I like the idea of a transit withholding tax, but how would the District implement such a plan? I thought DC couldn't touch the paychecks of the 70% who work here but don't live here.
Hey, my job is ideas... not the specifics.
I think this would be very hard to do, but because of the focus, it would be difficult for the VA and MD legislators to oppose it on the merits.
when the hell do we get to give you dictatorial powers to implement some of this stuff? 
DC residents should not have to suffer this increase at all.
If anything- people who live closer to their jobs should be paying fewer taxes.
The transportation tax should be rebated to DC residents if it is applied at all- so that no increase is seen- if anything- take it out of DC service commitments to Ward #9 resdients- yes indeed- we pay for their abuses and are also greatly burdened by their lack of respect for us here in DC.Just look at the recent tax scandal....Almost entirely a Ward #9 phenomenon.
DC is not the problem- we are the solution.Make the suburbs pony up in a big way. DC should, if anything, be a tax haven.
You don't have to apologize for us in DC, Richard.
I can't agree with limiting the tax to non residents. It's an employment tax but I forgot to mention that in Oregon, it's only assessed on employers, not employees, although it would result in a reduction in overall salary.
Note that I've tinkered, reordered, etc., so now there are 21 points, of course, the first 19 are primary wrt DC.
Anyway, another point Will, about the tax. Shoup has a great point, that it's best to help people who already are helping themselves. If the city taxes itself to improve the system, that makes a broader tax on nonresident workers all the more justifiable. It isn't really justifiable otherwise.
And as GhettoBurbs points out, getting such a tax through would be very difficult to begin with. Best to not hamper the possibility by excluding DC resident workers from it.
then other kinds of local DC taxes should be eliminated to make up for it.
lower the income taxes- among the worst in the entire country.
we are paying mega bucks for a bloated school administration that does zero for us - and most of their employees do not live here.
People who deliberately send their kids to school in DC who do not live here should pay us a premium.Or face public execution.
I am only focusing on DC transit. And note that DC property taxes are amongst the lowest in the VA-DC-MD region. That benefits home owners, even if it doesn't benefit renters. True that property values are higher, but... Anyway, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree about the tax stuff.
1. When you say build a 2nd NoVa tunnel crossing do you mean having one for the Orange line and one for the Blue? [I'm curious as to whether there is one set of tracks or two going through the current tunnel. I'm in an argument about it - and if someone has a source that would be great.
2. i would also get congress out of the business of deciding which flights go into or out of National Airport. Limiting long distance flights subsidizes short distance ones and hurts Amtrak - which admittedly only provides transit for a few people, but still a strong Amtrak is important for DC.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp...1801858_pf.html
3. New pedestrian tunnels connecting Farragut West and East and one connecting Metro Center to Gallery place.
4. A water taxi system from Georgetown to National Harbor and up the Anacostia.
Also, I like congestion zone charging.
I deliberately left out water taxi because I think the other things are more important.
I need to add your point about walkways.
The National Airport thing is interesting. In any case, the fact that it is so easily reachable by subway is a plus.
AMTRAK is a key local ec. dev. issue as I have written about for years. It's one of the only "industries" based in DC (along with street and underground transit) and a source of jobs and economic health for the local economy.
When I do a revised version of this list, I'll add a couple of these things, with appropriate credit.
Oh, as far as the tunnel goes, yes, see the map of the proposed separated blue line, which kind of separates the western orange line from the Silver Line. I guess this would be for the Silver Line and then into the separated blue line into and through DC.
That would do a lot of other alignment changes, which others have disagreed with in the comments in the past.
It would combine the blue Virginia line into the yellow line, and those people would go into Gallery Place.
And it would probably mean creating a separate shuttle between Rosslyn and the Pentagon with a stop at Arlington Cemetery, sort of like the Penn Station shuttle to the Baltimore Light Rail.
And I am not a technical jockey, but I believe that there are two tracks (one in each direction) for the Rosslyn Tunnel.
the green and blue lines should also be separated in the city core.
The east side of DC needs more north -south transit capacity.
another rail station should go into Anacostia- at one time there was a station for the Chesapeake Beach Line out by Benning Road. Why not add another heavy rail line along the Anacostia- in European cities - even small cities have multiple heavy rail- long distance stations. Union Station is not enough.
