Streetsblog

What a long, difficult journey it's been for streetcar advocates in Cincinnati. After battling an extremely hostile state government, the project was nearly killed in the early stages of construction by an adversarial mayor. But a groundswell of grassroots support for the project pushed it over the top.

Seattle has a housing affordability problem. One way to address that is to reduce the amount of parking required in new residential buildings, lowering construction costs and increasing the number of apartments that can be built.

More people were killed while biking in NYC during the first eight months of 2016 than all of last year, and total traffic deaths are on track to rise this year as well. It's up to Mayor de Blasio to pick up the pace of street redesigns to save lives, but so far City Hall has resisted Transportation Alternatives' call to invest more in safe streets for walking and biking. On Thursday, you can tell the mayor that the status quo is not acceptable.

About $830 million in federal funds are set aside each year for walking and biking. That's less than 2 percent of total federal transportation spending.

It's hard to overstate the influence of Houston's bus network redesign -- an overhaul of the city's bus routes that aimed to expand access to frequent service. Cities all over the country have taken note and many are reimagining their own bus networks.

A movement has been building in Providence, Rhode Island, to replace the aging 6/10 Connector -- an elevated urban highway -- with an at-grade surface street that prioritizes transit and bicycling. It's a solution that other cities have pursued to brilliant effect (intentionally or otherwise), with highway slabs giving way to walkable places.

Thousands of people are still living in hotels and shelters following last month's devastating floods in the Baton Rouge area. After nearly two feet of rain fell on central Louisiana, 13 people lost their lives and some 40,000 homes were damaged.

With Labor Day come and gone, community board meetings are starting to pick up again. On Thursday, Queens Community Board 2 will hear an update from DOT on the Long Island City/Hunters Point reconstruction project, which will rebuild the neighborhood's streets for the first time in a century. So far DOT has failed to include major redesigns like a protected bike lane on 11th Street, the most direct connection between the Pulaski Bridge and the Queensboro Bridge. Update: DOT will present on the project to CB 2 in October.

It's difficult to understand just how terrifying it can be to walk on America's car-oriented streets unless you've actually experienced it. Unfortunately, too few people in decision-making roles ever find themselves in that position.