While most of the world’s population doesn’t drive, cars have an outsized negative impact on public health, the environment, and land use.
A wide-ranging new analysis of “automobility” reveals the many ways that car-dependent design harms people and neighborhoods, writes Kea Wilson in Streetsblog USA. “Just taking into account car crashes and fatalities linked directly to car-related air pollution and lead exposure, automobility kills at least 1.67 million people around the world every year — a total of 60 to 80 million since the advent of the automobile.”
Beyond road deaths, the analysis shows how cars also contribute to pollution, worsening health, inefficient land use, and more. The analysis seeks to move away from a cost-benefit analysis that puts a price on human lives and environmental health and evaluates the broader harms that a car-centric culture causes. “From car crashes to pollution, virtually every item on this list disproportionately impacts socially and racially marginalized people — not least people who don’t drive, which the study authors point out constitutes ‘most people on the planet.’”
FULL STORY: All The Ways That Car Domination Harm Communities (Well, Almost All…)
Despite Stay-at-Home Orders, U.S. Traffic Deaths Rose in 2020
Dangerous behaviors picked up during the early, low-traffic days of the pandemic are partly to blame.
L.A. Metro Plans for an Equitable Recovery
The pandemic has forced difficult confrontations with inequities that existed long before the novel coronavirus. L.A. Metro planners are responding by charting a path toward a transportation system that reverses and improves those previous realities.
Watch: The Car-Centric Legal System, Explained
So many subsidies ensure the dominance of the automobile in the daily live of the United States, it's hard to keep track of them all. Law Professor Greg Shill is keeping track, however.
Study: Maui’s Plan to Convert Vacation Rentals to Long-Term Housing Could Cause Nearly $1 Billion Economic Loss
The plan would reduce visitor accommodation by 25,% resulting in 1,900 jobs lost.
Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
North Texas Transit Leaders Tout Benefits of TOD for Growing Region
At a summit focused on transit-oriented development, policymakers discussed how North Texas’ expanded light rail system can serve as a tool for economic growth.
How Community Science Connects People, Parks, and Biodiversity
Community science engages people of all backgrounds in documenting local biodiversity, strengthening connections to nature, and contributing to global efforts like the City Nature Challenge to build a more inclusive and resilient future.
Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
Dear Tesla Driver: “It’s not You, It’s Him.”
Amidst a booming bumper sticker industry, one writer offers solace to those asking, “Does this car make me look fascist?”
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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Ascent Environmental
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service