Could the Washington region become a place where the U.S. manufacturing of streetcars or trolleys gets a new start? Last week I wondered why so many of the buses and train cars purchased in nonfederally funded programs (that require U.S. parts or construction) go to overseas companies. The answer and an interesting suggestion comes from Richard Layman, who writes an urban development blog (urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com) that frequently ties in transportation and references this column.
Richard says, in part: “It’s all about technological expertise. Because U.S. streetcar systems died off almost completely after WWII, the U.S.-based industry dried up, and the skill and knowledge base disappeared. Meanwhile, European cities continued to use the technology. So the industry never withered away and, in fact, continued to improve. The similar thing happened with passenger train equipment manufacturing in the U.S., witness the massive failure of brakes on the Acela Amtrak locomotives [these were actually made by Bombardier, a Canadian company]. So Skoda [Czech Republic] makes streetcar vehicles. … During the D.C. Streetcar study process, I put the idea out that D.C. should try to develop a joint venture with Skoda to manufacture their modernstreetcar vehicles in D.C., to be located adjacent to the Ivy City railyard, which has WMATA and Amtrak maintenance facilities.”
That sounds like a win-win situation, and one that I would hope might get someone’s attention. This region doesn’t have much in the way of manufacturing, and it would seem fitting that we took a lead in transit construction.
Parked cars contribute to traffic jams
Greg writes in with an interesting idea: “Every afternoon rush hour, when I walk north on Connecticut Avenue from the Woodley Park-Zoo Metro station, I’m shocked at the number of cars parked illegally, blocking one of the two lanes headed into downtown. This causes numerous choke points, no doubt fraying motorists’ nerves and most likely resulting in minor accidents.”
It’s certainly worth exploring and I would hope that the same concept might apply to the morning rush hour on roads like New York Avenue between Bladensburg Road and the Third Street tunnel do real damage to the morning commute.
The problem that I foresee would be in the coordination. If an owner finds their car has been moved, they must be able to call the city and find out where it was taken.
Questions, comments, random musings? Write to Steve@SprawlandCrawl.
