Scrambling to meet my monthly quota, I offer this micro-post of an amusing observation I encountered on the road not so long ago. It’s not my first time covering unusual license plates or even license plate clichés, but I’ll concede this is my first coverage where the feature of greatest interest was the method the
An intense month so far has kept me from the usual pace of blog articles, and a forthcoming 10-day period of travel will further impede me. But, at the end of the journey, I hope to have some amazing fodder in some states that have received little or no representation so far. Until then, I
Several months ago, I did something I rarely do and took a hard line on a polarizing topic: allowing dogs (or other pets) into private businesses. I believed, and continue to believe, that dogs should not be permitted in coffee shops, gyms, hardware stores, grocery stores, or (God forbid) restaurants, unless they are a licensed
The vehicular turn radius might seem like a simple feature, but its impact on the urban environment is akin to a pebble plunked into a pond. And that simile carries extra weight because the pebble-in-a-pond’s impact is a series of concentric rings outward—basically another incarnation of the radii of varying sizes. Traffic engineers have long
In this nation of abundant strip malls, it should come as no surprise that quite a few of them look pretty drab, underinvested, and plagued with low occupancy. Why expect anything else? As I’ve noted countless times before, America grapples with a glut of retail-oriented real estate: a supply that accommodates the demand almost
As I plug away at a larger research initiative that is taking more time than I expect, I must scramble to reach my usual quota of articles for the month. So, while I continue to plow through that bigger article, I offer this mini-post as sort of a follow-up from a post I wrote a
The term “stub street” rarely comes up in conversation, yet enough people have a mental image of what it entails that it would be almost patronizing to explain what it means. However, those cognitive apparitions vary so greatly that I’m going to go right ahead and patronize. After all, a consistent definition of a stub
Almost three weeks have come and gone since the tragic crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 with a Blackhawk UH-60 near Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA), right above the Potomac River, sending the two aircraft and their 67 passengers plunging into the icy water. I visited the George Washington Memorial Parkway, about as close
As one urban advocacy campaign sunsets, another rises. I’ve written multiple times—mostly before 2015—about the complete streets initiative: an effort to encourage municipal public works departments to design urban streets for all different tiers of users. In short, a “complete street” does not just feature vehicular lanes; it offers distinct bike lanes or grade-separated cycle
I could always begin this article with, “Normally I don’t like to write about events right as they unfold”. Needless to say, like much “Breaking News” reporting, they intuitively avoid a deep analysis because any such analysis won’t age well. And I prefer thoughtful analysis over coming out with the latest scoop. Then again, I
Scrambling to meet my monthly quota, I offer this micro-post of an amusing observation I encountered on the road not so long ago. It’s not my first time covering unusual license plates or
An intense month so far has kept me from the usual pace of blog articles, and a forthcoming 10-day period of travel will further impede me. But, at the end of the journey,
Several months ago, I did something I rarely do and took a hard line on a polarizing topic: allowing dogs (or other pets) into private businesses. I believed, and continue to believe, that
The vehicular turn radius might seem like a simple feature, but its impact on the urban environment is akin to a pebble plunked into a pond. And that simile carries extra weight because
In this nation of abundant strip malls, it should come as no surprise that quite a few of them look pretty drab, underinvested, and plagued with low occupancy. Why expect anything else?
As I plug away at a larger research initiative that is taking more time than I expect, I must scramble to reach my usual quota of articles for the month. So, while I
The term “stub street” rarely comes up in conversation, yet enough people have a mental image of what it entails that it would be almost patronizing to explain what it means. However, those
Almost three weeks have come and gone since the tragic crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 with a Blackhawk UH-60 near Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA), right above the Potomac River, sending
As one urban advocacy campaign sunsets, another rises. I’ve written multiple times—mostly before 2015—about the complete streets initiative: an effort to encourage municipal public works departments to design urban streets for all different
I could always begin this article with, “Normally I don’t like to write about events right as they unfold”. Needless to say, like much “Breaking News” reporting, they intuitively avoid a deep analysis