David Alpert complains that upzoning of lots in NoMa has led to lots of building and he calls the lack of planned parks the result of a government mistake that should be rectified. He concludes: And in the future, all cities and towns should avoid making the same mistake. Libertarian-leaning urbanists like Market Urbanism have [...]

In all seriousness, this is a very serious situation. Seriously. Many folks on the right and the left have suggested in recent days whether a $700 billion was actually necessary. My concern was that it would not have been enough. And now, for the moment at least, we have nothing. My colleague at The Economist [...]

Streetsblog takes us to a new report from Congress for New Urbanism on the highways most in need of demolition. Making the list is the Southeast Freeway in Washington. No disagreement for me. Urban freeways have phenomenal opportunity costs. You look at the SE/SW Freeway, and you see a highway which doesn’t actually deliver that [...]

Says the Post: Congress plans to take up a bill this week that would repeal the District’s gun-registration requirements and make it easier for residents to legally buy semiautomatic weapons, raising alarm among city officials that the measure would effectively end local gun control. Chiefs of the D.C. police, the Capitol Police, the Secret Service [...]

The Post also has a nice story on District streetcars today. Several thoughts. First, it seems I may owe Jim Graham an apology, since he seems to support streetcars and was only interested in determining whether the Anacostia line was the best place to start. So, sorry Jim Graham. Second, the Post documents the difficulty [...]

You should probably address this: The Virginia Railway Express recently has resorted to purposely skipping stops to deal with delays as more commuters turn to trains to get to work. The last time VRE skipped stops was the morning of June 6, when a freight train broke down, creating a backup on VRE’s Fredericksburg line. [...]

A commenter writes: What’s your take on the rise of inexpensive bus services between major (Northeastern) cities? I recently purchased a round-trip bus ticket (transfering in NY) from DC to Boston for $19.50. Clearly there is ample demand for these routes. Shouldn’t this be a case for more extensive (and more affordable) rail connections between [...]

Here’s Senator Tom Carper (via): And finally I would like to discuss a very important provision in the Boxer Substitute [to Lieberman-Warner] that funds transportation alternatives. The transportation sector is responsible for 30% of our country’s CO2 emissions. That is why Congress passed legislation that I coauthored with a number of my colleagues last year [...]

Sometimes I wonder why rail and transit have such poor reputations in this country. I know that all systems have some weaknesses, but folks are always going on about how rail is totally unreliable and a black hole for money, when in fact transit and rail in this country provide remarkably good service given the [...]

In another example of one of the hottest new journalism genres–the transit use is up story–the Examiner tells us that Virginians are headed for the rails: More commuters are leaving their cars and jumping on Northern Virginia commuter trains as gasoline prices quickly approach $4 per gallon. The number of daily rail riders spiked by [...]