DOWNLOADMendelson letter to Lanier; ATS memo (PDF format, 1.6 MB)
More trouble with ACS: This time, the company's rival—American Traffic Solutions, which is taking over traffic camera duties from ACS—spotted major troubles with ACS' speed cameras.
Yesterday, the Washington Post broke printed* the story that a lot of District drivers have been slowing down for nothing: more [...]
In the just-released issue of the Metropolitan Police Department's newsletter, the weekly mag trumpets decreases in aggressive speeders caught by redlight cameras:
For the sixth month in a row, the rate of "aggressive speeding" on roadways monitored by photo radar cameras was less than 2 percent during January 2007. Just under 2 percent (1.8%) of all [...]
Take a close look at D.C. streets these days. At times specified for street-sweeping, you'll find huge swaths of open parking spaces, presumably to make way for those orange Department of Public Works machines that gobble up leaves and debris.
But guess what: Those machines take the winter off. And ticket writers don't enforce the parking [...]
In a story the Washington Examiner broke on Monday and the Washington Post follows today, city audits show that Affiliated Computer Solutions, a Dallas-based company that holds a nearly $20 million contract to manage the city's parking meters, has essentially wasted millions of taxpayer dollars.
But don't expect a lot of political pressure from certain big [...]
If the District decided it needed someone to govern behavior in cars, Marion Barry would certainly be the legislator to turn to.
He has unrivaled experience with cars, misbehaving, and the police, which makes the Ward 8 councilmember the perfect guy to introduce a bill that would make it a crime to smoke in a [...]
Found on a copper-colored Mini Cooper S outside of Tryst this afternoon:
That's a $100 hit, too.
There were a lot of big names at FedExField yesterday during the Skins–Eagles game: Betts. Campbell. Garcia. Randle El. But for any fan who had to park at one of the field's distant lots and take a Metrobus shuttle to the stadium, there were two names that were more important than any on the field: [...]
The District Department of Transportation's new multispace parking meters in Georgetown, Adams Morgan, and along K Street are a triumph of modern municipal innovation. They're solar-powered, they automatically notify DDOT when they need maintenance, and they free up lots of sidewalk space. DDOT spokesman Erik Linden says the agency has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from [...]
Head down 9th Street NW south of the convention center, and there's those damn dedicated bus lanes. I'm all for supporting public transit and such, but riddle me this: How are you supposed to make a right turn from a street on which there's a bus lane on the right?
If the lane's lines are dashed, [...]
On Sept. 19, Cleveland Park resident Amy Longsworth called the city to report an enormous gray pickup truck with Maryland tags that had parked within inches of her driveway, blocking her view of oncoming traffic when she backed out. The offending truck was gone by the time a parking officer arrived 45 minutes later, but [...]
I've heard that the District's traffic circles aren't roundabouts—what's the difference? And what's the biggest circle in the city? And the smallest?
D.C.'s circular intersections are considered traffic circles since they feature stop signs or signals and give priority to entering vehicles. Roundabouts force vehicles entering the intersection to yield. They also use both pavement markings [...]
Motorists regularly curse D.C.'s traffic circles, but these ceremonial features are an even bigger affliction for people on foot. Most of the circles make little or no accommodation to pedestrians. And even the ones that do—notably Dupont—require dodging multiple lanes of traffic to enter or simply cross.
One roundabout, however, has just gotten a whole lot [...]
David Howcroft’s car got one hell of a cleaning on July 1 at the Wash & Shine at 5020 Wisconsin Ave. NW: The 2000 Volkswagen Passat sustained $634 worth of bumper, panel, and tire damage.
An employee took Howcroft to the mangled vehicle, which appeared to have been backed out still covered in soap, and told [...]
If you're coming into town on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, there's an overhead road sign marking the split between U.S. 50 East/Anacostia Freeway and U.S. 50 West/New York Avenue maybe a quarter-mile before the split. The problem is that the westbound sign reads “TO NEW YORK AVE.” in absolutely tiny type, much smaller than the rest [...]
The White House Mobil, located at 15th and U Streets NW, is out of gas. The pumps at the site are cordoned off by a huge chain-link fence, and workmen are busy drilling behind the barrier. The service station has been essentially stripped of its raison d'être—even the air machine sports an “Out of Order” [...]
