Philatransport

My Daily Data

2011-08-04T01:04:00.002-04:00

Nearly a year ago I put up a link to my commuting data, then only with a couple months of information. Now I offer an update: click here to open the Excel spreadsheet. It was prepared in Excel 2010, but I think 2007 can also open it... those with older versions will have to get Microsoft's converter and hope it works properly with the spreadsheet. Click "Enable Editing" to be able to play with the charts. You can also view it in Google Docs (which is where I'm hosting the Excel file), but Google converts it quite woefully... the Excel version is strongly encouraged.

The first sheet plots my commute during my year of traveling to Greenbelt. The cooler-colored lines are transit; the warmer lines are driving. You can use the checkboxes to toggle each mode, of which my driving has been broken up into three segments: roughly the Beltway & BW Pkwy (MD), NY Ave east of Florida (NY), and NY / Mass Ave west of Florida (DC). You can see I tried the bus between the Metro Station & my office a few times, but soon gave that up when it often took longer to go by bus than to walk. I also gave up transit altogether once cold weather set in, and once warmth returned: construction on NY Ave made my commute better and I ultimately stuck with driving. Only a few times did I have much issue on the rails, and even on the worst of days it was just a couple minutes more... whereas you can see that my worst days on the roads were far less pleasant. There was one day where I'd made it halfway via transit when I remembered I needed my car for a meeting... that's the trip that tops 80 minutes.

The second sheet plots my current commute out to Merrifield. It uses the same color scheme, but I deleted the car data as I haven't driven it yet (nor do I intend to). The two car-related items are just me moving my car per street-sweeping schedules... though I failed at that at one point, paying $30 to the city for the privilege of not having to move my car for another week. That's one problem of going car-free: you can forget you have a car. If you turn on the "DC Walk" time, you'll see that there are two days without an input... I diverted quite heavily from my usual route after passing McPherson & didn't tally the walking time on those days. There are also several omitted entire days where I diverted before reaching McPherson.

The third sheet displays data on train cars I've ridden & their temperatures. There's not too much data yet as I haven't been on this commute too long yet (it feeds off the same data as the previous sheet to/from Merrifield).

Next up is my personal health since 1 June 2010 -- the first day I moved into DC. It tracks numerous variables... weather is somewhat self-explanatory: higher values indicate lovely weather. Snow can throw it off a bit as I rate snow rather highly... nuts to folk who fear trudging through it; I look forward to that every year! Body tracks various variables in my physical form each day as well as several personal grooming factors. Sleep is also pretty self-explanatory... it's at its peak in the 6-8 hr range and loses points if I get more or less than that. Diet tracks breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacking on whether they were healthy or unhealthy meals. Exercise looks at a slew of different physical activities from each day. Lastly, Net is just the average of any data sets currently turned on.

The last sheet tracks how much I walk each day. It's kind of thrown off by a huge surge owing to my recent vacation... my hobbies are rather introverted back home, but abroad I become an outdoor hiker & city explorer from awakening to when my muscles finally give out.

Enjoy!

DC Metro Spiral

2011-07-27T01:49:00.002-04:00

I definitely should've thrown this up long ago, but I was distracted by photographing DC's Fringe Festival. But nonetheless, I present to you the WMATA Metrorail map... in a spiral.

The backstory is explained on the Flickr page... but otherwise the map itself is rather self-explanatory to any DC resident. It's generated some interesting attention among the blogosphere, with the commentariat pondering just what defines a "map".

My own two cents: a map is something that presents you with the info you need to accomplish a task, in this case getting from point A to point B. All the information to do that is there: I'd say it is a map... just admittedly not a good one; you'd have to be pretty eccentric to want to use this for any real navigational purpose.

Fantasy Metro Map - DC 2100

2011-01-21T01:48:00.009-05:00

Yes, this is an absolute pipedream... hence the 2100 moniker. While I laid these out to be at least somewhat technically feasible, everything shown would still require immense amounts of funding, right-of-way, and political will. What is shown are all heavy rail; I have a separate file for light rail / BRT systems (in Google Earth) which would make one's head spin (if you want to see an older version of that, check out this post).

Hosted on Flickr; click to view full-size

From Existing

First are the changes to the existing lines. First and foremost: the Blue sees a major realignment as it runs along a new line toward Fairfax & also crosses the Potomac at a new location. It includes a station right at the Marc Center, home to a new military facility as part of the ongoing BRAC realignment. The Pink fills in the reach of our current Blue line. I swapped these around largely because I felt it better to have each line go "through the city" a bit more than skirt the edge; and I also wanted to relieve Rosslyn of its existing bottleneck.

The Red and Orange still look almost the same, though only Orange was left nearly unchanged (I think). Red and Green are both pretty similar to their current forms, though each has been extended. The Silver was realigned a bit toward its eastern end so that it continues out with the new Cyan line. This was intended to try and provide an airport line (Dulles) toward the area which is least served by major airports.

The Yellow and Green lost their "bulge" as they reach out toward Columbia Heights; I had to take that out simply to fit everything in... though it does sort of cause both lines to take on the aesthetic of the only solid straight lines on the system; almost like a backbone of the system. Although it's kind of fun to think about aesthetics, considering the spaghetti nature of this map... I'm an engineer; not a graphic artist.

Amtrak, MARC, and VRE service are all shown based on existing locations, so any extensions that pickup new stops also show those new connections. Capital Bikeshare locations are shown based on existing dock locations as of January 2011.

What's New - Extensions

I've already covered Silver and Blue, so looking at Red: the Red Line extension out to Germantown pretty much parallels the CSX and MARC tracks. This results in some significant redundancy with MARC, potentially either meaning that the Metro stations aren't needed, MARC stations aren't needed, or perhaps some rebalancing of the two. The Germantown station is a bit of a bother given that Germantown has been developed so remotely from the station... so this would really function more as a Park & Ride.

The Green extension out to BWI brings each of the three major airports onto the Metro system. I actually have a couple different layouts for this... some vary in Laurel, either hitting Konterra or instead getting a better Contee location. Another runs east toward Ft Meade (which could be a security issue if traveling through there) and another instead hits Savage and Jessup. Then another terminates into BWI and I have a slew that instead head to Columbia. ...Though in truth, I think Columbia would be better served by new MARC service.

The Yellow line is realigned to run up the US 29 corridor. I have another option which skips Ft Totten and instead goes from Petworth to Manor to Chillum. This would help relieve Ft Totten, as it could become a hefty bottle given that the Yellow, Green, and Brown lines would all be on the same tracks.

What's New - New Lines

I'll start with Cyan, helping to offset the Red Line's crush a bit by enabling riders not destined for the core to instead ride something a bit more direct to Northwest and Northeast. It hits critically underserved AU along with Georgetown & then continues into the areas home to much of the housing for those very students... I'd hazard a guess that the average age of riders will be about 22.

Pink is the other new radial line, duplicating Green and Yellow a bit on each end; but pioneering its own way through the city. New attractions include the Hospital Center & Howard University; in addition to bringing some much-needed access to the western reaches of the National Mall.

Two circumferential lines are included: first an inner line (gray-ish) which hits a strong mixture of residential, offices, retail, entertainment, and recreation.

The outer Brown Line helps link the suburbs, enabling each of them to become stronger origins/destinations in their own right. The Brown Line has two recreational destinations which would likely operate seasonally: Brookmont (right on the Potomac) and Rock Creek Park. At some point I might readjust it on the south side so that it runs across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and serves National Harbor's Beltway Parcel, but the "real" National Harbor would still be rather distant & ridership would be pretty low among the communities along the Beltway... so it was tough to justify. I think that's all better covered by light rail.

What's New - New Stations

Of course, there are the suburbs which are now brought into the system & also those recreational stops on the Brown Line. The Langley station is located at the front gate of the CIA, potentially helping to persuade some of its workers to opt for transit. Cyan hits a variety of new reaches in the far Northwest, but the real fun is on the new options in Northeast: this area has been starved for some higher-capacity transit.

Increasing density in the core: Logan Circle could very likely come to rival Dupont as a city center, with the direct connections to McPherson (White House) as well as Union Station (Capitol) enabling embassies to find some primo options among the housing stock in these areas.

A new Foggy Bottom station (the old one being renamed to Washington Circle) can help serve the plethora of businesses & government-related companies in this section.

As previously mentioned, Lincoln Memorial and Potomac Park both provide sorely needed access to the touristed reaches of Southwest... these would also help offset the pressure on Smithsonian during the tourist season; although these two would undoubtedly become mob scenes during Cherry Blossoms... but at least it's two stations instead of our current one.

Potomac Park also provides improved transit access to the slew of recreational facilities just south (including a pool!) and I'd love to see the backside of the Lincoln Memorial be converted to a beach or something... I know, a beach in the Potomac sounds a bit far-reaching, but hey far-fetched is the general theme of this whole thing, anyway. While we're at it: we can take out I-66 / E St's massive interchange and put it to better economic use. Toss a couple CaBi stations in at Lincoln Memorial & at the Kennedy Center, and voila: a lovely riverfront ride instead of standing-room only shuttles.

While not "new" per se, I also combined the Farragut Square stations. The basic assumption is that they could be linked by either a city-built tunnel; or perhaps tunnels constructed in segments as part of eventual redevelopments of the parcels between the stations.

Shady Grove is missing... that's simply because I forgot it; just imagine that it's still there.

What's New - Potential Problems

Forgetting the sheer scale of what's shown, operational issues are likely to arise at Pentaon & Pentagon City, where 4 lines travel along the same alignment. It'd likely need a third or potentially fourth track simply to handle the loads; and both stations would need *major* reconstruction. Given that the Department of Defense owns one and the other is built into a major mall: both locations face some big problems.

There are 3 lines sharing trackage at Waterfront, Navy Yard, Potomac Ave, Stadium/Armory, Ft Davis, Benning Ridge, Logan Circle, possibly Dupont Circle, U St, and Ft Totten. I think that's all of them. All of these could potentially face some hefty capacity issues -- not necessarily that the train cars are full; but that the number of tracks & capabilities of the signals can't handle the number of trains themselves.

Keep in mind that this map doesn't necessarily reflect how the tracks will actually be aligned... so just because you see lines parallel to each other: in practice they might be crossing perpendicularly; and vice versa.

Other projects

I have this drawn up at a more technical level in Google Earth in addition to my light rail / BRT system map... it's a HUGE map that mostly covers the Maryland reaches. I also have a Circulator map for DC and have some rail networks (heavy and light rail) that I've been working on for Pennsylvania -- particularly around Dutch Country & Philly because that's where I'm from.

Credits

A big thanks to tracktwentynine for the base map, although there's not too much that can be recognised anymore. The small icons for Amtrak, MARC, and VRE icons were all lifted from Wikimedia and edited to fit more nicely. The icon for Capital Bikeshare was obtained from its website. The car icon came from somewhere on the internet... I think here? I can't quite recall that being the same site, though it's certainly the same icon. This was all laid out in Adobe Illustrator CS5 -- my first time ever using it; it was a very "learn as you play" experience.

Maneuvers/Modes and Volumes/Splits

2011-01-10T23:47:00.001-05:00

I threw together a spreadsheet which can plot modes and movements over time. Here's a link to it (capability to read Microsoft Excel 2007 or newer required). I've been using it extensively at work; I've spotted a massive amount of trends which I wouldn't have otherwise taken heed of... it's been spectacularly useful. Here are some screenshots of what it ultimately outputs:

Downtown Silver Spring

Friendship Heights Metro Station

The top graph shows 13-hr traffic volumes over time at a 15-minute resolution. The bottom graph shows 13-hr mode splits (out of 100%) over a 15-minute resolution.

