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18 articles

Jones Point Virginia: where two states diverge in a wood. Take the retrocession less traveled.

February 9, 2023 No Comments

Many years ago, I met up with a friend in Belgium who took me to the nearby Dreiländerpunkt, where Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany converge, with boundaries lines vaguely resembling the logo for Mercedes-Benz.  How appropriately German.  The glories of the Schengen Agreement have, since 1995, eliminated the fortified boundaries that straitjacketed these small countries for

Bicycle boulevard in a crunchy college community (Ithaca)—and good at getting over gorges.

November 9, 2022 6 Comments

Bicycle boulevard: it’s not just another alliteration that’s fun to say (as they usually are).  It’s a topic for which aficionados have more answers than there are people asking the questions, which I recognize isn’t exactly a selling point .  But since this isn’t always a blog for dilettantes, i’ll posit those questions nonetheless.  What

Classical music and crime prevention: 7-Eleven is just the start.

July 31, 2022 7 Comments

Several weeks ago I noted what I believe is a misbegotten campaign loosely branded “hostile design”, which seeks to galvanize criticism toward the now-ubiquitous effort of preventing people from getting too comfortable in shared public spaces—so comfortable it constitutes (in some people’s option) outright abuse of that shared civic trust.  We’ve all seen examples: carefully

Footbridge folly: a century-old pedestrian amenity faces a decade of reckoning.

May 6, 2022 2 Comments

The US earns its reputation for encouraging urban auto dependency, largely by eschewing any good provisions for pedestrians and reducing far too many of its streetscapes to vehicular sewers.  Nonetheless, now and then we can come across some remarkable little pedestrian provision that surprises us.  And it doesn’t have to be in a historically pedestrian

As roadside travel plazas get plush, why not make every old rest area a more welcome center?

January 26, 2022 13 Comments

The fate of interstate highway rest areas in the 21st century has been checkered, to say the least.  As privately owned service stations become larger and posher, state-operated rest areas have found it increasingly difficult to justify their existence.  In the eastern US, familiar names like Wawa, Sheetz, Pilot, and Love’s have expanded their convenience

A view from the bridge: not Brooklyn but Woodrow Wilson.

November 19, 2021 4 Comments

There’s not a whole lot of substance to this article, but it’s hard for me to resist a photo with an evening sky this vivid. There’s obviously a lot going on here: a fiery sunset vying with menacing nimbostratus clouds; the reflection of it all on an expansive river; the evenly spaced lighting that enhances

Chambersburg courthouse: when prosperity helps to bridge the old and new. Literally.

October 27, 2021 10 Comments

It’s hard to assess the exact time measurement of a single generation.  How long is it?  Fifteen years?  Twenty?  Usually not more than that.  However, it’s intended typically to convey the time necessary for a person to “come of age”—that is, the duration from birth to the point when he/she is making adult decisions, including

Conowingo Dam: where clean energy is not just for the birds.

April 23, 2021 11 Comments

It’s rare that a major effort in environmental engineering, no matter how noble the intent or how solicitous the conception, yields absolutely no negative environmental consequences.  It’s probably more than rare.  I’d wager that such a feat has never occurred.  It’s all the more unsettling when one considers such vast civil undertakings as the canal

Age-restricted bicycling: double-wheeled rules for the single-digit phase in life.

September 5, 2019 2 Comments

As bicycling becomes an increasingly acceptable—and even fully integrated—mode of transportation, sharing our car-dominated streets, we should expect some enforcement of standards that better facilitate this integration. We’re not there yet—not even close. Plenty of heavily urbanized spaces have yet to acknowledge bicycling as a viable alternative to cars through the provision of infrastructure, even

Conowingo Dam: where clean energy is not just for the birds.

April 23, 2021 11 Comments

It’s rare that a major effort in environmental engineering, no matter how noble the intent or how solicitous the conception, yields absolutely no negative environmental consequences.  It’s probably more than rare.  I’d wager

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