Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Air Quality

California Could Start Requiring Drivers to Report VMT

By Matthew Roth | Mar 30, 2009 | 23 Comments

When USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood last month suggested that the country should consider replacing the gas tax with a tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to compensate for the dwindling Highway Trust Fund, which is primarily supported from gas taxes, the White House immediately rebuffed him, assuring the public and angry editorial boards that Obama […]

Back to the Grid: John Norquist on How to Fix National Transpo Policy

By Ben Fried | Mar 26, 2009 | 2 Comments

How can federal policy encourage walkable street networks instead of highways and sprawl? Image: CNU The news coming out of Washington last week jacked up expectations for national transportation policy to new heights. Cabinet members Ray LaHood and Shaun Donovan announced a partnership to connect transportation and housing policy, branded as the "Sustainable Communities Initiative." […]

The Art of Air Traffic Over America

By Matthew Roth | Mar 5, 2009 | 2 Comments

Although this is only tangentially related to our coverage of transit and livable streets in the Bay Area (Oakland Airport Connector is as good as I can get), artist Aaron Koblin has created a remarkable series of visuals and animation that show the flight patterns of U.S. airplanes over a twenty-four hour period. As beautiful […]

Paradise LOSt (Part III): California’s Revolutionary Plan to Overhaul Transportation Analysis

By Matthew Roth | Jan 28, 2009 | 3 Comments

Transportation consultants and planners associated with the San Francisco Transportation Authority’s (TA) ATG working group sent excited bursts of email to each other earlier this month about a new development coming from the state Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the body responsible for writing and amending the CEQA guidelines related to transportation and traffic. […]

Paradise LOSt (Part II): Turning Automobility on Its Head

By Matthew Roth | Jan 27, 2009 | 3 Comments

One of the unintended consequences of San Francisco’s bicycle injunction, which Rob Anderson and fellow NIMBYs will likely rue for some time to come, is the arduous thought and labor that advocates and professional planners have invested in doing away with LOS all together. Two arguments in the debate over LOS have emerged. One […]

Paradise LOSt (Part I): How Long Will the City Keep Us Stuck in Our Cars?

By Matthew Roth | Jan 26, 2009 | 34 Comments

The idea that the speed and free-flow of cars is the proxy that is being used across the state of California to measure whether a project is [environmentally] impactful is in the long run undermining the very quality of life [we] are working to protect.

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