The Thoreau Institute

Infamous planning opponent Randal O'Toole has begun a new blog where he argues against virtually all forms of land use and other government planning.

Plans for modern streetcars are becoming more popular across the U.S. as one component of a revitalization plan. Randal O'Toole argues that the connection between streetcars and economic development is a hoax.

Randall O'Toole and Kathleen Calongne examine the findings from a recent report that suggests that speed humps make streets 50 to 60 percent safer for children, and reach a different conclusion.

It's been 50 years since President Eisenhower signed the bill creating the Interstate Highway System, one of the most successful federal programs ever. Randal O'Toole offers a few indicators of the success of the Interstate Highway System.

Randal O'Toole critically evaluates a recent press release from the American Public Transportation Association suggesting that recent transit data indicate public transportation use increased 25.1 percent in the last decade.

Among the arguments rail advocates use is that rail transit costs less to operate than buses. The savings, they suggest, will soon pay for the cost of rail construction.

The real cause of the tragedy in New Orleans was the lack of automobiles for evacuees, argues Randall O'Toole.

Randal O'Toole compares smart growth communities with 1960's-era communist planning.

Randal O'Toole pushes back against Philip Langdon's article that questions whether Portland's growth boundary made the city less affordable.

Growth management planning leads to rapid, artificial increases in the price of housing, argues Randal O'Toole.

A recent trend in planning is to convert one-way streets to two way to slow traffic and make streets more pedestrian friendly.

Randal O'Toole offers his perspective on why Personal Rapid Transit will never happen -- and how it will happenif it does.

The Thoreau Institute offers a defense of strip developments, comparing planners' attempts to remove them as similar to the urban renewal programs of the 1950s.

Does the 1999 'Town & Country Plan' for Columbia, South Carolina promote leapfrog development?

Part two of this two-part series examines the likely failure of San Jose's light-rail system.

Part one of this two-part series examines San Jose's urban-growth boundary.

Though we travel nearly one hundred times as much by auto as by transit, we spend less than four times as much on highways as on transit.

The Thoreau Institute charges that a recent study warning about the health dangers of living in the suburbs is fake.

Randal O'Toole presents a scathing response to National Geographic's July, 2001 presentation of urban sprawl.