Kids’ Psychology Affects How They Behave Around Cars — And Regulators Should Take Note
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has taken steps to understand how a wider range of bodies are likely to fare in a car crash. But as regulators finally begin to look outside the car, some researchers think it's time they start thinking about our brains, too — particularly when it comes to kids.
February 2, 2023
Congress’s Messy ‘Fix-It-First’ Fight Heats Up
A long-fought effort to get states to spend more of their federal infrastructure dollars on fixing highways rather than building new ones is in peril in the newly GOP-lead head house — and if it succeeds, it could force President Biden to take an unprecedented stand in favor of progressive road priorities.
January 24, 2023
The Dangers of Driving Are Way More Normalized Than We Think
People raised in a car-dominated culture are measurably more likely to accept the societal harms and inequities associated with driving than other public health threats — and undoing those powerful double standards will require a profound rewiring of the way we think about the world.
January 20, 2023
Counter-Intuitive Department: Sometimes, Traffic Controls Make Streets More Dangerous
Since the very first center line appeared on a Michigan road in 1911, many have questioned whether the design norms that govern U.S. roads really make them "safe", or simply less dangerous than the anarchic days of early motordom — though still nowhere near as safe as the days before the car dominated American roads at all. Here's why.
January 19, 2023
What the Gas Stove Meltdown Has In Common With the Car Culture Wars
We need to fix both systems, which were created by Big Gas and Big Auto so long ago that they feel like personal choices. A great essay by Kea Wilson.
January 13, 2023
Transport is the Leading Source of U.S. Emissions — Again
America's transportation sector remains the leading national driver of the climate crisis — and automobile drivers aren't helping.
January 12, 2023
Want Drivers to Stop at Crosswalks? Slow Them Down First
Many motorists yield to pedestrians in crosswalks — but not when they're driving at deadly speeds, according to a new study that shows the need to slow down car drivers with broader road design changes, and not just more signs and paint.
January 11, 2023
Last Year’s ‘Historic’ Gas Price Surge Cost U.S. Drivers Just 36 Cents More Per Day
The sky-high gas prices that dominated last year's news cycle amounted to just 36 extra cents a day in fuel costs to the average American, a new report finds — and it didn't deter them from driving more than the year prior.
January 11, 2023
Road Deaths Surged Alongside Covid — But Who Died, Exactly?
The surge of traffic deaths in the first year of the pandemic can't be completely explained by quarantine-emptied roads that made speeding easy — and new data on who, exactly, was involved in those crashes may lead to more questions than answers.
January 9, 2023
‘An Epic Mistake’: Donald Shoup Reflects on America’s Parking Failure
"There are so many ways in which we’d be better off if we reformed our parking policy: reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, nitrous oxide emissions, particulate pollution, traffic crashes. Urban planners have made epic mistakes in almost all of their parking policies. But now they can fix it."
November 19, 2021
