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Bike-Ped Traffic, Funding, and Fatalities All Inch Upward
One day before President Obama's State of the Union Address, the Alliance for Biking and Walking has released its 2012 Benchmarking Report. Once again, the report indicates, nonmotorized transportation is getting shortchanged by federal funders, while pedestrians and cyclists make up a disproportionately large share of all traffic fatalities.
January 23, 2012
Cold Climate Can’t Stop Minneapolis’s Surging Bike Rates
Good news out of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign, whose national conservation organizer Rachel Butler brings our attention to Minneapolis’s first ever Bicycle Account [PDF]. The compilation of cycling-related data shows a marked increase in the number of cyclists and a steadily decreasing injury rate to go along with substantial investments in bicycle infrastructure on city streets.
January 23, 2012
Do Brookings and Heritage Agree on Public-Private Partnerships?
When government types start to talk about expanding infrastructure, you’re likely to hear the phrase “public-private partnership” thrown around a lot. PPPs (or P3s, or 3Ps) are one of the “innovative financing tools” that policymakers love to hold up as a way to expedite expensive infrastructure projects that taxpayers want but aren’t willing to pay for – or that elected officials want to build but won’t take any political risks to support.
January 20, 2012
Pitchfork-Wielding Consumers Hold Auto Industry Hostage!
It’s sad, really. Tremendous gains in vehicle fuel efficiency have been squandered, MIT’s Christopher Knittel demonstrates in a study published in the American Economic Review. Knittel’s analysis quantifies how, while automakers have applied meaningful fuel economy innovations over the past several decades, these have produced only modest gains in miles per gallon, because at the same time the companies inflated horsepower and vehicle size. As MIT’s press release put it:
January 18, 2012
Maps Show Striking Correlation Between Car-Travel and Obesity
Check out these two maps, the first showing obesity rates (by county) in the United States and the second showing percentage of commuters that travel by car (via Planetizen).
January 17, 2012
Dislike? Mercedes-Benz Wants to Put Facebook in Your Dashboard
Earlier this week, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mercedes-Benz USA unveiled “mbrace2,” an in-dashboard service that enables the use of Facebook, Yelp, and Google behind the wheel. The service will likely be available in all 2013 models.
January 17, 2012
APTA: How to Talk to a Detractor of High-Speed Rail
Stop me if you’ve heard these before:
January 13, 2012
Amtrak Chief Outlines “Aggressive” Plan for 2012 Investment
Amtrak has spent the past year as a sort of punching bag for some members of Congress, not to mention the GOP presidential candidates. So it's refreshing to hear that they're coming out swinging, confidently, in 2012.
January 12, 2012
Report Maps Out How New Transit Can Benefit Disadvantaged Communities
Last fall, Streetsblog reported on the complex relationship between economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and the transit-oriented development projects intended to revitalize them. Often, the same people who stand to gain the most quality-of-life benefits from new transit also face the greatest risk of being displaced by the rising property values associated with TOD.
January 11, 2012
Nigeria Strikes for Cheap Fuel
For the last two days, Nigeria has been on fire with national protests against the government’s move to drop the fuel subsidy that has kept gasoline cheap for years. All of a sudden, on January 1, Nigerians awoke to find that gas prices had gone from 65 naira (40 cents) to at least 141 naira (86 cents) per liter.
January 10, 2012