Remixing Great Masterpieces for the Highway Age
Last week we highlighted the Photoshop work of Memphis resident David Lindsey, who updated Georges Seurat's “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” to comment on the way cars have come to intrude on almost every public space. Lindsey was motivated by the decision to allow overflow parking from the Memphis Zoo in the city's historic Overton Park, but his concept quickly inspired activists in other cities.
March 14, 2016
Gun Lobby’s New Target: The Bus
Letting people carry firearms on transit vehicles is a new priority for the gun lobby in several states where legislation to expand concealed carry rules to buses and trains is gaining momentum.
March 14, 2016
It’s Time to Radically Reconceive Urban Infrastructure
Ryan Gravel was just a graduate student at Georgia State University when he came up with the idea for the Atlanta BeltLine -- a ring of parks, trails, and transit that would encircle the city, repurposing derelict space around abandoned train tracks.
March 11, 2016
How to Get Airport Transit Right
The big rail line to the airport is an awfully seductive transit project to many political decision makers. So cities keep heaping resources on flashy airport transit even though the ridership is seldom worth the expense. Toronto, for instance, recently rolled out a new airport line that costs a bundle to ride and is drawing a disappointing number of passengers.
March 11, 2016
Pedestrian Deaths Make Up a Rising Share of U.S. Traffic Fatalities
Pedestrian deaths rose 10 percent in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period the year before, according to preliminary data released by the Governors Highway Safety Association. If that increase held up over all 12 months of 2015, it would be among the worst single-year changes since the GHSA started collecting data in 1975.
March 10, 2016
Parking Madness: Send Us Pics of Parking Lots Where Your City Should Be
Does your city have what it takes to compete in Streetsblog's fourth annual Parking Madness tournament? Who will join Tulsa, Rochester, and Camden, NJ, as winners of the coveted "Golden Crater"?
March 7, 2016
Why One Street Safety Advocate Will Never Go to a DOT Meeting Again
Public meetings hosted by state DOTs can be very frustrating. People who want safer streets and take the time to attend are often deluged with highly technical excuses about why their suggestions won't fly.
March 1, 2016
High Transportation Costs Make a Lot of HUD Housing Unaffordable
Rental assistance from HUD isn't enough to make the cost of living affordable when the subsidies go toward housing in car-dependent areas, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Utah. The study evaluated transportation costs for more than 18,000 households that receive HUD rental subsidies, estimating that nearly half of recipients have to spend more than 15 percent of their household budgets on transportation.
March 1, 2016
Can Ride-Hailing Apps Become More Like Buses and Less Like Taxis?
A big part of reducing car traffic involves using cars more efficiently. Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are supposedly assisting in this transition by making car ownership less necessary. But even though both companies operate carpool-type services, most of their business still comes from single passenger trips.
February 29, 2016