The warm-colored palette is for motorists & the purple palette is for pedestrians, broken up by directionality. Specifically:

Northbound Vehicles - Bright Red
Southbound Vehicles - Dark Red
Eastbound Vehicles - Light Orange
Westbound Vehicles - Dark Orange

North Leg Pedestrians - Darker Pale Purple
South Leg Pedestrians - Lighter Pale Purple
East Leg Pedestrians - Darker Bold Purple
West Leg Pedestrians - Lighter Bold Purple

In the spreadsheet, you can turn on/off specific movements, such as which way motorists are turning. In some cases, data was available on which way a pedestrian was crossing, such as eastward on a northern crosswalk; or westward on a northern crosswalk.

The time span is 13 hours on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, corresponding to a typical traffic count. These only include vehicular & pedestrian data, though I designed the spreadsheets to be capable of including bicycles, trucks, and transit data. It's particularly useful with transit data, where entering in ridership can really help show the difference between measuring users rather than just vehicles. Alas, none of these include any data beyond pedestrians & motorists.

Plotting my commute & lifestyle in Excel ;; Transit Systems update

2010-08-11T21:23:00.000-04:00

Ever since I moved into DC from the suburbs, I've been keeping track of a variety of things in Excel... essentially they boil down to tracking my commute times (which includes both transit & personal car commutes) as well as my general personal health & well-being considering a multitude of factors. It's been interesting, and it's a project I fully intend to continue. Click here to see the data as of midday on 11 August 2010, but note that you need to be able to open Office 2007 files.

Also, having discovered that Google Docs can host Google Earth files: I now have a new host for my transit lines! Click here for the latest of those & open it up in Google Earth... I recently cleaned up the Indian Head Line, Beltway Montgomery Line and Beltway Prince George's Line.

MD Feeder System - FULL

2010-02-05T02:09:00.003-05:00

Here's a link to the full system hosted on Google Docs (direct link; .kmz file). I haven't been happy with the format in which I've been presenting it, so I'm just giving the whole thing to the world. I'm still working on the alignments for some lines -- I'll be saving updated files to that same link, so whatever you download will always be the most recent file I've uploaded.

In the meantime I'm going to ponder the best way to share details of each segment of each alignment... I may just throw the Excel spreadsheet up in full, too. But that makes for a boring blog... but then again, I'd prefer less frequent posts directing to new data rather than more frequent posts of nothing but endless streams of text. So I may start using this blog as a mechanism for linking to my Google Earth files & also highlighting major updates.

We'll see... I'm still drawing systems; it's just that I don't quite have the time to write such wordy posts. Suggestions always welcome. Cheers!

I'm outta here til New Year's

2009-11-19T02:30:00.001-05:00

Posts have been rare thanks to my last-minute preparations for my annual trip. This year will be taking me to New Zealand, so I'll be concentrating on my other blog, which hosts my daily summaries of my voyages far far away from here. I just hashed it together over the last hour, so it's still a work in progress... particularly the almost total lack of photos.

http://intentionallylost.blogspot.com/

So I'm off to NZ for a month. Happy holidays, everyone!

Preview of the North

2009-10-28T21:09:00.000-04:00

With GGW's post about a Green Line extension, I felt obligated to rush some of my own ideas to prominence. Here's what I currently have drafted for the northeastern reaches of the DC Metropolitan area... and let me first say that if my Southern PG Preview was still a work in progress, this is even moreso.

View Ft Meade Preview.kmz in a larger map

The Green Line is extended to Laurel. I later drew an extension to BWI, but I feel that's getting a bit too far. There are two potential spots for maintenance yards north of Laurel. Transitways branch off in all directions from new stations at Beltsville, Cherry Lane, and (Old) Laurel.

Here's why it's a work in progress...

First, one of my lines goes right through Ft Meade. When I first drew it, I thought "just line it with a secured barrier, put gates at crossings, blah blah blah" ... and then common sense eventually arrived and I realised that no military base in their right mind would ever buy into that. Security risks aside, the barriers would cut the base in two... their own internal transport would be hindered. So that's gotta change. What I post here is solely to spur thoughts and generate ideas; not because I think it's a winning alignment.

I might ultimately tweak it to be similar to GGW somehow... staying outside the secured area, readily servicing NSA & the southern portion of Ft Meade, and maybe linking into Odenton. However, I want to preserve some of the stops on the northern reaches of the base & surrounding communities. I haven't quite decided how I want to accomplish that.

Second, my Columbia loop out into Jessup just barely misses the MARC station. I just haven't looked into this much yet, but I'm sure I can finnagle a way to keep a connection there.

Third, terrain in Columbia is horrendous, and I haven't yet advanced my alignments to a point that I'm ready to account for terrain to a precise degree.

Fourth... well I'm sure there are more; I know there are more. Like I said, this is an early draft open for comment or brainstorming.

Cheers!

Elrich's BRT

2009-10-28T01:06:00.000-04:00

The proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system by Councilmember Elrich is getting some renewed press lately. I've had this placemark sitting about for several months now, so I figured I'd make it available.

View Elrich BRT.kmz in a larger map

It's based on maps which were on the County Council website in early 2009. I only assume that (1) they're still there; and (2) they haven't changed too much.

Preview of Southern PG Co

2009-10-27T00:06:00.000-04:00

With the Prince George's County Transportation Master Plan making news, I wanted to at least show what I've been intending for this area... I'll be curious to see how closely my own ideas match up with what MNCPPC actually proposes.

View Southern PG Preview.kmz in a larger map

First: there's a lot that's not shown. There's a line between Southern Ave Metro & Clinton, another from Branch Ave Metro down to Waldorf, a line eastward out of Suitland Metro, a line out to Upper Marlboro, and then a slew of more stuff in mid-County and northward.

To focus in on National Harbor, which is the confluence of all those colorful lines: I'm still trying to work out the details. The problem is that National Harbor's position puts a big kink in the system if you're trying to run from points eastward, hit NH, and then continue into Virginia (or vice-versa). Its spread-out nature, with the primary area around the convention center physically separated from the parcels nearer to Oxon Hill Road, renders it a bit tricky to cover it all without an over-abundance of stations.

Furthermore, there's Oxon Hill Farm to the north which is tentatively proposed to be developed into a PGA-class golf resort... that'd certainly place a whole new class of demands on a transport system, but the more I try and fit in a stop right at the would-be gates: the more it screws with the rest of the alignment & station placements. So I think it'll get the shuttle bus treatment from another station if it ever came to fruition. I'm still working on that...

View Southern PG Preview.kmz in a larger map

To shift over a bit, there's been a lot of chatter about extending the Purple Line past New Carrollton. I think it's a fantastic idea, though I'm a bit mixed on just where, exactly, it should go. This is why my one line goes to Morgan Blvd whilst my other line goes to Largo.

The west alignment, to Morgan Blvd, helps put a bit more ridership into the Morgan Blvd station -- getting people out of Largo and also helping those coming in / going to DC cut one stop out of their trip. It could continue south along Ritchie Road and then cut west into District Heights / Forestville.

The east alignment heads into Largo, where I have three individual alignments that branch out to span the mid-County area -- one line cutting right through the middle of Mitchellville Road at its end, another following MD 214, and another following MD 202. On the one hand, linking into Largo improves access to these three lines, which are intended to turn Largo into a hub. However, that could add more crowds to what would be an already-crowded station when game days roll around, unless that Morgan Blvd station handles DC travelers.

As far as continuity, the approach into Largo could certainly be reversed, allowing it to readily continue southward along the Beltway. It could rejoin my western alignment not too far south, either cutting over via MD 214, the high-tension power lines just above Ritchie-Marlboro Rd, or Ritchie-Marlboro Rd itself.

One problem, in either case, is down near Andrews Air Force Base (or whatever it was officially renamed to recently). That problem is that there's no direct Metro connection once you get past the Blue Line. I'm just not seeing a good way to serve AAFB whilst also hooking up with the Green Line. Fortunately, there are three radials which provide 1-transfer access to Suitland, Branch, or Southern Ave Metro stations... though it's still less-than-preferable. Its next direct Metro connection, as shown, would be Eisenhower Ave in Alexandria.

...And yes, I fully intended to put both Eisenhower Ave and King St. I wanted King so I could pickup the Blue Line traffic, but my route through downtown Alexandria had 4f impacts all over it. I spotted an approach from the west, and just happened to spot that Eisenhower would make a fantastic P&R... and since I got Metro service at King St, I didn't have as much need to put my transitway's station right at the Eisenhower Ave Metro station. That let me shift it to the other side of the parking lot, garnering a bit more efficient use of parking spaces.

So that's where it stands. I'll see about refining costs, ridership, and so forth & getting those uploaded eventually, but vacation is nearing quickly & there's a good chance I'll find myself on a bit of a hiatus at that time.

DC Streetcar System

2009-10-26T19:50:00.001-04:00

I haven't forgotten posting... far far from it. I've been trying to advance my alignments in PG County, particularly working out some kinks down near National Harbor. I may try and get those out as part of my next published alignments. In the interim, I just through the master-planned DC Streetcar system into Google Maps/Earth, presented here for your amusement. I'm going to start working on reconciling this system with my Maryland system tonight, as well as making some changes to my Silver Spring alignment per Dan's comments, and will hopefully make some more headway on my alignments down near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge & National Harbor.

View DC Streetcars.kmz in a larger map

The DC Streetcar system was designed as per DDOT's .pdf available at:

http://ddot.dc.gov/ddot/frames.asp?doc=/ddot/lib/ddot/masstransit/streetcar/maps/map_futurealignments.pdf

Color-coding roughly follows the colors used in the above .pdf file.

-----------

UPDATE, 2009/10/26

I just consolidated the DC Streetcar System with my transit system. Here are the extensions that came out of it:

View DC Streetcar Extensions.kmz in a larger map

From top-left & clockwise around... there's first my extension of the two lines into Woodley Park. One caveat is that the station remains on Calvert Street, creating a disconnect from the Metro Station. Granted, it's not a far walk at all (and certainly shorter than the walk to the Zoo); but it's a disconnect nonetheless. It's next stop would be at the National Cathedral, where it intersects with Wisconsin Ave. It continues on to American University, Spring Valley, Ft Bayard Park, and Friendship Heights Metro -- where it continues on as my previously-posted Connecticut Ave alignment.

Extending along the K Street Line, a turn onto Wisconsin Ave takes it northward through Georgetown and past its thus-named university. It'd next stop at the National Cathedral w/ the last paragraph's line. It'd keep northward to tie into Tenleytown, with a potential continuation along Nebraska Ave until its termination at the Rock Creek Park.

The next around isn't terribly different from DDOT's own intentions, if indeed it differs at all. Instead of terminating at Takoma Park, it's rerouted to continue up to Silver Spring Metro -- a hub of a massive amount of other transit lines. Just as well, because navigating Aspen St and 4th St is not a particularly easy task.

The extension of the line along Michigan Ave -- proposed to terminate at the Brookland / CUA Metro Station, would instead take it up to West Hyattsville. While this isn't a big jump between Metro lines, it does pick up a lot of infill ridership. West Hyattsville is also a transfer point to one of my circumferential lines.

The extension to the alignment along Rhode Island Ave didn't take much imagination: I just bring it a nudge further into Mount Rainier to link into the same circumferential route mentioned in my last paragraph. It could continue on eastward along said circumferential route, taking it toward Bladensburg.

