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What If Atlanta Taxed Parking to Keep Housing Affordable?
A tax on parking could generate funds for affordable housing and transit in Atlanta. The question is whether the city has the political appetite to enact it.
July 3, 2017
An All-Too-Rare Idea to Improve Transit: Put People Who Ride Transit in Charge
It's hard to improve transit service if the people who oversee transit policy don't know what makes for good service. And yet, agency boards are often dominated by political hacks with little or no transit expertise -- many don't even know what it's like to ride the transit systems they oversee. Dallas is trying something different.
June 30, 2017
Portland’s on the Verge of Fending Off Two Highway Widening Projects
In Portland, two road expansions with a combined pricetag of $1 billion seemed to be on the fast track for funding this year, with transit agency boss Neil McFarlane and city DOT chief Leah Treat lining up behind them, in addition to the usual road-building suspects. But it looks like the highway expansions are toast, at least for now.
June 29, 2017
A Recipe for Cutting Traffic: Build More Apartments, Fewer Single-Family Homes
In the Twin Cities, people living in multi-family housing - apartments, condos, or any kind of dwelling that shares walls with its neighbors - travel by car 25 percent less than people who live in single-family homes. And they get around by walking, biking, and transit much, much more.
June 27, 2017
You Can’t Have Family-Friendly Cities Without Kid-Friendly Streets
A lot of cities assume that all parents who can move to the suburbs will do so. But it doesn't have to be that way.
June 26, 2017
Portland Has a Plan to Do for Buses What It Did for Cycling
Portland officials are developing a plan for a network of "Enhanced Transit Corridors," carving out space in the street for buses so vehicles with 30 passengers aren't stuck in a quagmire of vehicles carrying just one.
June 23, 2017
A Tribute to Branden Klayko, Who Loved Louisville and Wanted His City to Be Its Best
We want to take a moment to honor the life of Branden Klayko, an architect and Louisville native who founded the local blog Broken Sidewalk, which was part of the Streetsblog Network for years.
June 20, 2017
Blaming People for Wearing Black Wins the Prize for Anti-Pedestrian Idiocy
It takes a special kind of callousness to say that pedestrians are making city streets dangerous by wearing black. And yet, that's exactly what the Seattle Times did this weekend.
May 31, 2017
This Nearly-Empty Indianapolis Parking Garage Is an Epic Waste of Public Money
Subsidized parking garages frequently turn into money-losing concrete bunkers on land better suited for something more productive than car storage. The Broad Ripple parking garage in Indianapolis, a pet project of former mayor Greg Ballard, is a spectacular example.
May 30, 2017
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Just Unveiled Her Blueprint to Fast-Track People-Friendly Streets
Nashville is known as the home of the country music industry -- and a fast-growing region of car-centric sprawl. But local leaders realize they can't accommodate more growth with an outdated, cars-first approach, so Mayor Megan Barry released an action plan yesterday that lays out an ambitious agenda to improve conditions for walking, bicycling, and transit.
May 25, 2017