Alternative Transportation

Ashley Halsey III probes the end of America's monogamous love affair with the automobile, as a younger generation experiments with alternative transportation lifestyles.

May 23, 2012 - The Washington Post

Google is big business in Mountain View, but it's located in a cul-de-sac business park two miles from the city's transit center. "Personal rapid transit" may be the answer to solving the company's commuting challenges.

March 20, 2012 - California Planning & Development Report

Drawing on 2010 Census data, the Coalition for Smarter Growth highlights the prevalence of alternative transportation in the nation's capital.

February 22, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is celebrating its 35th anniversary and is finding ways to ascertain exactly what the agency has brought to the region.

December 12, 2011 - The Atlantic

Rocco Pendola discusses the potential for electric vehicles to emerge as a meaningful mode of alternative transportation in the United States.

March 30, 2011 - Seeking Alpha

No matter what alternatives it can think of, the Obama Administration remains baffled why most Americans are still attached to their cars, says Fred Barnes.

March 4, 2011 - The Weekly Standard

Jeff Prant of Carbusters pays a visit to New York's Times Square, and marvels at its transformation into a true public square.

January 13, 2011 - Carbusters Online

Is the isolation of personal rapid transit truly viable for mass transit?

September 29, 2010 - TheCityFix

The Shweeb is a person-powered monorail that currently only exists as an amusement park attraction in New Zealand. But with a $1 million Google grant, the creator may yet see his dream of a commuter Shweeb system.

September 28, 2010 - Popular Science

A system of escalators in Hong Kong, installed in 1993 to create a new connection between districts, has become an unusual and popular way to commute Hong Kong's steep streets.

January 11, 2010 - BBC

An often cited reason for not using alternative transportation is the unpredictable: what if I need a car for something unexpected? A non-profit is now offering guaranteed rides to those who ride transit, bike, or walk, up to $100 per year.

September 15, 2009 - San Jose Mercury News

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in 2007, over 9.8 million American households had no auto available at home. Although those car free households make up only 8.7% of the U.S., the split by housing ownership is striking: only 3.3% of owner occupied homes do without at least one vehicle, where fully 19.9% of renters have no cars parked in the proverbial driveway. For some, not owning a vehicle is not a matter of choice -- just the reality of limited resources. For others, it's a matter of preference, and many residents of cities with fairly good public transportation choosing to go without cars. Although car ownership is a useful indicator of neighborhoods that provide good options for public transit, the reality is the most important variable isn't whether you own one, but how much you drive. That's the idea behind the annual Car-Free Challenge sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit TransForm (formerly TALC - Transportation and Land Use Coalition). The Challenge's over 160 participants pledged to drive less than 125 miles in June, much less than the Bay Area average of 540, or the U.S. average of over 1,000. Many participants contributed blog posts about their experiences on the Challenge website. More than just a group of footloose young professionals living in The Mission, challenge participants were remarkably diverse group living mostly in the Bay Area but also Sacramento, Los Angeles, and cities outside of California.

June 25, 2009 - Robert Goodspeed

Cities are warming up to the idea that planning for the future means more car sharing programs and fewer parking spaces.

June 13, 2009 - The New York Times

Inhabitat selects their top 10, ranging from DIY bicycles to the fall of the S.U.V. Notably, transit is barely mentioned.

January 2, 2009 - Inhabitat

In late 2007, it was with increasing frustration that I penned and op-ed entitled "Make Miami a Bicycle-Friendly City." Appearing in the December 13th edition of the Miami Herald, the article implored City officials to make the city more amenable to bicycling (It was no surprise in the spring of 2008 when Bicycling Magazine named Miami one of the three worst cities in America in which to bicycle). The City's response exceeded all of my expectations.

December 16, 2008 - Mike Lydon

Scraper bikes, tricked-out bicycles adopted from scraper cars (with wheels so big they scrape the inside of the wheel well), have become increasingly popular among carless teens in Oakland, CA.

September 18, 2008 - National Public Radio

One resident finds it surprisingly easy to live on Milwaukee's East Side without a car.

September 2, 2008 - Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Shai Agassi, who's not quite the household name T. Boone Pickens is, has an even more radical plan to end the planet's oil addiction.

August 26, 2008 - Wired

Pittsburgh becomes first city in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to hire a full-time bike/pedestrian coordinator.

August 14, 2008 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After years of being ranked one of the worst bicycling cities in America, the City of Boston is moving forward with bicycle infrastructure development as a means to cutting congestion and pollution.

August 7, 2008 - The Boston Globe