The city ranks low for transit access to jobs, limiting opportunities for local workers and businesses.
Limited transit operating schedules in Memphis, Tennessee are hampering the city’s economic development, writes Zaneta Lowe in a piece for WREG. Local business owners say the limited bus service offered by the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) means their employees have to work fewer hours, for example.
As Lowe notes, “50 percent of MATA’s riders use it to get to work, according to a report from a consulting firm the city hired to audit MATA’s operations.” Consequently, Memphis ranked next to last among peer cities in a 2021 analysis of job access.
Beverly Robertson, former President and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, says boosting local businesses calls for a transit operating model that involves government, community, and business leaders to ensure it offers reliable, effective service.
FULL STORY: MATA’S Missteps: Economic impact of transit troubles
Memphis Launches 3 Month Free Transit Pilot
The city’s transit authority is making a push to increase ridership and improve its transit system.
Report: Reduced Fare Transit Programs Reach Less Than Half of Eligible Riders
Discount programs designed to help low-income transit riders have participation rates that rarely hit 50%, signaling a lack of effective outreach to eligible households.
Opinion: Make Buses More Like Sidewalks
Sidewalks are an intuitive, low-cost, and easily accessible mobility tool. Can local buses function in the same way?
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association