Roads
A Traffic Engineer Questions His Profession
Charles Marohn is a traffic engineer. Despite years of training and millenia of precedents, Marohn now feels that the common practice of traffic engineering is creating bad and even unsafe streets.
Managed Roads Favored Over Expansion in Twin Cities
Officials in the Twin Cities are looking to shift away from major road expansion projects and focus more on creating managed lanes that are intended to put a price on avoiding traffic within the two cities.
Paying for Roads: Drivers Versus Cyclists
This piece from The Vancouver Sun asks who pays their fair share for roads and transportation infrastructure costs: car drivers or cyclists?
Rough Roads Cost Drivers
A new report from TRIP, a transportation research group based in Washington D.C., cites San Jose, Los Angeles and San Francisco-Oakland as the urban regions where rough roads lead to higher vehicle operating costs.
Report Finds Driving Down, Roads In Good Condition
A new report from The Reason Foundation finds that the nation's roads and highways are in the best shape of the last 19 years. The authors contend that this fact is largely a result of fewer people driving due to the recession.
Interactive Map Documents Road Quality
A new interactive map shows wear-and-tear on city roads, color-coding where work needs to be done and where smooth rides can be found.
Internalizing the Externalized: The Case of Roads
In a previous blog post, my discussion of externalities, public goods and roads spurred an unexpectedly lengthy set of posts and repostes. In this article, I want to address a trickier topic: Whether road users have effectively shifted the burden for paying for roads to non-users and whether the reason we pay for roads out of general taxes is a result of that lobbying effort.
Is There Enough Room For Everyone On America's Roads?
Tom Madigan asks: "is it still possible to promote new bicycling and walking options in harmony with vehicular traffic? Or as city space gets more limited, will planners have to take sides?"
Tapping the Crowd to Solve America's Transportation Problem
Slate is soliciting ideas from its readers to improve the nation's transportation system.
Paint Shortage Slows Road Projects
Though funding is usually the limiting factor in road projects, the current shortage of a chemical is creating a sharp undersupply of the paint used to paint road lines.
Road Lobbyists Take Hit From Livability Movement
The concept of "livability" seems to be catching on -- both at a local level and up in the federal government. This is especially true in the Department of Transportation. That could mean bad news for the road building lobby.
The New World of Roads in China
The New York Times reviews a new book about driving in China, and how the vastly expanding roadways are changing the Chinese way of life from the farms to the cities.
Like LEED, But For Roads
The niversity of Washington and CH2M HILL have released a new sustainability rating system for roads.
Saving Money By Converting Asphalt to Gravel
In an effort to cut transportation maintenance costs, some cities are ditching their asphalt roads and going back to gravel.
Lawmakers Consider Using Trust Fund for Transportation Projects
Lawmakers in Alabama are considering a plan to withdraw $1 billion from a state investment fund to pay for road and transportation projects in the state. It's a move proponents say will create jobs, but opponents worry about diverting those funds.
New Non-Salt Strategies for Snowy Cities
Winter brings snowy conditions to roads in many cities, and many react with snow-melting salt solutions. But the physical and environmental damage of salt is leading some to look for other means of fighting the freeze.
Don't Call Them 'Roads'
Mary Newsom at the Charlotte Observer argues that until Charlotte residents stop calling streets 'roads', they will be stuck in a rural mindset and fail to see the broader picture of transportation in their city and county.
Sprawling in Beijing
Beijing could be heading towards a sprawling future, according to a new report from the World Bank. Despite expanding transit options, the location of jobs is pushing more people out from the center of the city.
Stimulus Projects Bring Delays to Nation's Roads
Thousands of stimulus-funded transportation projects are underway this summer, creating thousands of delays on the nation's roads.
Illinois Approves $31 Billion Construction Plan
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill that will bring about $31 billion worth of road, transit and school construction projects.
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
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
