the past decade they have experienced severe decline in image and practicality. The Mall at Prince George's (which I will forever call PG Plaza despite its new name and this newfangled civic movement against saying "PG" in favor of "Prince George's") might be able to take advantage of the Metro station across the street.

Many of the larger development projects in Prince George's County have been greenfield developments outside the Beltway and far from transit taking on a semi-new urbanist format, but are far from transit and isolated from the better urban design closer in. Bowie Town Center and National Harbor are good yardsticks for what we can expect out of planned developments at Brandywine, Westphalia(pdf), Konterra, and Woodmore Town Center (pdf): far from existing transit, isolated pockets of walkable mixed use surrounded by parking. PG Plaza, if redeveloped, can present a retail design similar to that of Bowie Town Center with the added advantage of being across the street from a Metro station in an area that can easily be reticulated into the surrounding street grid.

Remove the roof, which PG Plaza didn't always have anyway, and lay down the grid. I give you new Hyattsville:


View Larger Map

With this, perhaps more pedestrian friendly changes will occur as well. East-West Highway has three shockingly bad design flaws on that stretch. First, the median fences. Anytime a street has a fenced median to discourage jaywalking, it's a sure sign of poor design. Pedestrian traffic is like water flow. It will find the path of least resistance from origin to destination, and will creatively by-pass obstacles. Instead of trying to force pedestrians to go out of their way to cross East-West, embrace the foot traffic with more crossings, traffic signals, and a parallel street to spread out the traffic.

Next, the pedestrian bridge from the Metro station to the mall parking lot has to go. Parking ought to be consolidated into a garage, and the street frontage should be developed. pedestrian bridges over suburban arteries like this are not functional, they encourage speeding on the road, they kills street life, and they are unbearably tacky. Perhaps if the street frontage has an arcade with an upper level of shops and whatnot, it could stay, but generally it looks horrible and it proves to be cumbersome for access to the Metro station.

Third, rename the damn road. East-West Highway (MD route 410) is a title unbecoming for a road passing through the CBD's of Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and Hyattsville. In Takoma Park, 410 is actually called Ethan Allen Avenue. Perhaps Hyattsville could follow suit and rename it something like "John Clark Hyatt Avenue" after the town's founder. Apt, historical, and far less generic.

Hyattsville is evolving as a city. It has come a very, very long way in the last decade, and it continues to grow and improve. PG Plaza will undoubtedly emerge as a hot spot for good urbanism. Eyesores like the pedestrian bridge will be replaced by more of what we're seeing in the nearby Hyattsville Arts District, and instead of an island of good urbanism, it will grow into the fabric of the surrounding areas.

Imagine West Hyattsville

West Hyattsville Metro Station is one of the most underutilized stations on the Metro system, standing out even in TOD-beleaguered Prince George's County. It stands seemingly in a large field, discouraging the station's use as anything but a commuter stop. The County has plans (pdf) for vitalizing the area around the station, but I thought I might take a crack at it myself with some street connectivity.


View Larger Map

Queens Chapel Town Center has a great deal of potential to anchor a strong retail district. The area, at the intersection of Chillum, Mount Rainier, and Hyattsville, has the population to support retail progress. The success of the nearby Hyattsville Arts District has changed the image of the area. West Hyattsville, connected to the Arts District by a traditional suburban street grid, is poised to parlay the success of one of Prince George's County's most popular real estate ventures into success of its own. Only the presence of a Metro station,

The Northwest Branch runs just to the south of the station, but instead of serving as a barrier, I believe this watercourse can be embraced by development with small waterside paths. I included several new bridges over it, connecting potential new developments to the Metro station. The key element, in this case, is adding parallel roads. As I have stated time and time again (as with many before me), a street grid reduces traffic, lessens vehicle miles traffic, and eliminates car trips as the area becomes more walkable. Hopefully a developer with the vision will take advantage of the opportunity, and hopefully the County won't block any progressive efforts. Hyattsville could become the new Bethesda, it just takes some progressive leadership to make it happen.

