(Source: via the DC Department of Transportation Tweet)

As part of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s ongoing efforts to advance arts in the District of Columbia, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) selected tattoo artist Steed Taylor to paint a road tattoo entitled “Daughters and Sons Knot”. Mr. Taylor’s design highlights Washington DC’s relationship with war and loss by honoring metropolitan area soldiers recently killed while serving their country. The names of those soldiers’ children will be incorporated in the design. The design is a complex Celtic Knot with 6 loops, a symbolic number for harmony and alluding to the interdependence within a community as well as a family. The road tattoo is approximately 60 feet wide and 300 feet long and made with the help of local volunteers and neighbors.

Installation Begins Saturday July 24 through Sunday July 25 from 7AM – 7PM each day. A dedication ceremony will be held Sunday at 1pm after which the design’s outline will be painted by the community.

A road tattoo? If roads are considered the skin of a community, then a road has a similar relationship to the public body as skin does to the individual body, allowing roads to be marked as people mark their skin for commemoration, communication or ritual. View an example of how a road tattoo is created.  Gallery plan b is coordinating the installation with Mr. Taylor. Images and additional information can be found on their website.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP PAINT! Help make an incredibly meaningful public artwork for our city and be a part of DC history! For questions or more information e-mail Gallery Plan b, 202-234-2711, or Steed Taylor.

Note: The project will require traffic and parking restrictions along the 800 block of Vermont Avenue, NW, from Friday after rush hour to Sunday evening. Participants are encouraged to arrive via Metro (The McPherson Metro Station-Vermont Avenue exit). Limited on-street parking is nearby.

(Source: Washington Post; Bloomberg)

The Obama administration will propose that the federal government take over safety regulation of the nation’s subway and light-rail systems, responding to what it says is haphazard and ineffective oversight by state agencies.

(Source: Washington Post)

Since the spring, Metro officials have barred independent monitors from walking along subway tracks to observe safety procedures while trains are in normal service, even if escorted by Metro employees, newly obtained records show.

The monitors, from the Tri-State Oversight Committee, wanted to determine whether Metro was following rules put in place in recent years after a number of workers had been fatally injured on the job.

Instead, they have spent the past six months pressing Metro in writing and in person for access — a period in which two Metro employees were struck and fatally injured on the tracks.

The monitors became so frustrated that at one point, internal e-mails show, they discussed formally notifying federal officials and invoking their toughest sanction: declaring Metro to be officially out of compliance with safety requirements. Such a move could cause Metro to lose part of its federal funding.

In July, the oversight committee made a plea in writing, telling Metro that without access to live tracks, it couldn’t ensure workers’ safety.

On Aug. 9, a track vehicle on the Orange Line struck and killed Metro worker Michael Nash.

A month later, committee members met with Metro officials, telling them that if they were unable to get on the tracks they would “elevate this issue,” notes of the meeting show.

At 10:40 the next morning, a train near Reagan National Airport struck and fatally injured Metro technician John Moore.

Now, more than six months after the dispute began, safety monitors said they remain barred from entering the right of way along active train tracks.

Metro officials told the monitors that they were looking out for their safety. On Friday, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said that there had been a “misimpression” and that committee members could approach the tracks if accompanied by safety escorts.

The dispute encapsulates what many safety experts and federal officials have described as a fundamental flaw with Metro and other subway systems: a lack of effective and enforceable oversight that leaves transit systems in charge of policing their own safety.

Click here to read the entire article (free registration req’d)

Transportgooru Musings: Does anyone care to explain what the term “misimpression” is that Lisa Farbstein has cited in her rebuttal?  Does it usually take more than 6 months and a ton of e-mails to resolve this issue?  What happened to the good old telephone to the Committee Chair? How about a phone call from Catoe to the Tri-state Oversight Committee Chair explaining how favorable “Metro” is for such random safety checks? Hey, at the very least, can’t someone at Metro administration send a memorandum explaining what Lisa said to WashPost – ” committee members could approach the tracks if accompanied by safety escorts.”.. Now by NOT doing any of the above, Metro & its management has to do a big battle to undo this public relations mess…Oh not to mention, may be its time to think about a having a chat with the Chief Safety Officer while cleaning up this PR mess..

(Source:  WUSA9.com & Moving Momentarily)

Washington’s aging Metro system will be getting a 21st century security makeover that will include video cameras capable of integrating with other “facial recognition” systems in use in the National Capital region.

Some $78 million in grants for enhanced security were recently approved by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.  Grants also include money for 20 additional transit police officers, 3 bomb-sniffing dog teams and security training for 9,000 “front line” employees. The lion’s share of of the grant money will be spent on enhanced video surveillance of Metro’s sprawling rail and bus system.

And $27.8 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security will pay for cameras on buses, in ventilation shafts, at station entrances and near the end of platforms over the next few years. $7.1 million is designated to monitor passengers inside rail cars. Metro Transit Police officers will be able to view in-railcar cameras in real-time on portable computers.

Moving momentarily editor poses an interesting question to the readers and riders: How do you feel about Metro getting federal monies for facial recognition technology at stations? Does it make the system safer?  Register your thoughts below in the comments section.

