DC Area Mass Transit

[Ty Doggie]

Oh brother

[Aaron W]

Has there been any resolution to the Purple Line debate over the portion that will cross through the University of Maryland? Officials there didn't want it to cross through the heart of campus, while the student organizations seemed to be supporting it.

[sovman]

Originally Posted by Aaron W

Has there been any resolution to the Purple Line debate over the portion that will cross through the University of Maryland? Officials there didn't want it to cross through the heart of campus, while the student organizations seemed to be supporting it.

More recently the university senate has been more receptive to the idea of the campus drive route, though they're still pushing for a Preinkert/Chapel Dr route (which I personally think wouldn't be any good)... there was a recent article about it in the student paper, the Diamondback - link

Also, what I found really interesting, was concerns over vibration and electromagnetic radiation interference from light rail trains on the labs in the various buildings (the above article references a study which was made public in this article)... Though no studies have actually concluded what will actually happen if rail is used that close to the labs.

[jam5]

According to the Dulles Corridor Metrorail website, the first phase of the project is nearly two-thirds done.

Does anyone have any pictures showing how much progress has been made so far?

[paytonc]

Re: Dulles Metro. I thought about taking a few photos when riding the Fairfax 505 bus recently, but it's tough since most of the construction is along the highway. There are some photos from January at VDOT's site: http://www.vamegaprojects.com/faqsdo...les-metrorail/

Also, everyone should chime in on this quick surveys about Silver Line station names, to keep Fairfax from naming all of them "Tysons XYZ": http://www.wmata.com/silversurvey/

[en1044]

Originally Posted by paytonc

Re: Dulles Metro. I thought about taking a few photos when riding the Fairfax 505 bus recently, but it's tough since most of the construction is along the highway. There are some photos from January at VDOT's site: http://www.vamegaprojects.com/faqsdo...les-metrorail/

Also, everyone should chime in on this quick surveys about Silver Line station names, to keep Fairfax from naming all of them "Tysons XYZ": http://www.wmata.com/silversurvey/

I did the survey and basically did the exact opposite of what you said. It's much easier to tell what is where.

[paytonc]

Would you have preferred "Arlington Rosslyn," "Arlington Court House," "Arlington Glebe Road," etc.?

As places like Tysons Corner become denser and more walkable, the size of its recognized sub-areas will shrink. There won't be a need to identify everything as just "Tysons," since each of those sub-neighborhoods will develop its own identity -- and because of the sheer size of the place (and since many people going there won't have cars and thus can't just zip over), it will become necessary to identify such sub-neighborhoods for specificity's sake.

Think about how you'd describe the location of a restaurant in conversation:
"It's in Ashburn." (assuming you'd drive there, hence anywhere within 27 square miles isn't all that far once you get there)
"It's by Court House." (assuming you wouldn't drive there, so being specific down to a few blocks is necessary)

Compare the low density of neighborhood names in the suburban San Fernando Valley, where a single name refers to many square miles, to Downtown LA's districts, where a few blocks has a distinct toponym:
http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/
http://www.downtownla.com/4_07_neighborhoods.asp
Indeed, the same effect has even been noted in hunter-gatherer societies: higher population density means more place names:
http://www.persquaremile.com/2011/08...ation-density/

[Ty Doggie]

Interesting look with UMCP

[Mirage52]

Any word on when the H street streetcars will begin service?

[jam5]

Originally Posted by Mirage52

Any word on when the H street streetcars will begin service?

According to their website, DDOT hopes to begin service in the summer of 2013.

[paytonc]

Originally Posted by jam5

Does anyone have any pictures showing how much progress has been made so far?

The newsletters on that site also have a lot of photos in them:
http://www.dullesmetro.com/stayinformed/newsletters.cfm

A new set of Silver Line station names were approved by the Fairfax and WMATA boards, and I'm pleased to say that the approach that I favored won out:
http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot...mes-15063.html