I think Savage Mill is a poor example of what to change as that specific stop is surrounded by defense contractors doing classified work. That stop pretty much only exists to make it easier for pentagon and other officials to visit outsourced classified job sites. The laurel stop is a much better example of a stop that needs to be rezoned and replanned and turned into a more dense commuting location. I live near Columbia, MD. That area is ripe for a connection to DC. If they ever build an extension from the MARC to the Merrweather post pavilion area it would become the next Silver Spring. I personally hope they do more investment into transit in the area. That said, the zoning really needs to be sorted out.
Fantastic post, thank you! I love that you pointed out the Leipzig-Halle area. I studied there in college and also marveled at the public transport options available. I remember riding the S-Bahn and thinking if only something like this could exist in the States. Matt--if you're interested in some of the specifics of that system, look up the 'Leipzig City Tunnel.' Amazing piece of infrastructure that one can't imagine being done over here.
Not terribly relevant but to the Orioles/Nationals point, I saw a DC-based 90s cover band recently and one of them was wearing a retro Orioles hat, which I imagine may have been part of the act since everyone in DC rooted for the Orioles in the 90s.
“Right now the D.C. suburbs are growing south of the city toward Waldorf, Maryland, and Dale City, Virginia on opposite sides of the Potomac. And they’re also growing northwest of the city toward Leesburg, Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland.”
You teed it up but didn’t finish it, Matt! One of the biggest quality of life issues in the DC area is horrendous traffic. A notably large amount of this traffic is tied either directly or indirectly to the lack of Potomac River crossings in these fastest-growing areas. Two of the most massive bottlenecks in the region are bridge crossings - the American Legion Bridge (I-495 northwest side) and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (I-95/495 south side). Heading away from DC in either direction, there are no more crossings for 30+ miles…so these bridges are carrying trips that are going way out of their way because there’s no other option, exacerbating traffic along the way.
Maryland and Virginia continue to rapidly grow along the river (especially on the northwest side), but these two areas feel worlds apart from each other despite only being a few miles away (imagine trying to drive from Reston to Gaithersburg at 5 PM). There’s not a lot of momentum to change this, either, for a variety of reasons (provinciality of each state, insanely rich people living in most of the land straddling the river, etc.).
Anyway, I say all of this as again, traffic in the region is a huge quality-of-life issue, and that traffic really contributes to VA and MD feeling much more disconnected than they should be.
A few years ago we were vacationing in DC and wanted to take a side trip to Baltimore to catch an Orioles game. I assumed there would be some kind of convenient train service between Union Station and Camden Yards. Nope. It was faster and cheaper (for two people) to rent a car for the day.
As a Riverside County native, I have to point out that you are severely underrating Ontario Airport, despite being right about basically everything else about Riverside. It doesn't look like they do this anymore, but I have flown from Ontario International Airport to London.
It's almost like DC ought to be retrocessed back into Maryland! Maybe give Maryland parts of Northern Virginia too.
If we're gonna make these statistical areas more that just statistical areas, then changing political boundaries is the ultimate power move! (yes, I know it's a fantasy)
Here in Colorado Covid has had the opposite effect in a few cases. Three major counties surrounding Denver with a population of around 1.2 million all shared a health department - the boringly named Tri County Health Department. Due to disputes about Covid policy, each county has voted to leave and will create their own/separate health departments.
I've actually done some research here, and my findings, along with plenty of others, is that good transportation really does let you increase the population of a metro area. It become less costly to live farther from the city core, and as you say, the land price gradient flattens out a bit. It's an odd constant in the history of urban form in that historically, people generally prefer a town or city that takes about 30 minutes to cross.
Idk how remote work will turn out, but one thing that we have seen is a massive decline in transit ridership, that still hasn't recovered. An s-bahn type system could help let people, even in exurbs ride the train, and increase ridership. Unfortunately, I don't see a big push for this. Rail and busses are seen as an inner-city thing, but it's surprisingly viable farther out from city centers than most Americans, would think. One closer example, which I think Matt should right about, is Canada. Their metro areas are about as dense as America's, but they have much higher transit ridership. Part of this is busses and a big investment making their systems as seamless as possible.
"Idk how remote work will turn out, but one thing that we have seen is a massive decline in transit ridership, that still hasn't recovered. An s-bahn type system could help let people, even in exurbs ride the train, and increase ridership. "
I'm going to guess that anyone who had a reasonable choice to not take Metro North during rush hour would opt to avoid it if possible. Particularly if you happen to live in a town or city where you're not getting a seat for your ride in.
