Network Roundup
An Atlanta Neighborhood's Vanished Street Grid
Ever heard of Atlanta's Vine City? No? That could be because it was largely obliterated by urban renewal two generations ago.
June 19, 2014
Portland Considers Household "Street Fee" to Help Pay for Infrastructure
Portland leaders are moving ahead with plans for a monthly fee, charged to city households and businesses, to shore up local transportation budgets.
May 23, 2014
Freak Snow Can't Stop Cycling in Portland
It's not often that the Portland region sees snow. But yesterday, like a handful of other odd places, including Texas, America's bike capital got walloped (by northwest standards anyway).
February 7, 2014
A Look at the Year Ahead for Transit Expansion
At The Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark has made it a tradition to catalog new transit projects every year. He reports that 2014 will see a significant expansion of rail and bus rapid transit lines. "Virtually every metropolitan region in the United States and Canada is investing millions of dollars in new transit expansion projects," he writes:
January 6, 2014
Blumenauer Introduces a Tax Break for Bike-Share Commuters
If you drive to work, the feds will subsidize that. But if a Citi Bike (New York), or a Divvy bike (Chicago), or CoGo (Columbus, Ohio) is your ride to work, no such luck. But that could change. Michael Andersen at Bike Portland reports that Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) has introduced legislation that would establish tax incentives for bike-share commuters:
November 14, 2013
Indiana Just Building Highways for Highway Building's Sake
There's a fixed mindset in many corners of the country, perhaps especially in the Midwest, which holds that highway building is an unquestioned economic good.
October 24, 2013
Oregon Justifies $3 Billion Highway Boondoggle With Made-Up Numbers
The project to replace and expand the I-5 bridge between Oregon and Washington, a.k.a. the "Columbia River Crossing," has been watched by transportation experts around the country as a case study in the dynamics of a highway boondoggle. Earlier this year, when state lawmakers in Washington State refused to fund their portion of the project, observers proclaimed the project dead.
October 21, 2013
Is a Bolivian City Considering a Law Requiring Residents to Bike?
While some legislators in the United States want to keep cyclists off the roads, a city in Bolivia is taking the opposite tack. Cochabamba, population 700,000, is actually considering a law requiring that residents make use of bicycles to help preserve the environment and improve public health, according to reports.
October 9, 2013
Highway Fallout: Images of Cincinnati Before and After the Road Bomb
Aaron Renn at the Urbanophile has been looking at the devastation wrought on different cities by highways. And he's uncovered a pretty dramatic example in these pre- and post-highway photos of Cincinnati's West End.
August 30, 2013
When Does It Make Sense for Transit Planners to Change Existing Routes?
There's been some talk recently in Seattle about reorganizing the city's transit system to improve efficiency. But almost immediately, strong objections emerged to eliminating lesser-used routes that some people depend on.
August 29, 2013