Imagine Seven Corners

Yikes. Just the thought of an area named "Seven Corners" makes me not want to drive there. Wilson Boulevard, Roosevelt Boulevard, Arlington Boulevard, Leesburg Pike, Broad Street, Sleepy Hollow Road, and Hillwood Avenue all converge in nearly the same place at the southern tip of Falls Church. I have only driven through this area a select few times, always on weekends, and only once on purpose. It is a nightmare. No doubt that in an area named after it's intersection, the intersection would be the most dominant feature of the landscape.

Michael Perkins over at GGW suggested that I use this area to start my New Year's resolution to write more on Virginia... and it couldn't be a more desperate region for a street grid. Serving mostly strip malls and car-dependent medium-density apartments, the roads through this area operate with a series of frontage roads, bridges, and quasi-interchanges. One might argue that this area is too sparse to merit much investment in the road system. But I believe a better working street grid could reduce the painful traffic jams while at the same time accommodating pedestrians and transit, perhaps even catalyzing further growth. Here's what that part of town might look like if it had a better street grid:


View Larger Map

The region could start by improving pedestrian facilities from the East Falls Church Metro station, located just under a mile north of the intersection at Wilson and Roosevelt. Keeping Arlington Boulevard up to its current semi-freeway standard would be possible with lots of overpasses, but of course this would be far more costly. A sunken freeway, however, has far less impact on connectivity than an at-grade route.

Traffic will of course be relieved by the addition of new roads, guiding cars around the disastrous intersection for which the area is named. This approach is known to work better than widening roads, as it cuts down on the number of vehicle miles required for a particular car travel, reduces traffic (particularly if there is an emergency situation blocking one of the roads), and induces more pedestrian travel. The added capacity allows some reduction of automobile capacity on the existing major roads to make way for transit and/or streetscape improvements. In the end, cars, pedestrians, transit riders, residents, and business owners tend to benefit more from well connected streets. Seven Corners would no doubt benefit immediately from reduced traffic jams, before any other changes are made.

Centralized locations such as Seven Corners shouldn't be unsavory destinations because of traffic. With attractions such as the unique Eden Center, a predominantly Vietnamese shopping district on Wilson Boulevard, Seven Corners could be a great destination, not just a clogged interchange out in the burbs. I have limited experience with this location, so strongly encourage comments with suggestions or further information.

Imagine Wheaton

GGW's Cavan has written a couple of posts about Wheaton, a bustling suburb with an unfairly negative reputation in the heart of MoCo. Wheaton is near and dear to my heart, as I spent a lot of time there in high school. My old high school (since relocated to Olney to keep "transit people" from applying) was a quarter mile from the Metro station and the Wheaton CBD.

It's a gritty area with significant Central American cultural ties, lots of unique little shops, and, as Cavan will tell you, a schizofrenic approach to good urbanism. But I like the potential of Wheaton, it has something many inner suburbs don't enjoy when seeking to grow smarter: the framework of a good street grid. A few roadway connections here and there, and Wheaton could be the very model of transit oriented development. Okay, so maybe there are a few other things before that could be the case... but here's my vision of what Wheaton would look like if its streets were better connected:


View Larger Map

Blue lines are new street connections. Blue place marks are new traffic signals. Zoom in and see how my lines mesh with the road network.

Wheaton has a few other issues. It's one of the only places I've ever been where there is street parking with meters fronting free parking at a strip mall (Ennals Avenue between Grandview and Viers Mill). Crosswalks are often poorly marked. The three main roads through Wheaton (University Boulevard, Viers Mill Road, and Georgia Avenue) are 6 lane traffic nightmares with little street parking and no bus lanes. There are curb cuts for strip mall parking all over the place. And of course, there's a giant freakin' mall.

Though Wheaton has plenty of interesting and quirky independently owned shops, Just Up the Pike points out the failure of the Montgomery Cinema 'n' Drafthouse, blaming some of the above examples of bad urbanism. JUTP also points out a shooting that occured at the mall this week as being the fourth major crime at the mall since its renovation. Would removing the mall and replacing it with mixed use high density transit oriented development (and less surface parking) lower crime? I like to think so.

