Transportation

Three Chinese companies are building a 31-mile highway to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. It's a move locals see as an effort to gain favor with the Kenyan government.

June 23, 2011 - NPR

Walkability guru Dan Burden's long-preached message of pedestrian-focused planning is increasingly becoming policy in cities across the country.

June 22, 2011 - The Washington Post

Predictable cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland are in the Top 10, but cities like San Diego and San Jose also hold prominent spots on the list.

June 22, 2011 - Triple Pundit

The La Independencia neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia sprawls up a hillside, leaving the inhabitants to walk up to 10 flights of stairs every day. An ambitious development program is considering building an outdoor network of escalators.

June 22, 2011 - TheCityFix.com

Facing $60 million in deficits over the next year, transportation officials in metropolitan Seattle are pushing a plan to ask voters to approve an increase in the price of registering cars in the area to create a transportation fund.

June 22, 2011 - The Seattle Times

A new survey of Londoners shows that improved transportation is seen as the most likely long-term benefit from hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics.

June 22, 2011 - Rail.co

Edward Glaeser adds "large-scale metropolitan farming" to a list -- which also includes historic preservation -- of barriers to densifying urban development patterns. His argument is that the latter is the greener of the two.

June 21, 2011 - Boston Globe

In comparing data collected during the 2010 Census, walkable neighborhoods are shown to have greater vacancy rates than the cities they're in.

June 21, 2011 - Plannovation

This episode of 99% Invisible looks into the history of the cul-de-sac, and why its design flaws overpower its benefits.

June 21, 2011 - 99% Invisible

For autonomous vehicles to roam the freeway, infrastructure and the law will need to accelerate and catch up with innovation, experts say.

June 21, 2011 - The Infrastructurist

Senator Mark Kirk presented details yesterday about his plan to lease public transportation assets to private companies or partner with them to expand transit.

June 21, 2011 - The Chicago Tribune

In Washington state, King County Council will vote on a measure to adopt a new algorithm for transit service policy.

June 20, 2011 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

In Northwestern Indiana, transit projects will outnumber road projects for the firs time in history. Funding for roads, however, still outpaces transit projects.

June 19, 2011 - Post-Tribune

Plans to revive a decades-dead streetcar loop in St. Louis are gathering steam.

June 18, 2011 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A report authored by Transportation for America and the American Public Transportation Association suggests that, no less than Social Security and Medicare, retiring baby boomers will have to cope with limited mobility options.

June 18, 2011 - The Antiplanner

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica has proposed a bill to privatize Northeast Corridor rail operations. This post from Pedestrian Observations looks at what such a plan would mean.

June 18, 2011 - Pedestrian Observations

In response to Chicago's recent naming of a street in honor of Oprah Winfrey, late night TV host Conan O'Brien has suggested having his own street in L.A., along with various streetscape improvements.

June 17, 2011 - Curbed LA

As federal transportation funding grows increasingly uncertain, cities across the country are trying new approaches to generate funds for their planned streetcar projects.

June 17, 2011 - Urban Land

The patterns of urban development over the past few decades have pushed more and more people into cars by necessity. But as design priorities change, so are people's walking and driving habits.

June 17, 2011 - Sierra

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a 7.7-mile bus-only lane on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares.

June 17, 2011 - Los Angeles Times