Transportation

Rental Cars

Business Travelers Prefer Uber Over Rental Cars—Do Planners?

Change is afoot for transportation around destinations like Southwest Florida. Are cities like Tampa still planning too much for the old rental car model, and not for a future of transportation network companies, carsharing, and self-driving cars?

April 30, 2016 - Tampa Bay Times

Traffic

Why Do People Drive When They Don't Want To?

City Observatory digs into the history of a Chicago suburb to answer the question: "Why don't people who say they'd like to take transit actually do it?"

April 30, 2016 - City Observatory

Carfree Freeway

Righting Old Wrongs: U.S. DOT Goes from Urban Renewal to Freeway Removal

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx sees rebuilding America's ailing infrastructure as an opportunity to "right past wrongs," particularly with 1950s and 1960s-era freeways that bisected communities. NPR and Streetsblog describe the new initiative.

April 30, 2016 - NPR

Experts Weigh in on Decision to Move California to VMT as Metric for Impacts

In a significant effort to shift from sprawl toward incentivizing low-carbon transportation options, California is revising the way it measures traffic impacts of development projects under its Environmental Quality Act.

April 29, 2016 - The Planning Report

New Hampshire House Denies Federal Funding for Boston to Concord Rail Study

New Hampshire House Republicans don't like rail. By removing the New Hampshire Capitol Corridor rail expansion project from the state's transportation plan, they deny the state Department of Transportation $4 million in federal funding for the study.

April 29, 2016 - WMUR Manchester

Modern high speed bullet train in China

The Pop Culture Verdict: Transit Is Hip

Several decades ago, public transit was a distinctly low-quality way of getting around. Now, if we can believe TV and movies depicting the near future, all that has changed. Transit has become aspirational.

April 29, 2016 - Governing

Barcelona Bikeshare

Report: Bikeshare Makes Biking Safer

In the United States, not a single bikeshare rider has died in an accident so far. A report from the Mineta Transportation Institute considers why bikeshare may be safer than conventional biking.

April 29, 2016 - Vox

Philadelphia Market Street

A Plan to Make Philadelphia's Market Street More Like Main Street

Changing demographics and mobility choices along the historic Market Street in Philadelphia have planners looking for ways to implement a road diet and put safety first.

April 28, 2016 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

San Francisco Parking

San Francisco Rethinks the Costs of Parking

The debate over the impacts of parking isn't new, but San Francisco planners are hoping that their approach to parking will provide new mobility solutions in a growing city.

April 28, 2016 - San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority

Road Construction

Against Opposition, Arkansas Highways Expand

Although many local activists and officials oppose the trend, Arkansas state planners are considering major highway expansions in the Little Rock area. The state's highway department has demonstrated a pro-car, pro-suburb agenda.

April 28, 2016 - The Atlantic

D.C. Metro

The Root Causes of the D.C. Metro Crisis

The 40-year-old system, second busiest in the nation after New York's, has seen ridership decline since 2010 as the region grows. A major cause is "frequency delays." The Washington Post reporters state that the subway has entered a death spiral.

April 28, 2016 - The Washington Post

Calle Ocho, Little Havana

Bringing Pedestrian Life Back to Little Havana

Planners have set their sights on the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami with the goal of turning the area's car-centric Calle Ocho into a ped-friendly Main Street.

April 27, 2016 - CityLab

D.C. Streetcar

D.C.'s New Streetcar Not As Slow As Rumored

Washington D.C.'s new streetcar line opened to a chorus of media naysayers who mocked the slow moving transit, but reality shows it's not quite as slow as some would have you believe.

April 27, 2016 - Greater Greater Washington

EmX Bus

Oregon Governor Kicks Off State Gas Tax Campaign in Eugene's Bus Rapid Transit

A transportation funding proposal including a gas tax will be prepared for the 2017 legislative session. The media event in the EmX bus highlighted the need to have continuous, dedicated lanes for the Eugene-Springfield bus rapid transit system.

April 27, 2016 - The Register-Guard

Self-Driving Car

Self-Driving Cars Have Their Own Lobby Now

A coalition of the automated, if you will, as Ford, Volvo, Google, Uber, and Lyft have formed the new Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets to lobby for the causes of the nascent self-driving car industry.

April 27, 2016 - Automotive News

Port Authority Bus Terminal

Resistance Rising Against Port Authority's Manhattan Bus Terminal Plans

Nicole Gelinas writes a column that deliberately establishes an urban vs. suburban conflict over the issue of a $10 billion proposal to build a new Port Authority bus terminal on Manhattan's West Side.

April 27, 2016 - New York Post

D.C. Metro Bus

Auditing D.C. Metro's New Bus Prediction Technology

Regular bus riders know how integral an accurate real-time bus arrival system can be to the experience of bus transit. D.C. Metro just made a switch in technology, and Greater Greater Washington evaluated the results (so far).

April 26, 2016 - Greater Greater Washington

Identical Trucks

When Will the Trucking Industry Electrify?

Tesla's success with the Model 3 begs the question: When will the trucking industry electrify?

April 26, 2016 - Casey Brazeal

More Details of Brooklyn-to-Queens Streetcar Proposal Emerge

One interesting detail to note: the BQX streetcar proposal, as its currently known, originated not from the de Blasio Administration but from a Brooklyn-based real estate company.

April 25, 2016 - Politico New York

New York Street

Guide to Improved Street Designs: Pay Attention to Precedent

What does a successfully multi-modal and livable street look like? There are examples all over the world, if you're paying attention.

April 25, 2016 - CityLab

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.