UC Berkeley

A UC Berkeley traffic study shows dramatic reductions in travel time for all Bay Bridge traffic after tolls were restructured July, 2010, applying the region's first congestion charge and charging half price for carpools, ending their free passage.

On July 1, 85,000 hybrid vehicles in CA bearing clean-air stickers lost the privilege to drive solo in the carpool lane. UC Berkeley researchers show how that exclusion slowed speeds in the HOV lane while increasing congestion in the adjacent lanes.

Architecture critic John King laments the could-have-been: a beautiful Toyo Ito museum designed for UC Berkeley and killed for financial reasons. And yet the un-built project represents a new connection between town and gown, says King.

A profile of Alvaro Huerta, the son of Mexican immigrants who is combining his urban planning studies with social activism.