Randal O’Toole’s recent policy study from the Cato Institute, “Roadmap to Gridlock” is s worthy read for all professional planners, no matter what their ideological or professional stripe. Undoubtedly, most planners probably consider someone who maintains a blog called the “Antiplanner” more of a bomb thrower than a serious policy analyst. But this dismissive attitude throws an awful lot of good work by the road side, and a good example of that is O’Toole’s “Roadmap to Gridlock.”
Transportation Planning
Intermountain West: Off the Map for HSR Plans
Planners from Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno met this week to discuss plans for high-speed rail between their cities, since they've been left off the map of potential corridors to be funded by the stimulus package.
The Arizona Republic
Wooing Women to Transportation Planning
The Department of Transportation is teaming up with Spelman College in Atlanta for a new program designed to get more women into transportation careers.
Welcome to the Fast Lane: Official Blog of the US Secretary of Transportation
Would High-Speed Rail from Dallas to Houston Make Sense?
Edward Glaeser continues his series on cost-benefit analysis of high-speed rail in the US, imagining a mythical route between Dallas and Houston.
NY Times: Economix Blog
Should NY Transit Be Free?
Charles Komanoff, an economist, analyst and activist in New York, has created an elaborate spreadsheet looking at the cost of congestion to the city. His conclusion? Free transit and congestion pricing would relieve traffic.
Reuters Blogs
The Challenge of Balancing Cars and People
Ft. Worth transportation planner Don Koski talks about the challenges and rewards of being a transportation planner in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Bike Friendly Oak Cliff
Proactive Vs. Reactive Transportation Planning
Alex Marshall takes a look at Spain's recent record of proactive transportation planning, connecting cities to direct development rather than to connect already successful areas.
Governing Magazine
Planetizen Podcast - Creating a Sustainable Transportation System
11:10 minutes (6.44 MB)
Dr. John Renne, co-director of the University Transportation Center at the University of New Orleans, William Millar, President & CEO of the American Public Transportation Association, and Jim RePass, President and CEO of the National Corridors Initiative. discuss the infrastructure and transportation investments that are needed to develop sustainable transportation systems in New Orleans and the U.S. as a whole. Read, listen or download.
Uncertain Times See Cities Planning for Peak Oil
With energy and the economy both causing headaches, 2008 has been a big year for local governments recognizing and planning for peak oil. Finding a way forward in a future of constrained energy will require much of planners.
Post Carbon Cities Blog
Enough With the Planning, it's Time for Some Doing
This column from the Globe and Mail expresses some common frustrations with a slow-moving regional transportation plan.
Globe and Mail
Pittsburgh Takes Steps Toward Bike-Friendliness
Pittsburgh becomes first city in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to hire a full-time bike/pedestrian coordinator.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Would Starbucks and Designer Interiors Get You to Ride Transit?
Toronto's Metrolink brings together city and transportation planners to brainstorm the transit of the future.
The Toronto Star
Robert Reich Stumps for Transit
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich gives his two cents about the need to expand public transit.
Robert Reich's Blog
Canadians Also Confused By Traffic Circles
Americans are notoriously bad at navigating European-style traffic circles, but it seems Canadians are also confounded.
The Edmonton Sun
The Failure of Long-Range Metropolitan Transportation Planning
In a policy analysis for the Cato Institute, Randal O'Toole reviews plans for more than 75 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas reveals that virtually all of them fail to follow standard planning methods, and half of them are not effective.
Cato Institute
Climate Change May Prompt Revolution In Transportation Planning
Transportation planners and public officials have begun to consider ways to reconfigure cities and alter driving patterns in order to reduce vehicle miles traveled and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
InTransition Magazine
Planning And The Scourge Of The Collective Action Problem
Wed, 03/14/2007 - 22:28
In its most forward attempt to ensnare the fabled “discretionary rider,” my local transit agency recently set out handsome billboards touting the pleasures of the bus and the miseries of driving alone. They employed pithy admonishments and graphics such as a hand cuffed to a gas pump and a merry executive knitting and purling his way to the office.