The new trolley system needs to go back to the original lines- reuse the old ROWs and put less emphasis on re-inventing the wheel.
this is concerning DC's ultra high taxes and general discouragement of business:
"The District's reputation for having a poor business climate was reinforced last week when a national study ranked it behind all 50 states for its entrepreneurial environment. The Small Business Survival Index, compiled for the second year by the District-based Small Business Survival Foundation, is a composite ranking that includes measurements of crime rates, personal income taxes, property taxes and nine other forms of taxation affecting business."
this demonstrates why, since the implementation of "home rule" ,DC has not done well in attracting businesses- and new businesses usually locate to the burbs and not the city.Taxes taxes taxes.
the city [DC] , at one time- actually had the region's lowest taxes and the lion's share of the region's commerce and industry.
I am in favor of more transit- but not at the expense of those of us in DC who have borne the burden of too much of this regions ills for far too long.
Make the suburbs pay up for a change.
A GWU grad student in journalism interviewed me for a story she was doing on that study. The first thing I pointed out is that DC isn't a state, and it isn't reasonable to rank DC, a center city, on the same criteria as an entire state.
That being said, DC has a lot of room for improvement, and a very statist regulatory regime which doesn't favor independent business development.
But there are worse places than DC. We have markets. Would you rather open a business and live in SD? etc.
Besides goverment and regulatory regimes, there are probably a lot of other factors regarding DC's entreprenurial environment.
Like so many other things, it just is what it is, and if you try to compare it to other places you'll wind up disappointed, so you just have to take it for what it is.
Richard,
I like the ideas.
As far as streetcars in DC, who says you have to use electrical power at all? Why not DMUs not unlike those used by New Jersey Transit on the RiverLINE? That way, you don't have to worry at all about powering the vehicles using under or overground electrical systems. In fact, such vehicles should have engines created to run not just on petroleum-based diesel, but also on biodiesel.
I think I advocate a similar vehicle for the Red Line in Baltimore (I favor LRT to HRT, so that it's not necessary to tunnel everywhere to get it built).
- Chris
The Ottawa system uses the same kind of motive power.
http://www.octranspo.com/train_menue.htm
I wonder what Beyond DC thinks of this kind of option?
In a couple days I will probably rewrite this, adding a few more points:
1. Michael's (expanded) brown line
2. Pedestrian tunnels at GP-MC and FN-FW
3. Transportation system expansion-linkage, as it relates to the streetcars possibly. E.g., the Washington Hospital Center, AFRH, McMillan Reservoir should be connected by streetcar to Brookland and maybe the Petworth Metro, or just between those places, Brookland, and Fort Totten.
The Airport thing that Washcycle mentioned is pretty interesting, although regional railroad improvements get covered in one point already.
And the thing about water taxi dovetails with something else I've written about leveraging the Waterfront, cruises etc. (Something I don't know much about but need to learn, because a city where I am doing some work is a cruise stop.)
Plus, I forgot to mention including cultural heritage tourism aspects of streetcars.
And I suppose I need to think about the Downtown Circulator, which is expanding like topsy, even if not fully justified.
This could be the basis of the DC "People's Transportation Plan" that I talked to rg about back in November?
So we need to add the creation of an annual transportation advocates conference-lobbying day to this too.
And, more people participating in the Sierra Club transportation committee.
Oh, and while I am not supportive at least at this point of congestion charges and tolls in DC, Ryan Avent's blog entry makes the point that congestion charge and toll revenues should go to this.
Plus, we should get the city to take out the Parking meter and ticket revenues from the general fund and dedicate them to transportation and streetscape improvements and/or the transportation management districts as I suggested in the original entry.
Oh, Ryan's entry is here:
http://www.ryanavent.com/blog/?p=683
Plus, he has this piece about the value of transit in DC:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story...11/17/133812/
03
Re: diesel LRT: I'm not a technical expert, but technical experts mostly prefer electric power for trains to diesel. The trains can start and stop more quickly, resulting in smaller headways and better scheduling. Plus, the price of petroleum products continues to rise: electricity can be produced by many sources. Ask Ed Tennyson. He'll tell you that NJT should have electricfied the River Line from the get go. Diesel was just a way of cutting corners and cost. In the long run, NJT will have higher operating costs on the River Line because of their decision to go with diesel.