On the south end, I altered the alignments approaching Bellevue by way of MLK, instead shifting them onto 4th St. This was because Bellevue is bound in by I-295 to the west, and shifting eastward picks up more folks in that direction. Bellevue is still pretty close to 4th St. On the west side of I-295 runs the Anacostia Streetcar to pickup the barracks of the military bases, and it then curves east along the south side of Bellevue. Improved ped/bike amenities could ensure Bellevue is well-served, given the presence of transit on all sides of its periphery. These alignments rejoin at the border and head south along MD 210, where they immediately merge into my alignment out of Suitland Metro, destined southward to National Harbor and ultimately on to Indian Head.

How precise are these alignments?

2009-10-12T18:08:00.005-04:00

I haven't been posting recently, as I've instead decided to refine some alignments a bit more. Since I'm in need of saying something, I'll response to a couple of questions I've received... by which I mean, a couple separate messages asking the same question:

Q - "How precise are these alignments?"
A - As I lay out my alignments, I essentially run through several draft versions. While my post last summer showing a national rail network (+1 maglev line) were 1st draft -- only intended for viewing at a national scale; not a state-level or smaller scale -- all of my other alignments of local transitways are accurate to about a foot. That is, if the line is along the side of a road: that's where I intend it to be. If the line is down the center of a road: that's where I intend it to be. So yes, I have considered whether it'd be median-alignment or side-alignment.

Also, as I was converting one of my alignments in southern PG County from 1st to 2nd draft, there was one point where I almost skipped a part thinking "if this ever came to fruition, someone else could deal with that." It then occurred to me that I don't want to leave any open ends... I want to try and address as much as I can now. Skipping anything -- even the more difficult segments -- erodes the greater respect for everything else. That is, one might wonder that since I skipped that one hard part... maybe I've skipped others... maybe everything only *looks* simple and is actually far more difficult. I don't want that; my goal is to leave no stone unturned. However, I rely on others' feedback to let me know what I may have missed.

Silver Spring

2009-10-01T22:44:00.002-04:00

After a hiatus, I'm back with a vengeance... or something like that. Running almost completely up the US 29 corridor, this line spans between the Silver Spring CBD and Burtonsville -- running past multiple east-west connections and also filling in between some of my Yellow Line extension stops. Ridership is high, but from Silver Spring to Four Corners: so are costs. While this only spans a single line, Silver Spring Metro is joined by the Red Line, the Purple Line, and my proposed line along Georgia Ave heading all the way to Olney.

View Silver Spring.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 4 - Burtonsville Line
Length - 10.40 miles
Maintenance - ???
Southern continuity - Terminates at Silver Spring Metro
Northern continuity - Terminates at Burtonsville; or continues to Cherry Lane

I haven't given any thought to maintenance... largely because it just doesn't pique my interest as much as drawing new alignments does. At its northernmost tier: I'm still not quite sure how I'll run my alignment out to Cherry Lane... I think I'll bring it in such that both terminate at Burtonsville; rather than continuing on as the other. Either way, it'll make more sense when I get to the Laurel lines...

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 5 - Silver Spring Metro to Spring

This short haul will require some major committment to get built, and as such is unlikely to be realised anytime soon... unless it were put underground, in which case the "5" cost would still be 5... but it'd be a much much higher 5. It's the same principle as a high F versus a low F. The good news, at least, is that ridership is spactacular -- picking up all the folk too lazy to traverse the CBD by their own two feet... and my assumption (and experience in knowing people who drive between parking garages) is that there's a good chunk of those.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 3 - Spring to Dale

Chasing along the reversible lanes, this otherwise nondescript line eats up budgets and spits out at least a bit of ridership -- slightly boosted by recreational treks along the Sligo Creek.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 5 - Dale to Four Corners

The route into Four Corners continues a trend of impacts to motorised traffic -- likely necessitating replacing general purpose lanes & some major bridgework over the Sligo Creek as well as the Beltway. However, there are some decent benefits: Four Corners already has high transit usage via the bus network, and the nearby high school helps draw some youth to transit. More critically, this is a transfer point to the Beltway Montgomery Line, running between Kensington and Takoma/Langley.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Four Corners to Burnt Mills

There's really not too much spectacular to this line other than its crossing over the stream and it's convenient location next to Trader Joe's... tempting me to rename the station "Trader Joe's" simply to try and garner free chocolate.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 5 - Burnt Mills to White Oak

Cutting through Lockwood Drive, this features a station adjacent to the White Oak Transit Center. It's greatest feature is a station on the Yellow Line extension, but it also connects with the Cloverly Line out of Ft. Totten. Each of them, individually, isn't a massive draw; but between heavy rail, another transit line, and bus services: they collectively make for the level 5 ridership... and when I say that, it suddenly feels like I'm playing a transit-themed game of Dungeons & Dragons. But apart from that, increasing levels of development density in the area also share in that ridership. ...That and the elves, those transit-riding elves.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - White Oak to Lockwood East

A short hop just to pick up a large transit demographic. I've had a couple friends that lives in this apartment community and have seen firsthand how ripe it is for ridership.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 5 - Lockwood East to Tech

Tech Rd assumes some higher-density development alongside a mid-sized Park & Ride -- anticipated to be the third of its kind heading southbound along US 29. This location was chosen for the P&R both for its existing plentiful supply of parking but also for its transfer capabilities: a Yellow Line station, the terminus of a line out of Ft. Totten, the terminus of a line which largely follows US 1 into Bladensburg, and the terminus of a line out of Beltsville.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Tech to Fairland

The problem with this station is that there's nothing there... but there's a lot near to there. I have yet to quite figure out what planners were thinking when they anticipated the US 29 corridor as being oriented towards transit along US 29... because some of the more notable areas seem to confound that logic. However, I still couldn't disregard this cross street as there is some ridership to be had toward the east & to some degree with the neighboring businesses.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 5 - Fairland to Briggs Chaney

Another problem with the "transit-oriented development" along US 29 is that by building a freeway in the middle of it all: it's pushed pedestrians away from where pedestrians were supposed to be drawn to. My line is anticipated to run directly beneath Briggs Chaney Road, with stairs linking up to each side of the bridge... maybe possibly.

This station provides transfers to my Outer Beltway Line (running between Gaithersburg Metro, Shady Grove, Konterra, Muirkirk, Bowie, Six Flags, and Upper Marlboro... linking almost every radiating line there is) and also the Randolph Road Line (joining Glenmont, White Flint, and Parc Potomac). Even greater is that this is the terminus of the Yellow Line extension, hence my proposed conversion of the auto lots to the southeast into park & ride lots -- the 2nd (and potentially largest) of the P&R facilities along southbound US 29.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Briggs Chaney to Paint Branch

Named for the adjacent high school (which I suppose is named after the stream), this would be anticipated to link each side of US 29 via pedestrian bridges connecting directly into the station. While density is low to the west, higher density on the east side & school-related ridership help boost the numbers here.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Paint Branch to Greencastle

With 1/4 mile radius rubbing shoulders with the Paint Branch 1/4, this isn't a particularly far-away stop, but I opted to include it to pickup some more riders out of the higher-density residences to the east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Greencastle to Blackburn

As with the last couple stops, to the west isn't much; but to the east are some higher-density residences. This station might be a transfer point onto a line from Cherry Road in Laurel... it's technically my alternate alignment in the sense of I drew it after my other route, but I'm leaning more toward this alternative as being the more preferable of the Cherry Hill routes.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Blackburn to Burtonsville

Assuming I run the Cherry Hill Line's 2nd alternative, this segment trackage with the Cherry Hill Line, both of them terminating in Burtonsville. Or if I go with my original Cherry Hill alignment, then it's wrap around from the north & both of these lines could continue into the other. However, while that latter one might sound nice... I'm not convinced it's really worth it from a ridership standpoint.

This stop could help revitalise the dueling shopping centers as well as the "village" of Burtonsville... a title the community has been struggling to (re)attain. The Park & Ride to the east is the first potentially rail-served P&R along southbound US 29, but the current location of the P&R and my station result in a bit of a separation between the two. Moving walkways? Absolutely.

(I'm not entirely sure if I'm joking or not)

Where we are thus far...

I can't embed Google Maps anymore showing the whole thing, as it's gotten too big that Google Maps doesn't know what to do with it. So now I've got to link to a Google Earth placemark. Click here for the Google Earth placemark of all the alignments thus far, noting that it may take quite some time to load. I'm really not sure what I'll post next... whether I'll fill in some more in MoCo, take care of some connector routes, start moving into PG... I'll decide that when I get to it.

Breaktime this week

2009-09-22T00:23:00.002-04:00

I picked up a concussion as well as a jellyfish burn whilst at the shore last week... foot-deep water + sizable waves = bad idea. Another bad idea is wondering whether that floating goo is a jellyfish or random garbage, and then disregarding it either way. So I'm taking a bit of a break... although if anything, "break" just means I'll try and get a bigger lead on posting stuff here.

With the recent jibber-jabber about a Yellow Line extension over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, I'm going to post one line along the eastern portion of the Red Line, and then I'm going to see which of my Prince George's circumferential lines I want to do next. I have a route going over the WWB & connecting into King Street, but it covers so much that I didn't really want to put it up so soon... we'll see.

Germantown

2009-09-15T21:08:00.006-04:00

The last of the alternatives to the CCT and the last stop along the Red Line's hypothetical extension to Germantown, this beast has a lot of far-reaching lines. Granted, the cost/benefit of some is a bit iffy -- particularly out to the Mouth of Monocacy -- but these lines largely provide recreational outlets moreso than commuter connections. Hence, the National Park Service might actually be a better candidate for funding than the Department of Transportation... granted, I'm not entirely sure how likely either would be.

View Germantown.kmz in a larger map

For reference, I've included the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT, in light blue) below overlaid with my alignment (yellow):

View CCT-Germantown.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - Damascus Line
Length - 11.25 miles
Maintenance - Old Baltimore, Kingstead, Soccer Plex
Southern continuity - Continues as Poolesville or Clopper Lake lines.
Northern continuity - Terminates at Damascus

Right up to Clarksburg, costs are low and ridership is high. The last two stations steal away a bit of both, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave Damascus unserved -- it's a tiny little burg with a bit of potential if it could clear out its parking lots.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Germantown Metro to Germantown Center

I can't help but be annoyed that Germantown's "center" and its MARC station are so separated, with little indication that the MARC station even exists... which is a shame, since I think it's a pretty station. This segment serves to unite these long lost partners. If the commercial properties redevelop with less parking, it wouldn't be a stretch for ridership along this segment to max out at 5.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - Germantown Center to Century

This station essentially replaces the CCT's Cloverleaf station. It's located in the midst of offices, but residences are also nearby. A grade-separated shared use trail across I-270 could link the area with the CCT alternative that runs east, with the trail connecting into Seneca Meadows Pkwy & possibly extending along the CCT alignment as a shared use trail rather than a transitway.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 5 - Century to Kinster

To pull off its ridership of 5, there are two key traits necessary. First is bicycle connectivity to the west: that pulls it up from a 1 to a 2, reaching out to people along the Waters Landing loop. Second is an assumed park & ride at this location w/ direct links to I-270.

At the lowest end, the P&R would link from/to the SB ramp to WB Father Hurley Blvd... meaning an easy AM commute, but you'd have to U-turn at Crystal Rock Dr to get back to I-270 in the PM. At a higher end, the P&R might connect to NB I-270 by joining the transitway in the grade-separated I-270 crossing.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Kinster to Dorsey Mill

In general, I have the station along Dorsey Mill Rd to get it nearer to the large buildings on Milestone Center Dr. I figure that it's not a compelling difference for the residents on the north side of Observation whether it's on Dorsey Mill Rd or Observation Dr.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - Dorsey Mill to COMSAT

A part of the CCT I agree with! I follow it spot-on, picking up the COMSAT stop along the way. I believe this is scheduled for some major redevelopment as per the rest of the Clarksburg area. I'm was pretty conservative in my estimate of density when calculating ridership, so there's a good chance this could get a 4 or 5 depending on how it redevelops.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 5 - COMSAT to Gateway Center

Despite the lack of stuff in this area per Google's satellite views, this stop has quite a bit going for it. On the one hand, I assume a park & ride here: the first of its kind along I-270. On the other hand, there's a high potential for higher-density redevelopment here given Clarksburg's track record. On on the third hand, on the other side of I-270 is a proposed massive-scale redevelopment that just about doubles Clarksburg's size. Shared use trails connecting into both COMSAT & Gateway Center would be critical for accommodating this development (grade-separated across I-270).

