Rep Moran Wants Wider Streets
Virginia Congressman Jim Moran thinks the DC government should alter more of its policies to serve the interests of his constituents rather than the interests of the people who live here. And he has some specific ideas of how we can help out:
As Virginia works to add hot lanes to I-95 and 395, Virginia Congressman Jim Moran says HOT lanes wont end the rush hour congestion if the District doesn’t do its part.
“Once they get to D.C. it stops, so what D.C. should do is widen 14th Street Bridge, widen 14th Street and get some of the revenue that’s coming from these HOT lanes,” he said. “We’ve suggested it time and time again and they just won’t listen, let alone act on it.”
Maybe DC doesn’t want to widen 14th Street because it’s an urban street with buildings on both sides:
Instead of demolishing the city to make the streets wider, the sensible thing to do would be to have a toll on the bridges from Virginia or a congestion charge for entering the central city. Alternatively or in addition, downtown parking could be taxed more heavily. That would leave a less-congested drive for those who place a high priority on speedy private motor vehicle access to the central business district. And the funds could be used to enhance the metro area’s existing transit options.
And of course this isn’t an idiosyncratic feature of our 14th Street. Severe traffic congestion problems tend to emerge in areas where we’ve already gone and built a lot of stuff. Attempting to ameliorate them by building more lanes would require demolishing the stuff. But the congestion is problematic primarily because access to the stuff is valuable. If you just leveled the whole city, traffic jams would abate (and there’d be plenty of parking!) but there’d be no city left.
36 Responses to “Rep Moran Wants Wider Streets”
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August 24th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Yes, leveling city buildings to widen streets is a dumb idea. But:
…is a little hyperbolic. Certainly there are circumstances that limited leveling of small areas of even dense buildings to make way for transit (even involving roads or expanded lanes) could be useful. NIMBYism has gotten in the way of many a small-scare project like this that could have had positive impact on the city as a whole.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Er, that’s small-scale. But small-scare works, too.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Congestion pricing? That’s just crazy enough to work!
August 24th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Back when I used to play Sim City this sort of problem came up. Congestion pricing wasn’t an option though so you basically had to either be really farsighted in your urban planning or bulldoze some buildings.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
It was possible in SimCity to build cities without access roads if you had enough trains and subways and bus stops. Up next on FOXL SimCity: secret progressive propaganda?
August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I think we should also point out that DC already has some of the widest streets of any city I have ever visited in the US and outside the US.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Zing!
August 24th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Widening urban streets is often a a good idea. In my neighborhood they added a center turn lane and it cut down on a fair amount of the congestion. Unfortunately, the city couldn’t finish the job because of opposition from homeowners.
As a result the street goes from 3 lanes to 5 lanes to 2 lanes.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I suggest that Jim Moran tell his aggrieved constituents using the 14th Street Bridge that they can always bail out onto the SW Freeway and go in on 12th Street, typically less congested, turn left at Pennsylvania or Constitution and be on their merry way.
Though it does raise the interesting possibility of which buildings Moran would take out: the U.S. Mint? The Holocaust Museum? The Museum of American History? The Reagan International Trade Center? The Willard Hotel? The Department of Commerce?
All so his constituents (like me) could save 30 seconds every day driving even though they have a perfectly acceptable mass transit alternative!!
There are days when I think Moran drinks himself senseless but only every other day, because he does seem to be sane 50% of the time.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Matt, you don’t drive, you never have. You’ve seldom, if ever, felt the moment of panic on the road as you fumble through your change cup trying to find $.75 for the toll (and dear heavens, make sure you’re not in the tag-only lane!), hoping you have enough, because the road you’re driving on abruptly turned into a toll with no way off. Yet you keep recommending policies that apply immediate pain to drivers in the name of helping them in some diffuse, long-term sense.
Do you really feel well suited to judge the impact of that tradeoff, legitimate as it may be, from the point of view of drivers?
By all means argue that buldozing buildings to expand roadways is bad urban policy, bad for businesses, bad for communities, and not effective at alleviating traffic. These are good arguments, and worth making. The balance between congestion pricing and congestion, not so much.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Actually, that’s “Printing and Engraving,” (I think) not the mint. The point is, he’d have to take out all of them because that’s what lines 14th Street as you come in from Virginia over the 14th Street Bridge, which already has something like 10 lanes, not counting the train bridges: 4 in, 4 out, and 2 HOV, which Virginia has taken upon itself to make more congested with its HOT plan. Why should D.C. give a ff?
August 24th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I drive all the time and have not felt that moment of panic for at least 7 years since I bought a tag. There are starving people in the Sudan. Forgive me if I don’t shed a tear for the guy who claims to be concerned about driving convenience but can’t be bothered to buy an EZ-Pass.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
IIRC, they did manage to jam in another lane in each direction back in the early 1990s when the whole stretch between the river and Independence was rebuilt. I remember there being a rather nasty truss bridge over Maine Ave.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Matt, you don’t drive, you never have. You’ve seldom, if ever, felt the moment of panic on the road as you fumble through your change cup trying to find $.75 for the toll (and dear heavens, make sure you’re not in the tag-only lane!), hoping you have enough, because the road you’re driving on abruptly turned into a toll with no way off. Yet you keep recommending policies that apply immediate pain to drivers in the name of helping them in some diffuse, long-term sense.
