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Federal Report: Bad Street Design a Factor in Rising Ped/Bike Fatalities
A new report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office [PDF] examines why people walking or biking account for a rising share of traffic deaths in the United States. While the conclusions aren't exactly earth-shattering, one culprit the GAO identified is street design practices that seek primarily to move cars.
December 11, 2015
Real Estate Giant: Suburban Office Parks Increasingly Obsolete
What tenants want in an office building is changing, and the old model of the isolated suburban office park is going the way of the fax machine. That's according to a new report from Newmark, Grubb, Knight and Frank [PDF], one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the world.
December 10, 2015
How Much Can Bicycling Help Fight Climate Change? A Lot, If Cities Try
A new study from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy attempts to measure the potential of bikes and e-bikes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
November 18, 2015
The Looming Transit Breakdown That Threatens America’s Economy
While federal transit funding stagnates, the nation's largest rail and bus systems have been delaying critical maintenance projects. Without sustained efforts to fix infrastructure and vehicles, the effects of deteriorating service in big American cities could ripple across the national economy, according to a new report from the Regional Plan Association [PDF].
November 16, 2015
More Evidence That Helmet Laws Don’t Work
If you want to increase cycling safety in your city, drop the helmet law and focus on getting more people-- particularly women -- on bikes, with street designs that offer separation from vehicle traffic.
November 10, 2015
3 White Elephants That Help Explain America’s Infrastructure Crisis
A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America's much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads.
September 30, 2015
Without Transit, American Cities Would Take Up 37 Percent More Space
Even if you never set foot on a bus or a train, chances are transit is saving you time and money. The most obvious reason is that transit keeps cars off the road, but the full explanation is both less intuitive and more profound: Transit shrinks distances between destinations, putting everything within closer reach.
September 28, 2015
WE ACT Climate Plan Calls for Better Upper Manhattan Bicycling, Walking
While most of Northern Manhattan escaped the harshest ravages of Hurricane Sandy, there was some flooding along the waterfront, including inside the 148th Street subway station. Next time around, a severe storm could take a different turn and things could be worse for waterfront areas in Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. WE ACT for Environmental Justice has developed a climate action plan for those neighborhoods -- and it includes some recommendations for walking, bicycling, and transit.
August 7, 2015
The Key Human Factors That Can Lead Any City to Transform Its Streets
How did Portland get to be a national model for sustainable transportation and walkable development? Yes, Mayor Neil Goldschmidt stopped the Mount Hood Freeway from being built in 1974 and began negotiations that eventually led to the implementation of the urban growth boundary. But Goldschmidt didn’t do it alone.
August 4, 2015
New Jersey Squanders Transit By Surrounding Stations With Sprawl
New Jersey is the most population-dense state in the country, and many residents get to work via one of its several transit systems. But too many of New Jersey’s transit stations are surrounded by single-family housing, severely limiting the number of people -- especially low-income people -- with convenient, walkable access to transit. Some entire transit lines are out of reach for people of modest means.
July 9, 2015