In the mean time, Wheaton is a guinea pig for inner suburb redevelopment. It slowly gets more walkable as it fights new fights and teaches the rest of the region the lessons we must learn to develop a better sense of place around the Beltway.

The Little Freeway That Couldn't

The Anacostia River could be one of the most iconic urban waterways in the US, but instead it is blockaded on both shores by freeways. DC/Interstate 295 cuts off the east bank virtually the entire length of the river in the District, and the Southeast Freeway blocks of Boathouse Row on the west bank.

One of my chief complaints about the use of land in the District of Columbia is the gross underutilization of river frontage. And something must be done to make the river more accessible. Removing the highways, however, would raise strong concerns over dumping what might otherwise be freeway through traffic onto city streets, which, as we've seen on New York Avenue between the 395 tunnel and 295, can turn a city boulevard into a traffic sewer.

Removing highways diminishes induced demand, thus reducing vehicular traffic through the area. For the most part, I don't believe this to be an excuse for the wholesale removal of all the freeways through the District. The District does not have too many highways, but rather a horribly inefficient highway system that dumps dead-end freeway traffic onto city streets. What needs to be removed are the dead end highways, and what remains should be logically and thoroughly connected to the rest of the city's highway system in a manner that minimizes the highway's physical impact on the cityscape.

Douglas Willinger of A Trip Within the Beltway would be decking over our freeways, which in theory may be the best way to diminish a highway's impact on urban landscape. The obvious downside is, of course, cost. Would it be worth it to deck over the Southeast Freeway between Barney Circle and the 11th Street Bridge? Only if the plan included extending the Southeast Freeway past Barney Circle, conducive to the original plan for freeways in the District of Columbia. That full plan, for the record, was not exactly in line with city's current movement toward smart growth (to say the least). Otherwise, we are decking over a largely useless stretch of freeway that ultimately dead ends, dumping freeway traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Another option would be one that I had suggested back over the summer, building the Barney Circle Bridge. This plan, which also called for boulevardization of part of the Anacostia Freeway, might be a good alternative, but it would be cumbersome and expensive to implement. I also foresee this plan going through but without the boulevardization of the Anacostia Freeway, which would go against the notion of making the river more accessible.

The 1.39 mile section of the Southeast Freeway east of the 11th Street Bridge (unsigned but designated Interstate 695) is six lane freeway becomes a two lane access road to RFK Stadium as it passes under Pennsylvania Avenue, and the only purpose this route currently serves is getting traffic to the Sousa Bridge. I use it regularly to get to northbound 295 when I am driving out of the city (there is currently no access from the southbound 11th Street Bridge to northbound 295). JD Land offers insight to the fate of this route. In the plan, the virtually useless ramps from the Bridge to the RFK access road will be completely removed, and that portion of freeway will be replaced by a boulevard.

What about the aforementioned problem of inefficient freeways lacking logical connectivity? Removal of this section of highway could ostensibly be completely mitigated with a couple of ramps which, in my opinion, should have been built decades ago. Ramps between the 11th Street Bridge and the northern route DC 295, along with a ramp from southbound 295 to westbound Pennsylvania Avenue would create a more functional, logical, and efficient highway network, making the undesirable section of the Southeast Freeway virtually obsolete, as it would have all the same functionality of the freeway it parallels on the east bank of the river. Below shows the three new ramps in pink, and the obsolete (ready for boulevardization) stretch of freeway in green.


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I don't have statistics, but I imagine that construction and upkeep for three new ramps would be more than offset by the economic development that highway removal could ostensibly bring to that stretch. The result: less through traffic on city streets like Pennsylvania Avenue and South Capitol Street, no induced traffic, and an overall reduction in vehicle miles traveled.

And Boathouse Row on M St. SE is now accessible to the rest of the adjacent neighborhood, right? Well, no, not exactly.

There is still another bulwark: the CSX line. Certainly, it is much easier to build an at-grade crossing for these railroad tracks which parallel the highway before going underground at the 11th Street Bridge. However the physical and psychological barrier between the river and the neighborhood will remain an impact of developing this area to its full potential as premier riverfront destination.

