Streetsblog USA

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Should we continue to let state transportation departments spend tens of billions of dollars in federal funds each year without regard to how highway expansions contribute to climate change? Right now U.S. DOT is looking to inject some accountability into a process that has created a very carbon-intensive transportation system, and a new poll suggests most Americans would welcome that.

Here's an interesting glimpse at car ownership in a cross-section of American and Canadian cities, courtesy of a recent report from the Shared Use Mobility Center.

Get national headlines at Streetsblog USA

Paul Mackie of Mobility Lab joins me this week to discuss transportation demand management (TDM), urban mobility, and how cities need to adapt to change the transportation status quo.

When she was a kid growing up in Minneapolis, biking was as natural to Alice Avidor as breathing the air. But as time went on, biking went from feeling carefree and empowering to something more like a hostile negotiation.

One of the biggest problems with a car-dependent transportation system is that cars are big space hogs. A single parking space occupies almost as much square footage as a small studio apartment. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Rhode Island has been investing in commuter rail -- long distance service connecting Providence to Boston and towns in between. But lackluster ridership at a new park-and-ride rail station at the end of the line (by a Walmart!) is sapping support for much more useful investments, reports Sandy Johnston at Itinerant Urbanist.

It's been 20 years now since planners in the St. Louis region first envisioned a north-south route for the Metrolink rail system. The region's rail system is currently oriented in an east-west pattern.