Recent Posts by Noah
Is San Francisco Getting Performance Parking or Not?
Is San Francisco Getting Performance Parking or Not?
Greater Greater Washington is reporting that performance parking may be coming to San Francisco, but I’m not sure it’s quite so clear. For those who don’t know, performance parking is basically the idea that you want to price parking more ...
Is There Evidence Against BRT Sparking Development?
Is There Evidence Against BRT Sparking Development?
This is a serious question, but can any of the folks who get so upset with arguments for BRT point me to any resources showing that high-investment BRT—Bogota, not Houston—with physically separated right-of-ways and permanent-seeming stations and the rest, do ...
Yes, We Can Learn From The Developing World; or, Keeping an Open Mind About BRT
Yes, We Can Learn From The Developing World; or, Keeping an Open Mind About BRT
I hate to do another round on BRT with The Overhead Wire, but I can’t help myself. It’s an important discussion, particularly with BRT gaining momentum in D.C. The latest discussion started with Streetsblog making what seems like a very ...
Holland's Female Walk Signs
Holland's Female Walk Signs
The Dutch town of Haarlem has walk and don’t walk signs that are women instead of men. We should too. Not only is it important on gender grounds—those little walking people are just one more place where ungendered turns out ...
Deeds Offers Smart Growth, McDonnell Offers Details
Deeds Offers Smart Growth, McDonnell Offers Details
Now that there’s significantly more information available than a short AP article, I thought it might be useful to compare the fairly extensive transportation plans of the two candidates for governor of Virginia. Let’s start with Bob McDonnell and really ...
Bob McDonnell's Transportation Plan Is No Good for NoVa
Bob McDonnell's Transportation Plan Is No Good for NoVa
Bob McDonnell’s plan for fixing transportation in Virginia (am I the only one who is consistently surprised when transportation is one of the most important issues there?) seems to consist of only tolls and  more highway spending. Moreover, these don’t ...
Parlor Game: Where Should Sotomayor Live?
Parlor Game: Where Should Sotomayor Live?
I hadn’t noticed this fun parlor game of an article in Sunday’s Post: “Where Should Sonia Sotomayor Live?” It’s really further proof, along with good restaurants, that D.C. is becoming more like New York; we talk about real estate! Unfortunately, ...
The Odd Professional Congestion Consensus
The Odd Professional Congestion Consensus
Dr. Gridlock received an e-mail with a set of suggestions for how to reduce congestion in downtown D.C. He responds by giving his own list, which basically consists of enforcing double-parking laws, not building more parking downtown and then implementing ...
Why Do Drivers Get Mad at Bikers?
Why Do Drivers Get Mad at Bikers?
Sarah Goodyear asks a good question: “What is it about bicycles that drives some motorists so crazy?” Her answer is that while yes, bikes do sometimes slow down cars, she “sometimes think[s] that drivers hate on bicyclists so much because, ...
Virginia and Maryland Leave Ad Money on the Table
Virginia and Maryland Leave Ad Money on the Table
Ohio’s got a big plan to pay for its share of a new rail line from Cleveland through Columbus to Cincinnati, and it’s one of those things you just can’t believe doesn’t already exist.. According to the AP, they’ve renegotiated ...
Can D.C. Learn from New York's Success?
Can D.C. Learn from New York's Success?
There is something distinctive about living in New York; over eight million other people are doing it – Don Herold. Ed Glaeser has another of his very smart, well-informed, but entirely frustrating columns up, this time at Forbes. Glaeser is ...
D.C. Wireless Hotspot Map
D.C. Wireless Hotspot Map
I just learned, via DCist, that the District offers a map of all the city-operated WiFi hotspots around town. Good for them. I can imagine this being extremely useful to people looking for a place to work for an hour ...
Bikes of Burden and the Effect of Wealth on Transportation Choices
Bikes of Burden and the Effect of Wealth on Transportation Choices
I want to add to my point earlier today about the need to differentiate between modal shifts that are happening as a result of the economy and modal shifts that are happening as a result of changing preferences. I think ...
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Admits New Urbanism Needs to Focus More on Transportation
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Admits New Urbanism Needs to Focus More on Transportation
Another day, another set of notes from an interesting speech: this time Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, one of the founders of the New Urbanism, speaking on Retrofitting the Suburbs at the National Building Museum It was quite a good talk and I ...
Does the Recession Make Us Want To Share Or Just to Save?
Does the Recession Make Us Want To Share Or Just to Save?
It’s always exciting to see a colleague’s picture in the newspaper. Fellow EMBARQer Chris Ganson made it onto the Washington Post’s cover for riding SmartBike! Very cool. The article looked at how the recession has made us want to share ...
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