Also, I just don't understand all the angst surrounding overhead wires. Many cities that are much more beautiful and historic than DC have streetcars with overhead wires: Prague, Vienna, Koln, Munich, Berlin, Nurnberg, Paris, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux (they use overhead wires on most fo the system), Strasbourg, Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Budapest, Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid....you get the idea. I agree that overhead wires can be unsightly. But, if done properly, they can actually be graceful and add to a streetscape.
I am not against overhead wires either. Portland seems to do it just fine.
but what do you think of this as a basis for the People's Transportation Plan for DC...?
I have no problem with overhaed wires either.
As to the airport thing- Lufthansa has collaborated with Deutsche Bahn [German Rail] encourage people to use the new high speed line between Frankfurt & Koln- it is one of the world's fastest regular train runs [it is a new generation ICE train with its own dedicated tracks]- when will the airlines in this country co-ordinate with the railroads to better distribute customers?
Why are the Krauts so good at this and we are left in the dust, here in the USA?
new ideas like these need to be explored here, thats for sure.
as for that tax issue- I believe that DC- at the very least- should consider rolling back all tax increases thrown on us from the Barry years- and examine the necessity of the previous years [ before Barry] tax hikes. Many of these taxes were frivolous and they remain to be explained in light of re-newed prosperity and changes in the city.
DC has a $10 BILLION (!) budget. Clearly the taxes are used for something besides petty embezzlement.
I think it's a GREAT basis for a People's Transportation Plan for DC. I think you are right about the need for a regional (or at least DC) transit advocacy group. Transit advocates are pretty splintered right now.
I think its a GREAT basis for the People's Transportation Plan for DC! I know you've said this before and I think you are right: we need a cohesive regional, or at least DC, transit advocacy organization to push for all of these improvements. I'm starting to get discouraged about really effecting transportation change in DC.
such a small jurisdiction with such a gigantic budget should be giving the citizens here the VERY BEST OF EVERYTHING.And that means schools, transit, services, police that can find my residence if there is a break in, snow removal, safe streets.
DC has a long way to go in solving these and many issues- and being honest- money cant solve everything- but many cities our size would drool at 10 billion $$$$ and deliver quality services.
Sorry- but I question authority- especially when they take my money and I dont see what good it does me.
RE: Diesel vs. electric trains
I was under the impression that it was self-propelled MUs with generators in each carriage that gave the starting and stopping advantage vs. locomotive hauled trains using any particular fuel.
When I'm speaking about diesel, I'm speaking moreso of biodiesel than petroleum-based diesel. I'll admit I'm thinking more as an environmentalist, but yeah, electricity can be produced by more sources. But I always thought that DC's issue with overhead wires was something related to defense? But then again, that's what I heard as a child on field trips to DC, that DC didn't have overhead wire-strung traffic lights due to some sort of defense need.
I like the look of catenary.
Regarding DMUs: I think we are in for a major DMU revolution in this country, but at the regional rail level not the streetcar level. Electric is better when you’re starting and stopping frequently, not only because it’s smoother, but because it uses less energy (no wasting gas idling, etc). Ultimately, overhead catenary would be better for DC’s streetcars than DMUs, but if overhead catenary proves politically impossible, I’d support DMUs in a heartbeat over BRT.
Regarding a unified regional rail system: I happened to be thinking about that just a couple of days ago. Being the geek that I am, I photoshopped a mock-up railcar livery. Fun.
RE: DMU vs. Cat:
In that case, I see your point, Beyond. I agree about BRT. I think BRT would be a disaster.
BTW, while I like your mockup, being from Baltimore, I have to object. I don't mind the colors (found on both Maryland's and DC's flags), but "Potomac Express"? Don't the Patapsco and the Susquehanna get any love?
Yeah, Dan, two requests... 1. can you update your railroad map with Southern Maryland, Newark etc. connections
2. If you could come up with a design and branding scheme (maybe DC1974 has some ideas) for your Potomac Express to encompass the region beyond the Potomac, then we could use your livery scheme as a way to promote the "Railroad Authority of the Chesapeake Region" which might be the way to market a combined service.
Anyway, and in any case, you rock.
P.S. I just sent a copy of one of your Eastern Market photos to someone to explain what it is and it makes me realize we could create a BeyondDC physical postcard series...
