You probably have no idea what I’m talking about at this point. The term “access” in city planning refers to a person’s ability to get somewhere or something. Makes sense, right. And it’s what city planners are focused on, isn’t…
Obama Administration Proposes $53 Billion More for High-Speed Rail [VIDEO]
The Obama administration announced a proposal to dedicate $53 billion more towards high-speed rail in the next 6 years this week. That would significantly increase federal funding on high-speed rail. The administration awarded $8 billion to a national high-speed rail…
Peak Oil is a Comin’, WikiLeaks Confirms
As if it wasn’t already completely self-evident, WikiLeaks has released a number of cables showing that Saudi Arabia is probably going to run out of oil a lot sooner than they’ve been claiming, and that, of course, their ability to…
High-Speed Rail to Save the American Dream?
The American Dream may be just that, a dream. Or, perhaps it is something we had access to in the past but no longer. Or, perhaps it is something just at the end of our fingertips. There are many ideas…
Livable Streets are without Car Traffic: Where Did the U.S. Go Wrong?
In 1981, scholar Donald Appleyard published the book “Livable Streets” (link is to the 2nd edition soon to be published) based on his research into how people experience streets with different traffic volumes. Streetfilms recently covered portions of his research…
2011 Sustainable Transport Award Winner: Guangzhou, China
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy recently announced the 2011 Sustainable Transport Award winner, which, as you can see, is Guangzhou, China. Its new bus rapid transit (BRT) system, which integrates bike lanes, bike share and metro stations was…
World Urban Rail Systems [Map]
Since I’ve been writing about transit a lot lately, I thought I’d share this super cool map of world rail systems (from 2008). I actually ran across it looking for a photo last week for a post on the world’s…
European Cities Limiting the Car, Improving Quality of Life
Europe, as we know, has a much different urban fabric — because most of its cities were developed long before cars arrived. They have narrower streets, are more walkable, more bike-friendly, and more pleasant. Nonetheless, Europe went the same route…
First Bike Sharing Program in U.S. without Bike Stations?
“A small start-up near Washington, D.C. has started what it calls ‘the first stationless smart bike sharing program in North America.’ And all it took to get the system up and running was some bikes, U-locks and mobile phones.” That’s…
Conversation Cars on Public Transit: A “Modest Proposal”
There’s been a pretty significant transformation on public transit in the past decade or less. Whereas riders used to start up a conversation with complete strangers on a regular basis in the past, more and more riders are plugged into…