Infrastructure

How San Francisco & other ped-friendly cities are expanding sidewalks

How San Francisco & other ped-friendly cities are expanding sidewalks

February 20, 2015

The lunar New Year yesterday brought attention to an issue plaguing San Francisco’s crowded Chinatown: overflowing sidewalks. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, city officials are working with Chinatown business owners to develop a plan to add much-needed space for pedestrians. “The challenge is that when you change one thing, there’s a ripple effect,” recently appointed […]

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Slower than a speeding bullet: building American high-speed rail

Slower than a speeding bullet: building American high-speed rail

February 19, 2015

90 minutes: That’s how quick a bullet train may travel between Houston and Dallas. A railway company in Texas is now firming up its plans to build a high-speed train network between the two cities, reports the Texas Tribune, with hopes to begin operations by 2021. Though this project plans to operate without federal funds, […]

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Denver’s park-and-rides increase emissions, says study

Denver’s park-and-rides increase emissions, says study

February 18, 2015 | 0 Comments

Park-and-rides — parking lots located near transit depots where drivers drop off their cars and embark on public transit — are meant to limit car-produced pollution, but they may not be all they’re cracked up to be, according to a recent study. The study, “Are park-and-rides saving the environment or just saving parking costs?”, hails from the University […]

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Understudied but omnipresent: the economics of parking

Understudied but omnipresent: the economics of parking

January 16, 2015 | 0 Comments

Cars are parked for a staggering 95% of the time, and can even create problems that are just as serious as when they are parked compared to when they’re in motion — yet there are very few studies available on the economics of parking. In reality, parking problems are more complicated than drivers just nabbing […]

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Does smart technology make for dumber cities?

Does smart technology make for dumber cities?

December 19, 2014

Our smart cities are perhaps too intelligent for our own good, argues The Guardian in a recent editorial. The data collection that both characterizes a smart city and makes life more seamless within such a city is a mixed blessing: While data is changing life from the street up, who — or what agency — […]

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Caltrans scrambles to keep up with transportation trends

Caltrans scrambles to keep up with transportation trends

December 12, 2014

SNL’s “The Californians” pokes fun at the Golden State’s obsession with freeways and car culture, but the show’s writers may have to revise their scripts. Californians are walking and biking twice as much as they did ten years ago, according to the most recent household survey conducted by the California Department of Transportation. Caltrans, as […]

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Florida DOT chief Ananth Prasad’s legacy

Florida DOT chief Ananth Prasad’s legacy

December 10, 2014

Florida Department of Transportation secretary Ananth Prasad will be leaving his office on January 2, announced Florida governor Rick Scott last week. “Secretary Prasad has been part of my administration since the very beginning, and he has been pivotal to making sure we could make a record investment of over $10 billion in our transportation […]

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Study suggests solutions to highway trust fund problems

Study suggests solutions to highway trust fund problems

December 9, 2014

A new report released by the Eno Center for Transportation suggests that not only is our country’s Highway Trust Fund broke, but the way Congress has been repeatedly infusing it with life-saving cash may also be illegal. The study, The Life and Death of the Highway Trust Fund, takes a look at what led the […]

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Funding gaps threaten transportation projects of all sizes

Funding gaps threaten transportation projects of all sizes

December 2, 2014

The struggles of the federal Highway Trust Fund continue to affect states and regions throughout the United States. The fuel taxes that power the fund haven’t increased in two decades; here’s what a few state and local governments are reporting about their transportation finance situations. Texas Despite the passage of Proposition 1, which will funnel […]

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Fee set to punish hybrid & EV owners in Wisconsin

Fee set to punish hybrid & EV owners in Wisconsin

November 19, 2014

A new proposal in Wisconsin would mean that the state would join four other states in effectively punishing electric vehicle owners in order to compensate for the revenue lost in fuel taxes, reports the Associated Press. Proposed by Governor Scott Walker’s office, the $50 yearly charge — which was included in a $750 million package […]

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Transportation spending doesn’t fit public’s needs, study finds

Transportation spending doesn’t fit public’s needs, study finds

November 18, 2014

We may be on the cusp of 2015, but transportation policies of state and federal governments are stuck in 2005, says the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG). In a study released by the organization in September, researchers discovered that Americans drive no more in total than they did in 2005 and no more on […]

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