Asking the wrong question #2

Transit. WMATA no longers does regional transit planning. Individual jurisdictions pursue their own projects, independent of setting regional priorities. And independent of setting regional priorities focused on generating the most riders. The Dulles subway proposal is very expensive. That's okay, but it doesn't generate great ridership either. Anyway to build it, Virginia should create its own urban renewal district, put out the bonds, and pay for it without federal funding. And in the interim, we need to change transit planning responsibilities within the region.

See "Dulles Rail Project All but Dead: With Federal Funding at Risk, Some in Va. Say Demands for Major Revisions Can't Be Met," "Dulles Derailed: The feds have a lot of explaining to do," and "Raw Fisher: Metro to Dulles: What Next?," "'Does Not Appear to Be a Prudent Investment' " and "Dulles Rail Project Verging on Collapse: Federal Officials Won't Fund Plan Without Major Changes," all from the Post.

Anyway, the yellow line in Portland was built after three defeats of bonding proposals. It was kind of complicated. Statewide votes were required because original proposals had the line running from Vancouver, Washington to Portland, and then further west into the suburbs. So they slimmed down the route to serve just the City of Portland, and they created an urban renewal district, with bonds against anticipated increases from property tax revenue to pay for it.

But that's Virginia's problem.

We still need to deal with the overarching problem of coming up with a better way to plan and execute transit infrastructure expansion in the DC region.