So is removal of this stretch of freeway worth it? Absolutely. But better connectivity between the remaining freeways is constructed and plans to remove, deck, or realign the CSX track must be devised. Removing an urban freeway is often very good for a city, but the plan must go far beyond simply the physical removal of the roadway. In Near Southeast, simply removing the highway will not be enough for the neighborhood to achieve its full urban potential.

Imagine A Train on the Shirley Highway

Yesterday i discussed the possibility of putting a Metro-integrated light rail train in the median of Interstate 95/395 in Virginia. Through the magic of Google Earth, I give you what I have dubbed "The White Line"

Shown here starting in Woodbridge and terminating at L'Enfant Plaza. The segment up south of the Beltway runs off the freeway along the heavy rail right-of-way. North of that, the line runs in what is now the reversible HOV lanes in the middle of the Shirley Highway.

This stretch of asphalt is one of the most recognizable routes into the city. Ten years ago, I-395 was averaging a quarter of a million in annual average daily traffic. In the last ten years, added lanes and improved intersections have made it easier for cars to travel on this road. But are we making investments to move the most people along this corridor? Could a train move more people quicker than HOV lanes? I bet it would be worth finding out.

Imagine River Terrace

GreaterGreaterWashington thinks there should be a Metro station there. So does BeyondDC. Track Twenty-Nine envisions four Metro lines going right through that area. It's a little over two miles from the Capitol, on top of a freeway and an existing Metro station, scenically located next to the Anacostia River and the Arboretum, and a walk across the bridge to RFK Stadium. River Terrace a prime piece of real estate in the world's most powerful city. Why then, is it so blighted?

How about a coal power plant? And not one of the new, waste-recovery coal power plants. This one dates back to 1906. Though it only runs on the hottest and coldest of days when the city burns more energy, it blankets the surrounding communities with an average of 1,000 pounds of carbon smog a day, causing neighborhood residents to be 3 to 5 times more likely to have cancer, asthma or bronchitis than any other group of people in the city.

Maybe it's the housing projects. The Great Society-era Mayfair projects were home to Marvin Gaye, but I submit that their location and orientation do little to empower low income residents on the eastern bank of the Anacostia. At the very least, they do less than they could. Though close to Minnesota Avenue Metro Station, they are isolated from amenities and their surrounding communities. Affordable housing in this case is a sentence to a blighted campus of garden apartments disconnected from the rest of the city.

What if Goerge Gurley and the African American Environmental Association succeeded in having this plant shut down? What if the housing projects were redeveloped into a walkable neighborhood with ample connections to the surrounding neighborhoods? What if mixed-income and mixed-use came together on top of a new Metro station? Construct a marina and other local amenities, offer modest leases for local businesses, and tax breaks for minority and veteran business owners, and then you have my vision of a new River Terrace and Mayfair:

Red - Residential
Blue - Commercial
Yellow - Civic
Green - Parkland
Orange - Transit

As always, the disclaimer

The orange on the left would be the River Terrace Metro Station, Blue and Orange Lines, perhaps a street car or two. A station with multiple lines on the east side of the Anacostia River, what a novel idea. To the north of it, a classical transit-oriented development with office over retail inside of residential units of gradually decreasing density.

Mayfair would (almost) completely torn down and redeveloped into an actual community rather than a dumping ground of cheap housing. I'm picturing townhouses and walk-up apartments, perhaps some street level retail. Yes, we should actually put jobs near cheap housing. Mayfair would be more oriented towards the Minnesota Avenue station, however good street connectivity would allow a variety of transit options.

The bit of commercial along the riverfront would include a marina and perhaps a fishing pier. This could be the primary attraction/amenity for the development. It would certainly be a lot more eco-friendly than a coal burning power plant.

Most importantly, if something like this is to happen to a neighborhood, it has to happen without displacing the current residents. Give the folks in Mayfair first crack at the moderatly priced River Terrace development, then redevelop Mayfair, keeping the area available to nearby residents of DC. Businesses should be heavily favored toward River Terrace, Mayfair, and Deanwood residents.

