More WMATA projecting

The Rethink College Park blog has another idea for WMATA subway system expansion, outlined in the blog entry "Visionary Metro Proposal - Seeing Purple, Silver, and Green."

WMATA expansion idea by Eric Fidler for Rethink College Park.

Granted, its intention is different than say mine, which is a focus on repopulation and revitalization of the center city, not the suburbs. (See the discussion of polycentric transit system organization as discussed in Steve Belmont's Cities in Full.) However, I do appreciate their interest in remaking ""College Park as a major Maryland Transit Hub within a greatly expanded regional transit system."

Note that they should consider another idea of mine that I haven't diagrammed. In the context of DC's streetcar studies, there is a cross-town line proposed that starts up Woodley Park way and terminates in Brookland. I propose a "University Line"--starting with spurs at Georgetown and American University, proceeding cross-town to skirt Howard University, and continue across to the Washington Hospital Center (the #1 destination in the city without subway service), Trinity University and Catholic University.

Rather than terminating in Brookland, the line could be extended out Michigan Avenue, Queens Chapel Road, and Adelphi Road into the University of Maryland campus (also providing service to a PGCC campus on the way), over to the College Park green line station and back through south campus to Adelphi Road and back.

Also, I suggested a ninth streetcar line up Rhode Island Avenue, from the metro station, to as far as Laurel. This idea started in terms of thinking about the Gateway Arts District and the University of Maryland and the revitalization of the Route 1 corridor, but Peter Shapiro (ex PG County Councilmember) made the point that service to Laurel would be worth considering...

Other WMATA expansion ideas come from Howard County. See this blog entry "Transit for Howard County and Rethinking Sprawl and Refocusing upon the Core."

Proposed heavy rail transit system for Howard County, from the Howard County blog.

And there is the idea of a truly regional railroad system as diagrammed by Dan Malouff of Beyond DC.


This brings me back to something I've been mentioning for most of the last year, that transit advocates in the region--from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, and perhaps as far south as Richmond--need to organize an annual conference that would alternate locations amongst the regions and build a common advocacy "platform" and work to get it accomplished.

There are issues that will make consensus difficult:

1. Centralization vs. decentralization in transit (e.g., many of the beyond the Beltway rail expansion proposals are more about enabling more development--sprawl?--rather than compact development).

2. As Dan M. points out, extant railroad systems makes it possible to provide service to some areas more easily by rail than by building new heavy or light rail systems. (Such as service to Annapolis from Baltimore and Washington.)

Still, perhaps the energy of students such as those at the Rethink College Park site can be harnessed to get this conference off the ground. I know that the increasing number of responsibilities I have make it impossible for me to take this on in 2007. And this needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Index Keywords: transit