Highways

Trans-Texas Corridor Plans Dropped

Plans for a broad statewide highway project known as the Trans-Texas Corridor have been abandoned by state officials.
8 January 2009 - 5:00am
The Dallas Morning News

Fun with transportation statistics

Tue, 11/11/2008 - 08:04

 

A few days ago, I was looking at a regional planning document and saw something startling: an assertion that transit ridership in my region has been going down. Since transit ridership has been going up nationwide, I smelled a rat.

After digging around through a big pile of statistics, I realized that there are so many different ways of measuring transit ridership that one can easily prove either that ridership is going up or that ridership is going down. Some possible measurements include:

Using Prison Technology to Avoid Roadkill

Colorado Department of Transportation has launched a pilot program that uses technology that detects wildlife in order to help drivers avoid hitting them.
2 October 2008 - 7:00am
Chicago Tribune

Many Schools Located Next to Major Highways

New research from the University of Cincinnati shows that nearly a third of U.S. schools are located within a quarter-mile of major highways, posing a significant air pollution threat to students.
20 August 2008 - 8:00am
University Of Cincinnati

Excessive Highway Building To Blame For Bridge Woes

Official sources show that Minnesota had been long diverting bridge repair funds to build new highways.
5 August 2008 - 6:00am
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Americans Reduce Their Driving by 3.7% in May, Transportation Funds Plummet

At a time when highway infrastructure is already facing challenges such as the rising costs of concrete and steel, a change in driving habits is causing a major reduction in available funds.
29 July 2008 - 2:00pm
The Wall St. Journal

Highway Funding: The Last Bastion of Socialism in America

Since 1956, federal, state and local governments have invested nine times more capital funding in highway subsidies than in transit.
24 July 2008 - 12:00pm
Streetsblog

Study Says That Highways Don't Pay for Themselves

How often does one hear that transit is somehow a less respectable form of transportation than driving because of the "massive subsidies" transit receives? Well, a new study by Texas DOT says that highways don't pay for themselves either.
9 July 2008 - 1:00pm
la.streetsblog.org

Dreaming of a Superhighway Across Maine

Officials in Maine are considering a plan to build a cross-state superhighway.
9 June 2008 - 5:00am
The Ellsworth American

Robert Reich Stumps for Transit

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich gives his two cents about the need to expand public transit.
7 June 2008 - 7:00am
Robert Reich's Blog

L.A. Called Home to Second Smallest Carbon Footprint

New research from the Brookings Institution claims that Los Angeles has the second smallest carbon footprint of big American cities -- a finding that contains a few caveats.
29 May 2008 - 10:00am
The Los Angeles Times

The Bronx Pushes to Revitalize the 'Highway to Nowhere'

A remnant of Robert Moses' famous push to raze neighborhoods and build highways in their place, the Sheridan Expressway is ripe for revitalization. A local advocate believes that now "the stars are aligned" for it to happen.
28 May 2008 - 10:00am
The Gotham Gazette

Oklahoma City Highway to Be Replaced with Park

At one time, Oklahoma City is doing two things many cities have only hoped to: the city's getting rid of one of its aging inner-city highways and replacing it with a park.
22 May 2008 - 10:00am
USA Today

Myth and Reality About European Sprawl

Tue, 05/13/2008 - 06:07

Some commentators argue that sprawl is an inevitable result of affluence, based on European development patterns. These pundits tell a simple story: European urban cores are losing population and becoming more automobile-dependent - just like American cities. So if Europe can’t beat sprawl, neither can America.

Comprehensive Tolling Idea Meet Criticism in D.C.

A proposal to place tolls on many of the highways around Washington D.C. is being blasted by critics, who say planners should place more emphasis on providing better transit services than charging commuters left with few options.
21 March 2008 - 8:00am
The Washington Post

Are planners ready for the Drew Carey (not so free) freeway?

Tue, 10/16/2007 - 04:43

Technology creates new challenges and opportunities, and this came home to me a couple of weeks ago when I was previewing a rough cut of Gridlock: Hell on Wheels, a video on traffic congestion released by Reason Foundation today. In the video, Comedian Drew Carey makes the following off-the-cuff comment on a morning drive-time radio show: “I would love to own a freeway in LA.”

Highway Zoning?

Mon, 06/25/2007 - 08:38

The Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others recalls that famous question about governments who spy on their citizens: Who will watch the watchers? (Answer: Alberto Gonzalez.) A similar, if less cloak-and-dagger question applies to planning: Who will zone the zoners? While governments use zoning to keep polluting uses away from homes, what if the biggest polluter in a city is a government use?

In most cities today, the most common polluting use is exempt from zoning: highways.

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