E.g., your photo of the Shrine that I use is incredible. ETC. ETC.
Hmm, the Railroad Authority of the Chesapeake Region could be called "RACER"
speed, mobility, ...
Speaking of Southern Maryland:
http://tinyurl.com/2cm83k
"Railroad Authority of the Chesapeake"? RACER? I'm totally in support of the service and the name
I don't think it's a mistake that when New Mexico created the Rail Runner Express, they decided to create a motif to brand the service much more easily as opposed to using an operator name like "Metra," "Metrolink," "New Jersey Transit," or something like that.
MARC is the fastest running commuter rail service in North America, however, which name gives you the impression of speed, MARC or Rail Runner Express? BTW, I like Virginia Railway Express, but I think the possibly forthcoming "Trans-Dominion Express" is a much sleeker name.
With respect to the Railroad Authority of the Chesapeake, it gives residents of MD, DC, and VA, a mental connection to the railroad, since all of the areas are connected to the Bay, and I think, gives residents of all three jurisictions a reason to feel like a stakeholder in this large railroad.
In fact, I think that this is going to be one of the challenges as New Jersey Transit and the MTA (on behalf of Metro North CR) move towards a more regional approach to rail.
For this new regional rail authority, were you thinking of it running just the commuter roads or also the two Metros and Light Rail (hopefully a few more soon) system?
Just railroads. At least in the beginning. I can't see Baltimore, DC, Richmond, and the Hampton Roads agreeing to have their local LR and HR systems being run by some tri-state authority somewhere else.
Plus, I think we can argue that MTA running Baltimore's transit isn't necessarily a good thing.
And you and Dan (Beyond DC) inspired me to come up with RACR and RACER on the fly.
RE: local/regional authority
I'd agree that MTA running Baltimore's transit isn't necessarily a good thing, but I certainly don't trust Baltimore City government to come up with an agency to run it themselves. Remember, these are the parking lot people (at least O'Malley's changed his transit tune somewhat since he's gotten to Annapolis).
I've been doing some thinking and I'm currently --though it may change-- think that maybe while education needs local control, maybe transportation needs regional control. MTA's been managed in the Baltimore area --with the occassional input from Annapolis, it seems, for larger projects-- for decades now and in terms of development, we've gotten a single Metro line [insert complaint about where it does or doesn't go and who it does or doesn't serve] and a Light Rail line [insert similar complaints] that has high floor cars. Apparently, they can't even come up with a workable Red Line plan, either (though that may not just be Baltimore's fault)
On top of that, the city apparently won't give the thing signal preemption to make it faster (certainly reason enough not to trust Baltimore City to run it).
And we've gotten buses. Lots of buses. So, at this point, I'm all for something new, something different in terms of who's running the transit (if they know what they're doing) Unless that's Baltimore City, which I categorically object to. They can manage the parking garages.
I agree about VA though. They seem to be more of the "local control" type.
Is there a Google Map somewhere of the proposed DC streetcar system? I'm thinking about taking a trip to Philadelphia soon to ride the trolleys and get some ideas.
I just wanted to make one comment regarding the funding.
How about the government entertain the idea of *producing* something and selling it on the market rather than taxing everything it can get its hands on? Taxation does not "create" revenue per se, rather it redistributes it from bodies that do create it to a massive body that is incapable of creating anything.
Now I do not claim to be an expert by any means, but this seems to be a logical alternative to taxation provided there is no law against it. First, citizens are less annoyed at having to pay more than we already do; this is not a society that regards paying taxes as a good thing. Second, it has the consequence of being beneficial to the market by creating another major competitor.
If it were feasible, it sounds like a great idea. But then, things that are good theoretically aren't always that way in practice.
Public transportation is all well and good, but its a total drag with children.
Do any of these anti-car urban planners have kids?
The first several years I lived in DC I had no kids and hardly ever drove.
I still live in DC and I drive everywhere now.
It really changes your view point when your lugging 2 kids and temper tantrums on the metro, let alone a bus.
Making it extremely expensive to park your car in front of your own house will further make DC an inhospitable place for children.
If your goal is a European city it will never ever happen.
If your goal is a homogenious population of childless people you maybe on to something.
$1800 parking permits....good luck getting that through the Council.
What happened to the comments about highways?
Are you deleting comments?
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