In case you missed it, the Dulles Rail project, aka the Silver line, finally got official approval from the Federal Transit Administration for the first phase of the project yesterday. The approval allocated $5.2 billion for the Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue section of the line, while the extension to Dulles itself will come in the second phase. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and the Office of Management and Budget still need to sign......

View Larger MapPotential traffic delays in Tyson's Corner due to preliminary Silver Line infrastructure construction. (Created by Aaron Morrissey.) Well, color us thrilled that when we opened the Washington Post on Saturday morning, we caught a story on the front page of the Metro section with a sub-headline reading "U.S. Officials Give Go-Ahead to Start Metrorail Work." We have to admit, it's a little surreal to finally see officials actually talking about the practicalities of......

Transit is inherently tied to politics, and as such, involves quite a bit of perspective. Bearing that in mind, here's a question for those readers out there that drive to work everyday: how would you like having tolls escalate with the amount of traffic density in order to fund those same roads that you currently sit idly on? Well, if the Department of Transportation and the Bush Administration have their way, you might be looking......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Things used to be clearer for Fairfax County. It used to be known as the epitome of upper-middle class suburbanity, even earning name-checks in popular novels and songs as such. With acres and acres of rolling hills covered in leafy suburbs and landscaped office parks, it was a quiet complement to the quirky inner suburbs of Northern Virginia and the dense chaos......

Too often, when we think of problems with our transit service here in D.C., it's from the perspective of a commuter headed to work. It's not an unreasonable point of view; much of the travel that takes place in the District is for commuting. Ensuring Metro's morning and evening rush are as smooth and painless as possible is critical to keeping business in the city, as well as attracting more of it. Commerce is......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Summer in Washington means the return of many familiar sights, some welcomed, others not as much. It means baseball, but also sticky heat and humidity. It means evenings at barbecues and bars with outdoor seating, but also children roaming the streets with backpacks full of cherry bombs and bottle rockets. It means, for many of us, time off. For others it means......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. "Has a second core emerged?" asked a Bureau of Labor Statistics report this week, drawing the metropolitan area's attention to the remarkable growth in business and professional employment in Virginia's Fairfax County. Headline after headline emphasized the county's new status as second pole in a newly bipolar metropolis, after we learned that Fairfax had pulled to within 100,000 jobs of the District......

With all the bad news surrounding Metro recently, it is sometimes tough to remember how much we rely on it. The D.C area has the third highest transit ridership in the country, behind San Francisco and New York, and more than a third of District residents commute on Metro. Possible fare increases, tragic accidents, late, crowded trains, and other gripes are legitimate, but all transit systems have problems. When it comes down to it, Metro......