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The Stubborn Persistence of Car Dependence
With driving on the upswing again as gas prices remain surprisingly low, Yonah Freemark at The Transport Politic is taking a long hard look at what it will take to substantially change America's travel habits. He notes that except for a handful of cities with good transit, driving continues to account for most of the nation's growth in travel:
October 19, 2015
How Safety Rules and Enviro Regs Work to the Detriment of American Rail
America's convoluted regulation of passenger rail helps explain why the U.S. is so far behind other developed nations when it comes to rail travel.
October 16, 2015
Streets Have Changed Before, and They Can Change Again
Some of the fiercest battles over streets come down to resistance to change -- fears that claiming a lane of traffic for transit will cause carmageddon, or that converting parking spaces to bike lanes will starve local businesses of customers.
October 14, 2015
The Conservative Case for Truck Tolls
Republican lawmakers in Rhode Island are trying to pay for roads and bridges without new tolls on trucks.
October 9, 2015
Detroit Bus Driver Contract Offers Bonuses When Ridership Rises
A new labor contract between the Detroit Department of Transportation and ATU Local 26 explicitly ties bus driver bonuses to ridership increases.
October 8, 2015
How Engineers Deflect Criticism of Their Dangerous Designs
As people who've tried to make their neighborhood streets safer for walking and biking can tell you, engineers are amazingly adept at shutting down dissent.
October 6, 2015
Is This a Downtown Street or a Surface Highway?
Indianapolis recently decided to convert two downtown streets -- West New York and West Michigan -- from one-way speedways to calmer, two-way streets. The changes should help make the city's downtown campus area more walkable, but now it looks like the city is compensating for those traffic changes by turning another street -- West Street -- into even more of a surface highway.
October 2, 2015
San Diego Planners Envision a Future With More Driving
When it comes to forward-looking transportation and planning policy, California is out in front of other states, with legislation that requires regional agencies to incorporate carbon reduction goals into their transportation plans. But not all regions are up to the challenge.
October 1, 2015
In Oakland, a “Green Street” That Doesn’t Live Up to Its Name
Downtown Oakland is growing and changing. Earlier this year, Mayor Libby Schaaf said it's time for the city to "re-envision our roads." That's easier said than done, however, and it looks like Oakland is about to blow its chance to re-envision a major downtown street.
September 30, 2015
How Portland (Maine) Pairs Car-Share With Parking Reform
Is your city skittish about reducing parking minimums? Here's one way to ease people into the idea that new buildings shouldn't be forced to include lots of parking along with housing, and it comes from Portland -- Maine.
September 29, 2015