Transportation
Train Times to Accompany Motorists Stuck in Traffic
To encourage train ridership, Caltrans and Metrolink have teamed up to display train times on electronic signs along two oft-congested Southern California freeways.
Henderson, NV Awarded $3.5M HUD Challenge Grant
The largest regional plan in Clark County history, Henderson will be using the funds to more sustainably link transportation, land use, and people. Guy Dawson reports.
CA HSR: A Speed Too Fast?
LA to SF in 2 hrs, 40 mins? That promise in the proposition that voters approved in 2008 could be the train's undoing, as to keep that schedule it will require more expensive design, including viaducts and tunnels, than would otherwise necessitate.
Report Touts Economic Benefits via Maine Transportation Projects
The report put out by TRIP, a Washington, DC non-profit sponsored by insurance companies and transportation labor unions, highlights about 50 trips that are likely to generate economic growth when completed.
After Funding, Highway Projects Go Untracked
After the Big Dig, the most expensive highway projects are subject to more rules, but use of funds is largely up to the states, who may come back for more money pending planning and design issues that arise.
Not An Inexpensive Bike Lane
Adding a pedestrian/bike lane to the 'west span' of the Bay Bridge won't come on the cheap: $550 million is the current estimate. The east span lane, from Yerba Buena Island to Oakland, will be included in the new bridge due to open in late 2013.
Escaping the Data and Going With Your Gut
Jeff Wood, no stranger to transportation modeling and data-crunching, suggests its time to open up transit planning to gut-level reactions.
Life in the Slow Lane
After decades of building for speed, cities are rediscovering the virtues of slow: walking, biking and streetcars are taking over from freeways.
Congressional Transportation Committee Debates CA High Speed Rail
The stage moved to D.C. from Sacramento for the latest debate on the pros and cons of California's embattled HSR plan. The more vocal detractors from the Central Valley and Peninsula testified before the few members of the committee who attended.
Detroit Scraps Train Plans
The city and federal DOT have decided against a $600 million plan that would introduce light rail and, subsequently, more residents to the city. Instead, money will go to improving a notoriously unreliable bus system.
Robot Roadbuilders of the Future
In 1958, it seemed all but inevitable that giant tree-chomping, asphalt-pouring machines would roam across the countryside leaving gleaming interstate highways in their wake.
Potholes as Parks?
Writing in Grist, Chuck Wolfe provides a counterintuitive look at what to do about potholes and how they could become "the universal darlings of walkable urbanism".
Chicago's Bikes and Rail Infrastructure Get Federal Boost
About $20 million in all, the grants will go to improvements to the CTA and the city's first bikeshare program. This is just one of 46 projects nationwide getting funding this round from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Friday Funny: Pedestrian Haiku
NPR reports on NYC's new set of hilarious Haiku traffic street signs, that are meant to make drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians more aware when sharing the street.
Good News/Bad News For GM's Volt
October saw the first time the plug-in hybrid Volt outsell the all-electric Leaf; Consumer Reports rates Volt owners the most satisfied, but the car's potential to catch on fire is being investigated, and the $7,500 EV tax credit is under attack.
Congress Mulling Extending Transit Pretax Benefits
The benefits, which allow for up to $230 a month of pretax income to be set aside for transit commuting, may dip to just $125 a month if Congress does not decide on an extension by the end of the month.
How Planning is Like Growing Tomatoes
An organic system is rarely the sum of its parts. Nothing demonstrates this as clearly as sinking your teeth into a store-bought tomato, writes Ben Brown.
New Report: States Held Accountable For Their Gas Tax Policies
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has released a '50-state report' on state gas excise taxes - when they were last raised, the revenue loss to each state due to failure to maintain the tax, and what it would cost drivers to raise it.
Columbia Pike Streetcar is the Better Design
According to Miles Grant, "the streetcar is a relative bargain purely on the basis of direct cost per estimated user, not even including the external costs of sprawl and pollution that new and improved highways engender."
High-Speed Rail Project Faces Opposition
In California, a recent poll, according to Charles Chieppo, brought bad news stating that 53% of the states voters approved a $9.9 billion bond three years ago, but of those polled, 64% support a re-vote, and 59% would vote no if they had the chance.
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.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
