Transportation
The Difference Between Roads and Streets
Tao Rugkhapan reports on the etiology traffic accidents which are becoming all to common in Bangkok as vehicle speeds increase along with lane tolerances and the number of elevated expressways.
Monorails Fade As Streetcars Retake Spotlight
Streetcars -- a relatively old transportation technology -- have more traction than high tech solutions like monorails in the modern age of mobility. Want proof? Just look at Disneyland, says Tom Vanderbilt.
Aiding the Immigrant Bicyclists of Los Angeles
For many immigrants in Los Angeles, bicycling is the only viable way to get around. A group of activists is trying to make that transportation reality safer and more reliable.
LA Bus Fleet Now Cleanest In The Nation
The city still known for its smog will not have its buses to blame - the last of its diesel-fueled ones retired Jan. 12 in a celebration. All but 7 of the 2,221 buses will be compressed-natural-gas powered; electric and gas-electric the remainder.
Urbanism Ain't Elitist
One of columnist Steve Berg's New Year's resolutions is to explain to how supporting urbanist ideas like using cars less and retrofitting suburbs come from sound principles and aren't based in elitism.
Did London Misjudge Demand for Bike Sharing?
In a review of the new bike sharing program in London, The Economist raises the question of whether the city wrongly predicted the existing demand for the service.
Wayfinding Symbols Across the World
Metro stations, train stations and streetcar systems have distinct ways of showing how to get from one area to another. TheCityFix's Jonna McKone looks at mass transit systems from Mexico City to Paris and the visual representations used in each one.
Dreaming Detroit: Decline to Renaissance
The state of Detroit is alarming, particularly in its continued dependence on cars, but there is hope that the city could reinvent itself as an ecological metropolis, says Jeffrey Kenworthy of the Curtin University of Technology.
Chicago Puts Roads On A Diet
Lawrence Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Square ballooned over the years to 4 lanes. Putting the street on a "road diet" will make it friendlier to pedestrians.
Iowa May Reject Fed HSR Funding
Sounding very much like the new OH and WI Republican governors, a key state Republican legislator wants to avoid the ongoing state subsidy for Iowa City to Chicago trains. At stake is $230 million in a Federal rail grant to build 110 mph trains.
Seattle Tunnel Contracts Signed, But Opposition Remains
Contracts have been signed on a tunnel project to replace the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle. But opponents are still trying to stop the project.
Mayors on Smart Cities
Mayors of some of the biggest cities in the U.S. talk about what makes a city smart, and how cities can become smarter.
Reasons to be Nice to Pedestrians
Anthony Flint offers this list of the top ten reasons to be nice to pedestrians in 2011.
If You Build It, Will They Come?
California's high-speed rail project is in fact going to be built despite the state's looming budget crisis, but many are beginning to question what kind of impact the project will have if the right development around train stations is not met.
Mayor's Legacy: Revitalized Streetscapes
As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom prepares to leave for Sacramento to become Lt. Governor, he praises the latest road diet plan - reducing busy Cesar Chavez St. from 6-4 lanes with landscaped median and bike lanes and views it as part of his legacy
California's Slow Speed Amtrak Trains See Ridership Gain
It's not just the High Speed Rail project making news these days in California. The three 79 mph, state-subsidized inter-city lines: Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin, and Pacific Surfliner (nation's second busiest), all registered riderships gains.
Florida Transportation Planners Still Pushing Roads
In this op-ed, Daniel Shoer Roth says that fast roads are still the be-all and end-all of transportation planning in South Florida.
Pay-As-You-Drive Insurance Could Relieve Traffic Congestion
By charging drivers for each mile they travel, rather than a fixed amount, pay-as-you-drive insurance could cut driving by eight percent nationally, or more than eleven percent in New York State, says a Brookings Institution report.
Copenhagen's Bikes on Rails
Jonna McKone of TheCityFix looks at Copenhagen's recently added rail cars that are specifically for bicyclists and other passengers with special needs.
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.
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