Transportation

Can a City Have Too Much Transportation Network?

Yonah Freemark critiques a planned expansion to Dallas' already-extensive highway network, arguing that it undermines billions of dollars in light rail investment and sets its downtown on a path of stunted growth.

May 21, 2012 - the transport politic

How to Resuscitate a Foundering Transit System

Stephen Lee Davis investigates a campaign by Baton Rouge community groups to revive its bus service as it teetered on the brink of collapse.

May 20, 2012 - Transportation for America

History Repeats Itself in California Infrastructure Debate

As the Golden Gate Bridge approaches its 75th anniversary, John King pens an incisive comparison between the arguments against the bridge's original construction and those that have challenged subsequent high-profile projects.

May 19, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle

Are Electric Cable Cars the Future of Trucking?

John Metcalfe explores a new kind of hybrid vehicle that could revolutionize trucking and cut down air contaminants in one of the most polluted regions in the country.

May 19, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Quality of Place Trumps Density, says Richard Florida

Ten years after publishing of The Rise of the Creative Class, the prominent city-booster says high-rises are “vertical suburbs” and we need “urban environments that stir the spirit.”

May 19, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

How Tokyo Gets Transportation Right

As a New Yorker visiting Tokyo, Eric Jaffe set out to keep a scorecard comparing his home city's transportation infrastructure with that of the Japanese capital. He found that the score wasn't even close.

May 18, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

How Bikes Are Changing Our Urban and Social Spaces

In honor of national Bike to Work Day, we post an article by Jason Severs looking at the ways in which the bicycle - "the next great technology platform" - is changing our physical environment and social interactions.

May 18, 2012 - The Atlantic

What Will It Take to Make the Electric Car Affordable?

Even as auto manufacturers roll out bigger, better technology for electric vehicles, high production costs – particularly from battery manufacturers – are keeping sales figures low, Tim Fernholz reports.

May 18, 2012 - Good

Quick Fixes for Transit Safety

Transit rider and Good reporter, Alissa Walker, describes some simple solutions for making transit safer.

May 17, 2012 - Good

New Urbanists Duke it Out With Mayor Over Expressway Conversion

"We should not let the lame be the enemy of the perfectly adequate," says one critic of the New Haven mayor's proposal.

May 17, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Toward a Universal Subway Typology

Brandon Keim explores the fascinating findings detailed in a new paper, which shows that the world’s major subway systems appear to be organically converging on an ideal form.

May 16, 2012 - Wired Science

What Are (Realistic) Options For Federal Transportation Funding?

With the unlikely possibility of the Congressional conference committee agreeing to a new transportation bill, much less an agreement to address the decreasing gas tax revenues to the Highway Trust Fund, Kathryn Wolfe looks at the remaining options.

May 16, 2012 - Politico

The Dangers of Walking While Poor

Low income people are more likely to get hit by cars. Kate Hinds reports on the social and infrastructural factors responsible for the disparity.

May 16, 2012 - Transportation Nation

Top 10 Websites - 2012

Our annual list of the 10 best planning, design, and development websites represents some of the top online resources for news, information and research on the built environment.

May 15, 2012 - Abhijeet Chavan

Haggling Over High-Speed Rail Funds

Burgess Everett and Adam Snider look at the growing debate over where to allocate limited high-speed rail funds: on the East Coast, where rail already has a foothold, or out West, where California has the land and starter funds to make it happen.

May 15, 2012 - Politico

What Are the Most Bikeable Cities?

The folks behind Walk Score, the incredibly popular walkability measure, are beta testing a new metric that judges the bikeability of cities, writes Jess Zimmerman.

May 15, 2012 - Grist

High-Speed Train Will Require High-Speed Spending

Guidelines attached to the federal funds intended to help pay for the first phase of California's bullet train will require the fastest rate of transportation construction known in U.S. history, reports Ralph Vartabedian.

May 15, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

Fashioning a New Los Angeles Along Its Boulevards

Christopher Hawthorne begins a series exploring the ways in which L.A. is utilizing its boulevards to try on "a post-suburban identity for the first time", with a look at Atlantic Boulevard, a major north-south spine.

May 14, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

CBO: The Collision Course of Fuel Efficiency Standards and Transportation Revenue

Ann Mesnikoff, Director of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign, looks at the CBO's Highway Trust Fund report on the relationship between fuel economy standards and projected gas tax revenues, and finds it too hypothetical.

May 14, 2012 - Sierra Club Compass

How Public Transportation is Failing the Disabled

With more than a quarter of disabled Americans who are unable to leave their homes prevented from doing so by transportation difficulties, Sarah Laskow argues it's time for cities to move beyond ADA.

May 13, 2012 - Good

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.

Transportation Planner I

KFH Group Inc.

Director, Strategy and Research

Greater Baltimore Committee

Senior Planner

Eagle County Government

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

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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.