Racism
These 10 Urban Freeways Deserve To Be Demolished — But Will They?
America is at a watershed moment in the fight to heal the harms of urban freeways that tore apart predominantly BIPOC and low-income communities, a new report argues — but what that healing will look like, exactly, is still an open question.
April 19, 2023
How Bike/Walk Laws ‘Arrest’ the Mobility of Black Americans
Black pedestrians, bicyclists and micromobility users are subjected to a far wider array of dangerous laws than many sustainable transportation advocates may realize, a new report finds — and repealing them alone is not enough to guarantee them the freedom of mobility they need and deserve.
March 28, 2023
Stop the Stops? Speaker Adams Wants to ‘Overhaul’ NYPD Traffic Enforcement
The NYPD should "move away" from police-initiated traffic stops that disproportionately target people of color and can lead to police brutality, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said on Monday — offering uncharacteristic support for a central pillar of a progressive-wing movement to reform the police department.
March 28, 2023
Study: Pedestrian Death Rate More Than 2x Higher in Historically Red-Lined Neighborhoods
Communities that were red-lined in the 1930s are still experiencing more than twice the rate of pedestrian deaths today than more privileged neighborhoods — and we can't achieve Vision Zero until we reckon with racist and classist policies that contribute to the disparity, a groundbreaking new study argues.
March 17, 2023
Advocates Applaud ‘Reconnecting Communities’ Grantees — With Some Exceptions
The Department of Transportation's first picks for a historic new grant program aimed at repairing neighborhoods torn apart by highways were met by applause from advocates — even as they cautioned that far more remains to be done.
March 2, 2023
Syracuse’s Messy I-81 Teardown Fight Shows the Challenge of ‘Reconnecting Communities’
An 11th-hour legal battle over the future of one of America's most talked-about highway teardowns is sparking a debate about what it really means to "reconnect communities" devastated by highway construction — and possibly offering a preview of similar fights on deck in other U.S. cities.
December 12, 2022
Podcast: Who Gets Hurt When Cities Ban E-Scooters?
On today's special edition of The Brake, we're re-broadcasting an episode of Charles T. Brown's "Arrested Mobility" podcast that centered around what happened when St. Louis forced e-scooters out of its downtown — featuring our own Kea Wilson!
November 29, 2022
Should People Be Able to Issue Their Neighbors Traffic Fines?
Imagine a world where every cell phone in every pocket in America could be instantly transformed into a portable traffic camera, capable of issuing misbehaving motorists a ticket with little more than a few swipes on a touch screen.
November 22, 2022
Walkable City 10 Years Later: How Car Culture Takes Away Our Freedom
We are often told that America’s car culture is integral to its freedom. But let’s parse that one out a little bit. Three factors— road policing, car dependence, and street design — would together seem to conspire otherwise.
November 18, 2022
Advocates Warn ‘Reconnecting Communities’ Program Could Actually Expand Highways
A massive coalition of advocates is calling on the federal Department of Transportation to make sure a historic fund that could tear down harmful urban highways across America isn't used to expand or maintain them instead.
November 3, 2022
