Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Studies and Reports

For London's mayor, reconfiguring streets for people is an essential goal, not a frill. Image: Mayor's Draft Transport Strategy

London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Transportation Vision: Add a Million People While Cutting Traffic By 3 Million Miles Each Day

By Stephen Miller | Jun 21, 2017

London Mayor Sadiq Khan's transport strategy for the next 25 years lays out a vision for how his city, expected to add 1.5 million people by 2041 on top of its current 9 million residents, is planning to keep moving while reducing pollution and improving quality of life. The big idea: Cars are the problem, not the solution.

STREETSBLOG USA

Boston Survey Suggests Approaches to Bikeway Design That Will Appeal More to People of Color

By Stephen Miller | Jun 7, 2017

A new survey conducted in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood shows that while people across different racial groups like protected bike lanes, there are variations in preferences that should inform design.

STREETSBLOG USA

Global Street Design Guide Now Available Free Online

By Stephen Miller | May 19, 2017

As of this week, the Global Street Design Guide, a handbook for cities around the world to design safe, sustainable streets, is available to the public as for free online.

STREETSBLOG USA

It’s Hard to Overstate the Health Benefits of Biking to Work

By John Greenfield | Apr 24, 2017

A massive new study of commuters in the United Kingdom reveals that people who bike to work tend to live longer and are at lower risk of heart disease and cancer. While the study establishes correlation but doesn't prove causation, the size of the sample and the magnitude of the effects strongly suggest that biking to work can yield major health benefits.

STREETSBLOG USA

No, Uber’s Not Going to Replace Buses, But It Can Complement Them

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 9, 2016

Not a day goes by without a raft of stories about “new mobility” providers — ride-hailing companies like Uber or car-share services like Car2Go that have tapped into recent technological advances to provide new ways to get around. In a new report, “Private Mobility, Public Interest” [PDF], TransitCenter deflates some of the hype surrounding these services while laying out […]

STREETSBLOG USA

7 Steps to Phase Out Carbon Emissions From American Transportation

By Angie Schmitt | May 25, 2016

Eliminating carbon emissions from the American transportation system can be done, according to a new report from the Frontier Group [PDF]. The tools to reduce energy use from cars and light trucks at least 90 percent are at our disposal or in advanced stages of development. The remaining 10 percent could be supplied by renewables like wind […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Study: “Shared Space” Slows Drivers While Letting Traffic Move Efficiently

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 8, 2016

The idea behind “shared space” street design is that less can be more. By ditching signage, traffic lights, and the grade separation between sidewalk and roadbed, the shared space approach calms traffic and heightens communication between drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Instead of following traffic signals on auto-pilot or speeding up to beat the light, motorists have to pay attention […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Highway Boondoggles: Widening I-95 Across Connecticut

By Jeff Inglis | Jan 19, 2016

Last year Congress passed a multi-year transportation bill. Like previous bills, it gives tens of billions of dollars to states every year to spend with almost no strings attached. How much of this federal funding will state DOTs devote to expensive, traffic-inducing highway projects that further entrench car dependence and sprawl? In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the […]

Report: In Chicago, Bike Amenities Correlate With Gentrication

By John Greenfield | Jan 15, 2016 | 12 Comments

The idea that new bike infrastructure is linked to of gentrification is nothing new in Chicago. Leaders of Humboldt Park’s Puerto Rican community originally opposed bike lanes on the neighborhood’s Division Street business strip because they believed the city was installing the lanes mostly for the benefit of new, wealthier residents. And while the recently […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Study: Sharrows Don’t Make Streets Safer for Cycling

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 14, 2016

Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure — the scraps cities hand out when they can’t muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don’t. A study by University […]

STREETSBLOG USA

New Evidence That Bus Rapid Transit Done Right Spurs Development

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 12, 2016

More American cities are considering bus rapid transit, or BRT, as a cost-effective method to expand and improve transit. One of the knocks against BRT, as opposed to rail, is that it supposedly doesn’t affect development patterns. But a new study [PDF] by Arthur C. Nelson of the University of Arizona and released by Transportation for America finds that BRT lines can indeed […]

Load more stories