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• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  RNM

  1:02 pm on Saturday, March 16, 2013

  Alternatively, there are two other options...

  One could resurrect the Three Sisters Bridge using the Glover Archibold Park to carry traffic north of Glover Park and Georgetown, but I highly doubt that plan would be any more popular than it was 40 years ago when it was rightly shot down.

  Or in a Swiftian solution, what is the underlying issue is with our proximity to the Key Bridge. It drives traffic both in and out of the city by creating one of those rare traverses of the Potomac River. It also adds to the community and that proximity is a selling point. However if one wanted to truly tame, suppress or all but eliminate traffic congestion in both communities the easiest option is to remove the Key Bridge. Well placed charges could create a pile of rubble in the river, I mean there are cracks in the bridge already that are scheduled for repair. Once gone, the traffic would go too, just anger modest proposal.

  Then again one could just add (with a tip of the hat to Kurt Vonnegut) a little Ice-9 to the Potomac and facilitate driving across the water, making Wisconsin Avenue an ideal place to cross the river...at least until the loss of the worlds water supply became an issue. ;)

  RNM

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• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  RNM

  12:57 pm on Saturday, March 16, 2013

  Jack Smith:

  Interesting response, minus a few assumptions that congestion is caused by illegal motorists. However, where you lost any credibility is voicing the long since debunked argument about Georgetown rejecting a metro stop. It shows your ignorance of history as well as rationale for transit decisions. In short the Metro system was used to both facilitate mass transit and push development. Georgetown was not a major destination at the time and was already at 100% build out. On top of at it would have been the deepest and most expensive station in the system to build because of the underlying bedrock. So when someone repeats that delusional "choice" story it undercuts any rational point they make.

  That said, I agree that opening up flow on Wisconsin in Georgetown is very worthy of consideration. If that means removing parking so be it. The issues on Wisconsin in Georgetown are where the pipe is choked down to one lane in either direction, essentially turning this artery into a residential street. That is why I have historically used 37th and 35th or 34th as alternatives to upper Georgetown Wisconsin Ave. M Street already has a constant of four lanes with more at rush hours so it isn't a choked pipe. Unfortunately ere are some in Georgetown that are trying to choke that pipe too.

  RNM

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• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  RNM

  5:21 pm on Sunday, February 10, 2013

  They didn't goof...that is the issue. They wanted this.

  This is not about street scape or improving traffic flow. It is an act undertaken with the conviction that if one clogs up the river of traffic that the traffic will just stop coming. Well, as with rivers...when one clogs up the water it doesn't just stop it finds the path of least resistance. It diverts onto 37th and floods into the neighborhoods. The water isn't going away...people will continue to flood toward the Key Bridge and instead of 34th and 35th being the dump out points now Glover Park gets it with 37th. This was a clear choice in a war against cars. Knowing what would happen didn't take a rocket scientist or a urban planner...they knew and they did it anyhow because they believe that people will "get used to it" and that it is better for society to fight the car culture that dominates this country. It is religion. They will not shake from it...for to do so would be to create a cognitive dissonance which they can't live with.

  This was the intent. They expect you will "get used to it" and they are probably right. While the science of the metaphor is flawed....you are the frog in the pot of water and it is getting hotter. Your move...sit there or jump?

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• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  

  RNM

  12:39 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013

  Funny thing, I never found it to be unwalkable before. I get that people want wider sidewalks, but they just don't feel that much wider to me. As for crossing the street, never had an issue following the light. Imagine if every stretch of every road in the district was decided by the locals to be made more walkable, the city would grind to a halt. What I am arguing for, and what I have heard others argue for is a more balanced view which recognizes that roads are designed to carry traffic and that cities have pedestrians too. I am sure there was some compromise that didn't involve creating a mess of lanes that could have been created...and I guess some would say short of making it a pedestrian only stretch they already were compromising. It is that what is there seems to be about a social goal, creating the society we think we should have. Imposing that "Disney Celebration" sort of social engineering on a long established area seems like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. Yes, it is trendy now...but then again, building interstates all through DC was a trendy idea once too. Maybe I am spitting into the wind of change...if everyone wants to live in this utopia so be it.

• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  

  RNM

  12:15 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013

  Rodney,

  So if your hyperbole is built on the same logic as "traffic calming" then why is either choice a good one? You may not see a problem but others do. You dismiss them all with your observation...and so it goes. The underlying issue is if you believe as an article of faith that traffic should be calmed (whatever marketing hype that is) then you will like something that disincentives people to drive in an area. To that end, just build in a check point Charlie like crossing at either end of the stretch where guards would calm traffic. Yes, that is supposed to be a joke. I just don't see what was broken that needed to be fixed to begin with.

• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  

  RNM

  11:42 am on Thursday, February 7, 2013

  Rodney...it is the annoyance of all the changing issues in GP that have caused me to all but cease to patronize businesses up there already. I get your point, and don't think anyone was advocating such a hyperbolic resolution (at least not since the 60s and the Three Sisters Bridge)...but is actively making a situation worse really the way to go? If you are offered two bad alternatives, why not just do nothing. A lot of harm is done by people looking to do good.

  The changed street-scape has created more traffic based on most anecdotal reports, which reduces the quality of life for people there. It negatively impacts businesses all while seeking to advance a social goal of reduction of cars. How about creating alternatives that are viable as opposed to trying to force behavior by punishing it? Which in actuality just pushes the problem somewhere else...37th street in this case. Fair disclosure, I have been using 37th as a bypass for two decades to avoid what was already annoying traffic patterns on Wisconsin.

• On the article Is the New Wisconsin Avenue Working?

  RNM

  3:43 pm on Wednesday, February 6, 2013

  Ultimately what this comes down to is basically religious conviction and vision about the world one wants. The project was designed to cause or exacerbate traffic problems from the get go...but that was the point. The city is engaged in project after project designed to make the city more difficult to traverse. It is taken as an article of faith that if one can choke the beast (the car in this case) then people will abandon their cars and jump onto public transportation, bike or feet. We have the worst traffic congestion in the nation and we are actively working to make it even worse. Even with the worst traffic in the nation...there isn't exactly a mass exodus from the car world. It isn't like the folks in GP or Georgetown can just jump on a Metro...assuming the system was working which is a legitimate concern given its sad state and lack of funding. While bikes are great for some, they serve a miniscule part of the population (even in Portland Oregon bike city USA only 6% use them for commuting). So, instead of addressing the reality of the world we live in, planners have opted to try to create the world they want where everyone walks, bikes, parking is easy and traffic is light because people rarely drive....and I imagine the kids are all above average too.

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• On the article Georgetown Intersections, Corridors Rank High for Bicycle Crashes

  

  RNM

  9:39 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2013

  Sure we may cross an intersection when traffic is clear...we are not scofflaws. Um, rationalizing when one follows traffic laws is amusing. Sure people make mistakes, but you just owned up to picking and choosing when you follow laws.

  I am highly respectful of everyone on e road be they car, bus, bike, pedestrian...but most folks seem too preoccupied with their myopic self interests. They are offended when you don't want to stop in traffic while they pose a family photo in front of Feorgetown Cupcake...they are frustrated when you turn with an arrow and they opt to ride through tht intersection because they can't see that you have an arrow. Common sense would be great but many of the bikers and city planner types I know advocating for more and more changes for bikers not to share but get their own lanes seems more like religion than common sense.

• On the article Key Bridge Closed, Fire and EMS Respond to Jumper Tuesday Night

  RNM

  10:42 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013

  Not at all, fine day and don't have an office or a dog, two cats and they don't care about human by nature (cat joke). Just, think it is sad that we as a society slam to a halt because a guy climbed over a fence. Note to potential terrorists, want to create a sitting duck society, just get a few guys willing to play the part of a jumper and the city coud be gridlocked while all sorts of nefarious actions happen.

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• On the article Key Bridge Closed, Fire and EMS Respond to Jumper Tuesday Night

  

  RNM

  10:37 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013

  I love when people who live in a world where the atrocities that exist in and out of our country throw down the not value human life guantlet. I value human life, just not all equally. I am not afraid to admit it. I value the lives of my family more than a friend, a friend more than a neighbor, a neighbor more than a stranger in my town and so on up to the half dozen people who have died around the world while I typed this. Honestly, I feel for the person who is so tied up with the loss of every human life on the planet.