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Attorney: Town Goes Too Far With Penalties for Parents of Helmetless Kids
In the quest for safer cycling, the village of Oak Park just outside Chicago has gone punitive. This leafy suburb recently enacted a mandatory helmet law for children under 17. Parents of tykes riding trikes and Huffys could face fines and community service if their children are caught without a styrofoam cap.
December 6, 2013
What Will Our Future Be Like If We Don’t Change How We Get Around?
How will Americans get around in the year 2030? A recent report from the RAND Corporation lays out two "plausible futures" developed though a "scenario analysis" and vetted by outside experts. While RAND takes a decidedly agnostic stance toward the implications of each scenario, the choice that emerges is still pretty stark.
December 5, 2013
Most New DC Walmarts Get Failing Grade as Urban Buildings
Walmart's anxiously anticipated move into cities is well underway in our nation's capital. The first two stores in Washington, DC, open today.
December 5, 2013
Scenes of Half-Empty Parking Lots on the Busiest Shopping Day of the Year
America's enormous, land-devouring parking lots are largely the result of pseudoscientific engineering conventions and the regulations that reflect them. These laws -- parking minimums -- often require retailers to build enough spaces to accommodate every anticipated automobile on the busiest shopping day of the year, explains Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns:
December 2, 2013
Pennsylvania Transportation Bill a “Dramatic Win” for Biking and Walking
There's a lot to like in the new $2.3 billion transportation package passed by the Pennsylvania House of representatives last week.
November 26, 2013
Toll Roads Increasingly Put Taxpayers at Risk
Public-private partnerships, or P3s, are hailed these days as a way to deliver public services or infrastructure in a time of fiscal scarcity. But a P3 can still end up being very costly for taxpayers. Aaron Renn at the Urbanophile points out that roads, in particular, are being built with P3s structured to shift costs to the public in ways that can be difficult to discern.
November 25, 2013
The “Gentrification Paradox”
Bill Lindeke at Twin City Sidewalks calls it the "gentrification paradox": when urbanites oppose bike lanes, streetcars, and other improvements to their neighborhoods out of fear that current residents will eventually be priced out.
November 22, 2013
Why Free Black Friday Parking Is a Bad Idea
It can be hard for downtown retailers to compete with big box stores in the burbs. That’s why a lot of cities like to offer free street parking on “black Friday.”
November 21, 2013
Who Would Benefit From Eliminating the Federal Gas Tax?
We wrote recently on Streetsblog Capitol Hill about a proposal by Republican members of Congress to eliminate the federal gas tax and turn transportation funding entirely over to the states. This proposal — “devolution,” it’s called — has been a conservative dream for decades.
November 21, 2013
Professional Rail Critics Hired to Weigh In on North Carolina Project
There is a certain class of “transportation expert” that does just one thing: poo-poos rail projects. The Reason Foundation in particular has found a niche issuing easily discredited doomsday reports on local rail.
November 20, 2013