Since we're talking about more public information on transit...

One thing that neither the Office of Planning nor the Department of Transportation do is a lot of what we might call "informed" public outreach. Sure there are tons of public meetings, so many that I am overwhelmed. And as the entry from yesterday discusses, often public meetings aren't really good venues to get informed.

DC's public libraries could be used as venues for displays on land use and transportation planning issues. For example, with the streetcars, there ought to be displays in libraries serving the areas where the streetcars are supposed to go. The same goes with "urban" design and placemaking, and the difference between urban and suburban land use paradigms.

I guess I never got around to blogging about a display about plans for light rail in Montreal. Some of Montreal's public libraries are augmented with added "cultural center" facilities. This was the case with the library in Frontenac, which also had a display on the proposed light rail line for Montreal.

Of course, when we were there, an old man came up to us and asked us if we believed in streetcars. He said cars were better...

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Images are from boards about the proposed light rail in Montreal as displayed at the Frontenac Library and Cultural Center, Montreal.