Now, what about the displaced power supply? Perhaps this could be supplemented by new nuclear plants in more remote Maryland and Virginia locations. Perhaps throw some windmills down at the Blue Plains Water Treatment Plant further down the river. But whether or not this part of town is developed, that power plant has to go. I'm all for coal power over other fossil fuels, but certainly not in the middle of the Capital City, and definitely not in a neighborhood where its presence purports a sense of inequality for the predominantly black neighborhoods east of the Anacostia.

Possible? Likely? Does anyone know of any plans to develop this power plant? Or to replace it? I'd love to see more info on it.

Imagine West Silver Spring

By this point, I think I've made it clear that I'm a fan of Silver Spring. Transit-oriented works there. You've got your Metro, MARC, Metrobus, Ride-On, bike paths, and access to the Beltway. There's a night life, jobs, lots of culture, a fantastic community college, and a very eclectic mix of people, arts, and knowledge. But that doesn't mean I don't think it's under-utilized.

It blows my mind that there are large swaths of land between downtown Silver Spring and downtown Bethesda abutting Rock Creek Park that are veritable industrial dross-scapes. Wasted land along Brookeville Road, secluded by poor road connectivity, in what could be a very high end mixed use heartbeat connecting two of suburban Maryland's most important urban cores. Greater Greater Washington did a nice post on TOD zoning in Montgomery County, and I couldn't resist after I read that.

So I wanted to disrupt the low density feel of those neighborhoods in West Silver Spring; Lyttonsville, Seminary, and Woodside. Create more of an urban gateway between the two central business districts, bringing density down towards the city away from the hinterlands. I imagined West Silver Spring, and this is what I saw:


Made with Google Maps.

Pink- road network
Red- residential redevelopment
Blue- commercial redevelopment
Orange- transit stations
Purple- deck over rail

For starters, let me talk transit. I envisioned an extension of the Yellow Line that splits from the Green Line at the Petworth station running under Georgia Avenue to Silver Spring, then following the MARC/CSX right-of-way towards Rockville. This led to a station in the Seminary and Woodside neighborhoods as well as the planned Paul Sarbanes Transit Center at Silver Spring Metro. For the Purple Line I assumed the high investment light rail alternative with stations at Lyttonsville, Woodside, and of course the Silver Spring transit center.

These three new stations would be the epicenters of transit-oriented funcsionality with minimum direct impact on the low-density residential infrastructure in existing neighborhoods. Four stations that one could easily walk between, but are far enough apart that are far enough apart to efficiently serve the community. Served by only one line, Lyttonsville and Seminary would not be as dense as Woodside (served by two) or Silver Spring (in my transit vision, served by four lines of Metro plus MARC). Those overwhelmed by the growing density of downtown Silver Spring would have the alternative of moving to a dense-but-not-too-dense TOD not to far away.

And though I'm sure wholesale redevelopment of the Brookville Road corridor and the Walter Reed Annex would garner a great deal of NIMBYism, they are areas that are not exactly pleasant in their current state. The north view from the apartments on Lyttonsville place is a car salvage yard.

Major changes to the road network are mostly in Woodside. I strongly believe that the Summit Hills development at the corner of 16th and East-West Highway ought to be razed and redeveloped from the ground up. Here, I've changed the intersection of Spring and 16th streets so that 16th ends on Spring on a deck over the trains. Spring Street then connects to Porter Road, which runs to Lyttonsville. The northern end of 16th Street could be redesignated Columbia Boulevard. Summit Hills and Rosemary Hills complexes would be redeveloped to compliment the new grid street network, with row houses in the residential areas and condos over retail in the commercial areas. Perhaps the steep grade of this neighborhood might accommodate residential over retail in this manner.

Perhaps my least popular more here: I connected Jones Bridge Road across Rock Creek Park so that Jones Bridge Road, Brookeville Road, and Grubb Road all come together, perhaps in a traffic circle just west of the Lyttonsville station. Though this would mean more traffic through the park, and through those Chevy Chase neighborhoods, the stronger street grid would have a very positive impact on traffic and probably encourage more walking and bike use. I have very little sympathy for Chevy Chase residents, anyway. That town is just going to have to deal with the fact that southern Montgomery County is only going to get denser and denser.