And thats because our tail and parking requirements encourage it. People treat our built environments as immutable facts of nature, when they're clearly not.
This post falls into the category of making progressive government great again.
It's pretty clear that for the foreseeable future national government will not be the place where progressives can make great strides, mostly because the country is pretty much evenly split between two sides that increasingly loathe each other.
So more and more it's time to decentralize and focus on politics and governance at the local level. How can blue states make governing more effective and answer the needs of their increasingly urban population? This post is a good example of the kind of efforts they (and we) should be focusing on. Sometimes most of the work can be done within a state (especially a big state like California) and sometimes it will require coordination across neighboring blue states (like the DMV). In either case, it seems like there's lots of things these local agglomerations can do on their own.
The problem is that the engaged populations (like us on this Substack!) tend to be geared to and excited by grand national issues. This is a great post, but how many non-local readers will continue to subscribe with increasing numbers of DMV-related posts? (Or would Matt even be interested in such a local focus?)
It's a shame really because progressives' greatest need is to show that government can be effective in addressing real world problems, and that's just not going to happen (much) at the national level, yet that's where we expend all our efforts. But it's fun to argue and debate, I guess.
Nitpick: The San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA isn't the same thing as the Bay Area. It's larger and includes some places that are further out, like big chunks of the Central Valley and Central Coast. The Bay Area is sort of a sui generis ad-hoc statistical construct, not directly comparable to other things elsewhere in the country.
I don't think any name for the region will be embraced immediately, but having one seems good. National Capital Region is an existing one, albeit rarely used - doesn't really roll off the tongue, but it's something. DMV is easier shorthand, but think it would take a while for outsiders to become familiar with it - unlike Chicagoland or Bay Area.
I think Savage Mill is a poor example of what to change as that specific stop is surrounded by defense contractors doing classified work. That stop pretty much only exists to make it easier for pentagon and other officials to visit outsourced classified job sites. The laurel stop is a much better example of a stop that needs to be rezoned and replanned and turned into a more dense commuting location. I live near Columbia, MD. That area is ripe for a connection to DC. If they ever build an extension from the MARC to the Merrweather post pavilion area it would become the next Silver Spring. I personally hope they do more investment into transit in the area. That said, the zoning really needs to be sorted out.
Fantastic post, thank you! I love that you pointed out the Leipzig-Halle area. I studied there in college and also marveled at the public transport options available. I remember riding the S-Bahn and thinking if only something like this could exist in the States. Matt--if you're interested in some of the specifics of that system, look up the 'Leipzig City Tunnel.' Amazing piece of infrastructure that one can't imagine being done over here.
Not terribly relevant but to the Orioles/Nationals point, I saw a DC-based 90s cover band recently and one of them was wearing a retro Orioles hat, which I imagine may have been part of the act since everyone in DC rooted for the Orioles in the 90s.
“The same SmarTrip fare card that I use for Metro and WMATA-operated buses … certainly wouldn’t work on the bus in Baltimore.”
This is incorrect. It does work. I moved from DC to Baltimore and was pleasantly surprised.
"I think all residents of Balt-Wash should come together to think about how we can make a cohesive metro area work better."
There is only one directly elected regional government and metropolitan planning organization in the United States:
https://www.oregonmetro.gov/regional-leadership/what-metro
Perhaps we need a second one for Baltowashington.
“Right now the D.C. suburbs are growing south of the city toward Waldorf, Maryland, and Dale City, Virginia on opposite sides of the Potomac. And they’re also growing northwest of the city toward Leesburg, Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland.”
You teed it up but didn’t finish it, Matt! One of the biggest quality of life issues in the DC area is horrendous traffic. A notably large amount of this traffic is tied either directly or indirectly to the lack of Potomac River crossings in these fastest-growing areas. Two of the most massive bottlenecks in the region are bridge crossings - the American Legion Bridge (I-495 northwest side) and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (I-95/495 south side). Heading away from DC in either direction, there are no more crossings for 30+ miles…so these bridges are carrying trips that are going way out of their way because there’s no other option, exacerbating traffic along the way.
Maryland and Virginia continue to rapidly grow along the river (especially on the northwest side), but these two areas feel worlds apart from each other despite only being a few miles away (imagine trying to drive from Reston to Gaithersburg at 5 PM). There’s not a lot of momentum to change this, either, for a variety of reasons (provinciality of each state, insanely rich people living in most of the land straddling the river, etc.).