This is bonkers. 90 percent of what Matt has to say about driving is about urban and suburban driving specifically, and I have never in my life seen a toll booth on an urban or suburban street. Regardless, do you often find yourself on toll roads by surprise, and even if so, is that really occasion to panic? Have you considered Valium or something like that? Or smoking pot, if you’re the sort of person who gets relaxed by that; it varies.
Do you really feel well suited to judge the impact of that tradeoff, legitimate as it may be, from the point of view of drivers?
Deet da deet da deet – media figure opines on things with which he does not have personal experience! Film at 11. Yes, on driving, and also on retirement and health care policy despite being in his twenties, and on abortion policy despite not being a woman, and…
August 24th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
You’ve seldom, if ever, felt the moment of panic on the road as you fumble through your change cup trying to find $.75 for the toll (and dear heavens, make sure you’re not in the tag-only lane!), hoping you have enough, because the road you’re driving on abruptly turned into a toll with no way off.
Grow up.
Most days of the week, I take the subway to work. Before they started using prepaid cards, they made you buy tokens and put a token in the turnstile to get to the train. Like most adults, I bought tens of tokens at a time and had a few in my pocket generally, and without fail had them when I would go to work and knew that I would need them.
I’ve never commuted to work by car on a toll road, but I’d imagine that most people figure out that they need to
August 24th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I’ve never commuted to work by car on a toll road, but I’d imagine that most people figure out that they need to have the toll ready if they don’t want to cause a delay at the booth while they fish around for money after, oh, maybe zero or one trips through the toll plaza.
I could go on and on, but, really, suck it up and deal.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Matt is substantively right here, as he often is on these matters. However, I think it’s worth noting that a large part of Matt’s frustration appears to come from a sense of his urban area being governed by suburbs with alien values that have little regard for his way of life. I hope he bears this in mind next time he thinks about indulging in one of his habitual tics, namely his out-of-hand and casual dismissal of rural life. I would also point him to this enraging feeling of non-self-government when he proposes to remove representation for Vermonters, Wyomingians, and other rural Americans by the elimination of the Senate and the federal structure of the Union more generally.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I say this so MY will better understand the rage he often produces, from left and right, with what-seem-to-him casual remarks on the lack of desirability of rural life. Imagine the possibilities of a political alliance of the cities with the countryside against the suburbs; it could be a great improvement for American democracy and the health of the planet. Don’t knock the farmers and choppers of wood, and we won’t knock the hipsters.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Moran is trying to help DC get money. That’s foolish apparently. Without tearing down buildings, you can widen streets by doing some lane shifting with rush hour like they do down Independence Ave.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
He suggested that D.C. widen 14th Street. Yes, I suppose they could do what they do on Canal Road and make it one way going in (or out) during rush hour, at least as far as Constitution, which should be a de minimis inconvenience (15th Street goes onto the 14th Street Bridge as well, it’s just a little bit of a longer approach).
(a) why didn’t he suggest that?
(b) On what theory does he propose to share the money? I am deeply skeptical Virginia would share the HOT money with D.C.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
“If you just leveled the whole city, traffic jams would abate (and there’d be plenty of parking!) but there’d be no city left.”
I think that was the Federal Government’s urban policy 1940-2000.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Daniel Shays,
Get over yourself, it is whiny posts like yours that make us pissed off at people who live in rural areas.
No one is saying you can’t live in a rural area. What we are sick and tired of is SUBSIDIZING your life style choice. What we’re sick of is your vote being worth 10 times what ours is.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Plus, Jim Moran would be out of a job!
It is amazing how Mstt is willing to argue that it’s politically infeasible to do things that a majority wants, and then turns around and argues that people should comit political suicide over his personal issues that really just boil down to him getting to live in the kind of community he wants to live in.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
[...] Yglesias the Troll 2009 August 24 by Derka Derka Matt Yglesias usually is a voice of reason in the blogosphere. He’s a smart guy who balances the need for instant information with actual research and trustworthy reporting. Unfortunately he decided to weigh in on the latest round of stupid ideas from Jim Moran who suggested that DC widen 14th st. blah blah blah. stupid, impractical idea that will never happen. Still not sure why Yglesias decided to engage in this rather irrelevant debate, but he’s suggesting Instead of demolishing the city to make the streets wider, the sensible thing to do would be to have a toll on the bridges from Virginia or a congestion charge for entering the central city. Alternatively or in addition, downtown parking could be taxed more heavily. That would leave a less-congested drive for those who place a high priority on speedy private motor vehicle access to the central business district. And the funds could be used to enhance the metro area’s existing transit options. [via CAP] [...]
