i mean, WTF does this mean?
"'The K Street Transitway can and should be a transformational project – but it was designed for a downtown that no longer exists, and it only covers a few blocks,' CM Allen said."
'a downtown that no longer exists' - Is he saying we solved congestion? No more need for bus lanes? Or buses?
'it only covers a few blocks' - Right. but they're heavily congested ones where there's also lots of space. Do you want a tunnel under Mt Vernon Sq? That's a lot of free fares.
@bikepedantic As I said yesterday, I’m not rending my garments over a pause in this project if the funding can be allocated to other (and more deserving) projects. But the stated rationale for it as expressed in that quote you highlighted is absolutely bogus. The current state of downtown activity actually makes this a *more* attractive time to do this project, not less.
@BenHarris_1 the project itself is a decades long clusterfuck. do it, do it right, do it with Fed money so you don't have to trade off free fares for better facilities. but absent some vision for doing it well, shutting it down because ___ is ridiculous and i'm very happy to see them getting blasted for it.
@bikepedantic @BenHarris_1 The "downtown that no longer exists" is the pre-pandemic one where everyone is in the office 4-5 days a week. Along the lines of what Ben said, I'm not upset that this is being paused and revisited given the box the CFO's doomsday projections have put the budget process into, but the marketing around it has been horrible.
@bikepedantic @BenHarris_1 Then again, apparently a $2 rideshare surcharge is an "attack on downtown" per the Mayor, so what do I know?
@LhasaCM @bikepedantic Mayor Autonomous Ridesharing Is Our Future doesn’t like an Uber surcharge to pay for better bus service. Quelle surprise.
@bikepedantic @BenHarris_1 I think the expectation was that none of the vocal constituencies would be upset. The bike aspect was gone in the latest DDOT plan, and the "people need to stop teleworking to save our buildings" downtown landlords were opposed to any big construction project, period.