Anyway, I say all of this as again, traffic in the region is a huge quality-of-life issue, and that traffic really contributes to VA and MD feeling much more disconnected than they should be.
Isn’t this already called the DMV?
D.C. and its suburbs are called the DMV -- that doesn't include Baltimore or its suburbs.
A few years ago we were vacationing in DC and wanted to take a side trip to Baltimore to catch an Orioles game. I assumed there would be some kind of convenient train service between Union Station and Camden Yards. Nope. It was faster and cheaper (for two people) to rent a car for the day.
As a Riverside County native, I have to point out that you are severely underrating Ontario Airport, despite being right about basically everything else about Riverside. It doesn't look like they do this anymore, but I have flown from Ontario International Airport to London.
It's almost like DC ought to be retrocessed back into Maryland! Maybe give Maryland parts of Northern Virginia too.
If we're gonna make these statistical areas more that just statistical areas, then changing political boundaries is the ultimate power move! (yes, I know it's a fantasy)
Here in Colorado Covid has had the opposite effect in a few cases. Three major counties surrounding Denver with a population of around 1.2 million all shared a health department - the boringly named Tri County Health Department. Due to disputes about Covid policy, each county has voted to leave and will create their own/separate health departments.
Does anyone know where to find a list of the CSAs by geographical characteristics (land area, growth, etc.)?
Surprised no one has pointed this out yet, but DC's SmartTrip cards do work on buses in Baltimore
I've actually done some research here, and my findings, along with plenty of others, is that good transportation really does let you increase the population of a metro area. It become less costly to live farther from the city core, and as you say, the land price gradient flattens out a bit. It's an odd constant in the history of urban form in that historically, people generally prefer a town or city that takes about 30 minutes to cross.
Idk how remote work will turn out, but one thing that we have seen is a massive decline in transit ridership, that still hasn't recovered. An s-bahn type system could help let people, even in exurbs ride the train, and increase ridership. Unfortunately, I don't see a big push for this. Rail and busses are seen as an inner-city thing, but it's surprisingly viable farther out from city centers than most Americans, would think. One closer example, which I think Matt should right about, is Canada. Their metro areas are about as dense as America's, but they have much higher transit ridership. Part of this is busses and a big investment making their systems as seamless as possible.
"Idk how remote work will turn out, but one thing that we have seen is a massive decline in transit ridership, that still hasn't recovered. An s-bahn type system could help let people, even in exurbs ride the train, and increase ridership. "
I'm going to guess that anyone who had a reasonable choice to not take Metro North during rush hour would opt to avoid it if possible. Particularly if you happen to live in a town or city where you're not getting a seat for your ride in.
And thats because our tail and parking requirements encourage it. People treat our built environments as immutable facts of nature, when they're clearly not.
This post falls into the category of making progressive government great again.
It's pretty clear that for the foreseeable future national government will not be the place where progressives can make great strides, mostly because the country is pretty much evenly split between two sides that increasingly loathe each other.
So more and more it's time to decentralize and focus on politics and governance at the local level. How can blue states make governing more effective and answer the needs of their increasingly urban population? This post is a good example of the kind of efforts they (and we) should be focusing on. Sometimes most of the work can be done within a state (especially a big state like California) and sometimes it will require coordination across neighboring blue states (like the DMV). In either case, it seems like there's lots of things these local agglomerations can do on their own.
The problem is that the engaged populations (like us on this Substack!) tend to be geared to and excited by grand national issues. This is a great post, but how many non-local readers will continue to subscribe with increasing numbers of DMV-related posts? (Or would Matt even be interested in such a local focus?)
It's a shame really because progressives' greatest need is to show that government can be effective in addressing real world problems, and that's just not going to happen (much) at the national level, yet that's where we expend all our efforts. But it's fun to argue and debate, I guess.
Nitpick: The San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA isn't the same thing as the Bay Area. It's larger and includes some places that are further out, like big chunks of the Central Valley and Central Coast. The Bay Area is sort of a sui generis ad-hoc statistical construct, not directly comparable to other things elsewhere in the country.
I don't think any name for the region will be embraced immediately, but having one seems good. National Capital Region is an existing one, albeit rarely used - doesn't really roll off the tongue, but it's something. DMV is easier shorthand, but think it would take a while for outsiders to become familiar with it - unlike Chicagoland or Bay Area.
Call it The Other Bay Area, or The Chesapeake Bay Area for short.