The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The Transport Politic provides its seventh annual list of major transit investments, finding an enormous amount of effort and funds going into improving transportation systems around North America.

January 6 - the transport politic

The New York State authority with responsibility for the Thruway system, including the Tappan Zee Bridge as the most famous of its 809 bridges, is weathering leadership changes and a dismal budget shortfall.

January 5 - WNYC

Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), current ranking member and incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation surprised the media when he announced on a Sunday morning talk show that a gas tax increase is possible.

January 5 - National Monitor

A planner makes the case for lower its speed limits in an unlikely city.

January 5 - Houston Chronicle

Tanya Snyder writes of the results of the 2014 "Streetsies Awards," based on the votes of Streetsblog readers.

January 5 - Streetsblog USA

BLOG POST

Rideshares like Uber and Lyft have been under attack for their brash approach to local regulations and laissez-faire pricing schemes, but they've also pushed traditional taxis to dramatically improve their service in a very short span of time.

January 5 - Shane Phillips

A new ordinance to be considered by Oklahoma City in January puts the onus to pass with three feet of space on bikers, rather than drivers. Critics argue that the low will further marginalize bikers on city streets.

January 5 - Bike OKC

A new technology partnership between Trulia and Uber will allow house hunters to easily access a ride from Uber when they find a home they want to visit.

January 5 - Uber Developer Blog

RealtyTrac recently released an analysis of fair market rents and median home prices in more than 500 U.S. counties. Among the findings of the report: the real estate markets with the highest share of millennial population.

January 5 - Fusion

Eliot Brown, commercial real estate reporter for The Wall Street Journal, writes on urban trends largely influenced by firms seeking to attract the brightest young workers with decidedly urban preferences. Mid-size and large cities are prospering.

January 5 - The Wall Street Journal

The beginning of 2015 saw changes to Toronto's building code that will allow wood construction up to six stories. Supporters of the code change see multiple potential benefits from the code change.

January 5 - Metro News

BLOG POST

As planners we use maps on a daily basis. This article shares how to find the date and time that a Google Earth image was taken, which can be helpful in undertaking site analysis and understanding parking utilization.

January 4 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

A bill, HB295, in the Missouri State Legislature would raise rural speed limits, making the state the latest in a group to raise speed limits as traffic fatalities on highways are decreasing.

January 4 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

William H. Frey, Brookings Institution demographer, writes on the latest Census Bureau demographic data. California and Texas remain number one and two respectively. New York had 19.7 million residents on July 1, 2014, Florida 19.9 million people.

January 4 - Brookings

In this Washington Post opinion, Paul Bledsoe, former staff member of the Senate Finance Committee, clears up five common misunderstandings about the federal gas tax to inform discussions on America's infrastructure funding crisis

January 4 - The Washington Post

There is an invisible culprit in the great scandal of inequality in America: your Econ 101 textbook. Go ahead, dig it out from that storage chest, and undoubtedly you’ll read that inequality, while we might not like it, is good for economic growth

January 4 - Rooflines

It's 'back to the future' for Atlanta's $98 million investment that opened Dec. 30, although these will be modern, not vintage, streetcars that operate on a small loop. Streetcars last operated here in 1949. Mayor Reed intends to lengthen the route.

January 3 - The New York Times

Plummeting oil prices means Texans are seeing savings at the gas pump, but they also mean reduced revenue due to Proposition 1, the November 4 ballot measure that diverted energy taxes from the state's rainy day fund to the transportation budget.

January 3 - The Dallas Morning News

An Esquire article about the disappearance of neighborhood dive bars in cities like Chicago asks why people to support their local watering hole.

January 3 - Esquire

San Francisco Chronicle Architecture Critic John King dives into the economic and planning dynamics behind the remarkable transformation of 10th and Mission in San Francisco.

January 3 - The San Francisco Chronicle