lizzzyyy100

Where I stand, there is no sidewalk, no crosswalk and certainly no shelter. It takes some courage to reach this point. When the grass is too wet I stand on a manhole cover that sits in the grass embankment, maybe covering the water meter for the Pep Boys auto supply store that sits right next to the stop. They are apparently the ones who mow the grass and, thankfully, they are doing a good job at it. I am waiting for the 150 bus. The amentity free bus stop The 150 Express is not just an ordinary bus, it is fast because it stops only at strategic points and it comes only three times in the morning and three times in the evening. It begins all the way in Columbia and ends somewhere near City Hall. It was introduced in 1991, just before I moved into the area. There are only four services like it out of 44 local bus lines, four local shuttles, two school supplemental routes, six local express routes, five inter-county, and 27 other commuter bus lines. Confused? Welcome to the world of bus

Baltimoreans have always hated it when people say to them: "Ah, From Baltimore? I love the Wire! Is it really like that?" Eventually, the series wound down and so did this inevitable association. People got back to saying something about the Inner Harbor or about the Ravens or sometimes the articles they had read in the Washington Post or the New York Times highlighting Baltimore's burgeoning arts and entertainments districts. Demonstrations in the week before the unrest That is, until this spring and Baltimore's riots, or uprising (depending who you ask). Immediately images of Baltimore reminiscent of the Wire came back and the whole world watched as they provided the backdrop for fires, looting, and burnt out police cars. Baltimore boosters ripped their hair out: it seemed like decades of efforts had gone up in the same flames as the various drugstores. Stories about the peaceful days that followed, the clean-up efforts in which one time rioters stood shoulder to sh

Few doubt that the autonomous vehicle (AV) will come and that the self driving car will be a certain reality. The only question is when. Meanwhile there are many questions about what those vehicles will mean for cities. I was reminded of this when the $2.9 billion Baltimore Red Line rail transit project was stopped in the last minute before construction and someone commented that the AV would have arrived before the Red Line would have been completed in 2021 anyway and would have made it obsolete before it was operational.  Would AVs substitute for transit? Kill cities or enhance them? How can we know? AV operations are inherently different from human-driven vehicles. They may be programmed to not break traffic laws. They do not drink and drive. Their reaction times are quicker and they can be optimized to smooth traffic flows, improve fuel economy, and reduce emissions. They can deliver freight and unlicensed travelers to their destinations.  Daniel J. Fagnant, Kara Kockelman, The Uni

Higher education should all be about tomorrow, yet the colleges and universities build as if there is no tomorrow. Just when the popularity of online universities makes many university presidents wonder about the future of their brick and mortar campus and economists warn of the ever large debt accumulated by graduates due to skyrocketing tuition fees, adding ever more fanciful brick and mortar buildings adds significantly to the expenses of higher education institutions. A probably largely speculative graph of facility space in higher ed from the New England Journal of Higher Education The last round of decadence before disaster strikes, or a sound investment in a healthy future? The potential for a debacle hasn't gone unnoticed and has become the topic of national media: A multibillion-dollar building boom is under way at U.S. universities and colleges—despite budget shortfalls and endowment decline. Some $11 billion in new facilities have sprung up on American campuses in each o

This blogpost has been relocated to Community Architect Daily. To see the article please click HERE