Where Are the Best Places for Protected Intersections in Your City?
Protected intersections are the best new thing in American bike infrastructure since, well, protected bike lanes. They greatly reduce the potential for turning conflicts between drivers and cyclists -- left turns on a bike, especially, become easier and less stressful -- and they make pedestrian crossings much safer too.
February 11, 2016
Washington State GOP Claims a Scalp in the Name of Socialized Roads
Republicans in the Washington State Senate are sending a message: Don't mess with our socialized highways. To show they're serious about subsidizing roads, they ended the tenure of Washington DOT chief Lynn Peterson.
February 10, 2016
More Driving, More People Dying on America’s Streets
On Friday, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration released new data [PDF] showing that traffic deaths are up. Up quite a bit.
February 9, 2016
More Than 1 in 10 Workers Commute By Bike in Some D.C. Neighborhoods
Imagine 20 percent of commuters getting to work by bike in a major U.S. city. No entire city is close yet (Portland, with the highest rate, is at about 6 percent), but some neighborhoods are getting there.
February 9, 2016
Study: “Shared Space” Slows Drivers While Letting Traffic Move Efficiently
The idea behind "shared space" street design is that less can be more. By ditching signage, traffic lights, and the grade separation between sidewalk and roadbed, the shared space approach calms traffic and heightens communication between drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Instead of following traffic signals on auto-pilot or speeding up to beat the light, motorists have to pay attention to their surroundings.
February 8, 2016
New Evidence That Protected Bike Lanes Get People Cycling More
Cities making the most progress on protected bike lanes are seeing bicycling rates go up. But at the scale of a specific street with a new protected lane, it's hard to know how much of the increase in bike counts is due to cyclists moving over from nearby streets, and how much is due to people biking the route for the first time thanks to safer conditions.
February 8, 2016
Obama’s Politically Impossible Transpo Plan Is Just What America Needs
It may be "seven years too late," as tactical urbanist Mike Lydon put it, but President Obama has released a transportation proposal that calls for big shifts in the country's spending priorities.
February 5, 2016
Progress on Detroit’s Effort to Fix Its Badly Broken Transit System
Detroit's transit system has been in crisis now for years. Among the horror stories chronicled by riders: Buses that never come, two-hour commutes, jobs lost to unreliable service.
February 5, 2016
A University Built Around the Car Sees the Light
Fresno State University was, until very recently, your prototypical car commuting school. The school began as an isolated agricultural institution and is still connected to a large university farm. Its transportation services haven't extended much beyond subsidized parking.
February 4, 2016
Road Spending Threatens to Crowd Out BRT in Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Maryland, has an ambitious forward-looking vision for a bus rapid transit system, calling for an 81-mile network that would offer a way to bypass gridlock in the growing D.C. suburbs.
February 3, 2016