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Forget Carmageddon, Seattleites Predict A-Park-alypse If Parking Minimums Lifted
Kudos to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn for proposing a smart regulatory reform package that would, among other things, eliminate parking minimums on new developments near transit stops.
March 29, 2012
Wisconsin Highway Binge Continues Under “$mall Government” Walker
We've dedicated a good deal of digital ink to the love affair between Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the highway. The way he spares no expense for giant road projects in his "broke" slow-growth state, you'd think he grossly exaggerated the state's fiscal problems to justify his infamous war on collective bargaining.
March 28, 2012
Chicago’s Parking Requirements Are an Out-of-Date Relic
The good news: Demand for parking spaces is down among residents of central Chicago. But here's the bad news: The city of Chicago still requires lots of parking.
March 27, 2012
Capital Bikeshare Both Replaces and Promotes Transit Trips
One of the criticisms you hear about bikeshare systems is that they will only replace trips that would otherwise have been by walking or taking transit. But Capital Bikeshare keeps confounding the critics. The full picture is much more complex and interesting, with Cabi replacing bus and rail trips but also leading subscribers to use the transit system more often.
March 26, 2012
The Hunt for the Worst Bike Lane in the Midwest
I'm sure everyone has a personal "bike route" nemesis in their city. Mine, for instance, is the bike lane that exists only for the length of an important bridge but also switches lanes without warning in the middle of the bridge. (This also occurs right at the height of the bridge, where's it's difficult to see the road ahead of you.)
March 23, 2012
Why Is Seattle’s Sound Transit Building a 500-Space Parking Garage?
In Seattle, the Parking Garage That Transit Built: Seattle's Sound Transit must not have read our article the other day about how little-known regulations nickel and dime transit agencies, because it's taking on additional expense beyond those costly mandates. Network blog PubliCola reports that Sound Transit is planning a 500-space parking garage to replace 100 spaces that will be removed to make way for its new Northgate light rail stop.
March 22, 2012
Raise Fees for Parking, Not Riding
Like many transportation agencies across the country, the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District is struggling with debt.
March 21, 2012
Race to the Bottom: The Sad State of Public Discourse on Gas Prices
It's hard to imagine another commodity that would become a top news story each time its price rose a couple of cents. But such is America's addiction to oil. And while the appetite for these stories appears to be bottomless, major media outlets don't seem to have much stomach for examining the complicated set of factors that undergird the issue.
March 20, 2012
What the Rest of the Country Can Learn from Houston’s Damn-Low Rents
Matt Yglesias's new book, "The Rent is Too Damn High" has been getting a lot of buzz on the Streetsblog Network recently. It seems the problem Yglesias describes -- zoning restrictions that make new urban housing development onerous or near impossible -- exists in every city, much to the frustration of those seeking affordable rents, not to mention those who favor walkable urban neighborhoods.
March 19, 2012
Feeding the Beast: The Backdoor Ways Transit Subsidizes Roads
We've done our share of commentary on this blog about how transit is underfunded in the first place.
March 16, 2012