Brad Aaron
Recent Posts
Suburban Atlanta Pol: Why Fund Transit When We Can Wait for Robo-Cars?
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Gwinnett County is outpacing the Atlanta region in population growth. People who live there need transit to get to work, so much so that a recent poll found that 63 percent of likely voters were in favor of expanding MARTA service into the county. Gwinnett’s transportation director has asked for funds to restore bus service […]
Raise Your Kids in the Car, Says Stupefyingly Awful Web Site
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Want to talk to your kids? Stick them in the car. That’s the word-for-word headline atop a recent post on Driving, a Canadian web site that also believes lowering speed limits in cities — you know, those places where kids and parents walk — is “an exercise in futility,” because drivers. Both columns were penned by the […]
Jersey Pays Subaru to Bring Another Parking Crater to Downtown Camden
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Camden, New Jersey, took home the 2015 Golden Crater award for the nastiest parking scar in the country, and it looks like state and local leaders aren’t about to let the city rest on its laurels. Joseph Russell at South Jerseyist reports that, thanks to over $100 million in tax breaks from Governor Chris Christie and […]
50,000 Portlanders Turn Out to Preview the Car-Free “People’s Bridge”
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On Sunday residents of Portland got a preview of Tilikum Crossing, a.k.a. the “Bridge of the People,” described by Michael Andersen of BikePortland as “the first bridge in the United States to carry buses, bikes, trains, streetcars and people walking but no private cars.” Tilikum Crossing is the first bridge constructed over the Willamette River in […]
Take a Ride on St. Louis’s First Protected Bike Lane
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Here’s a nice milestone: Downtown St. Louis has its first protected bike lane. Alex Ihnen at nextSTL posted video of a ride along the one-way lane from end to end, along Chestnut Street. The protected segment is separated from motor vehicle traffic by a parking lane, painted buffer, and flex posts. The remainder is a painted […]
Is “Sprawl Repair” Worth It?
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Transforming the territory of strip malls and big boxes into walkable places is a hot topic, exemplified by the popular book “Retrofitting Suburbia.” But is it worth the time, money, and effort? Robert Steuteville of Better! Cities & Towns writes that architect Kevin Klinkenberg and development expert Lee Sobel raised the question at this year’s Congress for the […]
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan: Purple Line for DC, Bupkis for Baltimore
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Maryland Governor Larry Hogan says the Purple Line, a long-planned light rail expansion of the DC transit system in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, will move forward. But Hogan stiffed the people of Baltimore by canceling the Red Line in favor of road projects. Dan Malouff at Greater Greater Washington reports that Hogan made his announcement yesterday. […]
The Name Says It All: U.S. Senate Unveils the DRIVE Act
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What does Congress envision for the future of transportation in the U.S.? Hint: The Senate’s transportation bill is called the DRIVE Act. Caron Whitaker at the League of American Bicyclists reports: As is evident in the acronym, The Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act, or DRIVE Act, is not focused on improving multi-modal transportation but rather […]
The Kindness of Safer Streets
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Is this really the best we can do? Dave Alden at Vibrant Bay Area writes that the above ad from Dignity Health (dignity!) depicting a driver getting out of his car to help a senior avoid being run over in a crosswalk is a pretty skewed notion of “human kindness.” [I]sn’t there something unkind about forcing the woman to […]
In Hong Kong, Making a Mint With Transit-Oriented Malls
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Here’s what’s happening on the Network today. Transit-oriented development: Hong Kong’s MTR Corp. runs one of the most reliable and efficient transit systems in the world, due in large part to income from developments, which it owns — with help from the government — along its train lines. West North took a look at MTR’s 2012 […]