Economics
Streetsblog Basics
Study: Homes Near Transit Were Insulated From the Housing Crash
If you live close to a transit station, chances are you’ve weathered the recession better than your friends who don’t.
March 22, 2013
Coming Soon: Full Report on Local Retail Impact of Sustainable Streets
At the beginning of the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ “Designing Cities” conference last week, NYC DOT released new data showing that retail and restaurant sales have tended to increase after streets are redesigned with Select Bus Service, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian plazas. It turns out that there's more information on the way. Last week's document was a teaser for a more comprehensive report due out in the next few months.
October 29, 2012
DOT: Local Retail Thrives After Projects Improved Transit, Biking, Walking
Leading transportation policy decision makers from around the country are gathered at NYU today for the National Association of City Transportation Officials' "Designing Cities" conference. It's an exciting moment for livable streets and sustainable transportation, with the people who are implementing a new generation of complete streets, surface transit improvements, public spaces, and parking policies sharing their expertise and helping to spread innovation to other cities.
October 24, 2012
TA Survey: Customers on Foot Bring Big Business to East Village Retailers
On the heels of launching New York's first "Bike Friendly Business District" in the East Village and Lower East Side, Transportation Alternatives has released a new study [PDF] showing that people who walk, bike and take transit to the East Village are local retailers' best customers.
October 2, 2012
Tennessee DOT Moves Past Road-Widening as a Congestion Reduction Strategy
In the late eighties and nineties, every traffic issue the Tennessee Department of Transportation faced was assigned the same solution: a bypass. But over the years, the department has come around to a new way of doing things, according to 40-year TDOT veteran Ralph Comer. Comer says the current commissioner, John Schroer, wants to become known as the “no-bypass commissioner.” He simply believes there are usually more cost-effective ways of solving transportation problems.
August 30, 2012
Brookings: Inadequate Transit and Sprawl Cut Off Workers From Jobs
If there’s a problem connecting workers with workplaces, it stands to reason that there’s a problem connecting workplaces with workers. A new report from the Brookings Institution has teased out the subtleties of this side of the transit/jobs equation.
July 11, 2012
The Auto Industry Wants Your Thanks
Feeling warmer and fuzzier about the auto industry bailout? With the help of the Obama reelection campaign, the industry is convincing more Americans that the $80 billion they forked over to save it were dollars well spent.
April 24, 2012
Memo to Chris Quinn: New York Voters Like Livable Streets
Christine Quinn is not known as a politician who shies away from shying away, but it might be time to ditch her public indifference toward NYC DOT's street safety and public space program.
March 20, 2012
New Urbanists: No Economic Recovery Without Smart Growth
What happened to the United States over the past several years is most commonly described as a recession. By the technical definition of the word we’re two years into a recovery. But it sure doesn’t seem that way.
October 6, 2011
The Incredible Shrinking Megastore: Retailers Think Outside the Big Box
They lord over empty parking lots in Hazard, Kentucky; Twinsburg, Ohio; and Lewiston, Washington like the ruins of a lost civilization. Vacant Walmart stores are slowly decomposing in more and more American towns these days. More than 100 of them have been memorialized as part of the group Flickr pool known smugly as “They Sold for Less.”
September 15, 2011