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 4 - Gateway Center to Clarksburg

Here I leave the CCT behind for good. The CCT's last station is Clarksburg, but it keeps on going for an eventual connection into Frederick. Personally, I feel that even without the meandering in Gaithersburg, a BRT or LRT line all the way to Frederick would be a bit too hefty. Even my Leesburg Line is pushing it, but at least the Leesburg Line forms a new river crossing connection & has only a couple stops before Virginians reach the Metro station. Frederick, in my opinion, is best handled by MARC... or maybe a Red Line extension so long as it doesn't have any other stops, but egads that'd be a long line.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Clarksburg to Clarksburg East

A rather short haul across that's now the "center-ish" / "core-ish" area of Clarksburg, if indeed there really is one. It's at least one of the main routes, given Stringtown Road's connection to I-270.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Clarksburg East to Oak Ridge

If this line were to ever be realised: it'd more than likely stop at Clarksburg East... unless, perhaps, a park & ride were included in the Damascus area to pick up traffic traffic coming in from Frederick County. It's this long haul which results in a questionable cost/benefit, but as I said before: I just couldn't leave Damascus all alone.

Oak Ridge forms an interim stop, chosen for its proximity to recreational facilities, schools, and a not-too-horrendous distance from residences. Improved bike accommodations could significantly expand the station's reach.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Oak Ridge to Damascus

The station brings folks right into (or out of) the core... like I said, there's some potential to Damascus, if only it'd replace its preponderance of pavement.

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(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Leesburg Line
Length - 24.72 miles
Maintenance - Leesburg, Soccer Plex, Old Baltimore, Kingstead
Southern continuity - Loops around Leesburg.
Northern continuity - Continues as Damascus Line to north

Farmers be damned along this alignment... now don't get me wrong, I love farmers & agricultural: I'm from Lancaster County, after all. However, the fact is that rural land is cheap... regrettably cheap. That's what makes it a target for developers, and that's what made it a target for this alignment. I tried to follow contours where I could (take out erosion-fighting trees in the process), or I tried to do clean bisects to segment a field into pieces which could still be efficiently farmed; but in the end it's still taking land from the very people I'd sort of prefer to side with. Dibs on stalls at station-proximate farmer's markets might be a tempting lure, though, in addition to due compensation for purchasing land.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Germantown Metro to Germantown South

This segment is shared with the Clopper Lake Line. This continues the run parallel to MD 118 (Germantown Road), with a station near to some higher-density residences, commercial properties, schools, and recreational facilities.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Germantown South to Richter Farm

The crossing over both MD 117 (Clopper Road) and MD 118 (Germantown Road) is complicated, and could very likely necessitate at least 3 station platforms. Inbound trains heading toward the Metro would vie for priority in crossing the intersection, with those inbound from Richter Farm likely getting priority as they would have a dedicated phase; whereas vehicles from Northwest could move with MD 118's green. Outbound trains would similarly demand different phasing for crossing the intersection, potentially resulting in stacking.

I'm half-tempted to grade-separate the whole thing, but I don't have much space to bring it back to grade along Liberty Mill Road without wiping out a couple townhomes or significantly encroaching on the building & athletic field on the other side. However, grade-separation would let me nix the 15 MPH curves on each side of the station as well as the operational issues posed by the 117/118 signal. Any ideas?

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 4 - Richter Farm to Soccer Plex

I don't think the maintenance facility surrounding the Soccer Plex's north side would have to be so large, but I highlighted it all, anyway. As for the alignment itself: this stop services a massive array of recreational facilities... all of them don't even fit within the 1/2 mile radius, there are that many. The Soccer Plex lots might potentially double as a permitted park & ride for traffic coming from Poolesville or Whites Ferry (though the former is addressed by the very next stop).

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Soccer Plex to Poolesville

Round One of my blazing through farmland. There's not much to the alignment other than sheer distance. The Poolesville station is right in its core, and with some good bicycle treatments it could be accessible from every resident in its subrural reaches.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 3 - Poolesville to Riverside

I initially had this stopping at Poolesville, but while typing this post I figured I might as well make the jump into Leesburg. It's an expensive jump, but hey I'm not playing with real $$$ so why not give it a whirl. However, after dabbling about in Leesburg I came to realise something: this city has an even worse urban shape than Prince George's County. I'll admit I'm not too familiar with Northern Virginia, but I'd had a stereotype built up in my head of a more progressive urban-minded folk; but my two trips to Reston in the past few weeks & now this dabbling with Leesburg have thoroughly led me to wonder just what, exactly, Virginia's planners are aiming for.

The top-tier price for this segment comes from environmental impacts, the cost of bridging the Potomac, and utility impacts given that I follow power line right-of-way almost the full distance.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Riverside to Battlefield

Owing to Leesburg's apparent plan of "huge roads everywhere", the right-of-way for this was pretty easy. However, the low density results in low ridership. This station is really just to fill in the gap between Riverside & Outlook Mall... this station could probably be dropped initially.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Battlefield to Outlet Mall

I'm kind of saddened by the name I gave this, considering there's a perfectly good historic fort within easy walking distance. However, where's the ridership: the fort with a tiny parking lot, or the shopping center with the sea of asphalt? Bingo.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Outlet Mall to Leesburg East

This includes a grade-separated crossing of US 15. The Leesburg East station has the potential to enable lots of businesses to clear out the pavement; or at least redevelop & reorient their buildings. With the Washington & Old Dominion Trail but a short walk/ride away, this area has definite potential.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Leesburg East to Leesburg

It took me a bit of effort to locate what I think is the more traditional core of Leesburg: the town just sprawls out so much that the core has almost disintegrated. Perhaps a station such as this could help keep it alive, with this station & the last station providing opportunity to compare both old and new.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 3 - Leesburg to Cacotin

One caveat of more traditional grids, however, is that turning radii for a transit vehicle can be tricky... hence why I attempted to skirt around it a bit rather than diving right through along Market St or Loudoun St over to King St. The trek past the Madison House could include a shared use trail, improving connection between the Washington & Old Dominion Trail and the Cacotin station.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Cacotin to Linden Hill

I assume there must be something to the east of this station, but from only looking at the satellites: my assumptions are that there's nothing here. That means that my ridership is low, the alignment is along the side, and in the next segment I just cut directly across it. ...However, I suspect these assumptions aren't valid, as this area just cries "development".

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Linden Hill to Schools

A lousy name, I know: Schools; but that does pretty well describe it, as by-and-large that's all that this serves. Non-school ridership is virtually zero, apart from those attending special events or recreating.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Schools to Godfrey

Dropping off a couple skips away from the terminal, this provides ready access to shorter-haul flights.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Godfrey to W-OD Trail

This won't see a huge amount of ridership, but it could capture some Trail users & could also pull in some residents from the neighborhood to the north as well as the more dedicated cyclists in the Ashburn area. That latter one might sound a bit of a stretch, but keep in mind that this provides access to a whole new connection over the Potomac; and being car-free might itself be a draw for a decent share of the Trail-using demographic.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - W-OD Trail to Riverside

The transitway joins back with the power lines as it finishes the loop by returning to Riverside. Some extra trackage at the Riverside interlocking enables a separate line to be run as a circulator around Leesburg.

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(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Clopper Lake Line
Length - 2.14 miles
Maintenance - Old Baltimore, Kingstead
Southern continuity - Terminates at Clopper Lake
Northern continuity - Continues as Damascus Line to north

This is a tough stub to justify, and the ridership assumes there's a decent chunk of outdoorsy people opting to visit the lake. Nevermind that there's a ring of Gaithersburg stations on the far side... but at least this line takes you right to the waterfront.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Germantown South to Northwest

[Copied from G*Town South to Richter Farm]

The crossing over both MD 117 (Clopper Road) and MD 118 (Germantown Road) is complicated, and could very likely necessitate at least 3 station platforms. Inbound trains heading toward the Metro would vie for priority in crossing the intersection, with those inbound from Richter Farm likely getting priority as they would have a dedicated phase; whereas vehicles from Northwest could move with MD 118's green. Outbound trains would similarly demand different phasing for crossing the intersection, potentially resulting in stacking.

I'm half-tempted to grade-separate the whole thing, but I don't have much space to bring it back to grade along Liberty Mill Road without wiping out a couple townhomes or significantly encroaching on the building & athletic field on the other side. However, grade-separation would let me nix the 15 MPH curves on each side of the station as well as the operational issues posed by the 117/118 signal. Any ideas?

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Northwest to Clopper Lake

Following a stream & terminating at a lake are certainly no help when it comes to environmental impacts... a bit ironic considering this line is intended to bring people closer to the environment in a more environmentally-friendly way. Nonetheless, this drops you off right at the shoreline: a great place for a picnic or recreation.

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(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Germantown East Line
Length - 2.62 miles
Maintenance - Middlebrook, Dickerson
Western continuity - Continues as Dickerson Line
Eastern continuity - Terminates at Germantown East

There's really not too much to this short line: it picks up workers & residents as part of the feeder into the Metro, with little else of interest to others.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 5 - Germantown Metro to Gunners Lake Village

This affords a rear access to the Dept. of Energy & could also be host to a decent park & ride -- assumed to replace what appears to be a car dealership on the northeast corner.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Gunners Lake Village to Middlebrook

I'm not entirely sure what that big facility is on the north side, but this stop helps to serve it. I assume it's probably some federal thingimajig. I'm not completely sold on this station location... I'm thinking of sliding it eastward to get it nearer to the commercial properties. No one likes to lug groceries too far, and it's probably best to keep shopping carts at the stores & not at transit stops. However, sliding it further east only reduces the need for the next stop...

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Middlebrook to Germantown East

This final stop does a pretty good job of fitting the residents around here within its 1/2 mile radius, and with the widening & extension of Germantown Road on seemingly unending delay: perhaps the right-of-way will continue to be readily available.

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(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Dickerson Line
Length - 11.11 miles
Maintenance - Dickerson, Middlebrook
Western continuity - Terminates at Mouth of Monocacy
Eastern continuity - Continues as Germantown East Line

A lengthy line with naught much to show for it, this is more a heritage line focused toward recreation & exploring Maryland's rural tier rather than commuting. ...Although it could support a bit more density around its stops, should those little burgs opt to convert high-priced white dwelling units (HPWDU) into a more diversified village-like atmosphere.

...Though it could also be argued that half of the stations are right next to MARC stations, hence the need for a new transitway may be a bit questionable. What are people's thoughts: could this work together with MARC (lower-capacity but more frequent service at regular hours; and providing a couple new stops), against MARC (outright redundant), or should it replace MARC -- letting the commuter rail continue uninterrupted between larger cities?

