United States

Unlike Smaller Cars, 'Megacars' Drove More in 2020
The increase in miles driven by light trucks and other 'megacars' could have contributed to the rise in traffic deaths, despite an overall reduction in VMT.

Report Highlights Key Role of Cities in Stemming Evictions
The National League of Cities outlines strategies that city leaders can implement at the local level to prevent evictions and increase housing affordability.

Top Republicans Encourage Governors to Ignore FHWA Guidance
Senators McConnell and Capito reject the administration's efforts to steer federal funds to infrastructure projects that prioritize road maintenance and transit and pedestrian improvements over new road construction.

Green Infrastructure Thinking for Southern Cities in 2022 and Beyond
Resilience planning requires communities to think of a well planned and maintained tree canopy as a public utility system with multiple benefits.

Challenges to Electrifying City Fleets
Shifting municipal fleets to electric vehicles poses some challenges, but cities can take steps today to prepare for an easier transition to an electric future.

COVID Deaths: U.S. in a League of its Own
An analysis by The New York Times compares current and cumulative COVID deaths in the U.S. to other large, wealthy countries. Data analyzed include vaccination, age and obesity levels, and public trust, all factors that influence outcomes.

Grid Operator Calls for Two-Year Pause on Solar Projects, Citing Massive Backlog
The largest grid operator in the U.S. is asking for a new approvals process and two-year delay on current applications to ease the logjam of primarily solar projects in its queue.

HUD Credits COVID-19 Relief for Improved Homelessness Numbers
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's "2021 Annual Homeless Assessment Report" comes with significant caveats about partial data and changing homeless shelter practices.

Building Up the 'Zoning Buffer' to Increase Housing Supply Without Raising Land Values
New research helps explain why urban housing prices are escalating and how communities can increase affordability. It emphasizes the need to upzone sufficient urban land to create a large competitive market for parcels ready for infill development.

Considering Geographic Equity
What do we owe poor cities?

How Dealership Laws Hinder EV Sales
Laws designed to protect car dealers against price competition from car manufacturers are, in many states, preventing electric car makers from selling directly to consumers.

How to Build More Bike Infrastructure
A national philanthropic program designed to help cities produce more bike infrastructure has been a resounding success, according to recent analysis.

The 'Quiet Revolution' of Zero Emission Transit Buses
More and more U.S. transit agencies are rolling out electric buses, and the recently approved federal infrastructure bill could make it easier than ever to buy zero emission electric buses.

The Pandemic Era
"We are living in the Covid-19 era, not the Covid-19 crisis," Allan Brandt, a historian of science and medicine at Harvard University, told Gina Kolata of the New York Times last October in a review of past pandemics and what we can learn from them.

Single-Family Homes Appearing Faster Than Any Year Since 2006
The housing construction market is responding to strong demand with a glut of new single-family homes.

One-Third of Homes for Sale Are New, Report Says
New data from Redfin shows strong demand, and an increasing share of the supply, in new homes.

National Roadway Safety Program Centers Vision Zero at the Federal Level
A new federal program will direct resources to reducing traffic deaths, improving roadway safety, and encouraging a shift to sustainable transportation modes.

U.S. DOT's 2022 RAISE Grants to Target Emissions Reductions, Racial Equity
The RAISE grant program continues to make history as a distinct departure from U.S. transportation planning tradition.

$50 Billion 'Wildfire Risk Strategy' Targets the Wildland-Urban Interface
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in January announced an ambitious, and only partially funded, new plan to reduce wildfire risks for communities around the United States.

Beware Endemics!
The pandemic will end and SARS-CoV-2 may evolve to become a mild, endemic cold coronavirus, warns Aris Katzourakis, a professor of viral evolution and genomics in an opinion for Nature. Examples of other endemic diseases are malaria and tuberculosis.
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