Gas Prices

Only a stiff congestion price can meaningfully cut traffic congestion. And only organizing can get us better transit and safe bicycling networks.

The U.S. ban on Russian oil has sustainable transportation advocates urging leaders to take action before surging gas prices overwhelm American families — by giving them access to the active and shared transportation they have long needed.

Sustainable transportation advocates are sending a clear message to Washington: the best way to address rising gas prices is to cut oil demand, not increase supply. 

Meet the party fighting for cheap gas and against global warming at the same time.

On Friday, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration released new data [PDF] showing that traffic deaths are up. Up quite a bit.

Long-term climate prospects brightened somewhat in 2015. Pope Francis put climate care on the moral and political agenda. President Obama rejected the Keystone XL dirty-oil pipeline. Denialist heads of state were routed in Canada and Australia, and their brethren in the U.S. faced growing ridicule. To cap it off, nearly 200 nations signed the UN Paris accord, committing to cutting emissions. Meanwhile, U.S. coal use took another double-digit plunge. And U.S. electricity generation from zero-carbon photovoltaic solar cells continued to soar and has now grown 20-fold in just five years.

Cross-posted from City Observatory. 

How will Americans get around in the year 2030? A recent report from the RAND Corporation lays out two "plausible futures" developed though a "scenario analysis" and vetted by outside experts. While RAND takes a decidedly agnostic stance toward the implications of each scenario, the choice that emerges is still pretty stark.

On Monday we wrote that Americans can't afford a transportation bill that locks households into the expenses of car dependence. Yesterday the Center for Neighborhood Technology hammered the point home, releasing new data showing how communities are getting less and less affordable nationwide.