Cities and Countries
Streetsblog Basics
When Your State DOT Starts Talking About “Relieving Congestion,” Alarms Should Go Off
Georgia is looking to reduce congestion on the I-75/85 corridor in through downtown Atlanta, saying "no idea is off the table." But some ideas should be discarded right off the bat - like the notion that adding space for cars is going to solve the traffic problem.
July 11, 2017
Dallas Council Members Say Bus Network Overhaul Can’t Wait
Dallas's winding, confusing bus routes are ripe for rethinking, and the City Council wants to act fast.
July 10, 2017
What If Atlanta Taxed Parking to Keep Housing Affordable?
A tax on parking could generate funds for affordable housing and transit in Atlanta. The question is whether the city has the political appetite to enact it.
July 3, 2017
As Jobs Sprawl Outside Indianapolis, Transit Tries to Keep Pace
Like most places in America, the Indianapolis region is suburbanizing. That’s particularly true for jobs. Between 2002 and 2014, the most recent data available, the number of jobs within the city's borders increased by 40,000 - but that's far fewer than the 83,000 jobs added in the region's suburbs.
June 30, 2017
An All-Too-Rare Idea to Improve Transit: Put People Who Ride Transit in Charge
It’s hard to improve transit if the people who oversee policy don’t know what makes for good service. And yet, agency boards are often dominated by political hacks with little or no transit expertise -- many don’t even know what it’s like to ride the bus or the train. Dallas is trying something different.
June 30, 2017
American Cities Are Chipping Away at the Burden of Parking Mandates
For people who live in cities with good transit, the decision to drive or take the bus or train often comes down to parking. If parking is cheap and abundant, more people will drive. And yet transit-rich cities across the United States, including NYC, continue to require parking in new developments.
June 27, 2017
A Tour of Dutch Bicycle Streets and Intersections
The 2017 Velo-city conference in the Netherlands this June was full of excitement, information, and enlightenment. And the pinnacle was seeing Dutch bike infrastructure first-hand, with guides who know it inside and out.
June 27, 2017
You Can’t Have Family-Friendly Cities Without Kid-Friendly Streets
More American cities are making room for people to live in downtown areas -- even smaller cities like Tucson, Cleveland and Fort Wayne, Indiana. But generally the target demographics are young singles and empty nesters. A lot of cities assume that all parents who can move to the suburbs will do so.
June 26, 2017
Portland Has a Plan to Do for Buses What It Did for Cycling
Portland officials are developing a plan for a network of "Enhanced Transit Corridors," carving out space in the street for buses so vehicles with 30 passengers aren't stuck in a quagmire of vehicles carrying just one.
June 23, 2017
Can Transit Work Well in a Sprawling City Like Indianapolis?
In Indianapolis, transit service is scarce and very few people use the existing system. A key reason for these lackluster outcomes is the city's sprawling pattern of development.
June 22, 2017
