Monday, September 22nd is National Car Free Day. And I want to participate. But I am at a loss.
Tomorrow, Friday, is International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day. I know what I'm doing for that. I'm going to Piratz Tavern in Silver Spring. Driving there, of course, as there is no feasible evening transit access from Laurel to Silver Spring. Saturday, I'll drive from Laurel to Silver Spring to pick up some kids and then to our game in South Germantown (bonus: carpooling). Sunday, I will be driving to FedEx Field to tailgate the Redskins game. I usually drive out of necessity, but this weekend there will be some gratuitous driving, and I really want to prove to myself that I can get to and from work by myself without a car, if it came down to it.
Here are the dilemmas...
My Job: On a military base surrounded by limited access highways (MD 32 and the B-W Parkway). This means that it actually illegal for me to walk to work. I could bike, but my office lacks bike racks. (Of course, I also have that little problem of not owning a bike... not much reason to own one where I live).
My House: one block off of Route 1 in Laurel, near a bus route. Unfortunately, the bus only goes up and down Route 1. My drive to work is 6 and a half miles, and frankly, much closer than anyone else I know at my work.
For me to get to work without driving, I would have to take a bus to Greenbelt, take the Green Line to Fort Totten, switch to the Red Line, take that to Union Station, then switch to the MARC Penn Line. Take the MARC to Odenton, where I get off and wait for a shuttle. This shuttle takes me to the front gate, where I then walk a quarter of a mile to my building. I might be able to transfer busses and pick up the Penn Line at New Carrollton, but I'm not that savvy with the bus routes in PG.
Obviously, I've never even attempted this. It is a highly inefficient means of getting around. It's 47 miles and four separate modes of transportation. The first leg alone of this grueling commute (bus to Greenbelt Metro) would be 8 miles. So instead I drive my six and a half miles to Fort Meade and pray that I can find a spot somewhere in the 900 acres of parking.
Why should you care? I'm sure very few of my readers venture into the wasteland that is Central Maryland on a daily basis. Perhaps some places are just meant to be designed for drivers. What do you care about a few federal employees that drive to work every day.
You should care because I work for the largest employer in the State of Maryland. Over 30,000 people drive to where I work day. The only transit access is a 40-person shuttle that runs three times in the morning and three times in the evening from the MARC station at Odenton, and a 24 person bus that runs from a surrounding community twice (very) early in the morning and twice in the afternoon. The 900 acres of paved surface parking drain into the Patuxent River watershed, which includes several protected wetlands down stream, and ultimately empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Oh, and by the way, this is your Federal Government using your tax dollars for maintaining this deleterious parking system and the highways needed to support job centers like this.
I love my job, and I don't want to quit. I've been exploring options to perhaps work at a satellite location that is Metro-friendly after I move. I buy cars that get good gas mileage, and when I can, I carpool. I raise hell every chance I get trying to promote better transit access to Fort Meade.
It is job centers like this that drive seemingly useless freeways like MD 32, MD 100, and MD 200 aka the Intercounty Connector. It is job centers like these that force the federal government to bleed talented young professionals who can barely live off otherwise decent salaries. I am a GS-11 and over 20% of my monthly take home salary is automatically devoted to my car payment, insurance, gas, and maintenance. I know scores of young professionals that have taken a contractor job that practically doubles their salary and allows them to live and work somewhere that does not require car ownership. It is job centers like this that create traffic, traffic accidents, and exurban sprawl that eat away our region's farms and wildlife areas.
And think of how much worse the Base Realignment and Closure will make this when it brings 5,700 more jobs to Fort Meade.
So as I am writing this, I've decided what I am going to do for car-free day on Monday. I'm going to to sleep in my office for two nights. And once again, I will put out an open letter demanding transit access.
I work there. I get incensed every day wasting money on gas while driving around hunting for a parking space. But every citizen of Maryland and the DC region ought to be irate over the wastefulness and downright lack of foresight in the complete lack of sustainable urban planning at the largest job center in Maryland. If anyone has any other suggestions for me (that are at least as unlikely to get me fired as this stunt) please let me know. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to a protest where all I have to do is sleep.
Showing posts with label storm drainage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storm drainage. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fixing the Freeway
Last night I attended a DC United game. I'm not a big soccer fan, but that team is just so much fun to cheer. I did my usual when attending events at RFK: drive to Cheverly Metro station and train it in from there. After the game, I went back to a friend's house near Waterfront to dry off (the rain was intense!) and then the plan was to give me a ride back to Cheverly, as Metro had stopped running. My chosen route was Southeast Freeway to PA Av, over the Sousa Bridge and then 295 to 50. but halfway up 295, we hit traffic. At 1 am. Apparently, 295 was flooded so bad they closed it. Same with Canal Road and Rock Creek Parkway.
I understand that there is construction on 295, but closed for flooding? This road is a primary evacuation route in case of emergency! That bodes poorly.
Furthermore, it's bad for the argument I am about to make. I have a real problem with the freeways within the District. We don't have too many, we don't need more... we just did them very, very wrong.
