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Wisconsin Ave through Georgetown ---- and King Street in upper Alexandria ---- are two perfect examples of ridiculously narrow roads. Lower Wisconsin has only ONE traffic lane each way at all times, because parking is allowed on both curb lanes. (Thank heaven for the "N" metrobus route along Mass Ave, which is SO MUCH faster than the 30's route on Wisc Ave, for traveling between Farragut West and Friendship Heights).
(Upper) King Street/ Route 7 in Alexandria is the same way -- only ONE lane in each direction, despite being in a critical, high-density area.
Wisconsin Ave through Georgetown ---- and King Street in upper Alexandria ---- are two perfect examples of narrow roads. Wisconsin has only ONE traffic lane each way at all times, because parking allowed on both curb lanes. (Upper) King Street/ Route 7 is the same way.
If you say traffic circles are bad, then why has Maryland been building new circles all over the State ?
Those circles in Maryland are different from the ones in DC.
Young idealistic people have journeyed to DC since forever. I wasn't referring so much to those people as to young people who have IT, accounting, marketing, business management and hard science degrees. The DC labor market witnessed an explosion of technical, engineering and business management jobs since the 1980s.
Other major metropolitan markets in the USA have seen an overall reduction in demand for technical and business management workers. The private sector is not creating enough new jobs for recent college graduates in cities from Maine to California. DC has been the exception thanks to the Internet-Telecom Bubble of the 1990s and Homeland Security/Defense spending bubble of the 2000s. Because of higher demand for people with technical, scientific and business backgrounds, we are seeing many young people with these backgrounds migrating to DC.
At one time, corporations and smaller businesses that sold products hired tons of young people with work skills coveted by business executives in places like Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Milwaukee or Birmingham, AL. Not anymore. The 20-somethings can't find jobs or they are under-employed in their home markets.
They use their business acumen or technical knowledge to assist government contracting firms, law firms, or real estate companies in the metro DC region. It's safe to assume that IT, science and business professionals are not starry-eyed dreamers looking to change the world: they just want a steady paycheck with opportunities for advancement in a stable job market. Washington, DC can offer this better than most other big US cities--and that includes New York, LA, Chicago and Boston among others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluefly
You know, a lot of these allegedly "languishing" college grads migrate to DC because they actually want to do the work that is unique to this area in terms of addressing global issues, influencing federal policy, working to make the environment better, health care better, national education better, tax structures better, or whatever their particular issue is.
It's one of the reasons I love living here. The fact is, building widgets in Pennsylvania isn't satisfying to many really smart people. I'm not saying everybody's here for these reasons, but many want to use their time on this planet to tackle the big societal issues, so they come here to do that - not to escape bad job markets.
we need less traffic lights. I've never been to a city with more traffic lights.
I don't know its all relative. The traffic lights aren't really a problem except downtown and they have the traffic lights downtown due to the high amount of pedistrians.
Why can't traffic lights be switched to blinking red or yellow, late at night, in places that are deserted late at night -- for example, in the middle of the National Mall.
I don't know its all relative. The traffic lights aren't really a problem except downtown and they have the traffic lights downtown due to the high amount of pedistrians.
There are about 2 million traffic lights from Silver Spring (through Georgia Avenue) to DC. I think there are high amount of pedestrians from Glenmont to, Fairfax to DC.
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