Commuter Rail and Inequality Within Transit Systems
In theory, transit is a big melting pot where people from all walks of life rub elbows. That may be close to the truth in some places, but in others the reality is often quite different. People riding city buses to work probably aren't as affluent as the people riding the commuter rail line into downtown.
January 22, 2016
High Stakes for Cities as Feds Start Regulating Self-Driving Cars
Last week as part of his State of the Union Address, President Obama announced a $4 billion investment over the next 10 years to test autonomous vehicles and get them ready for the market. Two days later at the Detroit Auto Show, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced that federal regulators would begin to develop coherent safety regulations for autonomous vehicles -- something industry leaders have been pushing.
January 21, 2016
Make No Mistake, Millennials in DC Drive Less Than Their Parents
In a series of recent articles, the D.C. press have been throwing cold water on the idea that younger people don't drive as much as their parents. The impetus was a recent study of millennials in the D.C. that found 60 percent still drive to work alone. This is sort of like the "if the earth is warming, how come it's snowing outside?" argument.
January 21, 2016
Chris Christie Sticks It to Pedestrians for No Discernible Reason
In 2014, 170 people were killed while walking on New Jersey streets, accounting for 31 percent of total traffic deaths in the state (about double the national share). In addition, 13 people were killed while biking that year.
January 20, 2016
Will Toronto Get Cars Out of the Way of the King Street Streetcar?
Despite running through some of Toronto's most densely populated areas, King Street is designed like a suburban road. Cars have dominion while the city's streetcar has no dedicated right-of-way despite high ridership -- so it sits in heavy traffic. But it looks that's about to change.
January 19, 2016
Free Parking Is a Terrible Investment for Transit Agencies
Does it make sense for cash-strapped transit agencies to spend millions of dollars on park-and-ride facilities and then give those parking spaces away for free?
January 15, 2016
Study: Sharrows Don’t Make Streets Safer for Cycling
Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure -- the scraps cities hand out when they can't muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don't.
January 14, 2016
Missouri Lawmaker Wants to Require Tall Fluorescent Flags for Cyclists
In what is perhaps the most comical anti-bike legislation to come out of a statehouse in years (and that is really saying something) a Missouri lawmaker has proposed legislation that would require any cyclist riding on a "lettered county road" to use an orange, fluorescent flag that stands at least 15 feet off the ground.
January 14, 2016
Social Engineering! Cities That Build More Parking Get More Traffic
Build parking spaces and they will come -- in cars. New research presented this week at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board finds a direct, causal relationship between the amount of parking in cities and car commuting rates.
January 13, 2016
Blaming Pedestrians While Absolving the Streets That Kill Them
It didn't take long for Louisville to notch its first pedestrian death of the year. Brian O’Neal, 46, was killed on the sixth day of 2016 while trying to cross Dixie Highway.
January 13, 2016