August 24th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
… If you just leveled the whole city, traffic jams would abate (and there’d be plenty of parking!) but there’d be no city left.
This is of course the Laffer curve argument. Raising the marginal tax rate to 100% is a bad idea so we shouldn’t raise taxes at all. 100% roads would be a bad idea so we shouldn’t widen any roads.
Supply siders wanted to spend more and tax less. Yglesias wants more people and offices in the central city but fewer roads. Makes about as much sense.
August 24th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Just give a private company the rights to double-decker it and charge tolls.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
London has congestion pricing. We had to return our rental car to Victoria Station without drifting into the congestion zone because England is hemstitched with CCTV and they kill you if you don’t pay your congestion fine which is large enough to fund their army with.
There are 2 Victoria Stations, BTW. Don’t try to return a rental car to the train station. We discovered this by accident after searching for the car rental return place in ever-widening circles around the train station. Well, circles that were flat on one side.
August 24th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
I never suggested you subsidize rural America (although I would prefer to see poverty attacked regardless of whether it exists in an urban, rural, or suburban area; indeed, I’m sure that residents of some of the wealthier rural communities in my home state of Massachusetts “subsidize” cities like Lowell and Pittsfield, just as residents of Boston and Cambridge subsidize much of the Cape and the Berkshires). What I did was suggest that its concerns be treated with a modicum of respect rather than derisory arrogance (pace your post). I also engaged in a defense of the federal system of government, which you may disagree with, but is not controversial. Vermont and West Virginia, though of dissimilar political cultures, are both organic societies with legitimate interests.
Of course, something like a number of at-large-Congressman or Senators for metropolises like NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. might be a good idea.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:41 am
RE: Parking taxes versus tolls.
I’ve always wondered what the relative impact of these things is, in the wider picture. Both might decrease traffic into the city, but I think increasing the cost of parking is better than increasing the cost of driving into the city, via a toll. In many places, toll booths seem to contribute significantly to road congestion, although I’m not sure by how much exactly. When (non-hybrid owning) drivers wait in traffic to pay a toll, their engines continue to run and they contribute to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, parked cars make no such contributions. Someone should do a study on this kind of thing, if they haven’t already.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Somehow, I doubt Rep. Moran put much thought into how widening 14th Street might affect the Holocaust Museum. Just sayin’…
August 25th, 2009 at 8:44 am
“If you just leveled the whole city, traffic jams would abate (and there’d be plenty of parking!) but there’d be no city left.”
We had to destroy the city in order to save it!
And what Barbara said. To widen 14th Street, you’d have to take a bite out of a whole slew of important buildings. It’s not 14th Street near the bridge is lined with flophouses or other easy targets for ‘urban renewal.’ And if you’re going to widen 14th Street to ease the flow of traffic into the downtown business district, you’d presumably want to do so all the way up to K Street at a minimum, and probably more like M.
That would be a LOT of buildings you’d have to chew up.
August 25th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Somehow, I doubt Rep. Moran put much thought into how widening 14th Street might affect the Holocaust Museum. Just sayin’
I say that, at Moran’s next press conference, someone should ask him why he’s trying to cover up the Holocaust.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:28 am
What’s wrong with moving more Federal Gov’t agencies out of the District, like Senator Byrd did with part of Treasury?
I battled NoVa traffic for decades and couldn’t wait to get out of all that upon retirement.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:19 am
So Hedley, if you don’t live in NoVa anymore, you might be surprised to find that the worst traffic isn’t in the District, or even the last leg of your trip in, but in Fairfax and Loudoun County, and in the 270 Corridor, which has, yes, really, 12 lanes, including two local and four “express” (in each direction) and still, the traffic is a nightmare. Putting agencies in far flung suburbs makes the trip worse, not better, because it eliminates the potential of Metro. Having hundreds of thousands of people riding the metro and opting out of driving everyday is the only thing that prevents our traffic situation from breaking down completely.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:41 am
I would prefer a world of parking lots to once where there are things like nature and bugs. It’s one of the very few reasons I like star-wars. Coruscant upper city (city as planet) is my vision of earthly paradise.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I suspect Matt’s underlying issue is less about whether or not Northern Virginians can get easily into the city and more about the fact that he (and I) pay one of the highest tax rates in the US and continue to find ourselves at the mercy of unelected (by us anyhow) representatives from other jurisdictions.
You don’t see us barking at PG County to widen 50 East so we can get to the beach or Fed-Ex Field any faster do you?
I don’t believe there is one single part of Moran’s district (VA-8) that is unaccessible by Metrorail or Metrobus. Perhaps he ought to be encouraging his constituents to utilize them.
Perhaps a good compromise would be this: we’ll widen 14th street if we can pay for it by imposing an income tax on all Virginians who work in the District. And that goes for you too Maryland!