Liberate yourself from government transportation data that doesn’t tell you what you need to know! Break the chains of ignorance about how streets in your town are being used! Declare your independence from five-year-old data sets in PDF spreadsheets! Advocates have for too long been at the mercy of the limited data on travel patterns they […]

Step one: Do it like Indianapolis. Of the 130 complete streets policies passed in 2012, the one passed by Indianapolis gets the highest score in a new ranking by Smart Growth America and its National Complete Streets Coalition. “The Complete Streets movement fundamentally redefines what a street is intended to do, what goals a transportation […]

Drivers turning left are a leading cause of pedestrian crashes in urban areas. Where drivers can only turn left with a green left-turn arrow, pedestrians are more protected. But when drivers are watching oncoming traffic for a chance to make their turn, they tend not to be as vigilant as they should to watch for […]

What if cars came with a Surgeon General’s warning like the ones that come on cigarette packs: “Sitting in this seat could lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and divorce.” Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is getting ready to go halfway there. She announced in December that she’d be issuing a call to action on […]

If Jane Doe rides her bike a mile to the post office and then back home, is it fair to assume she just avoided two miles of driving? And can we then assume that she prevented 2.2 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted? That’s more or less the way most agencies calculate averted vehicle-miles traveled. One […]

Yes, traffic fatalities have been (mostly) going down, but as long as cyclist and pedestrian fatalities keep going up, we can’t truly say our streets and roads are getting safer. That’s the message from 68 members of Congress to one pretty receptive audience: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. In their letter to LaHood, sent on Saturday, […]

We hope you’re enjoying our Parking Madness Sweet 16-style tournament to determine the most soul-killing parking crater in a U.S. downtown. Here’s another one you might like: REI is holding a tournament to determine the best cycling city. Today, Denver and Washington, DC square off in the Suit & Tie Dye region. Tomorrow, it’s New […]

Not one to back away from a terrible argument, CNN’s Anderson Cooper is sticking with his series exposing the “boondoggle” of federal high-speed rail funding. In a segment aired Monday night, he and reporter Drew Griffin hammered away yet again at their argument that high-speed rail has been a waste of money. Under the tagline […]

What if peak oil doesn’t take care of gas-guzzling by cutting off the supply? The Saudi oil fields may be finite, but new sources like the Canadian tar sands and the North Dakota oil shale keep opening up. That poses a challenge to the shift away from carbon-intensive transportation, according to Deborah Gordon, who studies transportation oils […]

If you live close to a transit station, chances are you’ve weathered the recession better than your friends who don’t. Your transportation costs are probably lower, since you can take transit instead of driving. Transit-served areas are usually more walkable and bikeable too, multiplying your options. And while home values plummeted during a recession that […]

We’re suckers for a good contest and here’s a great one: Congress for the New Urbanism is seeking video submissions to determine the most hopeless disaster of a freeway in America. Do you have a highway in your community that deserves to be torn down? An antiquated beast of vehicle throughput cutting residences off from […]

The American Society of Civil Engineers released its new report card for U.S. infrastructure yesterday. The topline grades: The country’s “GPA” has gone from a D four years ago to a D+; roads have gone from a D- to a D; transit has stayed steady at a D; and rail made the biggest leap, from […]