While the deployment of electric buses can help mitigate the air quality impacts of public transportation, transit authorities often face budgeting constraints that center cost reduction rather than equity—until now.

From neighborhoods sliced through by highway construction to the most affordable neighborhoods often being located in industrial areas thanks to decades of segregation, marginalized groups across income, race, and employment suffer more from air pollution than white and wealthy populations.
While the deployment of electric buses can help mitigate the air quality impacts of public transportation, transit authorities often face budgeting constraints that center cost reduction rather than equity — until now.
University of Utah researcher and associate professor Xiaoyue Cathy Liu, in cooperation with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), recently developed an open source, web-based modeling tool that lets urban, city, and transportation planners and more across the country explore various scenarios for deploying electric buses. The tool models the trade-offs that cities can expect when making decisions around introducing electric buses into a municipality’s fleet or increasing their use—everything from how many buses and chargers to buy to what routes to run them on and tradeoffs between cost, air quality, equity, among other parameters.
FULL STORY: What’s the Fairest Way to Deploy Electric Buses? Ask This Open-Source Map

The Shifting Boomer Bulge: More Bad News for America’s Housing Crisis?
In the first of a two-part series, PlaceMakers’ Ben Brown interviews housing guru Arthur C. Nelson on the sweeping demographic changes complicating the housing market.

New York Governor Advances Housing Plan Amid Stiff Suburban Opposition
Governor Kathy Hochul’s ambitious proposal to create more housing has once again run into a brick wall of opposition in New York’s enormous suburbs, especially on Long Island. This year, however, the wall may have some cracks.

A Serious Critique of Congestion Costs and Induced Vehicle Travel Impacts
Some highway advocates continue to claim that roadway expansions are justified to reduce traffic congestion. That's not what the research shows. It's time to stop obsessing over congestion and instead strive for efficient accessibility.

Historically Redlined Neighborhoods Have Higher Rates of Pedestrian Deaths, Study Says
The consequences of historic redlining continue to have consequences in the present day United States. Add another example to the list.

Tolling All Lanes
Bay Area transportation planners are studying a radical idea to reduce traffic congestion and fund driving alternatives: tolling all lanes on a freeway. Even more radical, the plan considers tolling parallel roads.

Federal SMART Grants Awarded for Transportation Safety, Equity Projects
The grant program focuses on the use of technology to improve safety, accessibility, and efficiency in transportation.
City of Greenville
City of Greenville
Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps Program
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact: Mobility, Community, Possibility
City of Spearfish
City of Lomita
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.