Noah Kazis

Think of a place that you can reach by train, that is densely developed and easy to get around by walking or biking. You're probably thinking of a center city, or perhaps an inner-ring suburb. But in older regions of the country, there's another place that has the fundamentals for living car-free: the beach. Built over a century ago, many oceanside towns were designed to attract summertime urban visitors at a time when driving simply wasn't an option. And with beachfront property going for a premium, it's normal to see compact, even high-rise, urban-scale development lining the waterfront.

Top transportation officials from three global cities -- London, Singapore and Stockholm -- shared their experiences in expanding the use of transit at a panel at the Regional Plan Association's annual conference last Friday. Eyeing those cities, it's easy for Americans to get jealous.

It was never about cost overruns. It was never about New Jersey's share of the price tag. Chris Christie's decision to kill the ARC tunnel under the Hudson River was always about two, and only two, things: the governor's unwillingness to raise the state's rock-bottom gas tax and his desire to make a name for himself among national Republicans.

It's a new era for federal transportation policy, say the top New York City Department of Transportation officials tracking action on Capitol Hill. We just don't know what kind of era it's going to be.

Transportation infrastructure is big business. With tens of billions of dollars at stake, nobody tracks the financial health of the nation's transit and road systems more closely than the construction industry. And right now, the future of transportation funding nationwide is hazy indeed.

There are few things we enjoy more than a good smack-down of the anti-transit faux libertarian Randal O'Toole, except perhaps a good show of people power in support of sustainable transportation. Luckily, a new post from Network blog Say Yes to the Honolulu Rail System has both:

There's a double standard in American transportation. Propose a transit project, or even some extremely cheap bicycle or pedestrian improvements, and you'll be met with a chorus of skepticism from politicians or local media about the high cost. Propose a highway project and few will even bat an eye at the price tag. Can you name the last highway expansion killed by a so-called budget hawk with great fanfare? They only seem to set their sights on rail and transit expansions, like New Jersey's ARC Tunnel or various high-speed rail projects.

Across the country, everyone's looking to San Francisco when it comes to parking policy. Big cities like Los Angeles and New York City are moving toward their own versions of the pioneering SF Park system, which sets meter rates based on the actual demand for parking spaces.

The House GOP bill, drafted with significant input from Speaker John Boehner's office, would eliminate mass transit's dedicated funding stream, first signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1982. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former House Republican, has called it "the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service."

Located on a pair of peninsulas, the city of Seattle isn't so easy to reach from its eastern suburbs. Only two bridges cross Lake Washington. Newly-installed tolls across one of the two, the SR-520 bridge, have the potential to seriously reshape travel patterns in the region.