Transportation
Early Reviews Are In: Chicago's New Transit App Makes it Easy to Pay the Fare
The Ventra app hits the streets—or the tracks, perhaps—this week. Steven Vance of Streetsblog Chicago has already tested the new tool.
Northern California City Protests Closure Of Popular Rail Crossing
State rail officials decided that the risk posed by Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit trains is too grave to allow an existing grade crossing to remain open, forcing pedestrians and a cyclists out of their way to cross the tracks.
Opponents to California High-Speed Rail Board: Show Us the Money!
Bereft of private investment, how can the $68 billion project proceed? That's the question about 20 members of the public repeated in their public comments at Tuesday's High-Speed Rail Authority meeting in Fresno. To their surprise, it was answered.
Planning for Fitness in Oklahoma City
Six years ago, the 620-square-mile city had not one bike lane and forty McDonald's franchises.
Two-Way Streets Coming Soon to Dallas' Victory Park
The city of Dallas got the memo about the benefits of converting one-way streets to two-ways. Two streets in the Victory Park neighborhood will be reconfigured this weekend.
Estimated Cost Savings of 10 Percent of People Riding Bikes: $24 Trillion
The mode share for bikes in urban environments around the world currently sits around 6 percent. A new report out of a university located in one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country quantifies the benefits of 10 percent mode share.
Chicago Tribune Finds Faults With City's Speed Camera Program
A special investigation by the Chicago Tribune finds inconsistencies and errors with the city's "'Children's Safety Zone" initiative, which places speed camera near schools and parks.
A Texas Toll Road Struggling to Induce Demand
Texas 130 has failed to live up to its revenue potential, leaving the private company that operates the road in junk bond status.
Northern Virginia Considering a New Light Rail or Bus Rapid Transit Line
One of the busiest corridors in Northern Virginia, both in traffic and development, is under consideration for a new transit line.
Report: Electric Vehicles Best Option in Most of U.S.
A new Union of Concerned Scientists report shows that due to considerable gains made in cleaning the electric grid and in producing electric vehicles more efficiently, EVs are the environmentally sensible choice.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
Pagination
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.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association