Streetsblog Network

There's a lot to like in the new $2.3 billion transportation package passed by the Pennsylvania House of representatives last week.

Public-private partnerships, or P3s, are hailed these days as a way to deliver public services or infrastructure in a time of fiscal scarcity. But a P3 can still end up being very costly for taxpayers. Aaron Renn at the Urbanophile points out that roads, in particular, are being built with P3s structured to shift costs to the public in ways that can be difficult to discern.

Bill Lindeke at Twin City Sidewalks calls it the "gentrification paradox": when urbanites oppose bike lanes, streetcars, and other improvements to their neighborhoods out of fear that current residents will eventually be priced out.

It can be hard for downtown retailers to compete with big box stores in the burbs. That’s why a lot of cities like to offer free street parking on “black Friday.”

We wrote recently on Streetsblog Capitol Hill about a proposal by Republican members of Congress to eliminate the federal gas tax and turn transportation funding entirely over to the states. This proposal — “devolution,” it’s called — has been a conservative dream for decades.

There is a certain class of “transportation expert” that does just one thing: poo-poos rail projects. The Reason Foundation in particular has found a niche issuing easily discredited doomsday reports on local rail.

It can be frustrating to see planning and transportation reforms debated not on their merits, but through the lens of one group that feels its interests are threatened. Discussion of policies ranging from regional land use planning to local zoning laws often devolves into an "us" vs. "them" debate.

Walk Score just released its annual list of the nation's most walkable cities, and the top of the list generally looks like what you'd expect. New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia took the top four spots, though our friends at Transit Miami did take strong exception to their hometown rating right up there in fifth place.

If you drive to work, the feds will subsidize that. But if a Citi Bike (New York), or a Divvy bike (Chicago), or CoGo (Columbus, Ohio) is your ride to work, no such luck. But that could change. Michael Andersen at Bike Portland reports that Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) has introduced legislation that would establish tax incentives for bike-share commuters: