City Planning, Transportation Policy, Sustainable Life
The American Planning Association recently put out a comprehensive guide on shared mobility. You’re most likely familiar with the concept: Short term access to a mode of transportation on an as-needed basis. Think Zipcar, Uber, bike share, product or food delivery services, and soon, self-driving […]
Not enough credit is given to 4 to 3 lane road diets. They can be a relatively low cost way to calm traffic, reduce crashes and provide bicycle lanes all in one resurfacing project. 4 lane roads attempt to accommodate higher traffic volumes and left […]
I stumbled on an article the other day which asked a question I never really considered: Should transit be free? I began to dig around and found a whole network of free transit advocates. Several cities around the world have abolished transit fares, usually with […]
A few years ago I was lucky to see John N. LaPlante, P.E., PTOE speak at a TRB conference. As Chief Transportation Planner at the world–renowned T.Y Lin International, I was expecting road-widening rationales, travel demand models and an overview of ITE guidelines. Instead, he […]
The highlight of the Dallas Festival of Ideas this weekend was seeing Janette Sadik-Khan speak. As former NYC DOT commissioner, she was instrumental in the design and installation of protected bike lanes, public plazas, Vision Zero policies and the redesign of many streets into more […]
When I moved from Baltimore to Dallas, many people told me I’d have to buy a car in order to survive here. Taking a quick look at a map of DFW, I thought they were right. The metro sprawls in every direction. Much of the […]
The difference between roads and streets is often overlooked but important in creating livable cities. Listen to any Bruce Springsteen song and you’ll probably hear a reference to “the street”. This is often accompanied by stanzas about how he spent a summer building a ’72 Challenger […]
Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA, on parking: “Just because the driver doesn’t pay for parking doesn’t mean the cost goes away. A little bit of every daily transaction has a little bit shaved off to pay for […]
While researching various crosswalk treatments I came across a few research papers which questioned the common practice of using crosswalks as the sole safety treatment at unsignalized intersections. FHWA’s “Safety Effects of Marked vs. Unmarked Crosswalks at Uncontrolled Locations” stood out by taking a nuanced […]
As always, Clarence Eckerson Jr. comes through with another great video showing us what is possible with a little bit of imagination. It’s amazing how a street and neighborhood can be transformed just by shifting curb lines a few feet or narrowing traffic lanes to […]