Transportation
What's Behind Bike Share's Skyrocketing Growth?
Earth Policy Institute's bike share charts allow readers to compare bike share programs in the U.S., now numbering 34 with 18,000 bikes. As impressive as it is, a comparison with bike share programs abroad put the numbers in perspective.
Infographics: The Truth About Transit
Since it has struggled with aggressive transit foes over half-cent sales taxes and light rail, Charlotte, North Carolina's transit system is launching a campaign to dispel myths about transit with crisp, clear infographics.
Midwestern Cities Using Transit as Economic Development Tool
Chicago's Fulton Market's new transit stop is attracting attention and investment in the neighborhood. Increasingly, more cities in the Midwest are embracing transportation projects as a means to revitalize downtowns and historic districts.
Texas Roads Crisis: DOT Proposes To Let Counties Maintain Roads
Following-up on the depavement of 83 miles of "farm-to-market" roads, TxDOT now proposes a much larger budget-saving measure: "Turn back" control of 2,000 miles of these state roadways to counties and cities. TxDOT also wants to focus on urban roads.
California Refineries Prepare For Canadian Crude
Canadian oil is headed to two California oil refineries thanks to the collaboration of Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific railroads. Valero Energy's Benicia and Wilmington refineries are improving rail facilities in preparation for the deliveries.
NYC's App Quest Generates Wealth of New Subway App Ideas
New York City's MTA is gearing up to wire all of its subway stations for cellular use, and has released the full list of application concepts created by developers for subway riders. The public can vote now -- what would make your ride better?
Congestion Costing Point-Counter-Point
Conventional transportation planning tends to exaggerate congestion costs and roadway expansion benefits, and undervalues other transportation solutions such as improving alternative modes, pricing reforms and smart growth policies.
Cities and States Most Impacted by Early Deaths from Air Pollution
An MIT study finds 200,000 early deaths per year in U.S. are attributed to air pollution. The biggest source is vehicle tailpipes at 53,000. Most impacted state: California; most impacted city: Baltimore.
Is Los Angeles' Car Culture on a Collision Course with Economic Ruin?
Architect and planner Gerhard W. Mayer asserts that a city developed to accommodate cars is no place for paltry public transit offerings; Los Angeles needs major changes to its DNA if it wants to remain viable.
What do you Get when you Cross "Car Share" with "Bike Share"?
Electric Bike Share! The new program is set to launch in famously hilly San Francisco and across the bay in Berkeley next spring. Unlike the region's bike share which just launched August 29, it will be administered by the non-profit City Car Share.
Have Parkcycle, Will Travel!
Ever wish your nearby park could follow you throughout the city, providing open space wherever you might be? An artist and landscape architect have created Parkcycle Swarm, a modular system of 'human powered mobile gardens'.
Electric Will Supplant Fossil Fuel Cars on Safety
Advocating safety for the successful electric replacement of internal combustion engine cars solves many of the challenges of an automobile-inclusive future urbanity, and there will be no other kind.
Self-Driving Cars for Sale by 2020 Says Automaker
Nissan has become the first car company to commit to a date for selling self-driving cars in an announcement this week. And it won't just be one model for sale by 2020, Nissan will produce "multiple 'commercially viable' self-driving vehicles."
Updating the Book on Parking Reform
A Donald Shoup devotee offers new insight into the problems and solutions associated with parking in Los Angeles and other cities. Urban Planning professor Richard Willson says it'll cost you, but parking systems are going to get more efficient.
Retaining Affordable Housing Near Transit Just Got Easier
Changes to the criteria for evaluating applications for the federal New Starts program could have a significant impact on efforts to preserve and expand affordable housing in close proximity to transit.
Can Transit Oriented Development be Effective in India?
TOD as a planning tool is new to Indian cities, where the idea is being championed as a solution to congestion, environment quality and housing equity. Can this concept, developed for the North American city, be successful in Indian cities?
Driving Home: How Highways Destroyed Cincinnati
In a collection of aerial photos comparing Cincinnati in the 1950s and today, one can see the disastrous effect that the nation's highway building frenzy had on the city's urban fabric.
Detroit Contemplates Privatizing Parking Assets
In his quest to leave no source of potential revenue unexplored, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is looking into selling Detroit's parking lots, meters and garages. The experiences of other cities who've trodden a similar path offer cause for caution.
Will Economists Be the New Highway Men?
Got road congestion? Pricing in the form of managed (don't call them HOT) lanes makes more sense than new construction, according to a panel of transportation experts led by HNTB Corp., reports James Bruckbauer of Michigan Land Use Institute.
D.C. is Nation's Capital of Bad Driving, Once Again
All of that Congressional gridlock seems to be causing a lot of accidents. For the sixth year in a row, Washington D.C.'s drivers have come in last place in Allstate’s annual "America’s Best Drivers" report.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
