Transportation

Bay Area Bike Share Renamed for New Sponsor: An Auto Company

The new, Detroit-based sponsor will help pay for a ten-fold expansion of the Bay Area's regional bike share program coming this spring and a new Palo Alto program. Low income residents will be offered discounted rates to join Bay Area Bike Share.

October 21, 2016 - Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Self-Driving Car

Tesla Makes a Self-Driving Splash

Tesla showed off new self-driving technology this week.

October 21, 2016 - TechCrunch

Train-sploitation

An interview with a photographer about his unflattering pictures of train riders in Tokyo's crowded subway.

October 21, 2016 - CNN

Autonomous Car Mobility Services a $120 Billion Business by 2025

"American households will no longer aspire to own two cars in every garage, but instead will have mobility apps on every phone, to hail self-driving vehicles that they will share rather than own." Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University

October 21, 2016 - EBN

Parking

Comparing the Cost Price of Parking in 50 U.S. Cities

The first comprehensive comparison of inter-city differences in parking prices shows huge variations in the price of parking in cities around the United States.

October 20, 2016 - City Observatory

Parking

ParkDC to Bring Dynamic Pricing to Chinatown Parking Spaces

The District Department of Transportation is expanding its experiments with dynamic parking prices.

October 20, 2016 - WAMU

Houston Light Rail

Moving from Moving Cars to Moving People

After a three quarters of a century of building to accommodate cars and not people, it's going to take big changes to get the transit system the United States needs, argues a Next City editorial.

October 20, 2016 - Next City

Arlington

Arlington County Allows New Street Variations to Prioritize Multi-Modalism

The Virginia county of Arlington has written into law the ability to create shared streets as well as streets that prioritize pedestrians.

October 20, 2016 - Arlington County

St. Louis

Historic Missouri-Illinois Bridge Completes Rehabilitation Funded by Recovery Act

Remember President Obama's 2009 economic stimulus program? Add another completed project to the program's successes: the restoration of the multi-modal 1874 iconic Eads Bridge connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill. over the Mississippi River.

October 19, 2016 - AASHTO Journal

Uber Driver

Uber's Bid for the Suburbs

The train ride from Summit, New Jersey to Penn Station takes 45 minutes. The real problem: getting to the train. By subsidizing Uber rides to and from the local station, the town hopes to avoid building another expensive parking lot.

October 19, 2016 - BuzzFeed News

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Devotes New Department to Transportation Planning

The Department of Mobility and Infrastructure will be up and running by 2017.

October 19, 2016 - PGH City Paper

Syracuse, New York

Options Narrowed for Interstate 81 Replacement Through Syracuse

The plan to replace the Interstate 81 elevated highway through Syracuse, NY is now down to two options after the New York DOT nixed the tunnel plan.

October 19, 2016 - The Post-Standard

Bike Box

Feds Finally Onboard With Bike Boxes

The federal government officially downgraded the safety risk of installing bike boxes at intersections.

October 18, 2016 - Streetsblog USA

D.C. Metro

D.C. Metro's Proposed Service Cuts Would Disproportionately Affect Communities of Color

Planning and urbanism writers in Washington, D.C. agree that a proposal to cut service to 20 stations in the Metrorail system would have harmful effects for minorities in the region.

October 18, 2016 - The Washington Post

Chicago

Chicago TOD Strategies: Sum Of Parts Equal, Greater Than the Whole

A successful TOD will be predicated upon three core elements: 1) development; 2) transit; and 3) transit-friendly amenities. While focus tends to be on the first two elements, this article provides insights on the importance of the third element.

October 17, 2016 - Renewal & Redevelopment (Association for Redevelopment Initiatives)

Denver

Multimodal Millennials? A Closer Look Using Multifaceted Traveler Types

Kelcie Ralph guest blogs about a new article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

October 17, 2016 - JPER

NJ Transit

The Recent Decline of New Jersey Transit's Commuter Rail Operations

The New York Times looks into the decline of New Jersey Transit commuter railroad, rated as outstanding only nine years ago. Much of the decline can be traced to decisions by the Christie administration beginning in 2010.

October 17, 2016 - The New York Times

Metro Paris

Comparing Transit Systems and Populations for 13 Worldwide Cities

A new study compares regional population densities to transit systems to find out which transit systems have maximized their reach.

October 16, 2016 - CityLab

Link and Bus Seattle

An Argument for Light Rail Over Bus Rapid Transit

Opponents of the ST3 transit funding measure in Seattle have argued that bus rapid transit is a cheaper alternative to light rail. A local write counter argues that point by making the economic case for light rail.

October 16, 2016 - The Urbanist

Tracking the Growth of the 'Gig Economy' in U.S. Cities

The Brookings Institute thinks it has found a way to measure the impact of the expanding 'gig economy'—i.e., freelancing work enabled by online platforms like Airbnb and Uber.

October 16, 2016 - Brookings

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.