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Germantown Metro to Churchill

Shared use trails would extend in all directions: to Wisteria Dr, Ranworth Ct, Briarwick St, Lullaby Rd, and each direction along the rail lines. Indirect access would be provided to Little Seneca Lake, though the next stop drops people off at a bit more convenient of a location.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 2 - Churchill to Boyds

Environmental impacts pile on top of one-another in the development of this segment, with wetlands' defenders crying fowl. Heh... fowl... ha ha ha.... sorry.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 1 - Boyds to Barnesville

Perhaps the long-lost general store in Barnesville (why there are sun-bleached "No Parking" signs along a shoulderless & narrow Old Hundred Road) could return in all its former glory. There's also plenty of history to be had: some areas not far from these stations were important stops on the Underground Railroad.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 1 - Barnesville to Dickerson

This racks up some more wetlands impacts, but other costs are really quite low -- hence only a 2 instead of a much higher cost. However, ridership in Dickinson -- despite the tasty food at the local convenience store -- isn't particularly astounding: horses may very well outnumber people.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Dickerson to Mouth of Monocacy

This last stop is at one of the more beautiful places I've been to in the DC area, hence why I felt the need to take this just a little bit further from Dickerson. However, it's a bit pricey building this segment, and the ridership really isn't quite there. As lovely as it is, it's a long haul for a lot of folk throughout the county.

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Where we are thus far...

Click here for the Google Earth placemark of all the alignments thus far, noting that it may take quite some time to load. Next, I believe I'll return to the Glenmont side of the Red Line by introducing the lines out of Silver Spring. Given my recent preference for western MoCo, I might stick to the eastern side for a couple posts.

Gaithersburg

2009-09-10T22:48:00.003-04:00

Here's my midway grouping along the CCT's alignment. These here lines span out of the Gaithersburg Metro Station per the previous post's Red Line extension. These actually share a bit of commonality with the neighboring Shady Grove lines, as 2 of 3 alignments terminate at the same locations as 2 out of 3 of Shady Grove's lines. However, the current termini of both of them are such that any trains continuing on would have to reverse... a time-consuming process not particularly conducive toward running them as continuous lines. Any suggestions are always welcome.

View Gaithersburg.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Kentlands Line
Length - 2.13 miles
Maintenance - Quince Orchard, NIST, Hadley Farms
Southern continuity - Terminates at Kentlands.
Northern continuity - Continues as Hadley Farms Line to north.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Hadley Farms Line
Length - 5.37 miles
Maintenance - Quince Orchard, NIST, Hadley Farms
Southern continuity - Continues as Kentlands Line to south.
Northern continuity - Terminates at Hadley Farms.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Airpark Line
Length - 5.17 miles
Maintenance - Metropolitan Grove, Airpark
Souththern continuity - Continues as Outer Beltway Line to south/east.
Northern continuity - Terminates at Airpark.

View Gaith-CCT.kmz in a larger map

For reference, I've included the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT, in light blue) above overlaid with my alignment (green).

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Gaithersburg Metro to NIST

There's a chance I might be undervaluing the potential ridership at NIST, as I'm honestly not as familiar with its traffic patterns like I am more nearer to the Beltway. Between NIST to the east, the apartments to the west, and the commercial properties adjacent to the station: there's a chance the ridership for this could be bumped up to 4. That would cause the entire Kentlands Line to also bump up to a ridership of 4.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - NIST to Twinlakes

Improved ped/bike connections to the properties north & south could improve ridership projections to 3. Independent of the aforementioned ridership potential at NIST, bumping this up to 3 would also bump the entire Kentlands Line up to 4. Potential ped/bike connections could include a trail connecting into the roundabout at Highland Ridge Ave (to the south) and a trail joining into Wind River Lane & ultimately providing a connection to Dosh Dr (to the north).

A possible maintenance facility might fit in along Center Drive on NIST property. As with my past instances where I delve onto federal land, however, the legality of this might be questionable... well not so much legality as it is massive amounts of bureaucratic hurdles.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 5 - Twinlakes to Kentlands North

The big box guys to the north would take a hit to their right-of-way whilst their competition to the south gets the most out of the transit station. Unless both areas are owned by the same entity, this would likely be a major source of contention. However, the northern parcels still benefit from the redevelopment potential: right now parking lots face toward the proposed station; but bringing buildings nearer to Kentlands Blvd could capture just as many customers as those on the south end.

A possible maintenance facility to the west along MD 124, just north of Little Quarry Road, could be shared with the Quince Orchard Line. However, putting in tracks & associated signal impacts might render this facility a bit too hard-to-reach for light rail.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 4 - Gaithersburg Metro to Russell

There's a part of me which wants to bring this station into the mall, and then another part which wants to keep it near the peripheral businesses. I'm running with the latter thus far... I'd envision a trail connecting the station to the mall, landscaped with view-shrouding shrubs & trees to hide the parking lot that this "park-like trail" would be navigating through.

Or, alternately, the mall could flip itself inside-out: orienting a more "new urbanist" style design toward the station. However, those lakes could either be a hindrance or a boon... with the right landscaping, they could create a unique atmosphere between commerce & transit; but if left by the wayside, they'd be little more than an impedance to riders.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Russell to Montgomery Village Center

I'd thought about locating this station just south of Sedwick Rd rather than to the north of it. Its current location is chosen partly to keep it nearer to the commercial core & its neighboring residences, but also to reduce impacts to the lakes resulting from widening the cross-section. Unfortunately, this decision leaves those on the south side of the lakes outside the 1/2-mile radius. Bicycle infrastructure will be important toward getting those people to either the Russell or Montgomery Village Center stations.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Montgomery Village Center to Montgomery Village North

This segment crosses over the Montgomery Village West and Montgomery Village East segment. No station was provided at this crossing as transfer rates are expected to be quite low. Anyone traveling between Hadley Farms & Airpark would more likely just bike or drive it... and anyone heading toward Gaithersburg would be better-fit to stay on the current line. Those destined for stops in between (Spectrum, Metropolitan Grove, or Russell) could easily bike from a stop on their line (with corresponding improvements to bike infrastructure, of course); and those traveling to either the Montgomery Village West or Center stations could easily get off at either & walk/bike to the same destinations.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Montgomery Village North to Hadley Farms

Following along the power lines (always a major utility issue), this rather direct alignment terminates into what's expected to be a pretty low-ridership facility. However, there's a chance that this could be a rather good place for a park & ride lot to try and attract all those folks that make Fieldcrest or MD 124 (Woodfield Rd) a part of their daily commute. Granted, the Airpark station might be a better draw, as its line to Shady Grove is a bit more direct. If I ever get around to computing travel times, that might help clear that up...

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - Gaithersburg Metro to Metropolitan Grove

Pulled right out of the CCT's alignment, this station services the new developments along the Watkins Mill Road extension as well as the properties to the south. A bike path alongside the transit line could also provide ready access directly to Gaithersburg Metro & even onto the fairgrounds.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 3 - Gaithersburg Metro to Spectrum

Serving the other end of the Watkins Mill Road extension, this station takes its name from the property on the opposite corner of the intersection with MD 355. I am a bit liberal on ridership here, anticipating that Spectrum will be a decent draw... if it ends up being a more typical shopping center, then I might revise this down to a ridership of 2.

A large maintenance facility is planned on what is currently some untouched forestland and westlands. ...The environmentalists would probably despise me for this, but it did end up being a pretty handy location. I figured that since we already plowed I-270 through it, why not continue the trail of destruction? Alongside the Red Line's maintenance yard, I've located a possible maintenance facility for this transit line.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Spectrum to Montgomery Village West

As previously noted, riding the corridors of high tension power lines is sure to drive up costs related to utilities, and is likely to require threats of (re)regulation in order to get the power companies to "warm" to the idea of transit & energy arterials coexisting. Apart from that, this station provides ready access to Montgomery Village's core.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Montgomery Village West to Montgomery Village East

I previously explained why this segment crosses over another line without a transfer station... either go back and read about the MV Center to MV North Line, or just settle for my quick synopsis of "transfers are expected to be minimal". The MV East station is intended just to service the residents between the center & Airpark.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 4 - Montgomery Village East to Airpark

As alluded to in my section about the Hadley Farms station, a Park & Ride at Airpark could be a handy addition for capturing traffic coming southward along MD 124 (Woodfield Rd). However, to fit in a park & ride would require merging all the existing parking... essentially creating an Airpark Parking District (Airparking District? Sounds a bit too futuristic), and potentially necessitating demolishing some buildings & redevelop them with separately-oriented parking/buildings; or replacing one or two with a parking garage.

To add onto fanciful ideas: it'd be great if a ped/bike tunnel could travel beneath the runway, connecting to Snouffer School Road & enabling those folks -- some laying within the 1/2 mile radius -- to make use of the Airpark station. ...I thought about how neat it might be to have a bridge instead of a tunnel since then you could go plane-watching, but soon enough common sense got the best of me on that one.

Onto maintenance facilities: I'm admittedly not familiar (yet) with the terrain where I'm showing a huge maintenance facility tentatively located. I figure that if it were flat and easy to build on, there'd probably be stuff there already... but for now I'm operating on the assumption that it IS flat & easy to build on, and some planner somewhere has been specifically saving it for my pipedream transitway's maintenance facility. Safe assumption, right?

Where we are thus far...

I can't embed Google Maps anymore showing the whole thing, as it's gotten too big that Google Maps doesn't know what to do with it. So now I've got to link to a Google Earth placemark. Click here for the Google Earth placemark of all the alignments thus far, noting that it may take quite some time to load. Next I'll see about getting the Germantown Line up.

Red Line Extension

2009-09-09T00:51:00.002-04:00

This is to preempt my forthcoming posts for Gaithersburg & Germantown-based lines: an extension of the Red Line for two more stops past Shady Grove.

View Red Line Extension.kmz in a larger map

There's nothing too fancy to this: it directly follows the existing railroad right-of-way; albeit this would likely necessitate additional right-of-way to keep WMATA trains off of CSX lines. Hence, a 30' right-of-way becomes about a 100' typical right-of-way -- not itself a cheap endeavor, particularly in Gaithersburg: where anything beyond the existing 30' simply doesn't exist without demolishing properties.

I anticipate redeveloping the Shady Grove maintenance yard, which is conveniently located immediately adjacent to a transit station; but inconveniently a land use that's not particularly trip-intensive. To compensate for the loss of a maintenance facility: a new one is proposed just past Watkins Mill Road. Between this extension's new maintenance yard & a likely maintenance facility for my local lines out of Gaithersburg: I quite thoroughly decimate a forested parkland... that's rife with issues in and of itself.

I'm a bit perturbed to have kept the Red Line station away from Germantown's core (why did they develop the core so far from MARC?!), but alas it just remained easier to stick with existing railroad lines. My feeder lines will connect Germantown's core with the Red Line & MARC, located one stop away.

Coming up later this week (possibly tomorrow, depending on how many of my backlogged photos I get uploaded to Flickr), I anticipate getting my Gaithersburg alignments uploaded -- it's lines reaching from Airpark to Kentlands. Next week I'll aim for Germantown, which includes some lengthy spans reaching out to Damascus, Poolesville, and Dickerson.

Shady Grove

2009-08-31T23:53:00.007-04:00

Much of my time recently has been spent developing an ideal city pattern -- an idea I've had for quite some time. Essentially, I wanted to test how a standard grid system might translate to polar coordinates... it's all mathematics right now, optimising radial spacing and how frequently new radials form off of circumferential streets. Perhaps I'll see about drafting something eventually, converting numbers to image.

...I've also been wrapping my mind about getting ready for my trip to New Zealand later this year as well as still trying to finish uploading my photos from last year's trip to Ukraine. ...I'm just a wee bit backlogged on Flickr.

Back to these-here alignments: I really want to start rolling out my replacement of the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT)... but while I wanted to start in Germantown and work south, it turns out I haven't quite finished filling out the details of those northern lines. So instead I'll start with the southern end of the CCT and midway along my remaining Red Line stations: the alignments out of Shady Grove.

