Transportation

The Stitch

Planetizen Week in Review: September 3, 2016

Books! Maps! Data! Renderings! What more could you want from one week?

September 3, 2016 - Planetizen

BART Train

Serenity Now! BART Finds a Solution to Its Screeching Trains

BART trains have always made a lot of noise—impacting riders and the people who live along the regional system's routes. Now there's hope that the racket could be a thing of the past.

September 3, 2016 - Wired

Castle Rock Parkway

A New Road to Relieve Congestion on Denver's Southern Periphery

Castle Rock Parkway, which connects US 85 and I-25 south of Denver (or north of Colorado Springs, depending on your perspective), opened service to the public this week.

September 3, 2016 - The Denver Post

Empty Train

Some Cities Choose Uber and Lyft Over Buses

Subsidizing rides through the companies has turned out to be cheaper than running bus routes in some places.

September 2, 2016 - Skift

National Transit Map

Hot Off the Press: The National Transit Map

The U.S. Department of Transit has released its first ever National Transit Map.

September 1, 2016 - U.S. Department Of Transportation

Toll Road

Texas Would Need $24 Billion to End Highway Tolls

Texas politicians are wondering how much it would cost to remove tolls from hundreds of miles of roads around the state. Though the political cost of tolling is high, the actual cost, it turns out, is higher.

September 1, 2016 - Houston Chronicle

Tech SHuttle

One Man Reports a Quarter of All Tech Shuttle Infractions in San Francisco

A 70-year-old San Francisco resident is on a one-man mission to keep tech shuttles on the straight and narrow.

September 1, 2016 - San Francisco Examiner

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Maryland Spending $5 Million to Study Another Span for the Bay Bridge

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has thrown support behind a study to add a third span to the Bay Bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay.

September 1, 2016 - The Baltimore Sun

Transit Oriented Development

Pasadena Eases Into Bikeshare, Complete Streets

Located northeast of downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena is a "destination city" of its own. A recent push to make its streets more bike-friendly coincides with the upcoming arrival of bikeshare.

August 31, 2016 - Pasadena Star-News

Voting

This November, Four Major Transportation Measures at Stake

If you live in Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, or Los Angeles, you have more to look forward to in November than choosing Donald or Hillary. Major decisions concerning regional transportation are on the line.

August 31, 2016 - Governing

Overpass

Photo Series: St. Louis Highway Blues

Photographer Michael DeFilippo captures the striking, ironic, and often depressing ways in which highways cut apart the urban fabric of St. Louis.

August 31, 2016 - Huffington Post

Robot car

Why Autonomous Vehicles Probably Won't Induce Sprawl

There are a few good reasons why a worldwide fleet of autonomous vehicles will not necessarily lead to a new era of sprawl.

August 31, 2016 - William Riggs

Dallas Transit

Dallas Streetcar Launches New Expansion

The expanded Dallas Streetcar began service the Bishop Arts District this week, an expansion of three-quarters-of-a-mile beyond the original route.

August 30, 2016 - KERA News

Audubon Park, New Orleans

Green Spaces Are Making a Comeback in New Orleans

Some good news from a state that has seen far too much bad news this year: local officials report that the trees of New Orleans are making a surprisingly strong comeback after devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

August 30, 2016 - The New Orleans Advocate

D.C. Metro

D.C. Metro to Test Free WiFi at Six Subway Stations

The beleaguered D.C.-area transit agency finally had something to talk about besides repair schedules, delays, and debt.

August 30, 2016 - Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Toronto Subway

Toronto Commuters Like Their Open Gangway Subway Trains

The New York Times transit reporter, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, reports from Toronto to see what riders think about their 'open gangway' subway cars. By 2020, New York will receive 750 of these cars that have no doors separating the cars.

August 30, 2016 - The New York Times

Self-Driving Car

The Big Challenge for Driverless Cars: Convincing People to Give Up Control

The latest episode of TransitTrends, a serial YouTube show by moovel, examines the question of whether or not we're ready for autonomous vehicles.

August 29, 2016 - moovel

Dallas, Knox Street

Dallas Mixes Residential Development With a Road Diet, Gets Controversy

The Dallas City Council approved a road diet for Knox Street in Dallas, where 1,000 residential units are under construction on an already thriving commercial corridor.

August 29, 2016 - Dallas News

Taxi

Taxi Drivers, Your Job Has an Expiration Date

Autonomous vehicles are already in production and big city taxi drivers could be out of a job in 10 years, including those for Uber and Lyft.

August 29, 2016 - Cities of the Future

Traffic Deaths Take a Big Jump in 2016

A 9 percent increase in fatalities on the nation's highways compared to the same period in 2015 does not appear to be a result of increased driving, which jumped 3.3 percent during that period, but rather an increase in the rate of fatal crashes.

August 29, 2016 - National Safety Council

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

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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.