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Using Software to Find Walkable Neighborhoods and Live Car Free
Though David Brooks might argue in his New York Times column that Americans want to live in small towns and suburban dreamscapes, the fact is more and more of us live in metropolitan areas, and discussions about what we want should have to do more with the context of those metropolitan areas. Brooks should be looking at the quality of the public spaces where people live, and the walkability and ease of transit in those neighborhoods.
February 27, 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
Paradise LOSt (Part I): How Long Will the City Keep Us Stuck in Our Cars?
The idea that the speed and free-flow of cars is the proxy that is being used across the state of California to measure whether a project is [environmentally] impactful is in the long run undermining the very quality of life [we] are working to protect.
January 26, 2009