Here's our roundup of must-read posts from the week:
We made it to the weekend! But not without a few too many curb-jumping incidents. Check out our little snapshot into the cars that ended up crashing into buildings, sidewalks, and school steps in the first ten days of May.
On a related note, DC's Vision Zero program has been under fire lately as street safety advocates raise the alarm over rising traffic deaths. This week the mayor announced an injection of funding for street safety — will it be enough?
WMATA's also a little more flush than we once thought it would be. The latest budget for 2022 isn't as bare bones as previous "doomsday" budget proposals. Caitlin Rogger writes about what that means for the region.
As transit looks a little less gloomy locally, federal efforts are eyeing electric bus adoption. Read about the $73 billion bill that could speed it up.
Finally, DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson wants to preserve Eckington's industrial land, rather than open it up to housing. Nick Sementelli writes about what benefits preserving that industrial land does — and doesn't — bring.
By Caitlin Rogger (Deputy Director) • May 14, 2021
We were worried for a minute there. WMATA’s FY2022 budget, which runs from June 2021 to June 2022, could have been bad. But the $2.07 billion budget passed at the WMATA Board’s meeting in April means that, while not the full restoration to pre-pandemic levels that advocates hoped for, services will look fairly similar to what they used to.
Two Democratic senators want to give (almost) the same amount of funding to transit agencies to electrify nation’s bus fleet as President Biden promised to private drivers to electrify their cars
By Nick Sementelli (Board of Directors, Advocacy Committee) • May 12, 2021
Last week community leaders in Eckington made the case for restoring the Comprehensive Plan’s Future Land Use Map Amendments that would allow housing on the industrial land near the metros and along the trail in their neighborhood. But according to DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who removed these amendments from his draft version of the plan, the issue is not anything about these specific parcels, but rather a concern with our city’s limited supply of Production, Distribution and Repair (PDR) land overall. It’s not an irrational concern, but it doesn’t appear to hold up to closer scrutiny.