As for the Seminary neighborhood, I imagine the closure of the Walter Reed Annex would lead to some medium-density development on that property. It would compliment the apartments that are now up for rent at National Park Seminary. So here we have a neighborhood with a very eclectic charm in a densely wooded area where existing development is/would be utilized, minimizing the impact on the wealth of mature trees. What a cool place for a transit-based community!

I once again caveat that I am not an urban planner (though I hope to be one day), nor am I an engineer. Please point out any obvious design flaws you might spot. And please, if you have any suggestions for West Silver Spring, I'd love to hear them. I'm not saying this is feasible, but I believe that West Silver Spring could benefit the region heavily if it were developed in such a manner.

Imagine the Purple Line

It's everyone's favorite light rail debate. Few people argue we don't need an east-west transit link through suburban Maryland. Most people just disagree on how and where it ought to be build. I personally think it ought to be a heavy rail. largely underground. I think that once the light rail is built, the immediate need for more capacity will be very apparent, $200 barrels of oil aside.

I'm not opposed to the light rail idea. I think it would be very successful, other than a few NIMBYs sponsored by Columbia Country Club (who is illegally using much of the county's right-of-way) and a couple of crybabies in Silver Spring who don't want the train to run down their street. I can live with the line being light rail. I can't live with the limitations of the current proposal, however.

So long as this train is MTA and not WMATA, it will, of course, stay in Maryland. but what if it went all the way around the Beltway, plenty of others think it should? What if, instead of just being a glorified bus, it was fully integrated with the Metro system? Sure that would require an enclosed station for every stop, but why not? This is fantasy. A fully integrated rail circumnavigating Washington DC!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you my Purple Line:


View Larger Map

A quick rundown of the stations, with the path to the next station in parentheses follows. Mind you that these are just what I would name the stations, and the routes I would use.

Bethesda Metro (follows Georgetown Branch Trail)
Chevy Chase Lake: Connecticut Av at Manor Rd (Georgetown Branch Trail)
Lyttonsville: Brookeville Rd at Lyttonsville Pl (Metropolitain Branch ROW)
Woodside: 16th St north of East-West Hwy (Red Line ROW)
Silver Spring Metro (Wayne Av)
Sligo-Manchester: Wayne Av at Manchester Pl (tunnel)
Long Branch: Arliss St at Garland Av (Piney Branch Rd)
Piney Branch: Piney Branch Rd at University Blvd (Univ Blvd)
Takoma-Langley: Univ Blvd at New Hampshire Av (Univ Blvd)
Langley Park: Univ Blvd at Riggs Rd (Univ Blvd)
West Campus/UMUC: Univ Blvd at Adelphi Rd (Campus Dr)
Student Union: Campus Drive near Regents Drive (Campus Dr)
East Campus: Rossborough La at Route 1 (Paint Branch Parkway)
College Park Metro (River Rd)
Calvert Park: River Rd at Rivertech Ct (River Rd and Kenilworth Av)
East Riverdale: Riverdale Rd at Kenilworth Avenue (Riverdale Rd)
Veterans Parkway: Riverdale Rd at Veterans Pkwy (Veterans Pkwy)
Landover Hills: Veterans Pkwy at Annapolis Rd (Annapolis Rd to Harkins Rd)
New Carrollton Metro...

...here's where I start taking some creative liberties...

