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Like Great Transit, a Compact City Gives People Freedom
The Congress for New Urbanism has posted a video of Jarrett Walker (of Human Transit fame) delivering a new presentation, "Learning the Language of Transit." There's a passage where Walker frames transit as not simply a mode of transportation, but a means to access to your city and, ultimately, the freedom and opportunity to do the things you want.
May 19, 2015
What Can We Learn From an Unbuilt Highway in St. Louis?
Back in the 1960s, planners envisioned a series of expressways slicing through St. Louis. And almost all of the Bartholomew Plan, as it was known, was eventually built. Today St. Louis has among the most highway lanes per capita of any American city. These roads teed up a wave of urban flight and astounding population loss.
May 18, 2015
The Case for Building a Garden in the Middle of the Street
Here's a great example of how excess street space can be repurposed to beautify a neighborhood, improve safety, and bring people together. Branden Klayko at Broken Sidewalk shares this story out of Louisville, where a public utility helped a neighborhood fix a problematic intersection by building a rain garden:
May 14, 2015
Too Many Cities Make Their Most Valuable Land Worthless
This image of downtown Memphis caught the eye of Charles Marohn at Strong Towns. A parking wasteland topped by a tangle of highway spaghetti, it was taken, perfectly enough, from the Bass Pro Shop that now occupies the top of the Memphis Pyramid.
May 12, 2015
Connecticut’s New BRT Line Smashes Ridership Expectations
March 30 marked the launch of CTfastrak, the 10-mile busway running between Hartford and New Britain that has all the ingredients of real bus rapid transit: exclusive lanes, off-board fare collection, level boarding, and multiple routes using the BRT infrastructure.
May 8, 2015
The Real Danger to Children Is Cars, Not Strangers
Free-range parenting is having a moment in the national media, after neighbors in Silver Spring, Maryland, called the police to report that two children of the Meitiv family were frequently seen -- gasp! -- walking home from the park. Whether children need to be supervised all the time or should have the freedom to navigate their community is a surprisingly polarizing topic.
May 7, 2015
A Fix for Parking Craters Gains Momentum in Providence
Like many American cities, Providence has a downtown parking crater problem. About 70 acres of prime land in the central business district is occupied by surface parking.
May 5, 2015
Bipartisan Bill Proposes National Complete Streets Policy
Streets that safely accommodate everyone, from motorists to cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users -- complete streets -- have become policy for many American communities, having been implemented in more than 700 local jurisdictions and states around the country. A new bill in Washington attempts, again, to make complete streets the federal standard as well.
May 1, 2015
Will Private Transit Startups Help or Hurt Public Transit?
The rise of private transit operators like Bridj, Leap, and Uberpool has raised questions about equity in places including the Bay Area, where such services are fast replicating. A related issue is the impact they will have on traditional public transit systems.
April 30, 2015
Study That Spurred Bike Helmet Fetish Was Repudiated By Its Own Authors
The authors of a study that helped foment the public and governmental obsession with bike helmets later issued research that undermined their initial findings.
April 28, 2015