View Shady Grove.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Kentlands Line
Length - 3.36 miles
Maintenance - Airpark (on Airpark Line)
Western continuity - Terminates at Kentlands.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Airpark Line to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Lakelands Line
Length - 5.51 miles
Maintenance - Airpark (on Airpark Line)
Western continuity - Terminates at Quince Orchard.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Airpark Line to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Airpark Line
Length - 3.96 miles
Maintenance - Airpark
Western continuity - Continues as Sam Eig Line & Lakelands Line to west.
Eastern continuity - Terminates at Airpark.

View CCT-ShadyGrove.kmz in a larger map

For reference, I've included the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT, in light blue) above overlaid with my alignment (darker blue).

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 5 - Shady Grove to East Gaither

I'll never forget the time I was observing traffic at MD 355 and King Farm Blvd only to note how many cars were traveling to the Metro station from King Farm, and vice-versa during the PM peak. For a TOD: these people sure drive a lot. Perhaps this infill station will assist.

My original alignment went down Redland Blvd instead, but I opted to change it to bring it closer to the higher-density projects currently in development along King Farm Blvd; and also because I assumed that if the CCT expected go that route: so could I. No need to reinvent the wheel on that one.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 4 - East Gaither to West Gaither

This station services the new high-density developments under development in its vicinity.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - West Gaither to Crown Farm

Crown Farm is the site of a proposed high-density mixed use development... one which is presumably hinging on the fate of the CCT.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - Crown Farm to Sam Eig

This was originally the terminating station, but I recently opted to extend it out to Kentlands. While the nearby farm is likely to redevelop, I assume that this spot will have some Park & Ride spaces considering its proximity to both I-270 and the ICC. Given another proposed P&R on the east side of I-270, however, I expect that'll take on the lion's share of commuters.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Sam Eig to Kentlands

The alignment cuts the corner of the CCT before rejoining along MD 119... only to part ways again by heading into Kentland's town center, which is also the terminating station for an alignment out of Gaithersburg.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - West Gaither to Piccard

Trekkies unite! This station just covers some commercial buildings in the area.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Piccard to Fallsgrove

The alignment merges in with an alignment out of Rockville, of which both are destined for Fallsgrove.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Fallsgrove to Adventist

And so the alignment enters into Johns Hopkins territory. This specific stop is in its core, within close proximity to the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, the Universities at Shady Grove (USG), and the variety of other life sciences industries in the area. A shared use trail would connect from the station southward to the signal at Traville Gateway Drive, simplifying access to USG.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 4 - Adventist to PSTA

I very nearly skipped over PSTA... for some reason I keep forgetting that it's slated for massive redevelopment as part of the aforementioned Johns Hopkins projects. My station location is shown slightly westward of the CCT's station, mostly to increase separation from nearby Adventist station. If my station stays west, a shared use trail should directly lead southward to Travilah Road rather than necessitating users to divert eastward to the existing road, only to have to backtrack.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - PSTA to Belward

That large farm immediately north is also in the crosshairs for redevelopment. When I'm out in Montgomery or Prince George's Counties and I come upon a nice pristine farm like this, I don't see crops and animals; I see townhouses. Yeah, not a particularly inspiring thought... and furthermore: the history & intent of this farm was never meant for what's proposed for it. But leaving my personal opinions out of it: this transit line assumes a modest development on there... if it ends up being high density (and it likely will), then my ridership would likely go up to 4.

My station is located a bit distant from the CCT's equivalent Belward station. My goal was to both cover the Belward Farm property itself as well as the higher-density residential to the south. However, this does leave Decoverly and DANAC a bit underserved; albeit both are still within a short bike ride of five stations: Crown Farm, Sam Eig, Adventist, PSTA, and Belward.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Belward to Washington Woods

The Washington Woods stop is really just to provide a local station for the residents in this community: my gift for taking a whole bunch of backyards whilst en route to Lakelands.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Washington Woods to Kentlands South

I'm not fond of situations where I append a cardinal direction to a name: north, south, east west. Considering the proximity of the Kentlands South station to Edison Park Drive, I wanted to name this station something like Tesla Station since Edison gets too much credit. But until I decide on a name without my personal interjections, it's Kentlands South.

I don't expect it'll grab too much ridership out of the businesses nearby, but with a shared use trail connecting to the residents: I'd expect it could pull a good chunk of ridership from Kentlands commuters. It also drops people off in good line to recreate among the athletic facilities & lakes.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 4 - Kentlands South to Lakelands

Right in the core of Kentlands' more watery expansion, this segment would be quite expensive; but could also capture a sizable amount of ridership.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 4 - Lakelands to Quince Orchard

Most of the time, I'd say a segment like this is too short to bother with, and that the introduction of another station at so short a distance just slows down everything too much. However, this is the last stop on the line... so it's not necessarily slowing things down as much as it would if I littered the area around Shady Grove Metro with a stop every block.

This small segment furthers the reach into Lakelands, and both stops are a short jump from some commercial areas as well as a large high school. With some good ped/bike facilities: ridership could reach a pretty broad range despite being on the fringe of suburbia. No Park & Rides needed.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 4 - Shady Grove to ICC P&R

I originally had an alignment heading down Shady Grove Road to Redland, but then I realised I was completely missing the higher-density residential areas of Washington Grove. This managed to increase ridership whilst knocking a 1/2 mile off the total alignment.

The ICC Park & Ride is assumed to be just that: a large Park & Ride facility off the ICC. I assume that the area around Shady Grove Metro will redevelop considerably, replacing most of the surface parking with new development. While some garages may remain, I designated this spot as a potential overflow or partial-replacement facility.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - ICC P&R to Washington Grove

Washington Grove doesn't just serve the nearby residents, but it's also proximate to some decent athletic facilities. A potential shared use path through the woods, between the station & the fields, would help connect these two generators.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Washington Grove to Woodfield

Serving the nearby residents and adjacent commercial building, but with some bike amenities could take on some ridership from the industries skirting the 1/2 mile radius.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Woodfield to Airpark

Montgomery County's airport becomes linked into the carless world, potentially enabling the airport to take on a bit more air traffic. Granted, it can't handle larger jets given its runway size, but it could certainly expand as a feeder airport -- capable of handling small commercial airliners or private jets.

This station is also the terminating station for a line out of Gaithersburg. The transfer ridership isn't expected to be significant, partly because both alignments terminate here; they don't continue through here. While they could conceivably continue on the other's alignment (permitting the trains on this alignment to use a maintenance yard just along the Gaithersburg alignment), doing so requires reversing direction of the trains... generally a time-consuming process. Yes, you could put an engine on each side of the train: but you have to run safety tests before you start up again -- roughly ~15 minutes or so of delay.

So the goal is to serve the airport & nearby industries; not to transfer...

Where we are thus far...

I can't embed Google Maps anymore showing the whole thing, as it's gotten too big that Google Maps doesn't know what to do with it. So now I've got to link to a Google Earth placemark. Click here for the Google Earth placemark of all the alignments thus far, noting that it may take quite some time to load. Next I'll see about getting the Gaithersburg line up.

Takoma Park

2009-08-24T21:47:00.008-04:00

A short alignment through Takoma Park...

View Takoma-Langley.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 4 - Takoma Park line
Length - 2.16 miles
Maintenance - None identified.
Southern continuity - Terminates at Takoma Metro.
Northern continuity - Continues as Purple Line to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 3 - Takoma Metro to Old Takoma

Starting off at the Metro station, we make our way east through the business district before heading up to what I called "Old Takoma". The truth is: I really don't quite know where Takoma Park started per se... so maybe my "Old" name might apply to that first business district down at the border. Actually, I'm pondering adding a station there... it's just that it's so close to the two other stations; but it really is a nice downtown sort of area.

Anyways, at the Old Takoma station is a transfer to the Beltway Prince George's line, which connects Silver Spring Metro all the way around to King Street in Alexandria. As I've mentioned before: this connection is really more a feeder than it is something that you'd take the full length.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 3 - Old Takoma to Adventist

One stop further is the Adventist hospital. In addition to serving an important medical facility, there are several scenic trails quite near to the station.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 5 - Adventist to Takoma/Langley

This is all one stop away from the major transit hub of the Takoma/Langley Transit Center.

This terminating station provides transfers to the Purple Line, my Beltway Montgomery line (linking Takoma/Langley to Westfield/Shoppingtown via Kensington), and my Cloverly line. It also includes a proposed Yellow Line Metrorail station. The alignment of the approach would be such that a railway could continue on along the Purple Line alignment.

Where we are thus far...

I can't embed Google Maps anymore showing the whole thing... now I've got to link to a Google Earth placemark. Hopefully it'll auto-update as I expand the placemark... I'll have to test it out with my next upload. Click here for the Google Earth placemark of all the alignments thus far. It's alignments-only at the moment... now that I've moved away from Google Maps, with my next update I'll see about restoring all the stations and maintenance facilities to the placemark.

In the next post...

I've gotten a couple emails now inquiring about my thoughts on the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT), and also on anything I'm looking at in the Baltimore area. To address the latter: I have some lines out of Laurel which extend to Columbia as well as BWI; and I have some Columbia-centric lines which link to Security (the Red Line) and directly to BWI. That's as far into Baltimore as I delved so far... the truth is, I really don't know a terribly large amount about greater Baltimore. Nonetheless, it's on my radar...

As for the CCT: I think that with its current alignment it'll ultimately end up as a local bus line with fancy livery. It's alignment just meanders too much... like a local bus line. While I think the stations it serves are well-intentioned, its current alignment is more like someone playing connect-the-dots whilst ignoring the numberical order. Given the hype over the CCT and I-270 corridor recently, I'm going to return to a Red Line Shady Grove focus in my next posts: starting from the north and working my way south along an extended Red Line that includes Germantown & Gaithersburg.

Connecticut Avenue

2009-08-19T22:55:00.003-04:00

Shifting back over to the Shady Grove side of the Red Line, it's time to fill in a bit on what I left out in my first placemark. Here's the Connecticut Avenue line coming out of Friendship Heights Metro. At a little under 9 miles, it spans a rather formidable distance: adhering to one of Montgomery County's many spines.

View Connecticut.kmz in a larger map

I want to try a new technique for cost & ridership... again, a 1 is low and a 5 is high... so you ideally want a 1 for cost and a 5 for ridership. I'm going to give each segment's cost and then ridership. If anyone's actually following along with this, let me know which is preferable... or if I should do something different entirely. I have a whole bunch of data in a spreadsheet; it's just presenting it which is difficult.

(cost, ridership)
3, 3 - Connecticut Avenue line:
4, 4 - Friendship Heights to Chevy Chase Circle
2, 2 - Chevy Chase Circle to Bradley
2, 2 - Bradley to Woodbine
4, 4 - Woodbine to Connecticut Ave (Purple Line)
5, 2 - Connecticut Ave (Purple Line) to Chevy Chase View
3, 5 - Chevy Chase View to Kensington
4, 2 - Kensington to Rock View
2, 3 - Rock View to Randolph/Connecticut
2, 2 - Randolph/Connecticut to Loiederman
2, 5 - Loiederman to Aspen North

Chevy Chase was once a streetcar suburb, and if my memory serves me well (memory of history; not personal memory): I believe the line went straight up Connecticut. After a bit of inter-jurisdictional finagling along Western Ave: the line returns Connecticut to its historical roots. Granted, with the current Purple Line wrangling in this area... perhaps such a line may not be well-received... but the point of this blog isn't to meddle too much with politics. For the moment, this assumes I'm an almighty partially-benevolent dictator.

