Charles Komanoff
Recent Posts
A Carbon Tax Could Recoup Trump’s MPG Standards Cut
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Originally published by Carbon Tax Center. Before you take umbrage at the headline, let me be clear: President Trump’s decision last week to freeze federal car-mileage standards at 2020 levels and revoking California’s authority to set the nation’s pace on auto emissions and fuel efficiency is contemptible. The MPG freeze means more carbon emissions hastening […]
Inside the Latest “Distracted Pedestrians” Con
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Hospital records from 2014 showed that distracted walking accounted for 78% of pedestrian injuries throughout the United States. — Daily News, Sunday, March 27, 2016 A report released in 2015 by the Governors Highway Safety Association found an increase in pedestrian fatalities, and cited texting while walking as partly to blame. Nearly two million pedestrian […]
The New Climate Villain Is Cheap Oil
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Long-term climate prospects brightened somewhat in 2015. Pope Francis put climate care on the moral and political agenda. President Obama rejected the Keystone XL dirty-oil pipeline. Denialist heads of state were routed in Canada and Australia, and their brethren in the U.S. faced growing ridicule. To cap it off, nearly 200 nations signed the UN Paris […]
Safety in Bike-Share: Why Do Public Bikes Reduce Risk for All Cyclists?
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What if Yankees legend Yogi Berra had followed a season with 24 homers and 144 hits with one featuring 27 homers and 189 hits? Would the baseball scribes have declared “Yogi Power Shortage” because only one in seven hits was a homer instead of one in six? Duh, no. The headlines would have read, “Yogi […]
Congestion Charging on the Horizon for China’s Cities
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Which Chinese city will be the first to try congestion pricing? Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai — megacities whose populations are on the scale of New York’s? Or second-tier but still mighty cities (think Chicago) like Hangzhou, Nanjing, or Xi’an? Road tolling à la American turnpikes and thruways is already extensive in China, as a means to […]
Teenagers’ Cars Are the Gifts That Keep on Wreaking Havoc
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The multiple-teenager-fatality car crash remains a sad staple of journalism. And no wonder. The instant loss of several lives is so dreadful and the death of a young person so poignant that the combination is shattering. When a car-full of teens crash and die, the article can almost be assembled by rote: the devastated families, […]
“Black Box” Standard for New Cars Could Be Big Gain for Street Safety
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There’s encouraging movement in Washington on a different automated-enforcement front: a rule to equip new cars with "black boxes" capable of recording up to 60 seconds worth of pre-crash data. The NYPD investigation into the 2008 crash that killed cyclist Rasha Shamoon relied heavily on interviews with the driver and his passengers. What might black […]
In Any Language, the Cost of Congestion Comes Through Loud and Clear
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An analysis using the Balanced Transportation Analyzer shows how much time individual drivers steal from fellow drivers by choosing to drive into the New York City CBD. It’s not often that you get to see your work set off a Eureka moment for someone else — particularly when that someone is from a different culture. […]
With Congestion Pricing, Saving Time Trumps Reducing Pollution
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(There’s a lot of NYC specific stuff in this piece, but as Los Angeles moves towards our own "Congestion Pricing" plan, it’s good to remember what all the benefits of Congestion Pricing can mean to commuters, residents, and, well, just about everyone. – DN) A prime target of the early environmental movement was car tailpipes. […]
The Climate Pitfalls of Denmark’s Electric Car Parking Perk
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(Charles Komanoff is a frequent contributor to NYC Streetsblog on energy policy, carbon taxes and transportation reform. For a complete bio, click here.) Only two cities of more than a million people are known to have a bicycling mode-share over 30 percent: Amsterdam and Copenhagen. As Rutgers urban expert John Pucher has documented, cycling’s vibrantly […]