While most of the world’s population doesn’t drive, cars have an outsized negative impact on public health, the environment, and land use.
A wide-ranging new analysis of “automobility” reveals the many ways that car-dependent design harms people and neighborhoods, writes Kea Wilson in Streetsblog USA. “Just taking into account car crashes and fatalities linked directly to car-related air pollution and lead exposure, automobility kills at least 1.67 million people around the world every year — a total of 60 to 80 million since the advent of the automobile.”
Beyond road deaths, the analysis shows how cars also contribute to pollution, worsening health, inefficient land use, and more. The analysis seeks to move away from a cost-benefit analysis that puts a price on human lives and environmental health and evaluates the broader harms that a car-centric culture causes. “From car crashes to pollution, virtually every item on this list disproportionately impacts socially and racially marginalized people — not least people who don’t drive, which the study authors point out constitutes ‘most people on the planet.’”
FULL STORY: All The Ways That Car Domination Harm Communities (Well, Almost All…)
Despite Stay-at-Home Orders, U.S. Traffic Deaths Rose in 2020
Dangerous behaviors picked up during the early, low-traffic days of the pandemic are partly to blame.
L.A. Metro Plans for an Equitable Recovery
The pandemic has forced difficult confrontations with inequities that existed long before the novel coronavirus. L.A. Metro planners are responding by charting a path toward a transportation system that reverses and improves those previous realities.
Watch: The Car-Centric Legal System, Explained
So many subsidies ensure the dominance of the automobile in the daily live of the United States, it's hard to keep track of them all. Law Professor Greg Shill is keeping track, however.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Congressman Proposes Bill to Rename DC Metro “Trump Train”
The Make Autorail Great Again Act would withhold federal funding to the system until the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), rebrands as the Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access (WMAGA).
The Simple Legislative Tool Transforming Vacant Downtowns
In California, Michigan and Georgia, an easy win is bringing dollars — and delight — back to city centers.
DC Backpedals on Bike Lane Protection, Swaps Barriers for Paint
Citing aesthetic concerns, the city is removing the concrete barriers and flexposts that once separated Arizona Avenue cyclists from motor vehicles.
In These Cities, Most New Housing is Under 441 Square Feet
With loosened restrictions on “micro-housing,” tiny units now make up as much as 66% of newly constructed housing.
Albuquerque’s Microtransit: A Planner’s Answer to Food Access Gaps
New microtransit vans in Albuquerque aim to close food access gaps by linking low-income areas to grocery stores, cutting travel times by 30 percent and offering planners a scalable model for equity-focused transit.
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.
Smith Gee Studio
City of Charlotte
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)