My current Chevy Chase Circle location could also place demands on station & vehicle design, as a station on a curve can be difficult to accommodate (because train cars aren't flexible -- even if their connections are -- gaps form between car & platform... posing significant ADA issues to overcome). Hence, it may be more preferable to locate the station on either Western Ave or Connecticut Ave immediately adjacent to the Circle... which could be good in that it'd preserve an otherwise scenic public area with a pretty fountain.

The first more-important stop located at the Purple Line station with the Capital Crescent Trail. Of course, the importance is in the transfers: this is your first major east-west transit connection. Beyond that, Chevy Chase View provides a possible connection into the Grosvenor/Strathmore line... or alternately, the next stop in Kensington could be the transfer point to that line. In either case, Kensington will also likely be the primary transfer point onto the Beltway Montgomery line, which connects into Wheaton, Four Corners, and terminates at Takoma/Langley.

Two stops further north, the Randolph/Connecticut station provides a transfer to the Randolph Rd line -- connecting to past I-270 to the west; and to the east: Briggs Chaney & then connecting into some other lines that ultimately wrap around to Upper Marlboro. This sounds a bit repetitive from my last post... that could be the case whereever these radials meet the circumferentials.

Aspen North is the official terminus, and this station is likely to become a major transit hub. From here, a line out of Glenmont runs most of Georgia Ave: from Silver Spring to Olney. A line out of Twinbrook also terminates at Aspen North. The way the alignment is currently defined, any trains on the Twinbrook or Connecticut lines could continue on to Olney.

Maintenance yards, you ask? I don't know... In Friendship Heights, the line would likely have to be continuous with those to the west (NGA & Glen Echo) such that the potential maintenance facility on the west side of the CBD could be used. There's a potential facility in Norbeck -- located along Glenmont's line past Aspen North & on the way to Olney. That'll probably be the best bet. It might also be feasible to transfer rail cars to the Grosvenor/Strathmore line & use a site I've been eyeing east of Grosvenor/Strathmore Metro... but that site is within the 1/4 mile radius of the Metro & I'd hate to turn that over to maintenance.

Ft Totten

2009-08-17T19:37:00.004-04:00

It's time for the other branch of the Red Line, this time dipping into the District to run out of Fort Totten Metro Station. This behemoth of a line comes in at a grand total of about 20 miles from one tip to the other... though I use "behemoth" lightly since some of my circumferential lines top that without flinching. Also included in this post is my possible extension of WMATA's Yellow Line. I'll start with that one, first:

View Yellow Line Extension.kmz in a larger map

There's no cost/ridership info attached with this one, other than the safe assumption that pretty much any heavy rail transit in this day & age is going to come with a hefty price tag. Granted, with cheaper ROW and people willing to work for less... perhaps now is the best time to get such projects underway (if only they were already designed).

The first big thing is that the Yellow Line would now bypass Ft. Totten. It then follows New Hampshire Ave to Takoma/Langley, then Adelphi Rd, then White Oak, then Tech Rd, and finally Briggs Chaney Rd. Don't worry, Burtonsville, you're well-served by forthcoming transit lines. The maintenance yard at the FDA would require federal approval, just as my maintenance yard for the Medical Center line was located on the fed's property at NIH.

And now that I've laid out the artery, I'll fill in a bit with my Ft Totten LRT/BRT line...

View Fort Totten.kmz in a larger map

Cloverly:
2 - Cost
3 - Ridership

Tech:
1 - Cost
3 - Ridership

To the west of Ft Totten, the line winds around a bit before hopping onto New Hampshire Ave, which it will adhere to for the rest of its journey. Bedford Towers is its first higher-profile stop, located at the intersection with MD 410 (East West Hwy / Ethan Allen Ave). At this location is a transfer to the Beltway Prince George's line, which runs from Silver Spring Metro all the way to King Street Metro... yeah, quite a haul... not intended to be ridden the whole way.

Continuing north, 2 stops later is Takoma/Langley -- destined to be a major hub. There's this line & the Yellow Line station, the Purple Line, and then a line going to Takoma Metro as well as my Beltway Montgomery line that goes to Kensington. All rails lead to Rome, in a sense.

There's some good ridership at Metzerott, Adelphi, and Hillandale. The Adelphi Metro helps focus some of this traffic into a higher-capacity line. FDA serves a high-density federal facility which is already making good strides at bus & bike usage among its employees.

Just past FDA is White Oak, the next major hub of activity. A Yellow Line station combines with the Silver Spring Line, which runs from the Silver Spring Metro all the way up to Burtonsville. See? Told you guys I didn't leave you out.

The last two stations are a bit unique. Colesville has a bit more population, but it gets a bigger ridership boost from its transfer to the Randolph Rd line; which runs from west of I-270 over to Briggs Chaney, where it connects with the Outer Beltway Line and continues to Upper Marlboro. I think that's my king of long-distance lines.

One stop later, in tiny Cloverly, is the transfer to the aforementioned Outer Beltway Line. In addition to Upper Marlboro on its east end, the Outer Beltway Line heads over to Gaithersburg Metro where it turns and winds up to Hadley Farms. It follows the ICC for a good chunk of its alignment, and sure enough this station would also be anticipated to have a rather hefty Park & Ride facility.

...Now for the eastern side of Ft. Totten. Long alignments demand long posts.

The first stop of particular significance is at Chillum, where the alignment again crosses the Beltway Prince Georges line -- one stop away from its other branch at Belford Towers. Just north is the Riggs Road station, which is a transfer point for the Purple Line.

There's a decent gap between Adelphi North and Army Lab stations, alongside the George Washington Memorial Cemetery. To put it simply: the dead aren't good at generating ridership, and it was tough to justify another station for the low density residential adjacent to it... but there's certainly no techincal reason why a station couldn't be there.

At Army Lab, the dense corridor of transit-served area splits apart, as the line makes a run around the east side of the former Naval facility. It stops by some large apartment complexes along Cherry Hill Road before turning onto Broadbirch. This segment is also expect to share tracks with my University Line... that will continue south from High Point station to head down to the University of MD, then continuing on down toward Peace Cross in Bladensburg. I'm still laying it out... I want to & try and stop at IKEA, the Comcast Center, and either East Campus or Campus Center... I'd like to have at least 1 Metro stop on its alignment, but it looks like that won't be feasible.

At the Broadbirch station the Ft Totten line meets up with the Beltsville line, which connects into a Green Line extension's station in... well... Beltsville. Together, both the Beltsville & Ft Totten lines run west and terminate at US 29 (Columbia Pike). This station, at Tech Rd, is also served by a Yellow Line Metro Station & the Silver Spring Line... which as I mentioned continues on to Burtonsville.

Grosvenor-Strathmore

2009-08-12T23:12:00.003-04:00

Continuing along the Red Line, we finally emerge outside the Beltway right by the Strathmore Music Hall -- an amazing venue if anyone happens to see anything there. While past lines have generally run out to lower-density residential neighborhoods, this one pulls together the region a bit more.

View Grosvenor-Strathmore.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Glen Line
Length - 6.66 miles
Maintenance - Tuckerman.
Western continuity - Terminates at Glen.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Kensington Line to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 5 - Kensington Line
Length - 1.67 miles
Maintenance - Tuckerman (on Glen Line).
Northern continuity - Continues as Glen Line to west.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Connecticut Ave to north or Beltway Montgomery to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 4 - Kensington Line (via Chevy Chase View)
Length - 2.82 miles
Maintenance - Tuckerman (on Glen Line).
Northern continuity - Continues as Glen Line to west.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Connecticut Ave to north or Beltway Montgomery to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Grosvernor/Strathmore to Wildwood

At Grosvenor/Strathmore itself will be the southern terminus of a line running northward along MD 355 to Rockville, functioning to fill in between the Red Line's Metro stations. To the west of Grosvenor/Strathmore: the alignment cuts over or under (I think under) the Beltway and makes its way toward the mall.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Wildwood to Rock Spring

Along MD 187 is an alignment out of the Medical Center station, which turns onto Democracy Blvd to join this alignment westward.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 5 - Rock Spring to Westfield/Shoppingtown

An alignment out of Bethesda comes up Fernwood Road and turns to join this alignment westward, connecting into the mall. Developer coordination becomes critical at the mall: the concept is to place a station directly within the mall... of course, this necessitates significant redevelopment of the mall's interior in the process. However, it could potentially bring along some big-time benefits to the site's owners.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Westfield/Shoppingtown to McLean

A maintenance facility is located at Tuckerman and Westlake, where the alignment follows the power lines (which would require coordination -- and negotiation -- with the power companies).

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - McLean to Hoover/Churchill

A generally nondescript segment to fill in residential service as well as service schools.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Hoover/Churchill to Falls

A generally nondescript segment to fill in residential service as well as service schools.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Falls to Glen

A generally nondescript segment to fill in residential service as well as service schools.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 5 - Grosvenor/Strathmore to Kensington (direct)

The Kensington Line comes with a design option, since I really couldn't make up my mind which route to go with. Toward Kensington, one alignment follows the stream directly between Grosvenor/Strathmore and Kensington. This direct alignment could be a great boost for downtown Kensington. More information on that follows further below...

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Grosvenor/Strathmore to Parkwood

However, another alignment follows to the south a bit before reaching Connecticut Ave... Parkwood serves local residences and also provides access to the Rock Creek Park trails.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 3 - Parkwood to Chevy Chase View

At Connecticut Ave, the southern alignment would join tracks coming from Friendship Heights -- following the full length of Connecticut Ave (hence why it's not explicitly shown on this map). This southern alignment helps cover a bit more residents and also provides a number of accesses to various trails & recreational facilities.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 5 - Chevy Chase View to Kensington

In Kensington, the transit station for both options is currently located along Connecticut. That keeps it slightly separated from the town's MARC station... something I would have not preferred to do, but the MARC station is a bit disconnected with the town & just didn't fit in.

Also, this eastern terminus in Kensington is a bit misleading: this is also the western terminus of my "Beltway Montgomery" line... it would be quite simple for trains on each line to continue onward as if continuous. However, for keeping my spreadsheet & placemarks in order: it ended up being more convenient to split them up here. So they're split up as far as name & color, but they could essentially function as a single line. The Beltway Montgomery line continues eastward to Wheaton, Four Corners, and terminates at Takoma/Langley.

Changelog:

2009.08.12 - Initial post
2009.08.25 - New format
Pending - No new updates anticipated.

National Passenger Rail - 1st Draft

2009-07-23T23:51:00.005-04:00

This is the first draft of my own high-speed passenger rail system, intentionally developed while turning a blind eye to the proposals stemming out of Washington (as painful as it has been to intentionally ignore it). I want to try and advance it to my 2nd draft level before I start comparing it to reality.

View Passenger Rail.kmz in a larger map

This all began when I plotted out the blue line. Don't laugh... it's maglev. Much maligned, I wanted to try and lay down a route just to see how it might look. Given the geometric demands of maglev (virtually straight rails for hundreds of miles), that meant avoiding mountains as much as possible... hence skirting along the east coast and then running south of the Rockies.

The maglev has 14 stops (though the last two might not be feasible given those pesky mountains): Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Charlotte, Atlanta, Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas/Ft.Worth, Albuquerque, Phoenix, LA, San Jose, Portland, & Seattle. Unfortunate pass-bys include Baltimore, Richmond, & Vancouver, BC... and it's possible that Memphis or Little Rock could also make the chopping block to keep travel speeds up.

Figuring a 250 MPH speed, this 4000 mile journey would take 16 hours... NYC to LA in 11 hours... Boston to the Capital in ~2 hrs (at 200 MPH). While the latter two transcontinental trips don't quite compare to flying, it's the "shorter" trips that start to push for the trophy... especially if you can clear maglev check-in and security faster than at an airport. If a maglev were controlled like other railroads, that means your wait for check-in & security would be essentially zero; whereas the airlines run between 1-3 hours simply remaining on the ground.

