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BeyondDC

@beyonddc.bsky.social
915 followers 141 following 570 posts

Urbanism & transportation, WashDC. Planner, professor, longtime GGWash. Trying for joy rather than doom & dunks; not always succeeding.

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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 15h
La Sombrona?
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Agree or disagree: "Most places seeking big transit capital projects are now more likely to succeed if they do not seek federal funding assistance."
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Giving away tons of city land for free is fine with Mendo though, as long as it's used for parking.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
In another universe, this little sliver of land was going to be the railyard for the Crystal City / Columbia Pike streetcar
Sliver of land that would've been the railyardRendering of the Crystal City portion of the streetcar, now the Metroway busway
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Bikepedantic @pedantic.bike · 01/10/2026
brb, tattooing “we don’t need to study the study" on my lower back
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Long Bridge construction!
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 05/06/2025
I know America can build things quickly and efficiently because we do it for cars all the time. The slow, arduous permitting and construction processes we have for public transit, bike infrastructure, green energy, and housing are a policy choice that we are free to stop making whenever we want.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Toll revenue on I-66 & I-395 goes to transit. Do you want to be the person who manages that program? They're hiring. novatransit.org/employment-o...
Signs for the 66 tollway
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
There's no actual plan to build Metro here. It is just continuing to preserve the space to potentially maybe do something sometime, as opposed to VDOT's previous plan which would have eliminated the possibility.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
After years of insisting it wasn't possible, lo and behold. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/t...
nbcwashington.com
495 express lanes: VDOT expansion plan makes room for Metro along Wilson Bridge
The plan could improve one of the worst bottlenecks in the D.C. region: The Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
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Barbara Samuels @bsamuels72.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Of course it does. The poor always pay more. “Public policy often helps spread the cost of geographically concentrated catastrophe risks, while the risks that contribute to high insurance costs in cities remain largely within the private homeowners market.”
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It's part of a metro area of 20+ million. City limits are arbitrary.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Baltimore map in the #WMATA style by u/BurmudaNiccholas at www.reddit.com/r/WMATA/comm...
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Inside every architect there are two wolves constantly fighting.
One is neotraditional and the other is reflective glass.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Riding like royalty in my private cab.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
No idea; it moved away quickly. I didn't know they had one!
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
There is a Metro train with a Texas A&M ad wrap, which I find hilarious given the state of transit in College Station. OTOH I guess it's encouraging someone there embraces the cultural difference? Sadly I wasn't fast enough to get a pic. Sorry Texas stans.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In Maryland, the Dept. of Transportation can take land first and argue about the price later for highways, but for rail transit it can't get control of the land until the price is finally determined. This was a sizable factor in Purple Line delays & cost overruns.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"This was fine when DDOT was busy with low hanging fruit, but in later years when more difficult projects came forward it made her more of an impediment."
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
MMB's bike record is easy: "Like most topics, she never cared about bikes one way or the other except as a political asset or liability. She mostly let DDOT do whatever it wanted, unless someone politically more powerful than cyclists complained, in which case she stepped in to prevent the project."
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Sorta but not immediately. Hippo is at 21st & H. Arch is on Eye St a bit west of its corner w/ 21st.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
DC already has a triumphal arch, FYI
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Where was DC on this?
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think you'd want to keep BOS and GY together as groups.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
We don't need to be giving New Yorkers this kind of ammunition to start misnaming our lines. Definitely prefer the two-letter abbrevs.
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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
It’s a giant problem
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
There are not.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Basically they are doing through-running on the Brunswick & Camden lines, switching at the Brentwood rail yard just north of Union Station. It's a clever experiment if nothing else.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Maryland's two most important economic centers are Montgomery County & Baltimore, and there's never been a direct train between them. Well, this'll be pretty roundabout. Hard to exactly call it "direct." But it'll be interesting to see if riders materialize. Fascinating experiment.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Found it! web.archive.org/web/20081019...
