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Are Children Parasites on Cities’ Finances?
No sooner did Streetsblog LA roll out its new series (and hashtag) #streetsr4families than the Washington Post asked whether it really benefits cities to attract families with kids at all. After all, wrote Lydia DePillis yesterday, while single twenty-somethings freely spend their money on $12 cocktails and $50 concert tickets, parents avail themselves of taxpayer-funded services like public schools and parks. Parasites on the system.
August 20, 2014
Talking Headways Podcast: Crown Prince of Fresh Air
What would you think of a city planner, out ruffling feathers with his bold ideas about density and urbanism -- who commutes to work an hour each way from his ranch way outside the city? Ironic -- or hypocritical? That's the question we wrestle with in our discussion of Brad Buchanan, the head honcho at Denver's Department of Community Planning and Development.
August 19, 2014
Why Transit Agencies Expand Even When They Struggle to Provide Service
New Orleans transit is in bad shape, as we reported recently. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority has never recovered from Hurricane Katrina and service is at about 36 percent of pre-storm levels despite the region's population rebound.
August 18, 2014
Why It Makes Sense to Add Ped/Bike Routes Along Active Rail Lines
This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh.
August 18, 2014
Removing Center Lines Reduced Speeding on London Streets
On some streets, getting drivers to stop speeding might be as easy as eliminating a few stripes. That's the finding from a new study from Transport for London [PDF].
August 15, 2014
One-Day Protected Bike Lane Demos Have Swept America this Summer
Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets.
August 14, 2014
Oil-Laden Freight Trains Delaying Amtrak, Commuter Trains Across U.S.
Oil production is booming across North America, as new technologies make it possible to extract liquid crude oil from sources like the Bakken shale oil field in North Dakota and Montana, or Alberta's tar sands. The ever-increasing volume of crude oil mined in remote Great Plains locations often finds its way to refineries via "rolling pipelines" – freight trains that tow a million barrels of oil around the United States every day. Production of Bakken crude has tripled over the past three years, and 79 percent of it is shipped out by rail.
August 14, 2014
After Cyclists Protest, Toronto Will Protect Downtown Bike Lanes
In a victory for bike safety in Toronto, officials have agreed to add protective posts to three new downtown bike lanes.
August 13, 2014
Talking Headways Podcast: Zoned Out
Welcome to the dog days of summer! Before skipping town, Congress passed a transportation funding patch so they wouldn't have to deal with the real problem of the unsustainable way our nation builds and pays for infrastructure. I give the briefest possible rundown of where we are now before Jeff and I launch into discussions about the issues of the day: zoning and ride-share.
August 13, 2014