St. Paul Sets Out to Make Streets Safer for Young and Old
Now here's a public works concept that holds a lot of promise.
October 7, 2014
Will Politicians Fund America’s Most Important Transit Project?
Last week, Amtrak announced that because of damage suffered during Hurricane Sandy, its infrastructure connecting New Jersey and New York City below the Hudson River will have to be repaired. Each of its two tubes will have to be closed, in turn, for a year or more, which would reduce capacity by around 75 percent on a rail link that carries some 400,000 passengers a day.
October 6, 2014
Shhh! $1.5 Billion Dallas Freeway Won’t Actually Reduce Gridlock
There's been a heated debate in Dallas the last few years about whether to build the $1.5 billion Trinity Parkway.
October 3, 2014
Deranged Traffic Projections Could Cost Wisconsin $3 Billion
The advocates at 1000 Friends of Wisconsin recently completed a report [PDF] evaluating the Cheese State's traffic projections. The organization compared actual traffic levels with Wisconsin DOT projections on 11 highways where the state has proposed adding lanes. The total cost of the proposed expansions is $3 billion.
October 2, 2014
Transit Can Cut Car Traffic Much More Than Ridership Alone Suggests
How much traffic does a transit line keep off the streets? Looking at ridership alone only tells part of the story, according a new study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association. The full impact of a transit line on motor vehicle traffic can far exceed the direct effect of substituting rail or bus trips for car trips.
October 1, 2014
Is Austin’s Central Corridor a Smart Transit Bet?
This November, Austinites will be asked to vote for a $600 million bond issue to bring a new rail line to the Texas capital. Unfortunately, a lot of local urbanists aren't that enamored with the $1.4 billion Central Corridor plan.
October 1, 2014
Mapping Accessibility: What Can You Get to in 20 Minutes?
In the U.S., one metric dominates the public discussion about transportation: traffic congestion. Rankings are published every year assessing how clogged the streets are in different cities, and transportation agencies devote a great deal of resources trying to reduce congestion.
September 30, 2014
A Milwaukee Suburb Turns to Complete Streets to Spur Business
North Avenue in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa is in the final stages of a redesign. The safety improvements include curb extensions, shorter pedestrian crossings, green-painted bike lanes, and bike boxes.
September 29, 2014
Do Drivers Cover the Cost of Roads? Not By a Long Shot
David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington shares this fantastic chart from a new study of transportation funding by the Pew Charitable Trusts [PDF]. Alpert explains:
September 26, 2014
Portland Tries Out “Advisory Bike Lanes”
Portland is importing a new kind of bike lane design from the Netherlands. "Advisory bike lanes" allow drivers to use the bike lane space if they have to -- and if it's safe. Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland reports that advisory bike lanes are intended for streets with high bike traffic but not a high volume of car traffic, where there otherwise wouldn't be room for bike lanes:
September 25, 2014