Automobiles

London Air Pollution

Crisis Response Afforded Aviation Fatalities But Neglected for Automobile Tragedies

The Globe and Mail editorial board points out the obvious hypocrisies of the global response to an aviation tragedy relative to the ongoing tragedies that occur every day as a result of the world's reliance on automobiles.

March 27, 2019 - Globe and Mail

Cars

Learning from the National Household Travel Survey

The Federal Highway Administration's National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) shows that transit use is rising and household vehicle miles traveled are declining—but other data sources paint a more ambiguous picture.

January 22, 2019 - Michael Lewyn

Metro Subway Los Angeles

Can Los Angeles Fix its Bad Transit?

Transit writer Alon Levy argues it will take more than system improvements to integrate public transit into L.A.'s urban fabric.

November 20, 2018 - Pedestrian Observations

Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe

French Suburbs Join Paris in Diesel Ban

The ban on diesel cars now extends well beyond the city of Paris.

November 20, 2018 - CityLab

Bike Traffic

Paris Gets What it Wanted: Fewer Cars in the City

Mayor Anne Hidalgo's efforts to improve air quality by reducing car trips in the city of Paris are paying off.

June 24, 2018 - road.cc

Gas Station SUVs

The Return of the Full-Sized SUV

The auto industry has decided that SUVs are the right product to market to the largest generation in U.S. history.

December 28, 2017 - Detroit Free Press

Yarra Trams Melbourne

Debate: Why Did Trams Die in the 20th Century?

A Toronto professor pushes against Christian Wolmar's assertion that the tram's demise can be connected to anti-worker policy. For one thing, trams never went away in some cities.

July 1, 2016 - The Guardian

Is Your Car Spying On You?

A new Senate bill aims to give drivers more control over the growing trove of data being collected by sensors and computers embedded in our cars. Most drivers are unaware of how much personal information is being recorded.

January 14, 2014 - The New York Times

Why You Don't Drive An Electric Car

At one time in the 1900s, a third of cars in major cities were powered by electric motors. Today, only about 1% of cars are fully electric. Why did we end up with gasoline-powered cars?

October 8, 2012 - The New York Times

Demobilizing the "War on Cars"

Herb Caudill explains why the need to plan for a range of transportation modes and uses of space in urban environs is common sense - not part of a concerted assault on cars.

September 4, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Southern Cities that Built Around Cars are Now Building Towards Sustainability

Cities like Atlanta, that have grown up in the age of the automobile and air conditioning, are making efforts to green their environmentally unfriendly buildings and spaces, explains Emily Badger.

April 22, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Healthy Travel Modes: Correlations, Causality and Caution

Driving makes people fatter and less healthy, right? Fanis Grammenos warns planners and urban designers that the answer is not so simple, and misusing the statistics will weaken effective debate.

October 13, 2011 - Fanis Grammenos

A Reality Check for Driverless Cars

For autonomous vehicles to roam the freeway, infrastructure and the law will need to accelerate and catch up with innovation, experts say.

June 21, 2011 - The Infrastructurist

The Car as Protector, and Prosthetic

Asrai Ord explicates Rebecca Solnit's belief that "the car has become a prosthetic… for a conceptually impaired body or a body impaired by the creation of a world that is no longer human in scale."

September 25, 2010 - The Planning Pool

From Idyllic Nature to the Hip, Urban Landscape

Ads for automobiles have depicted their vehicles swooping through dramatic natural landscapes, but as Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez note, car ads have moved into the city.

June 5, 2010 - The Huffington Post

The End of the Automobile Era?

Could this be the end? Two recent events signal a dramatic shift in American attitudes towards transportation and the proper role of transportation in making American cities, says Norman Garrick.

April 12, 2010 - Norman Garrick

In U.S., More Cars Thrown Away Than Sold

13.6 million car registrations were filed in the last 15 months, and 14.8 million were disposed of in that same period.

April 9, 2010 - BNET

The Car Reconsidered

When most people use their cars in urban settings, what sort of vehicle is optimal? MIT's Media Lab asks the question, in their quest to invent the next generation of personal mobility.

March 18, 2010 - Metropolis Magazine

The Taming of the Motorcar

March 15, 2010 - Victor Gruen

Traffic Accidents Poised to Become the 5th Leading Cause of Death by 2030

The Infrastructurist examines a new infographic published by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of their Global Status Report.

March 13, 2010 - The Infrastructurist

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

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.