...(Ardwick-Ardmore Rd)
Glenarden: Ardwick-Ardmore Rd at MLK Highway (Brightseat Rd)
FedEx Field (Arena Drive)
Largo Metro (Harry S Truman Dr)
Kettering/PGCC: Truman Dr at Campus Dr (Truman Dr to at-grade-ROW to Ritchie Rd)
District Heights: Ritchie Rd at Walker Mill Rd (Ritchie Rd)
Forestville: Forestville Rd at Pennsylvania Av (Forestville Rd to Beltway)
Morningside/Andrews AFB: Suitland Rd at Allentown Rd (Beltway)
Temple Hills: Beltway near St Barnabas Rd (Oxon Hill Rd)
Oxon Hill: Livingston Rd at Oxon Hill Rd (Oxon Hill Rd to Harborview Av)
National Harbor: Nat'l Harbor Blvd at Waterfront St (Wilson Bridge)
Alexandria South: Washington St at South St (Washington St)
Old Town Alexandria: Washington St at King St (King St)
King Street Metro (Duke Street)
Landmark: Duke St at Van Dorn St (Duke St)
Lincolnia: Little River Tpk at Beauregard St (Little River Tpk)
Pinecrest: Little River Tpk at Braddock Rd (Little River Tpk)
Annandale: Little River Tpk at Columbia Pike (Beltway to Gallows Rd)
Merrifield: Gallows Rd at Arlington Blvd (Gallows Rd)
Lee Highway: Gallows Rd at Lee Hwy (Gallows Rd)
Dunn Loring Metro (Gallows Rd)
Tyson's South: Gallows Rd at Old Courthouse Rd (Tyson's Corner Center Parking)
Tyson's Central 123 Metro (Tyson's Blvd)
Tyson's North: Westbranch Dr at Jones Branch Dr (Beltway)
Great Falls: Beltway at Georgetown Pike (Beltway to Clara Barton Pkwy)
Cabin John: MacArthur Blvd at 7 Locks Rd (MacArthur Blvd)
Glen Echo: MarArthur Blvd at Goldsboro Rd (Goldsboro to River Rd)
Somerset/Kenwood: River Rd at Dorsey Lane (Little Falls Pkwy to Arlington Rd to Edgemoor Lane to Bethesda Metro

I'm sure there will be plenty of suggestions as to what you folks think the alignment should be. Please share. However, like plenty before me, I have a vision of a vastly expanded Metro system into which this alignment fits perfectly. As soon as I find a suitable manner to illustrate it, I'll share the whole thing with the world. But I'm just starting this blog. I don't want to overwhelm the world quite yet.

Imagine Langley Park

I've spent quite a bit of time in Langley Park during my life. I grew up about 2 miles away. As a kid, I remember going to Hot Shoppes for ice cream with the family. later, my friends and I would bike to the Taco Bell that took its place. I'd explore the bodegas and shops down there, but honestly since I turned 17 (and got my driver's license) I haven't been doing a whole lot of that. It became the traffic-infested town I had to drive through on my way to the University of Maryland.

I certainly don't blame that on the demographic shift that has occurred there-- Central Americans, Southeast Asians, Indians, and Africans have established immigrant communities there-- but more on the lack of a sense of place that it has. It wasn't much better when I was a kid. I had to bike somewhere, though, and it was closer than downtown Silver Spring (which was a hole back then anyway). But the dominating feature at University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue is parking lots. Considering the lower- to middle-income residents (who are less likely to own a car), that seems somewhat wrong.

I think Langley Park has a pretty strong sense of culture there. Immigrant populations generally do. But that culture is abandoned in a wasteland of spread out rental apartments and strip mall retail. The pedestrians, which are plentiful, suffer spread out destinations and startlingly unsafe conditions, even with the recent improvements in the last few years.

What really alarms me is the particularly racist and xenophobic sentiments that even the most liberal folks have expressed to me when discussing Langley Park. I don't assume everyone in LP is in MS-13. That is just as offensive as people assuming my mother has mafia ties because she's Sicilian. LP has a very diverse tapestry of peoples beyond the very few gang-banging Salvadorians people like to cite. My experience is that a good majority of the residents are honest hard working people trapped in car-oriented town where no one wants to invest time, money, or public works.

What that part of town really needs is a transit center which they might in fact be getting in the next couple years. The current plan is for a bus depot that will perhaps one day also house the Purple Line. Imagine if we could get some serious transit oriented development there. Perhaps tear out those awful low-density spread out run down apartments between New Hampshire and Riggs Road. Offer high quality transit links to Silver Spring and College Park. Turn University Boulevard into an actual boulevard, with street front retail, street parking, and a shaded median.

