Speaking of prototyping by government

Toni L. Sandys/Washington Post. A test layout of a roundabout at the intersections of Garland and Central Avenues in Takoma Park on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Roundabouts are an increasingly common traffic feature in Takoma Park and other parts of Montgomery County.

More and more I think the reason that government programs often don't achieve their intended objectives is because the programs aren't well conceived, and because of the way programs are delivered by agencies, they can't change very much or be improved. (A good example is how a particular city law governs how Eastern Market is to be operated. It might work, if Eastern Market's competitors were run in the same manner, but they aren't, and as a result Eastern Market is at a competitive disadvantage.)

I have written about transformative delivery of government services and programs, such as how Arlington County delivers transportation demand management programs, how the Tower Hamlets borough in London is delivering library services, and the public-private partnership Live Baltimore markets the City of Baltimore as a place for people to live in and move to.

But for the most part, the "rational planning model" of urban planning and public administration doesn't have much room for iteration, feedback, and improvement.

The "design method" does, with prototyping in early stages, and feedback loops to create improvements, before a product is launched.

So the fact that Takoma Park, Maryland is testing the creation of a "roundabout" (a roundabout is different from a traffic circle, because traffic circles have stoplights) with traffic cones. See "A Better Way to Get Around," from the Montgomery Extra of the Washington Post, is a welcome step forward.