From Extraordinary Observations
August 21, 2011 at 10:36 am
Last weekend I traveled south to Virginia Beach for a quick weekend vacation. I'd never been to the area, and aside from the oceanfront, I was curious to see what the city itself ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
August 18, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Alex Baca has a great article in this week's City Paper about what bicycling really means to people, versus how the activity is frequently perceived and described by those who ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
August 15, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I've got a new post over at Greater Greater Washington exploring the ins-and-outs of rental car insurance for people who don't have auto insurance. It's a shame that the options ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
August 4, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Does wearing a helmet make a bicyclist safer? Yes. And no. This story has been getting a bit of attention this week. British doctors are arguing that helmets shouldn't be mandatory ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
July 26, 2011 at 8:48 pm
NPR has a really interesting story about the pitfalls of using GPS devices for driving directions. I've always been skeptical of them, and never owned one (though I do have Google ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
July 21, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Until last week, I don't think I knew any Netflix subscriber that didn't love the service. Now, it seems like they haven't got a friend left in the world. Netflix had a good thing ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
July 17, 2011 at 10:28 pm
After having some not-so-great luck with Megabus last winter, I decided to give the low-cost bus carrier one more chance during a trip to Pittsburgh last weekend. Unfortunately, ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
July 12, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Richard Layman shares some interesting thoughts on the bicycle network in DC. He presents it in a way that makes very clear that the success of a bicycling network isn't measured ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 28, 2011 at 9:56 pm
I found Elisabeth Rosenthal's recent New York Times article difficult to stomach. The language she uses makes it sound like urban and transportation policy is a zero sum game in ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 21, 2011 at 6:44 pm
In the process of moving from Arlington to DC this past week, I've been able to see the groups of twenty-somethings coming over to look at the house I've been renting for a year. ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 19, 2011 at 5:22 pm
I've written about Groupon and similar services a few times in the past. I've generally been supportive of them, but my opinion is starting to change. I don't think these services ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 12, 2011 at 9:01 pm
A few weeks ago I was riding my bike east on M Street NW on way to work, as I do nearly every morning. If you've never been on this road, it's important to establish that, in an ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 9, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Scott McCartney wrote an interesting article in last week's Wall Street Journal about the cost of air travel. Specifically, he notes that Southwest Airlines isn't always the lowest ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 7, 2011 at 7:50 pm
A few weekends ago I got a change to bike the stretch of abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike just east of Breezewood. The ride itself wasn't especially scenic, as much of the area ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 5, 2011 at 5:37 pm
A little over a year ago I moved to Arlington, Virginia. My job was in Arlington and I was lucky to find a good house with good people. I appreciated having a relatively short ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
June 2, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Last week Alex commented about the high price of train fares for on the Northeast Corridor, compared to other Amtrak routes, even when accounting for distance. It’s often difficult ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 26, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Nate Silver has been tracking some heat over a post he wrote last week about the Brookings Institution's study of public transit and access to jobs in metropolitan America. The ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 25, 2011 at 7:17 pm
There's a lot of things I love about DC, but high rent is not one of them. According to Elizabeth Razzi's Washington Post article, DC's price-to-rent ratio is 13, which makes it ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 21, 2011 at 1:03 pm
As you may have noticed, the frequency of posting here has fallen off a bit in the past few weeks. About a month ago I started a big freelance project that wound up taking significantly ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 19, 2011 at 8:26 pm
David Alpert recently linked to a study which shows that people make travel decisions based on the scale of maps, even when doing so doesn't make otherwise rational sense. Personally, ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 14, 2011 at 2:43 pm
I've never been entirely sure how to feel about Fair-Trade coffee products. In theory, it all sounds well and good, but I've never really been convinced that the movement achieves ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 13, 2011 at 6:32 pm
I’ve been thinking about parking a lot since I listened to some very smart people discussing it on Kojo the other day. I think Donald Schoup’s argument against free parking ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 9, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Back in March I started a new job in DC, which effectively doubled my daily commute, from 5 to 10 daily round-trip miles. Now, 10 miles round-trip might not sound like much to ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 4, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Last week Darrow Montgomery and Lydia DePillis had a really interesting photo essay and short piece about Washington DC's alleys. It got me thinking about my own experience with ... (
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From Extraordinary Observations
May 2, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Last weekend my parents came to visit DC. They stayed at a luxury hotel downtown for under $100 per night (thanks to Hotwire). In my travels and experience, I've found that DC ... (
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