(Source: Examiner, DC-ist)

City officials gathered Friday morning to open the new Union Station Bike Transit Center, the first secure bicycle parking facility of its kind on the East Coast.  The inside of the helmet-shaped facility includes secure parking for over 100 bikes, about 50 rentable lockers, a relatively spacious changing room, and a bike repair shop that is available to the general public, as well as members.

The Post offers more basic details: it’s 1,700 square feet, costs $100 per year for membership, and will contain changing rooms, personal lockers, and a bike repair shop.  All good things, though it’s a shame they couldn’t find a way to include some showers.

DC Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein noted that 60 people had already signed up for memberships to the facility before it even opened today, as evidence of the potential demand for this kind of service in Washington.  Memberships currently cost $96 for a full year, or $12 per month. All members are additionally charged a $20 annual administrative fee. You can also purchase $1 daily passes in increments of $10 (in other words, 10 days worth of access for $10, 30 days worth of access for $30, and so on). You should normally receive your membership card in the mail about five business days after applying, though this early registration process could take a little longer. Membership cards allow users 24/7 access to the parking area.

The beautiful new facility elicited the following comments (courtesy of Examiner):

• The Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock compares the Bike Station to a space ship that “took a wrong turn at the Mall and parked next to the train station.”
• The Washington Business Journal points out that the DC Bikestation is part of a nationwide network that includes 12 other stations and 200 expected within the next five years. That, perhaps more than this particular bike station, is a significant story that reporters ought to be following.
• DCist spoke with Andrea White-Kjoss, the CEO of Mobis/Bikestation who says the station “represents D.C’s big statement about what they want to do for bicyclists in the city.”

(Source: Washington Post)

Forget about getting more money for Metro or whether to fire the general manager. The real issue is poor customer service: mysterious train halts, boarded-up escalators, rude station attendants.

That, at least, is the view of a bearded, 41-year-old former news reporter who writes the successful gadfly blog with the off-color title Unsuck DC Metro. He doesn’t want his name published, saying he’s received several threats over blog posts that embarrassed Metro employees. On that condition, however, he agreed to meet for lunch for his first full interview and discuss what he thinks ails Metro following the toughest three months in the transit system’s 33-year history.

The blogger, whose site is http://unsuckdcmetro.blogspot.com, bases his judgment partly on personal experience but mostly on the thousands of e-mails, comments, photographs and Twitter messages he’s received since he started in January. He gets more than 1,000 hits a day and has nearly 1,400 followers on Twitter — very near the approximately 1,650 following Metro’s own Twitter site.

General Manager John B. Catoe Jr., whose contract was just extended for three years, should pay attention. The bloggers have come to speak for Metro’s core customers and serve as a kind of collective conscience for the system.

To its credit, Metro responds to bloggers’ queries and, despite some understandable tensions, deals with them professionally. Other bloggers following Metro include Greater Greater Washington, Moving Momentarily, Why I Hate DC, Infosnack and DCist (along with such mainstream media blogs as The Post’s Get There, which features Dr. Gridlock).

Mr. Unsuck decided to blog after he changed jobs in November and began commuting regularly on the Orange Line. He was surprised when trains stopped regularly mid-trip and when, in his first week, he had to get off and wait three or four times when a train was suddenly taken out of service. Compared with foreign systems he knew, “I just felt there was something wrong with this one,” he said.

His blogging is part-time and unpaid. On slow days, he works on the blog for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes after work. A lengthy posting might take several hours. The lunch I bought him (his share was $27.50) was the first material benefit he’d received.

Click here to read the entire article.

Note: Transportgooru congratulates fellow bloggers Greater Greater Washington, Moving Momentarily, Why I Hate DC, Infosnack and DCist for the great job they have done in getting the Metro to pay attention to the Metro riders’ issues.   If anything, the community is glad to have these platforms to share their agonizing commuter tales & Metro’s woeful performance/behavior.   Hat tip to all these bloggers for their community service!

(Source: CarFreeMetroDC)

Car Free Day is an international event celebrated every September 22nd in which people are encouraged to get around without their car – highlighting transit, bicycling, walking and all alternative modes of transportation. By taking a fair number of cars off the roads people who live and work there are given a chance to consider how their neighborhood might look and work with a lot fewer cars. Click here for more information about World Car Free Day.

Washington celebrated Car Free Day for the first time in 2007 with about 1,000 District residents committing to be car free for the day. Last year, Car Free Day expanded to the entire Washington Metropolitan Area, and 5,445 residents throughout the region pledged to be car free. This year we hope even more drivers throughout the region will leave their cars at home or go “car lite” by sharing a ride to work. By taking the Car Free Challenge, participants not only help to improve air quality, save money, and reduce their carbon footprint, but also get a chance to win great prizes at the event.

There are a number of regional resources that can help you be Car Free or Car Lite.

• Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for bus and rail information.
• Washington Area Bicyclist Association for bike routes and safe cycling information.
• Commuter Connections for information on carpooling, vanpooling, telework, guaranteed ride home and more.
• General Services Administration for Telework Center information.
• Telework Exchange information for the Federal telework community
• If you live, work or visit Arlington visit our World Car-Free Day page.
• Commuter Trains, VRE for Virginia or MARC for Maryland.