Kinda ironic you can't get to the Colbert rally by flying into the airport named after the individual who fired 11,000 air traffic controllers, de-certified their union, and banned them from their profession for life.
Any chance that there is data to show whether they were right? I mean, I strongly suspect that there isn't. But I'd be interested if there is either way.
There was also a perimeter rule governing flights at Dallas Love Field after DFW was built. A compromise was reached a few years ago. Here's an article from the Dallas Morning News summarizing the effects of the change: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-l...
The Wright Amendment [1] is a slightly different issue. IIRC the plan was to end all scheduled passenger service at Love Field when DFW opened. Southwest was started after the initial agreement and fought the restriction. Since then the Wright Amendment has been steadily relaxed, and it will be repealed completely in 2014. Additionally Southwest is not allowed to fly from DFW because of the agreement to end the Wright Amendment.
I'm not sure about the original reasoning, but I'm sure that's why some people still support the restriction. Or, at least, that's what they claim.
Seems like if noise is the problem, then noise is what is what you should regulate. The exact same plane that today flies from DCA to Houston could just as well fly to Seattle.
Public transit from BWI means, you either have to take Amtrak, MARC (only on weekdays), or a bus to the Metro (which can take 45-60 minutes during rush hour).
If you're flying from Ohio, it will probably take you longer to get from BWI to your destination in DC than from Ohio to BWI.
I often train into the BWI Amtrak station, so if you happen to ever see a tall white guy with a reddit/breadpig/YC/threadless shirt (I don't have a lot of diversity) -- say hi!
And then we can lament the often crappy service together.
Not compared to much of anywhere else. If you live outside the beltway (and BTW, Dulles Airport is WAY outside the beltway) then our public transit system is useless. Even inside the beltway, it's slow, expensive, and unreliable.
(Note: I am a huge fan of public transit, so that's not a general bash. DC's sucks unless both ends of your trip are within walking distance of a subway station.)
You're ahead of Seattle. I came here from DC, and wow what a step backward.
As it turns out, we had a trolley-based mass transit system until GM and Ford (and Exxon?) bought it up and dismantled it. (No joke.)
When I lived in Sterling, it was a 15-minute drive to Dulles. When I moved to Silver Spring, it was a 45-minute drive.
From Sterling, there were no mass transit options whatsoever, AFAIK. Of course, with a 15-minute trip, there's really not much incentive to look for alternatives.
From Silver Spring, you CAN get to Dulles via mass transit... I had to walk to a bus stop, take the red line downtown, change to the orange line out to West Falls Church, and take a Washington Flyer to the airport: 2.5 hours.
So I agree... worthless.
I also found that biking from Silver Spring to Crystal City took approximately the same amount of time as the bus/metro combination, and had fewer delays.
Would you believe, btw, that Seattle's equivalent to the Metropass has a 24-hour latency? So if you put money on it, you have to wait for 24 hours before you can use it?
Trying to sneak Reddit terminology onto HN, Alexis? :P