Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors announced that sales of previously occupied homes in the United States fell 0.6 percent last month. This drop came after a sharp decrease in December and ...
Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors announced that sales of previously occupied homes in the United States fell 0.6 percent last month. This drop came after a sharp decrease in December and ...
With much fanfare, transportation planners and local governments applied for the Department of Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) competitive grants program. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood has hailed the program as “an outpouring of creative ...
(Read Part 1 of this post here.)
ISTANBUL
In Istanbul, waterways ruled strong over the seat of empires. The former Constantinople’s claim to fame came from its geography nestled among the world’s most strategic waterways. Once on ...
(Read Part 1 of this post here.)
ISTANBUL
In Istanbul, waterways ruled strong over the seat of empires. The former Constantinople’s claim to fame came from its geography nestled among the world’s most strategic waterways.
The flows of both traffic and history move in sometimes mysterious ways.
The flows of both traffic and history move in sometimes mysterious ways.
Washington, D.C. - Purple Line Analysis
Evaluating the Local Impact of Bus Rapid Transit
With the State of Maryland debating a new rapid transit line outside Washington, D.C., EMBARQ and the World Resources Institute conducted a study that showed that bus rapid transit was a better option than light rail for the proposed route.
The Purple Line, as it is known, is a proposed 16-mile, east-west transit corridor running parallel to the Capital Beltway in Maryland, and is intended to ease congestion and improve area mass-transit options. The two primary modes under consideration are light rail transit (LRT), which features electric streetcars on rails, or bus rapid transit (BRT), which features designated lanes and other enhancements to make trips faster and more comfortable for riders than conventional buses.
WRI submitted its analysis to the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) in January 2009. It compares BRT and LRT in the “medium investment” range, and confirms that BRT would be more cost-effective and lower-risk. In addition, WRI’s analysis confirms that BRT is the only option that would work locally to fight global warming, with a medium-investment system cutting carbon dioxide emissions by almost 9,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to taking about 1,600 cars off the road.
Despite controversy surrounding the two modes of transport - with light rail often seen as the local favorite - EMBARQ and WRI maintain that any public transit investment is better than none.
“The effort to create any kind of sustainable transit solution in the D.C. area is commendable," said Greg Fuhs, lead author of the WRI analysis, "but it should be done the right way."
The Context
It's easy to think of Washington, D.C. as the monumental core of the United States government. But it's important to remember that the city is also home to nearly 600,000 ordinary citizens living and working at the center of a metropolitan region with 5.4 million people.
Together, this diverse population experiences some of the very best and worst in American transportation. On one hand, extensive suburban sprawl has made residents in "the District" victim to the second-longest average commute in the country and some of the worst air pollution on the East Coast.
On the other hand, the city has one of the best mass transit systems in the world. Metrorail is the second busiest rail transit system in the United States, serving more than 720,000 passengers on average per weekday in 2008, and Metrobus is the nation's sixth most-used bus system. Washington continues to add new heavy and light rail lines, and city officials are exploring bus rapid transit, streetcars and bike sharing as alternative transport options.
The coolest thing about Zipcar’s new FastFleet service isn’t the technology–it’s the buzz.
