Jacob Mason
@masontransport.bsky.social
820 followers 110 following 300 posts
Dad. Husband. Urban Planner @ITDP_HQ . Petworth DC. Pro-🚶🚲🚌. Tax the rich. Opinions my own. He/him.
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masontransport.bsky.social
I don't think what you're saying is unpopular, and it's very much in line with common practices in bike-friendly countries. bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/t...
Dutch bike graphic showing which vehicles can use bike lanes and paths.
masontransport.bsky.social
This is ~7:50am each day.

Also, data shows things steadily getting worse. I don't see how missing bus data & undelivered trips relates to traffic. I think you've done great things for Metrorail and have been a really good leader, but the buses don't get enough attention. bsky.app/profile/maso...
masontransport.bsky.social
This is good, but what are you doing to improve bus service? I think few would say it's great (25% buses are either early or late and 3% never show at all), and it's steadily getting worse.

Source: Service Excellence Report Data File (FY2025 through August) www.wmata.com/about/record...
masontransport.bsky.social
Thanks for replying. Yes traffic is bad. However, every morning, we can tell if we're running late to our bus stop by watching for 2 buses passing by at the same time on the same route in the same direction. Every day. Same exact time. This is not a traffic issue.
Two buses on the same route right behind each other.
masontransport.bsky.social
This is good, but what are you doing to improve bus service? I think few would say it's great (25% buses are either early or late and 3% never show at all), and it's steadily getting worse.

Source: Service Excellence Report Data File (FY2025 through August) www.wmata.com/about/record...
masontransport.bsky.social
Imagine if we had politicians that actually took the bus. I bet they'd be way more frequent.
masontransport.bsky.social
This is very important work. Thank you.

Also, it is still illegal to build affordable apartment buildings in the yellow areas on the map below. Addressing this would open up a lot more land to affordable housing development, reducing costs. plandc.dc.gov/sites/defaul...
Map of DC, with nearly all of upper NW and much of NE and SE in yellow. Yellow represents areas with zoning where multifamily apartment buildings is currently illegal.
masontransport.bsky.social
You're right, but it's BOTH more buses, trains, e-bikes and compact cities AND electrifying everything else. At @itdp-hq.bsky.social we did a series of studies on this which put concrete numbers to the different scenarios. itdp.org/publication/...
masontransport.bsky.social
What ADU densification it looks like. Homes over garages.
masontransport.bsky.social
ADUs can make a decent dent in housing production if done well. In LA they are now 1/3 of all new units.

h/t @cayimby.bsky.social

cayimby.org/news-events/...
masontransport.bsky.social
Cool!! That project has incredible before/after images on street view.
Highway with tall building in background Urban street with bike path, shops, trees, and apartments, plus tall building in background.
masontransport.bsky.social
D74 bus, with the consolidated stops and bus priority on Columbia road, is a game changer. Well done @wmata.com @ddotdc.bsky.social @wmatagm.bsky.social !!
masontransport.bsky.social
New near-side Dutch-style #bikedc signals!

CC: @washcycle.bsky.social
Small near side bike signal (red, amber, green) Small near side bike signal (red, amber, green) with protected bike lanes in background.
masontransport.bsky.social
Thank you! I ride that stretch regularly, and this will be a major improvement.
masontransport.bsky.social
@cmlewisgeorgew4.bsky.social why are protected bike lanes so scarce in Ward 4? How can I help move projects along faster?
Chart showing Ward 4 with lowest number of miles of protected bike lanes (1 mile), tied with Ward 8. Ward 2 has 13 miles, Ward 3 has 10 miles, Ward 5 has 5 miles, and Ward 7 has 3 miles. Wards 1 & 3 have 2 miles.
Reposted by Jacob Mason
dcyimbys.bsky.social
It's a beautiful home, but today every alley home has to be a bespoke project, like this one. The way to get these built regularly is to make them legal to build without getting cumbersome zoning exceptions.

Help us Make Alley Homes Boring Again.
actionnetwork.org/letters/alle...
masontransport.bsky.social
Yeah, and there are some efforts at that, but the same article also shows how hard it is to change street grids. The closest thing we have to Japanese style smallness is alley houses, which aren't really taking off in DC, but doing much better in Texas and California.
masontransport.bsky.social
But if the process is such that *any* opposition can tank a project, nothing you do really matters.
masontransport.bsky.social
While I agree in general, the goal is to expand the base of support, and I do think things like making buildings prettier can win some people over and also lead to a nicer city. Obviously, there are better and worse ways to do this.
masontransport.bsky.social
I think stadium subsidies are a horrible deal, and I agree that DC got screwed on this one, but it's hard to blame the council for making a deal that had +30 point support among voters. Someone has to convince the majority of people that these are a bad idea, and no one was successful at that task.
masontransport.bsky.social
Thanks! I wasn't aware of this.
masontransport.bsky.social
This morning just saw this. My kid says this happens every day. @wmata.com
Bus eta showing two buses back to back.
masontransport.bsky.social
This is great, but yesterday my wife had 2 scheduled buses on tell different routes never show up. This has been a persistent problem for years. Please don't neglect bus riders!
masontransport.bsky.social
Street view of the same location today