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Good Roads?
I just finished an interesting journey that took me to the World Social Forum at the mouth of the Amazon River system in Belem, Brazil, and then to Los Angeles and finally home, just in time to attend a presentation last night at CounterPULSE of Rick Prelinger's Lost Landscapes III. The show consists of rare and obscure footage of life in San Francisco going back over 100 years. A few of the clips are striking reminders of how much the basic "technology" of roads and how we use them has evolved during the past century.
February 12, 2009
Paradise LOSt (Part III): California’s Revolutionary Plan to Overhaul Transportation Analysis
Transportation consultants and planners associated with the San Francisco Transportation Authority's (TA) ATG working group sent excited bursts of email to each other earlier this month about a new development coming from the state Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the body responsible for writing and amending the CEQA guidelines related to transportation and traffic. The OPR had adopted much of the spirit of the working group's recommendations and proposed an amendment (PDF) to CEQA guidelines that de-emphasized LOS and indicated that it would be much better to use measures for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reductions such as ATG.
January 28, 2009
Paradise LOSt (Part II): Turning Automobility on Its Head
One of the unintended consequences of San Francisco’s bicycle injunction, which Rob Anderson and fellow NIMBYs will likely rue for some time to come, is the arduous thought and labor that advocates and professional planners have invested in doing away with LOS all together.
January 27, 2009
Dude, Where’s My Bike Lane?
Here is another clever video from San Francisco; this one chronicles the case of the missing bike lane. I think it is safe to say that gas stations and bike lanes don't mix.
September 5, 2007
Highway Collapse Causes Transit Expansion
An early morning tanker truck crash that collapsed a portion of heavily-traveled freeway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has shut down the artery indefinitely. In response, officials are urging Bay Area motorists to take transit.
April 30, 2007
The Price of Parking: Let the Free Market Decide?
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece this weekend by Conor Dougherty on the municipal move toward charging more for parking. It's available online to paid subscribers only, but here's a taste:
February 5, 2007