Excited about the prospect of high speed rail in America? Lots of people have been. But as Yonah Freemark reports on The Transport Politic, yesterday the General Accountability Office threw a bit of a wet blanket on the growing enthusiasm. The GAO is saying the Obama administration has so far failed to provide clear goals […]

Hartford’s Aetna Viaduct, which the Courant called a "mistake" that has "cut the city in half." Photo from Capital Region of Governments. Today on the Streetsblog Network, Mobilizing the Region is talking about highway removal. Specifically, the proposed teardown or reinvention of the 40-year-old Aetna Viaduct in Hartford, CT, which has already outlived its projected […]

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we’ve got a post from The WashCycle about speeding, new red light cameras and a reduction in fatalities in Montgomery County, VA. Police there report that "a 2008 study of 11 camera locations found a 25 percent reduction in crashes on the roads where the speed cameras were located." Deaths […]

The other day, we looked at a supermarket in a densely populated part of New Haven that is unwelcoming to pedestrians. Today, courtesy of member blog The City Fix, we’re taking another look at urban supermarket planning, specifically the issue of how to get quality food markets built in underserved neighborhoods (so-called food deserts) — […]

With all the kerfuffle in Washington right now over the federal transportation law and the crisis in the Highway Trust Fund, it seems like an appropriate time to be reminded of the role that federal dollars play in funding bicycle infrastructure. Today, Streetsblog Network member DC Bicycle Transportation Examiner has a post doing exactly that: […]

Today, from Design New Haven, a tale of two shopping plazas.  One, anchored by a Shaw’s supermarket, is in the thriving heart of downtown New Haven, a city that was just ranked in the top 25 "Best for Gen Y" nationally. The other is a Target complex in the middle of an industrial wasteland at […]

Much of the talk on the Streetsblog Network in the past few days, perhaps prompted by the recently concluded Congress for the New Urbanism conference, is about transit-oriented development. The real estate crisis, it seems, may finally be pushing the issue into the mainstream. Photo of housing near a new light rail line by Light […]

When you think of the best bicycling cities in the US, Fort Worth, TX, probably doesn’t spring to mind. But there are some changes coming. Hundreds of miles of new bike lanes, "road diets" and a proposed streetcar system could fundamentally change the way people think about getting around town there. Exchange Avenue, Fort Worth. […]

As you probably know, the Congress for the New Urbanism is holding its annual meeting out in Denver this week. Today on the Streetsblog Network, we’ve got a post from member Joe Urban (a.k.a. writer Sam Newberg) that talks about the real-life impact of the "new urbanist" approach to planning in that city, and the […]

I’ve been trying a little experiment lately as I ride around town on my bike: doing my level best to follow the letter of the law. I’ve been inspired by both the carrot and the stick. In the carrot department, Transportation Alternatives’ new Biking Rules handbook has made a very nice case for more rule-based […]