Gas-guzzling SUVs no longer rule the U.S. auto market.
"What's surprising isn't that SUVs are dead, but how quickly they fell...The major automakers have in the past year or so vowed to ramp up production of passenger cars, and industry watchers predicted sales of passenger cars would surpass those of trucks within in a couple of years. Instead, it happened almost overnight as fuel prices raced toward, and then surpassed, $4 a gallon...There will always be a market for pickup trucks and SUVs among contractors, law-enforcement agencies and the like, but Satori Aoki, chairman of Honda Motor Co., predicts the trend away from them is here to stay."
Read the full story: Rising Gas Prices Finally Kill The Once-Mighty SUV
Climate Concerns Largely Absent in Auto Showrooms
A consumer survey found that less than a third of respondents considered carbon emissions or the environment when they last purchased a motor vehicle, yet three-quarters of Americans consider climate change a major problem or crisis.
GM's Electric Vehicle Future Arrives Early in Detroit-Hamtramck
GM's first non-internal combustion engine vehicle assembly plant will be in the form of 35-year-old plant straddling the Detroit-Hamtramck border thanks in part to a $2.27 billion state tax credit. Electric pickups, SUVs, and AVs will be produced.
Pedestrian Deaths Last Year Projected to Be Highest Since 1990
Among the factors that stand out in the "Spotlight on Highway Safety" report released Thursday by the Governors Highway Safety Association is increased "death by SUV," which kill at a higher rate than cars. Distraction, however, is hard to prove.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Chicago voters approve permanent festival grounds, penalty for vacant property owners
Currently, major summer and fall festivals take over public parks for weeks at a time, drawing criticism from nearby residents
NYC votes to cut outdoor dining red tape, speed up permitting
New York City also voted to allow the Department of Transportation to begin work on urgent projects before notifying elected officials.
California appears to reject Prop. 45
The proposition would have expanded the projects that qualify for a streamlined environmental review, effectively paring down the California Environmental Quality Act.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority