PYZC - A. Philip Railroad

We don’t use this rhetoric for streets & expressways (or, I suppose, we’ve just now started), and folks there can often be less at fault than anyone hit by a Brightline train

I don’t understand the need to carry water for those who deride common sense and actively seek Darwin awards

In ALX, you generally either lived within walking distance of the train or a bus to Pentagon & most stations didn’t have parking. Now that taking the bus is free and parking is not, it may become a alternative to get to the red line if the trip is attractive enough, esp for Shady Grove or Rockville

Much like in Alexandria, where I lived for the past 3 yes, free bus will not move the needle significantly for folks who take the train or switch to Metrobus. One difference tho, it may get ppl to switch taking the bus to the train, since there are many more stations with parking in MoCo than ALX

Everyone is clamoring to use this as a “see, NYC can do it to” ignoring that:

- MTA has already replaced its fare boxes; Ride-On has not
- MTA doesn’t have a 20% farebox recovery ratio
- MTA operates more than buses

Free buses/transit makes sense for small/medium localities— NYC is not that

Or just a really nasty anti-urban/city streak in politics. You really see it in PA and Maryland politics. Nevermind they’re the economic engines for the state; they’re crime ridden and full of freeloaders and are in dire need of reform and re-education etc etc

That’s solvable via something like the IRT Lex transfer to the 7 train and making sure the bottom platform is a wider or

I’m extremely biased, but yes! Or just done median for both platforms

Not housing, but not horrible I suppose. At least it’ll no longer be a concrete eyesore

At a relatively peaceful, productive meeting, CTA board approved bus route changes, Narcan machines, track safety pilot - Streetsblog Chicago In some ways, today’s CTA board meeting wasn’t as dramatic as the May one. Unlike last month, Ald. David Moore (17th) wasn’t there warning the directors that they would be “backbiting snakes” if they ...

Good news Chicago! Changes to CTA routes are happening that will result in increased service and new connections. Take a read, esp if you ride the 53, 53A or 93!:

chi.streetsblog.org/2025/06/11/a...

Some do, but not all, I think? The newer novas & Xcelsiors have plug doors + touch exit & the drivers just unlock the doors, similar to Chicago.

Most all buses have a rear OMNY reader now, which usually has a red “FARE REQUIRED” screen, which ofc, does not prevent people from boarding in the back

How did what they said imply that they’re against disabled folks?

I see your point, but that doesn’t work for a 1:1 comparison since the bulk of passengers are already coming from underground those stops though. The larger point is that this is one of those times where the money should’ve been ponied up, esp since there aren’t any stairs

Fair point, I’ve probably been negatively polarized by BART SV lol

At some point, we’re going to have to (re)learn to be comfortable with temporarily inconveniencing folks to adequately serve the needs of many

At minimum, a left turn pocket, space permitting? Idk, I’m of the mind now where in situations like this, we shouldn’t cater to left turns if the traffic counts don’t indicate extremely high usage; cars aren’t incentivized to wait for a minority of drivers and won’t do so w/o physical infrastructure

JFC, harden the bike lane or ban left turns (or both!). These half measures are not enough

I feel like a King St streetcar in Alexandria would be really good. Just run it from the Metro/Amtrak stop down to the river

Tbh, the whole “Old Town Circulator” would work better as a streetcar, but the whole thing would need to be no mixed used lanes, and while I could see that happening on King St, the other 2/3rds of the route… 🫤

Just… woah. Honestly at a loss for words

So, the CTA officially at DEFCON 1 lol?

Looks like some of the NITA board directors will be made up of directors from the other boards, but the terms aren’t matching up exactly? For instance, the NITA directors that would serve on the pace equivalent don’t match what the pace equivalent would send to NITA

I think that requirement might for the NITA board instead? Happy to be wrong and I also need to keep reading, since I’ve only made it to the Pace equivalent (page 188 or so)

These board appointments, sheesh. I’ll also say I’m not well versed at reading legislation, but just btwn looking at the NITA and Pace boards, I’m seeing some discrepancies? Will do a deep dive later on. In the meantime, here’s what the NITA board of directors will look like

Trains adjusted and the passengers haven’t really followed; it’s been an interesting experience seeing the last 2 C3s on a Penn direct get crush loaded because everyone is used to waiting at the eastern end of the platform now

For the short distance & feeder nature of these bus routes, I can’t say LRT makes sense over buses + bus priority. I don’t think most of the routes would have the ridership to justify conversion

I don’t think the Batt Pk/Bowl Grn routes would work either, bus ridership mostly dies off down there

Check out my latest piece here!

JFK-IAD might be the most insane flight I’ve ever done lol

It’s actually hilarious that MCDOT is next door to DDOT, who’s building out bus priority infrastructure with no BRT, but somehow can’t absorb best practices via osmosis

It’s astounding how committed MoCo and MCDOT is to intentionally spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on low-grade transit “improvements”

There’s a serious argument that they should’ve just bought more buses and expanded the RideOn Extra network, since FLASH is basically just an express bus

You’re a Steel-type gym leader, post your team!