web.archive.org
Beyond FasTracks: A Vision for Denver Transit
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
He's trying to make the city a monument to himself to futureproof his legacy. He wants future generations to venerate him and knows he's not getting it via politics. So: Construction of anything he can put his name on. And it plays to the base! "Cleaning up that Dem mess," no matter how untrue.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This was *the* signature Dulles corridor highrise through the 80s & 90s.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The Tysons Sheraton—one of the earliest & most recognizable Tysons landmark highrises—could be demolished for townhouses & duplexes. www.ffxnow.com/2026/09/01/h...
ffxnow.com
Housing developer seeks to demolish Sheraton Tysons Hotel instead of converting it | FFXnow
Previous Image 1/2 Next Image The owner of the vacant Sheraton Tysons Hotel is rethinking its plans for the property, which has been sitting untouched more than two years after Fairfax County leaders ...
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Kansas Ave Red Line station would be an instant NoMa
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alex davis @alexdavistransit.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
okay, this convinced me to go see it
Coyote smushed on the front of the rail runner
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d. reed, crisp & juicy enjoyer 🦀🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇾 @justupthepike.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
sometimes i feel like i’m screaming into the void: helping people, especially trans people, move to safety and opportunity is what the yimby/pro-homes movement is all about. but the movement, as it grows and seeks legitimacy, feels quite indifferent to us
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Only sorta escaped. They built that one tall building downtown, freaked out, and changed the rules to never allow anything as tall again. Gaithersburg & Rockville are both good at New Urbanism, but don't allow Bethesda/Silver Spring like high-rises.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Shorter buildings at lower density, and they operate in a region where this has been normalized thanks to neighboring jurisdictions.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Well they'd never name anything the Gay of America.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Silver Spring, Bethesda, Ballston... they'd all be ye old timey main streets with 2 story buildings and a bunch of parking lots if they were incorporated towns. The secret sauce of the DMV's TOD success is county level governance: Zoning by a few large jurisdictions rather than many small ones.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Artist housing is the perfect nimby dodge, to the extent (in my opinion up towards 100%) that nimbyism is about protecting neighborhood social status. Art is a high-status, low-income occupation. Artist housing lets you claim to be inclusive while still excluding all the low-status people..
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
E-bikes are a national security issue. theconversation.com/the-worlds-2...
theconversation.com
The world’s 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars
Electric vehicles get all the press – but it’s the smaller unsung two wheelers cutting oil demand the most.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Love PEI!
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
... Which, BTW, is the precise base reason the US road safety record is so horrendous. We've built a system (and adopted design standards) that teach drivers to turn off their brains and drive mindlessly. Safety requires vigilant attention. Oops.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
It's because roundabouts require drivers to engage their brains and use mental energy to navigate, which is a bigger sin to cars-first thinkers than asking them to wait at a red light. Carbrain in the US is first and foremost about mental conservatism.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Montgomery County putting up speed cameras in Silver Spring targeting drivers who floor it to beat green lights. Colesville at Georgia and at University. Two really dangerous places for any driver to ever floor it. Good! wtop.com/montgomery-c...
wtop.com
Green means go — but not 12 mph over the speed limit in Montgomery Co. - WTOP News
The name “Speed on Green” is part of a plan to expand the same technology used at sites where red-light cameras are deployed to work when that light is green as well.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Rare situation where I think the answer is probably to convert it to limited access. ggwash.org/view/104582/...
ggwash.org
Can we fix Maryland’s “Highway of Death”?
With packed traffic and high speeders, Route 210 makes it intimidating to drive from Charles County into Prince George’s County and DC. Why is the roadway so unsafe, and what solutions could it safer ...
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I'm sure people will get mad at @humantransit.bsky.social for saying this, but he's right. Campaigning on fare-free transit shrinks the coalition of people willing to invest in public transportation. It endangers transit's survival. humantransit.org/2026/08/an-i...
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DC YIMBYs @dcyimbys.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
There are parts of DC less than 200 feet from a metro where anything denser than a single family home is literally illegal. And the Zoning Handbook is really clear about why.
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BeyondDC @beyonddc.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Incredible that Seattle has passed Chicago & Philadelphia.
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