Angie Schmitt

Speed kills, especially on city streets teeming with pedestrians and cyclists.

It's not even a new idea at this point, having made the rounds in the media about six years ago, but the "straddling bus" concept that some Chinese cities are purportedly considering continues to fascinate people. Straddling bus stories went viral again last week, with claims that the conveyance, which only exists as a scale model at this point, can carry up to 1,400 passengers while traveling above two lanes of car traffic as fast as 40 mph, according to CityLab.

A bill working its way through Congress may prompt federal officials to get a better handle on how transportation projects help or hinder access to jobs, education, and health care.

California's cap-and-trade program is one of the boldest state-level climate change policies in the U.S. By capping statewide carbon pollution and then auctioning off emissions allowances, the state hopes to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate about $10.6 billion for projects to improve energy efficiency. Among other things, that money would support various rail and transit projects, including the state's high-speed rail line.

It's cliché at this point for newspapers to label any effort to improve walking, biking, or transit as a "war on cars." The latest in this proud tradition is Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley, who wrote recently that the city is waging "a shock-and-awe campaign targeting anyone who dares to drive in, through or around Seattle." What was it exactly that set him off?

Patrick Kennedy at Dallas Magazine's Street Smart blog says that when parking gets expensive, the conventional wisdom he hears is that more parking should be built. But what high parking prices really signify, he writes, is simply a strong concentration of businesses and/or housing -- the parking isn't even necessary.

In the past few years, a greater share of the population growth in and around Houston happened in the city itself, compared to the first decade of the millennium. The trend is pretty clear, reports Houston Tomorrow:

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx criss-crossed the country last week on a tour of the seven finalists for U.S. DOT's $50 million "Smart City Challenge" grant.

You may have noticed that it's "Infrastructure Week" in America -- a time where engineering and construction industry groups beat the drum for more money, using big numbers and images of collapsing bridges.

Barcelona is making waves with plans to test a concept it's calling "superblocks." The idea is to create nine-block squares of "citizen spaces" -- about 400 meters on each side -- where cars would be limited. Unlike the widely derided superblocks of the urban renewal era, Barcelona's would be explicitly designed to preserve the street grid for walking and biking -- only motor vehicle through traffic would be discouraged.