Transportation

New Study Underway: Do Ride-Hailing Services Reduce Car Ownership?

The University of California, Berkeley and NRDC will team-up to verify whether Uber and Lyft reduce car ownership and are thus good for the environment. Such data already exists for a sister form of shared mobility: car-share.

November 17, 2015 - The Verge

Oregon DOT Releases Draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan

The Oregon Department of Transportation is showing leadership among state transportation agencies by adopting a new pedestrian and bicycle plan. With a first draft on the street, the early reviews are coming in.

November 17, 2015 - Bike Portland

Door Zone

Reactions to Cleveland's Backwards Bike Lane

A photo of a "backwards" buffered bike lane in Cleveland prompts commentary from the planning community. What is gained by separating bike lane and curb?

November 16, 2015 - People for Bikes

Microsoft, City of Bellevue Developing Tech to Predict—and Prevent—Bike Crashes

If it's successful, a public-private partnership between Microsoft and the city of Bellevue, Washington could produce Minority Report-style predicative capabilities to prevent bike crashes.

November 16, 2015 - GeekWire

Google Bus Opponents Argue Need for CEQA Study in San Francisco Superior Court

On Friday, tech bus opponents took their case to court, arguing that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act due to impacts including air quality and community displacement.

November 16, 2015 - San Francisco Examiner

US Highway 53 - Wisconsin

Wisconsin Goes Deeper in the Fiscal Hole to Fix Aging Roads

Wisconsin legislators have voted to continue steep borrowing to pay for needed road repairs, while calls to increase the state’s gas tax grow louder.

November 16, 2015 - Urban Milwaukee

The Time the Google Self-Driving Car Got Pulled Over for Driving Too Slowly

Google's response to its self-driving car getting pulled over by police in California: " "Driving too slowly? Bet humans don't get pulled over for that too often."

November 15, 2015 - San Jose Mercury News

Why It's So Hard to Tell When a New York Train Will Arrive

The Atlantic has deep and detailed coverage of the expensive, obsolete, and decaying technology used by the New York subway system.

November 15, 2015 - The Atlantic

Santa Monica Bikes

Santa Monica Debuts GPS-Enabled Bikeshare

Serving beach-side Santa Monica and nearby Venice, Breeze Bikeshare equips its bikes with GPS tracking. The program claims to be more advanced than an L.A. Metro system set to debut in early 2016.

November 14, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Feds Release New 'Transportation and Health Tool'

A new tool from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Centers for Disease Control allows comparisons between state or metropolitan area on transportation and public health indicators.

November 13, 2015 - Metro Magazine

Beijing Bike

Can Beijing Return to its Transportation (and Communist) Roots?

Beijing has strayed so far from its roots as a bicycling city that it now claims the title of the world's largest auto market, while only 12 per cent of commuters use bicycles. City planners wants to make it popular again to reduce air pollution.

November 13, 2015 - The New York Times

New Corporation Formed to Replace Amtrak's Hudson River Rail Tunnels

The Gateway Development Corporation will be formed by Amtrak, the U.S. Department of Transportation, New York, and New Jersey to replace the deteriorating 105-year-old Hudson River rail tunnels, a vital project that could cost $20 billion.

November 13, 2015 - The New York Times

DC Pope Visit

How the Pope's Visit Reduced Traffic in Washington, D.C.

Pope Francis' much-publicized visit to the capital in late September saw reductions in congestion and better travel times. Event-specific telecommuting policies and transit route changes appear responsible for the minor miracle.

November 12, 2015 - The Washington Post

Bridge Collapse

The Deadly Costs of Failing Infrastructure

Failing infrastructure is a life and death matter. Decaying roads, bridges, dam, pipelines, water delivery, and railroads lacking safety controls are responsible for the loss of thousands of lives annually, on top of illnesses and injuries.

November 12, 2015 - The New York Times

Uber Driver

The Ride-Share Revolution

"If the 20th century was devoted to building the infrastructure to service the personal automobile, then perhaps the 21st century will be devoted to undoing most of it."

November 12, 2015 - TechCrunch

Madrid Street 2

Madrid Takes Drastic Action to Curb Pollution

With a growing reputation for heavy local pollution, the city of Madrid will impose reduced speed limits and driving restrictions in its central core. On bad days, transit will be free to ride.

November 12, 2015 - CityLab

Tokyo Subway Map

Asian Subways Are the Busiest

Rankings from the International Association of Public Transport have Tokyo on top, followed by Beijing and Shanghai. New York comes in seventh.

November 11, 2015 - Citymetric

New Report Recommends Tough Medicine to Fix Bay Area's Housing Ailments

A new report by the Bay Area Council argues that the regionwide housing crisis demands a regionwide response, i.e., all nine counties and 101 cities need to build more housing, and if they don't, there needs to be consequences.

November 11, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

New Jersey DOT Head: 'The Days of System Expansion Are Long Over'

The acting head of the New Jersey Department of Transportation spoke of the realities of transportation investment in the current era of funding uncertainty.

November 11, 2015 - NJ.com

Miami Bus

27,000 Passenger Complaints Show Room for Improvement on Miami-Dade's Metrobus

An investigation of passenger complaints provides the starting point for an in-depth investigation of the service provided by Florida's largest transit system.

November 10, 2015 - Miami Herald

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.

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.