Bad Street Design Kills People
Traffic fatalities are on the rise up again, with an increase of 8.1 percent in the first half of 2015, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. As is their practice, NHTSA officials are attributing the problem to driver (or passenger) error -- drunk driving, speeding, failure to wear seatbelts -- but did promise "new initiatives to protect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists."
December 1, 2015
Advice for State DOTs Looking for More Money: Spend Smarter
The Oregon Department of Transportation is in a tough spot after it tried to justify highway expansion projects by saying they would cut greenhouse gas emissions. ODOT's bogus claims helped sink a $350 million transportation funding package in the state legislature, and even some of the state's Republican lawmakers are calling for agency director Matt Garrett's head. What's a beleaguered state DOT to do?
November 30, 2015
Stranded on Two Feet: The Danger of Gaps in the Pedestrian Network
Anyone who does a fair amount of walking to get around will encounter gaps in the pedestrian network sooner or later. Sometimes they might just be minor annoyances, but they can also put people in very dangerous positions.
November 30, 2015
How Traffic Growth Projections Become a Self-Fulfilling Prophesy
Transportation planners in Austin are in the beginning stages of a pattern just about every community in the U.S. is familiar with.
November 25, 2015
Austin’s Emerging Bipartisan Coalition for Walkable Housing
Last week, the Austin City Council voted to allow "granny flats" -- small accessory dwellings -- in some areas zoned for single-family housing, and to reduce parking requirements along transit corridors. These types of reforms make housing more affordable and make neighborhoods more walkable and transit-friendly.
November 24, 2015
Planning for Less Driving, Not More, Would Lead to Big Savings
What if, instead of basing policy around the presumption that people will drive more every year, transportation agencies started making decisions to reduce the volume of driving? And what if they succeed?
November 23, 2015
TIGER Restored, Transit Expansion Funds Cut in 2016 Spending Bill
As the House and the Senate get to work on hashing out a multi-year transportation bill in conference committee, Congress is also putting together its annual spending package for transportation. The annual bill decides the fate of several discretionary programs, and earlier this year it looked like US DOT's TIGER grants, which tend to fund multi-modal projects at the regional or local level, might not survive.
November 23, 2015
Zig Zag Road Striping Calms Traffic in Virginia
At 11 points in northern Virginia, the familiar straight dashed lines on the road gives way to a series of zig zags. The unusual markings, the result of a pilot project from the Virginia Department of Transportation, are meant to alert drivers to be cautious where the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail intersects with the road -- and bicyclists and pedestrians frequently cross.
November 20, 2015
Oregon DOT Chief Under Fire for Claiming Highways Cut Emissions
How often do state DOTs lie with numbers to justify building highways?
November 20, 2015