What Will It Take for Sacramento to Make Walking Safer in Poor Neighborhoods?
Police and city planners in Sacramento have come under scrutiny in the weeks since police were caught on tape assaulting Nandi Cain, Jr., a black man, during a jaywalking stop. Cain, who was legally using an unmarked crosswalk, has since filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city. Now, reporters are looking into why there are so few marked crosswalks in one of Sacramento's poorest areas.
April 27, 2017
Amazon Could Kill Car-Dependent Big Box Retail. Will It Also Kill Main Street?
Amazon is chipping away at the dominance of big box stores, which might warm the hearts of people who watched Walmart and other retailers ruthlessly suck the life out of walkable downtowns for years on end. But is it really a good thing?
April 26, 2017
A Simple Change to Make the Walk to Transit Feel Within Reach
Sometimes, high-quality transit is within a walkable distance, but people just aren't used to walking to the train. New signage in St. Paul, Minnesota, funded through a local challenge from a national foundation, aims to help people get over that mental block and walking to the nearest Green Line station.
April 26, 2017
Get Ready for Uber’s “Flying Cars” Conference to Generate Lots of Dumb Headlines
Whizzing above the city may sound appealing in a Jetsons sort of way, but Uber's thinking on this technology is completely untethered from its impact on the cities and towns below, where the people are.
April 25, 2017
It’s Hard to Overstate the Health Benefits of Biking to Work
A massive new study of commuters in the United Kingdom reveals that people who bike to work tend to live longer and are at lower risk of heart disease and cancer. While the study establishes correlation but doesn't prove causation, the size of the sample and the magnitude of the effects strongly suggest that biking to work can yield major health benefits.
April 24, 2017
Trump Budget Threats and the Local Anti-Transit Brigade Spike Lansing BRT
Eight years in the making, the project was undone by suburban opposition. Now, transit advocates in Michigan's capital are figuring out what can be done to improve transit while their opponents take a victory lap.
April 21, 2017
New York City Now Has Permanently Car-Free Roads in Two Major Parks
A week after New York City's Central Park went mostly car-free, today marked the beginning of the permanent car-free zone on the west side of Prospect Park [PDF].
July 7, 2015
Alta Bicycle Share Has New Owners, New CEO, New Expansion Plans
It's official: Alta Bicycle Share, the company that runs Citi Bike, has a new owner, an infusion of cash, and a fresh face at the top -- longtime transit executive Jay Walder. At a press conference this afternoon, the new team promised to correct Citi Bike's blunders and double the system's size by the end of 2017.
October 28, 2014
American Driver’s Ed Is a Joke
Want a driver's license? It's easy. Fill out some paperwork and pop on over to the DMV to take a 20-question test for your learner's permit. Then, get in some practice with a licensed driver. (But if you're over 18, you can just ignore that part!) Then sit through a five-hour course before taking a quick road test, like these people. Total cost: about $50 and a few hours. Once your license expires, you can renew it with a few clicks online.
September 16, 2014
New Report Out of NYC: Protected Bike Lanes Improve Safety for Everyone
In sync with Bicycling Magazine naming New York America's best biking city, the NYC Department of Transportation released a report this week full of stats on the safety impact of protected bike lanes. It's the most robust data the city has released about this type of street design, and the results prove that protected bike lanes make streets safer not just for cyclists, but pedestrians and drivers as well.
September 5, 2014