Angie Schmitt

"Shared spaces" are streets where driving is allowed but walking and biking take priority. They are designed without curbs, signage, and other typical markers that separate cars from people on foot. The design cues are subtler. Everyone mixes together in the same space, and drivers travel slowly enough that they can make eye contact with pedestrians.

Many House Transportation Committee Leaders Face Tough Reelection Campaigns (Politico) Lone Star Rail Proposal Linking Austin and San Antonio Killed by Regional Planners (Austin Monitor) NACTO’s Global Street Design Guide is Live (NextCity) Seattle Times Endorses $54 Billion Light Rail Measure Austin Opens “Dynamically Tolled” Highway Lane (Community Impact) Montgomery County, Maryland, Opens Second Protected Bike Lane (GGW) … Continued

From the beginning, there were plenty of reasons to suspect that Texas 130 -- a private toll road between San Antonio and Austin -- was a bad idea.

In cities considering a light rail project, it's common for transit opponents to suddenly cast themselves as big believers in bus rapid transit. They don't really want to build BRT, they just want to derail the transit expansion. The light rail advocates then have to make their case not only on the merits of the project, but also in relation to the strawman BRT project.

We continue our overview of what’s at stake in the big transit ballot initiatives this November with a look at Seattle. The first installment of this series examined Indianapolis.

City leaders from around the world are meeting right now in Quito, Ecuador, for the summit known as Habitat III -- convened by the United Nations to map out a strategy for sustainable urbanization as more people flock to cities.

The wheels of change grind slowly at the institutions that guide the American traffic engineering establishment, but they are moving forward.

Rents continue to rise in cities across the U.S., and Pittsburgh is no exception. Noting the escalating housing costs in walkable neighborhoods, Alex Shewczyk at Bike Pittsburgh looks at how transportation and housing policy can coordinate to make places more affordable.

The presidency and Congress aren't the only things at stake when voters go to the polls next month. In several cities, people will also be deciding the future of their transit and transportation systems. With the odds of increasing federal transit funding looking remote in gridlocked Washington, these local ballot measures take on even more importance. Before the election, Streetsblog will be looking at what's at stake in some of the big transit ballot initiatives, starting with Indianapolis.

WMATA, the DC region's transit agency, is in crisis.