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The Planetizen News Brief

27 September 2007 - 7:00am

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

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Full Transcript

These days, more and more people are starting to get concerned about the environment. With all the threats of global warming, one of the most commonly mentioned methods for reducing the human contribution is to improve fuel efficiency in cars. Though this would bring down the amount of greenhouse gas emissions each car coughs out into the atmosphere, a new book from the Urban Land Institute argues that any positive effect seen by improved efficiency will be offset by the increasing auto-reliance created by the pattern of sprawl development. The book says that a projected 59% increase in the amount of miles people drive in the next two decades will more than overwhelm any gains made in fuel efficiency – even in the best-case scenario. The authors say both auto-efficiency and compact design must be encouraged in unison for any true progress to be made.

Meanwhile, these same improvements in fuel efficiency are threatening the taxes that support the nation’s transportation system, and some university researchers are looking for ways to counteract the drain on funding. USA Today reports that drivers in six states will soon begin testing out a new system for determining how people pay for roads and transit. For two years, 2,700 volunteer drivers will have computers installed in their cars that monitor their driving and charge them taxes based on how many miles they drive, as opposed to the current taxation method of charging by the gallon. This is part of a University of Iowa experiment to weigh the feasibility of altering the major funding mechanism for the country’s highways, streets and transit systems. The federal government and 15 states are funding this effort – and some transportation analysts say that with this type of support, the system could be implemented nationwide within 20 years.

And in New York, transportation officials have announced plans to create the city’s first physically-separated bike lane. According to Streetsblog, the proposed bike lane will run directly next to the sidewalk but be shielded from street traffic by car parking and a planted buffer zone, creating what officials are calling the city’s first ever completely separate bike path. The new lane is expected to run for about seven blocks in Manhattan. Many bike advocates had wished for more, but planners have cited the difficulties of adding dedicated lanes to streets with many intersections. But in order to prevent or reduce the amount of car-bike accidents caused by turning vehicles, the city plans to equip all intersections with left-turn signals for cars, and traffic signals for the bicyclists as well.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

To Halt Climate Change, Planners Need To Help People Drive Less

Pay As You Drive (PAYD) System Test Gets Go Ahead

NYC Gets Its First-Ever Physically-Separated On-Street Bike Path

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