A route running north-south through the city is a good idea, as long as it is relatively unobtrusive. 395 in Southwest isn't nearly as bad as freeways in other cities. There are connections relatively close to each other. It needs a lot of work between South Capitol Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, but I believe it can be an asset to the city. I don't mean as a commuter route; more for the reasons Eisenhower pushed the Interstate System in the first place.
My idea would be to boulevardize two routes in favor of building one new freeway connection:
Green: Boulevardized roads
Yellow Improved functionality of Freeways/interchanges
Red: New freeways alignment.
The upper green area is New York Avenue. Let's turn that back into a city street. Get rid of the interchange at Brentwood Parkway. Downplay the connectivity to the two freeways (50 and 295) at Fort Lincoln. Put some mixed use housing/retail along the route, bikeways, and maybe a nice median with some trees. If it is possible to engineer, I'd say its worth investing in a giant deck over the rail yards. This road leads to the Capitol Building, not an office park in Loudon County. Let's make it look and function like a grand avenue and not a traffic gutter.
The lower green is the Anacostia Freeway between the Douglass Bridge and the proposed bridge. Open it up, return the river to the residents of Anacostia. This road- I'll call it Anacostia Avenue- ought to invite people to cross it and engage the riverfront. The current Anacostia Drive could become a bike path. The new Anacostia Avenue could offer street level retail with river view condos above them.
The bottom of the yellow line is the existing Southeast Freeway. This road needs work. It cuts Near Southeast in half, which destroys much of the area's character. Could this be a cut-and-cover freeway under Virginia Avenue? I think it would help if we got rid of the connection to the 3rd Street Tunnel. If all the traffic goes up the new portion, the need for a connection to New York Avenue is greatly decreased. Take GreaterGreaterWashington's suggestion and use it as a Metro tunnel.
Now the red, the part I'm sure many would deplore. I believe it is necessary for a contiguous freeway to serve every city. A four lane bridge from Barney Circle paralleling the freight train tracks and connecting to 295 would do the trick. Remove most of New York Avenue's connectivity with the B-W Parkway and the John Hanson Highway, keeping commuters off New York and other neighborhood streets and charge congestion pricing for anyone opting to drive their commute into the city. It would shake up the status quo for driving, but it could improve life in the city quite a bit. So I'm saying build a highway connection. Cue the barrage of tomatoes.
Why don't we just get rid of all the highways?
In my opinion, we can't yet. DC is a city that probably can't ever. These roads serve as evacuation routes (when they're not flooded). They also carry some types of traffic that shouldn't be on a regular DC street, such as military vehicles and various motorcades. This isn't Pyongyang. I never want to see Hum-Vees on New York Avenue unless it's a Veteran's Day parade.
We can utilize a mostly-existing freeway infrastructure as a means to trade two routes for what will ultimately amount to just a bridge. And we can charge people to drive on a continuous highway a lot easier than three fragmented highways that basically dead-end in various places. Going from Hywattsville to Lincolnia? drive all the way around or pay a couple bucks and save time. It will encourage a third option too: transit.
What transit infrastructure would we need with this?
I always caveat that I'm not an engineer, my degree is in general geography (engineers, feel free to set me straight!) But to help this, I would start by suggesting residential-focused transit-oriented development on the Orange line from Minnesota Avenue to New Carrollton. These five stations are greatly underutilized, and my experience is that they are best reached by car if you're in the suburbs (like my trip to the United game from Cheverly). Perhaps something along the heavy rail route from Deanwood to Hyattsville and onto College Park as well, as Matt at Track Twenty-Nine suggested a while back. And TOD the heck out of that region of PG county.
Also, better MARC service. And by better, I mean more frequent, dedicated tracks better service. If our regional system is only running during rush hour and sharing tracks with freight trains and AMTRAK, driving will look like a much more palatable option. I'd even suggest another MARC line in the median of US 50 with stops in Bowie and Annapolis (and who knows? Maybe one day fulfill my dream of taking MARC to Ocean City for vacation.)
Transit along New York Avenue would help redevelop the stretch as well. Perhaps a line connecting Union Station to College Park or New Carrollton along the existing freight/MARC rail with a few stops along the way (versus the existing MARC line). Of course, most of these suggestions would be a good idea anyway, and virtually nothing I've proposed for the trains is a wildly original idea. But these changes in particular would be a good compliment to the freeway realignment.
Eisenhower's original plan for freeways was for national security, not for commuting. I say keep one freeway and use it as a reason to get rid of the rest of them. Make sense to anyone else?
I understand that there is construction on 295, but closed for flooding? This road is a primary evacuation route in case of emergency! That bodes poorly.
Furthermore, it's bad for the argument I am about to make. I have a real problem with the freeways within the District. We don't have too many, we don't need more... we just did them very, very wrong.
A route running north-south through the city is a good idea, as long as it is relatively unobtrusive. 395 in Southwest isn't nearly as bad as freeways in other cities. There are connections relatively close to each other. It needs a lot of work between South Capitol Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, but I believe it can be an asset to the city. I don't mean as a commuter route; more for the reasons Eisenhower pushed the Interstate System in the first place.
