United States, California

This article takes a look at the past and future of rail in America, with an emphasis on one surprise success story.

Smaller cities are showing signs of struggle, as the amount of college-educated residents continues to drop. Coupled with the economic recession, smaller cities seems to be taking a harder economic hit than their larger counterparts.

Large homebuilders, including Pulte Homes and Hovnanian Enterprises, will recieve hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars under the recently passed Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009.

This article from the Guardian argues that despite years of derision, suburbia is gaining a more positive reputation as "utopia in a big way".

As traffic congestion has worsened, so has the philosophical divide between LA and Orange counties in terms of how to address it.

The Gold Line extension served 75,000 riders for its grand opening, but ridership dropped by over two-thirds for its first weekday operations.

UCLA's cityLAB sponsored a competition to envision new ways public works projects could be used to improve the country's infrastructure. The winning idea: algae-based urban parks connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Bob Herbert wonders why the United States appears to have forgotten about the importance of its built infrastructure, and imagines what the future could hold.

An extension of one of L.A.'s light rail lines opened this past weekend. Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne offers a hopeful prediction that the extension will inspire an improvement in streetlife.

In light of recent transit accidents, especially the Red Line crash in Washington, DC suburbs, the Obama Administration is seeking legislation to set and enforce safety standards on transit systems nationwide.

U.S. News and World Report selects "15 Cities for People Who Hate Driving and Long Commutes," choosing the cities with shorter than average commuting times and high percentages of non-auto commuters.

California Governor Schwarzenegger has ordered state officials to seek federal funding only for the state's high-speed rail project--at the expense of efforts to make Metrolink trains safer, some say.

The Rise, a new mixed-use development in Vancouver, includes 1,500 condos, sushi restaurants, art galleries - and a Home Depot.

Builders John Wieland Homes & Neighborhoods, hit hard by the downturn, is meeting consumer price points by creating compact home designs instead of the 4,700 sq. ft. homes that were their bread and butter.

Over the past 15 years, more than 76,000 pedestrians have been killed in the U.S. Some say preventing a significant portion of these deaths is as simple as enforcing jaywalking laws. Not so, argues Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic.

Undercounting is likely one of the biggest challenges facing the U.S. Census Bureau as it prepares to run its decennial census in April. Certain parts of the country will prove problematic when it comes time to count.

Experts believe that financing for retail projects may begin flowing early next year, but are concerned that the pool of recipients may be limited, and projects may be conventional.

On the heels of the fatal bridge collapse in Minnesota, last year, lawmakers allotted just 11 percent of transportation spending to bridge repair.

Rep. Pete DeFazio's plan to close the nation's transportation funding gap with a tax on oil futures is meeting fierce opposition.