Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Virginia

Decades in the Works, D.C.’s Silver Line Opens to Commuters

By Katie Pearce | Jul 28, 2014 | 3 Comments

Half a century ago, when Dulles International Airport was constructed in the farmlands of Virginia, planners were forming a blueprint for the Washington region’s new Metro system. Back then, they ruled out the idea of stretching the rail line 30 miles beyond the capital through rural counties to connect with the airport. Such a line […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Good Riddance, “Level of Service”

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 15, 2014 | 4 Comments

All the buzz right now is about Arlington, Virginia — the DC suburb has seen its population rise and its car traffic drop since the 1980s. How did they do it? It could be a lesson for Palo Alto, California, which is considering various growth proposals, including one that would invite greater density as long as […]

Talking Headways Podcast: A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings In the Metro

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 13, 2014 | 3 Comments

The metro is coming to Loudon County, Virginia. Eventually. The Silver Line expansion that opens this summer will only go as far as Reston, but by 2018 it’ll be in Loudon, one of the nation’s fastest-growing — and wealthiest — counties. As the county’s population continues to grow — especially among communities of color — will […]

Parking Craters Aren’t Just Ugly, They’re a Cancer on Your City’s Downtown

By Payton Chung | Apr 10, 2014 | 12 Comments

Streetsblog’s Parking Madness competition has highlighted the blight that results when large surface parking lots take over a city’s downtown. Even though Rochester, winner of 2014’s Golden Crater, certainly gains bragging rights, all of the competitors have something to worry about: Cumulatively, the past 50 years of building parking have had a debilitating effect on America’s downtowns. […]

WSJ Invites More Ignorant Anti-Bike Zealots to Sully Its Pages

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 11, 2013 | 37 Comments

Law professor Frank H. Buckley seems to want to be the next Dororthy Rabinowitz. That is, he wants to gain notoriety by clinging to old and unsafe street designs while, simultaneously, shoring up the Wall Street Journal’s reputation as a bastion of change-averse curmudgeons. Done and done. Buckley wrote an op-ed in Friday’s Journal about […]

Will Terry McCauliffe Sign Off on a Notorious Sprawl Project in NoVa?

By Katie Pearce | Nov 7, 2013 | 6 Comments

With Terry McAuliffe about to move in to the Virginia governor’s mansion, it’s unclear what will become of one of the state’s most contested transportation proposals — the Bi-County Parkway, a $440 million highway in the outer D.C. suburbs. Though it seems likely the current administration of Republican Governor Bob McDonnell will make a forceful […]

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