The 3 Essential Ingredients for Cooking Up Transit That People Want to Ride
With so much transportation funding going toward highways, it's tempting to support any transit investment as a step in the right direction. But not all transit investments will produce service that helps people get where they need to go. To make transit a useful travel option that people want to ride, says TransitCenter, there are three basic goals that officials and advocates should strive for.
May 16, 2017
Toronto Has a Plan to Clear the Way for Streetcars Stuck in Traffic
Toronto's busiest surface transit route could get a big upgrade as part of a year-long pilot project -- if it clears the Toronto City Council this summer, where suburban interests have a history of rejecting transit initiatives.
May 15, 2017
Detroit’s Big Transit Success Story Isn’t Its New Streetcar — It’s the Buses
Today is the grand opening for the QLine, Detroit's 3.3-mile, mixed-traffic streetcar on Woodward Avenue. It's getting tons of local press attention, but TransitCenter reports that the Motor City's true transit renaissance is not due to the streetcar, but the city's successful, under-the-radar turnaround of its bus system.
May 12, 2017
Edmonton Traffic Safety PSAs Blame Jaywalkers, But Stats Tell a Different Story
Chris Nelson used Edmonton's own motor vehicle collision data to make a chart showing who -- or, more often, what -- is on the receiving end when Edmonton motorists crash their cars. It quickly dispels any rationale for focusing on jaywalking.
May 11, 2017
Oregon’s Transportation Funding Deal Might Make Bikes More Expensive
On Monday, the Oregon state legislature released a plan to raise about $8.1 billion over the next 10 years by increasing gas taxes, registration fees, and payroll taxes to spend on roads, transit, walking, and bicycling. It also includes a new excise tax on bicycle sales.
May 11, 2017
Portland — And Soon, Detroit — Bring Bike-Share to People With Disabilities
Riding a bicycle is too often thought of as an activity that's off-limits for many disabled people. And that has continued to be the case with the bike-share systems getting off the ground in several American cities, which provide standard bicycles meant for the able-bodied. But that's starting to change, thanks to a yearlong effort in Portland that's the first of its kind in the United States.
May 11, 2017
Two-Week Pilot Lets Columbus, Georgia, Test Road Diet as Part of Bigger Plan
A pilot project in Columbus, Georgia, is the latest chapter in an effort to improve walking, bicycling, and public space in this city along the Alabama border.
May 10, 2017
DC Traffic Circle Gets One-Week Makeover to Test Out Traffic Calming
A traffic circle free-for-all that's been a constant source of danger for bike riders and pedestrians in Washington, DC, is about to get a one-week makeover.
May 9, 2017
Downtown Hartford Marries Parking Meter Reform With Car-Free Streets
Pratt Street is a narrow, one-way block-long street in the heart of downtown Hartford, Connecticut, lined with red brick pavers and historic storefronts. It's also the latest street in the United States to go car-free, at least some of the time, as part of the city's first agreement to spend parking meter revenue on local streetscape improvements.
May 8, 2017
Can Memphis Turn Around Its Struggling Bus System?
The current level of transit service in Memphis is bleak. So a week ago, 11 Shelby County public defenders took part in Bus Rider's Day, which Commercial Appeal columnist David Waters called "an exercise in empathy and, as it turned out, endurance" to understand the transportation challenges facing their clients.
May 5, 2017