My idea would be to boulevardize two routes in favor of building one new freeway connection:
Green: Boulevardized roads
Yellow Improved functionality of Freeways/interchanges
Red: New freeways alignment.
The upper green area is New York Avenue. Let's turn that back into a city street. Get rid of the interchange at Brentwood Parkway. Downplay the connectivity to the two freeways (50 and 295) at Fort Lincoln. Put some mixed use housing/retail along the route, bikeways, and maybe a nice median with some trees. If it is possible to engineer, I'd say its worth investing in a giant deck over the rail yards. This road leads to the Capitol Building, not an office park in Loudon County. Let's make it look and function like a grand avenue and not a traffic gutter.
The lower green is the Anacostia Freeway between the Douglass Bridge and the proposed bridge. Open it up, return the river to the residents of Anacostia. This road- I'll call it Anacostia Avenue- ought to invite people to cross it and engage the riverfront. The current Anacostia Drive could become a bike path. The new Anacostia Avenue could offer street level retail with river view condos above them.
The bottom of the yellow line is the existing Southeast Freeway. This road needs work. It cuts Near Southeast in half, which destroys much of the area's character. Could this be a cut-and-cover freeway under Virginia Avenue? I think it would help if we got rid of the connection to the 3rd Street Tunnel. If all the traffic goes up the new portion, the need for a connection to New York Avenue is greatly decreased. Take GreaterGreaterWashington's suggestion and use it as a Metro tunnel.
Now the red, the part I'm sure many would deplore. I believe it is necessary for a contiguous freeway to serve every city. A four lane bridge from Barney Circle paralleling the freight train tracks and connecting to 295 would do the trick. Remove most of New York Avenue's connectivity with the B-W Parkway and the John Hanson Highway, keeping commuters off New York and other neighborhood streets and charge congestion pricing for anyone opting to drive their commute into the city. It would shake up the status quo for driving, but it could improve life in the city quite a bit. So I'm saying build a highway connection. Cue the barrage of tomatoes.
Why don't we just get rid of all the highways?
In my opinion, we can't yet. DC is a city that probably can't ever. These roads serve as evacuation routes (when they're not flooded). They also carry some types of traffic that shouldn't be on a regular DC street, such as military vehicles and various motorcades. This isn't Pyongyang. I never want to see Hum-Vees on New York Avenue unless it's a Veteran's Day parade.
We can utilize a mostly-existing freeway infrastructure as a means to trade two routes for what will ultimately amount to just a bridge. And we can charge people to drive on a continuous highway a lot easier than three fragmented highways that basically dead-end in various places. Going from Hywattsville to Lincolnia? drive all the way around or pay a couple bucks and save time. It will encourage a third option too: transit.
What transit infrastructure would we need with this?
I always caveat that I'm not an engineer, my degree is in general geography (engineers, feel free to set me straight!) But to help this, I would start by suggesting residential-focused transit-oriented development on the Orange line from Minnesota Avenue to New Carrollton. These five stations are greatly underutilized, and my experience is that they are best reached by car if you're in the suburbs (like my trip to the United game from Cheverly). Perhaps something along the heavy rail route from Deanwood to Hyattsville and onto College Park as well, as Matt at Track Twenty-Nine suggested a while back. And TOD the heck out of that region of PG county.
Also, better MARC service. And by better, I mean more frequent, dedicated tracks better service. If our regional system is only running during rush hour and sharing tracks with freight trains and AMTRAK, driving will look like a much more palatable option. I'd even suggest another MARC line in the median of US 50 with stops in Bowie and Annapolis (and who knows? Maybe one day fulfill my dream of taking MARC to Ocean City for vacation.)
Transit along New York Avenue would help redevelop the stretch as well. Perhaps a line connecting Union Station to College Park or New Carrollton along the existing freight/MARC rail with a few stops along the way (versus the existing MARC line). Of course, most of these suggestions would be a good idea anyway, and virtually nothing I've proposed for the trains is a wildly original idea. But these changes in particular would be a good compliment to the freeway realignment.
Eisenhower's original plan for freeways was for national security, not for commuting. I say keep one freeway and use it as a reason to get rid of the rest of them. Make sense to anyone else?
Saturday, June 28, 2008
More Rockville Pike
Rockville Pike indeed. There was recently a charette for the Pike. GreaterGreaterWashington did a nice piece highlighting it. Not only did this charette embrace the grid idea that I was pontifficating, it also appears to be embracing innovative storm drainage techniques. I don't know much about water runoff engineering, but this seems really cool to me. I understand that it's cheaper than conventional storm runoff, and it makes plant life a functional part of a streetscape.
I hope one day I have the time to attend these sorts of things. Perhaps after I move and I'm spending less of my life in the car...
I hope one day I have the time to attend these sorts of things. Perhaps after I move and I'm spending less of my life in the car...
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