Maglev has earned such a horrible reputation, particularly because of the dead-end maglev projects in the real-world: the Pittsburgh line which would be hard-pressed for high-speeds and decent ridership, the DC-Baltimore line which is strapped for right-of-way, or the variety of proposals out west which seem to move at a similar pace. So many of these proposals serve only limited metropolitan areas: too short to get up to speed, and trapped in by very developments it's meant to serve. ...At least it isn't as far-fetched as LaRouche's plan, which proposes an obscene amount of maglevs even more plentiful than my other rail lines, inexplicably focused around the great economic engine of Montana.

I'm also working on a freight rail system. To that end, I'm plotting major ports and using those as my focus points, then branching out to major resource production areas such as the Midwest or Appalachia. I intend to keep my freight & passenger systems separate initially to see how they compare, then I'll start to unify the two systems.

Medical Center

2009-07-23T23:28:00.006-04:00

The next station up the Red Line is Medical Center -- located between two major federal facilities: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the expanding National Naval Medical Center (NNMC). As should be apparent to anyone familiar with the area: this is THE stop for anything medical-related, serving major three hospitals.

View Medical Center.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Ryland Line
Length - 1.61 miles
Maintenance - Shoppingtown; NIH (on Suburban Line)
Northern continuity - Continues as Grosvenor/Strathmore to west.
Southern continuity - Terminates at Medical Center.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Suburban Line
Length - 1.10 miles
Maintenance - NIH; Shoppingtown (on Ryland Line)
Northern continuity - Terminates at Suburban.
Southern continuity - Terminates at Medical Center.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Medical Center to NIH

The Medical Center platforms are located adjacent to the former (and now returning) Kiss & Ride lot. The bus bays are to the west on the other side of the street, and the Metrorail access is just south -- also on the other side of South Drive. It's admittedly a bit dislocated from the Metrorail station. One alternative may be to replace the Kiss & Ride with the station, so the alignment would follow Center Drive a bit more around NIH.

100% of the alignment between Medical Center & Suburban is on NIH right-of-way. As NIH has been a secured facility since 9/11, the alignment would have to be similarly secured -- potentially necessitating unscalable barriers along the alignment (resulting in tricky at-grade crossings) as well as security checkpoints at each station. More critically: any approval for such an issue could be made well above the heads of much of NIH's personnel -- even if NIH were to like such a concept, it might not happen. I hit this similar issue on a couple of my other alignments, particularly an alignment connecting Laurel & BWI by passing through Ft. Meade.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - NIH to Alta Vista

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Alta Vista to Ryland

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service. I've plotted out an extension to join into the Grosvenor/Strathmore Line, ultimately joining it to go westward with the next stop being Rock Spring.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 4 - NIH to Suburban

A maintenance facility was snuggled in just past Suburban, again on NIH property. This could be a bit tricky if this system is not maintained at a federal level, as it can be difficult to acquire right-of-way for such purposes. Essentially, no one can purchase Federal land... so you have to get a perpetual easement... and that can be just as difficult (or sometimes moreso) than purchasing right-of-way.

Changelog:

2009.07.10 - Initial post
2009.08.12 - Updated cost per new formulae
2009.08.24 - New format
Pending - Ryland Extension to Grosvenor/Strathmore Line

Bethesda

2009-07-10T00:00:00.009-04:00

While my Friendship station has another line coming off of it, the Connecticut Avenue line runs clear up to Aspen Hill... I figure I'll populate the area a bit with some other lines before adding in such a large one. So now I present Bethesda: these are all the lines I have coming out of the station, though note the Purple Line would continue eastward.

This alignment has one horrendously expensive segment (the very first one out of Bethesda; likely underground) as well as a number of right-of-way issues early on... finishing with some major environmental impacts en route to Great Falls.

View Bethesda.kmz in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Great Falls Line
Length - 10.22 miles
Maintenance - Seven Locks; Lyttonsville (on PL).
Western continuity - Terminates at Glen Falls.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Purple Line to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Marywood Line
Length - 3.47 miles
Maintenance - Seven Locks (on other line); Lyttonsville (on PL).
Northern continuity - Continues as Grosvenor/Strathmore Line to west.
Eastern continuity - Continues as Purple Line to east.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 3 - Bethesda to Edgemoor

It starts underground at Bethesda & rises up along Hampden Lane. Maintenance of traffic & right-of-way are a hassle at all times.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 2 - Edgemoor to Aberdeen

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 2 - Aberdeen to Landon

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service. The Landon station services a private school located immediately north of the station.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Landon to Pyle

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service. The Landon station services a public school located immediately north of the station.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Pyle to River

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - River to Holton Arms

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service. A school is located to the immediate north of the station. Given the proximity to the Beltway, it could be worthwhile to consider Park & Ride services at this location. The best apparent location might be along the school's frontage; possibly also near the greenhouses. A green-lined ped/bikeway should be maintained such that there isn't a sea of parking at the foot of the school.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 2 - Holtons Arms to Seven Locks

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service. Given the proximity to the Beltway, it could be worthwhile to consider Park & Ride services at this location. However, with the streams it may be difficult to justify excessive pavement in the vicinity of such wetlands.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 2 - Seven Locks to Congressional

Terrain and environmental constraints drive up the cost along this segment. This segment is otherwise a part of the push out to Great Falls -- a recreational destination; albeit with some residential-oriented stations along the way. It's location by a country club isn't profoundly useful as it's not near the clubhouse, but this location does pick up a couple more estates by being further west. Any thoughts: should it be nearer to the club entrance & baseball diamond; or stay where it is?

A maintenance facility is located near Seven Locks in a quarry which I believe is already slated for development... if a transit line were to get in first (fanciful thinking, I know), it might be feasible to build it within the lower elevations, capping it & selling air rights to developers. Maybe?

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
3, 3 - Congressional to Potomac

A pretty straightforward alignment. The Potomac station will require some coordination with the property owner for potential redevelopment around a transit station. Even on the other corners, a transit station could potentially permit replacing a modest share of the parking lots with retail & businesses; potentially with affordable housing above to provide more accessible residences for servants (a la Nantucket).

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 2 - Potomac to Great Falls

A long stretch which drives up environmental impacts in its last push to the end. This final segment is intended solely as a recreational destination. However, in order to build a more sustainable transport option to this natural destination: a good chunk of nature must be sacrificed to build it. I'm not quite sure that is as honorable a result... but here it is, anyway.

I'm pondering extending Marywood northward, where my Grosvenor/Strathmore line has a station along Rock Spring between Westlake & Rockledge. That'd improve accessibility toward the ever-popular destination of the mall -- one stop further down the Grosvenor/Strathmore line.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Aberdeen to Bradley

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 2 - Bradley to Marywood

A nondescript segment to fill in residential service. I've plotted out an extension to join into the Grosvenor/Strathmore Line, ultimately joining it to go westward with the next stop being Westfield/Shoppingtown Mall.

Changelog:

2009.07.10 - Initial post
2009.08.12 - Updated cost per new formulae
2009.08.24 - New format; expanded info
Pending - Marywood Extension to Grosvenor/Strathmore Line

Friendship - NGA, Glen Echo

2009-07-07T00:16:00.013-04:00

As my first post, I plan to start small... and by small, I mean "short but expensive". I'm going to work my way up the Red Line, including an extension I've drawn to Germantown. How frequently I post... no idea: my spare time is split between the pool, the Shore, and processing the many photographs I take each day. My goal is to try and do at least one post per week... but that will keep me blogging for a long time as it is; so I'll probably have to aim for two posts per week. We'll see... I'm not one for sticking to any sort of regimen, so it could be more; could be less.

For my first post, I've run two lines west from Friendship Metro. The first goes to the NGA facility and the other terminates at Glen Echo, more as a recreational station than commuter -- though the stops prior to that are commuter-oriented.

View Friendship - NGA-GlenEcho in a larger map

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 3 - NGA Line
Length - 2.57 miles
Maintenance - Friendship.
Western continuity - Terminates.
Eastern continuity - Continues to Connecticut Line.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 3 - Glen Echo Line
Length - 3.51 miles
Maintenance - Friendship.
Western continuity - Terminates.
Eastern continuity - Continues to Connecticut Line.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 4 - Friendship Heights to Friendship West

The segment between Friendship Blvd and the Metro station would likely be underground, with the grade transition being between Friendship Blvd and my Friendship West station. Clearly, this would drive up cost considerably.

The maintenance facility is a bit of a stretch, wrapping around an existing building. The facility is also located nearby two stations -- prime real estate for development, hence I generally try to avoid putting maintenance yards close to stations. Given the length of the alignment & the potential impacts of the maintenance yard, this line would likely be BRT.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 2 - Friendship West to Westbrook

In the process of this short stretch, I destroy tennis courts, swimming pools, and everything else a community holds dear. I think the pool could be relocated slightly... but the tennis courts could be a bit problematic. However, siting the Westbrook station here enables the use of an existing pedestrian bridge over the stream -- a nice perk.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
5, 2 - Westbrook to Sumner

Racking up my wetlands impacts while en route, the Sumner station would connect to both sides of the stream via a new pedestrian bridge.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
4, 3 - Sumner to NGA

Wetlands impacts continue to accrue, but the stream makes for a nice alignment to shopping center and NGA facility.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
2, 4 - Friendship West to Somerset

The alignment follows Little Falls Pkwy to pickup residential ridership from Somerset proper, but this offsets it from the business district. Should I instead run it down MD 190 (River Road) right through the CBD?

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Somerset to Kenwood

Along Dorest, diverters & bollards/gates might restrict cut-through traffic whilst permitting transit vehicles to continue through... potentially enabling the road to function as a thoroughfare without all the traffic.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - Kenwood to River/Goldsboro

A rather non-descript segment just to fill in gaps in service.

(cost, ridership) 1 = low; 5 = high
1, 2 - River/Goldsboro to Glen Echo

The final stop servces some historical properties as well as the small amusement park and -- more critically -- the trails along the Potomac. The Glen Echo station should ideally provide some grade-separated pedestrian access to the Canal trail to facilitate such recreational trips.

Changelog:

2009.07.07 - Initial post
2009.08.12 - Updated cost per new formulae
2009.08.24 - New format; expanded info
Pending - No new updates anticipated.

I figured it out! Real posts are coming...

2009-06-27T00:24:00.003-04:00

I figured it out! It's all so simple! How to show Google Maps in blog posts...

All I do is load my .kmz files into Google Maps' My Maps tool, and then copy over the HTML to here. I knew I was thinking too far into it... This is actually just a note to myself so I don't forget how to do it.

I've been tweaking alignments, adding more lines, and so forth... Columbia and Annapolis now have their own systems, too. My next step is to input data into spreadsheets to provide basic info on cost and ridership of each segment. Then I'll start posting each line, one by one... I'm up to about 100 different lines.

These alignment are all an exercise of thought... not meant to be any cure-all answer to transportation or even a good idea per se. They're just my doodles that I wanted to share with the world, provided at least one person stumbles upon this blog.

Here is what I have been working on...

2009-06-02T01:21:00.001-04:00

Here is what I have been working on... transit lines for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties (as well as some dabbling into neighboring jurisdictions).

I'm hoping to figure out how to set up an applet so I can go through one transit line at a time, but a lack of free time (since most free time is spent working on uploading photos to Flickr or working on these transit lines) means I haven't bothered to put much effort into figuring out Google Maps applets... anyone care to enlighten?