Langley Park has every right to be a destination like Silver Spring or Bethesda. I decided to imagine it as one:
(click to enlarge; made with Google Earth)

Key:
Blue = retail; darker blue is office with ground floor retail
Red = housing; darker is high rise apartments, lighter is townhouses etc.
Green = parks, of course
Tan = civic use
Orange = transit station
Black = parking garage

Most notably, I redrew virtually the entire Hampshire Village and Willowbrook apartment complexes to create more continuity in the street grid and allow for much better land use. Those apartments are affordable, yes, but I believe we can fit more apartments there, perhaps making them more affordable. My main lament is that I didn't add more park land, but I figure commercial plazas and the like would fill that void. I also imagine there would be a few live-work units, perhaps a couple of those neat little bodegas and restaurants could be rescued from the strip malls and reinvented as streetfront shops with apartments overhead.

The Purple Line will connect LP with the University of Maryland. Imagine a new choice for college and graduate students, another place for them to live and work, all the while being exposed to the diversity (and delicious food, if I may say so). Perhaps UMD could use some of that civic space and set up a program where college students teach residents English as a second language, or help/encourage them to enroll in some courses.

If we invest some money in the area, we help the people. In return, we'll get lower crime, less traffic, and a new destination, just like we did in Silver Spring and scores of other places where the effort was put forth. Langley Park has everything it needs to bloom except the geography. Imagine if we made it happen.

Imagine Rockville Pike

In high school, I spent a lot of time at Silver Diner at the intersection of Rockville Pike and Montrose Road. That diner had a '50's feel to it, and though it's surrounded by hundreds of acres of parking, you feel like you're in a small town when you order a strawberry malt and a slice of pie with your high school buddies on a Friday night.

Now, that intersection is getting ridiculous expressway built beneath it. Certainly this will not help the few suicidal pedestrians that choose to walk about the Pike. Instead, it will likely promote more Ford Explorers with a sole driver idling in a left turn lane burning $4.59 a gallon waiting to turn into a giant parking lot so they can do their part for the economy.

Why is Rockville Pike just a conglomeration of strip malls and parking lots with no street life? Why isn't it more like, say, Wilson Boulevard in Arlington? Greater Greater Washington has a nice piece talking about why Arlington works and Rockville Pike does not. He argues, among other things, that the stations on the Red Line are spaced too far apart. I agree. But I think there's more to it than that, and it can perhaps be fixed without infill stations all over Rockville.

Arlington has a grid road system (albeit an irregular one) which siphons traffic along parallel thoroughfares. Rockville Pike is choked off in a couple of places, notably by the Bethesda Naval Medical Center, the Beltway/270 Spur interchange, Georgetown Prep and Holy Cross High Schools, and, most needlessly in my opinion, Woodmont Country Club. Every bit of traffic between Bethesda and Rockville is funneled down Rockville Pike. Pedestrians be damned. All the TOD around Grosvenor, White Flint, and Twinbrook stations won't turn the Red Line into the Orange Line.

So what would it look like if Rockville Pike had a bit of a grid to it? Perhaps a few centralized parking garages, a bunch of pedestrian improvements, and of course my imaginary strip of Metro rail running between Silver Spring and Twinbrook with a stop at Nicholson Lane? Maybe throw a couple decks over the trains, connect the street grid, and make Rockville a city instead of an unsightly mash of strip malls.

Once again, I remind everyone that I am not an engineer. I'm sure this would be prohibitively expensive, and MoCo NIMBYs are the worst, and would probably have some problems with this. I'm sure parts of it are impossible to engineer. But I think it's important to envision Rockville Pike as part of a network, and not the single point of traffic failure.

I imagined Rockville Pike:

(Upper)
(Lower)The purple indicates decks over the train tracks. The Orange indicates Metro facilities. The big change is extending Jefferson Street up through part of the Woodmont Country Club. I'm sure they can relocate those two (of their 36) holes. I opted not to place any other proposed building lots down, partly because this is a huge area, partly because parts of it are under development, and partly because I'm tired. Suffice to say many of those parking lots would cease to exist.

Would this street alignment make Rockville look more like Arlington? Perhaps. It would certainly promote walkability and reduce the number of car trips (especially if you have ever driven across a massive parking lot to get to another store in the same strip mall!) and likely decrease traffic through the area. But no, instead we're getting the Montrose Parkway and a mid-20th century wasteland between the downtowns of Rockville and Bethesda.