Transportation Policy
America’s Car Culture is Literally Shortening Your Life: Study
Opioids have gotten the most blame when it comes to the U.S.'s disturbing recent reversal on life expectancy. But traffic deaths are a notable factor as well.
August 24, 2018
Trump Administration Fake Worried About Too Much Driving
In its effort to roll back Obama's fuel economy standards, Trump's EPA pretends it actually cares about Americans driving too much. Great goal! We have some suggestions.
August 3, 2018
Mobility Justice Advocates Gather in Leimert Park for Untokening California
She had had enough of hearing her community spoken about in offensive ways by well- (and not-so-well-) meaning planners and advocates, enough of giving 110 percent of herself only to realize a fraction of what she put forward was being seen as having value, enough of how disinterested those with power over what happened in marginalized communities remained in the larger picture, and enough of being tokenized.
November 10, 2017
Today Trump Gags the EPA. Tomorrow the GOP Strangles the Census.
Republicans want to cut off federal data that social science researchers depend on, limiting our ability to understand the effects of transportation and land use policy, especially on the most vulnerable Americans.
January 25, 2017
Transportation Agencies Will Finally Measure the Movement of People, Not Just Cars
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in the quest for free-flowing vehicular traffic. The result is wider highways, more sprawl, and more people stuck in congestion. But this week U.S. DOT took an important step to change course, releasing new standards to guide how transportation agencies measure their performance. Advocates for transit and walkability say the policy is a significant improvement.
January 12, 2017
What Would It Take to Eliminate Carbon Emissions From U.S. Transportation?
To do its part to avert catastrophic climate change, the United States would have to more or less eliminate carbon emissions from transportation in the next 35 years. But America is nowhere near on pace to make that happen.
October 26, 2016
The Highway Era Is Over. When Will Our Institutions Catch Up?
The highway era is over. The construction of the Interstate Highway System is essentially complete.
October 7, 2016
Rising to the Political Challenge of a Carbon-Free Transportation System
Cross-posted from the Frontier Group.
May 18, 2016
A Transportation To-Do List for the Next President
How can the next president improve American transportation policy?
May 11, 2016
Obama’s Last Budget Lays Out a Smart Vision for American Transportation
The White House released its 2017 budget [PDF] this morning, which includes more detail about the exciting but politically doomed transportation proposal President Obama outlined last week. Obama's plan doesn't have a chance in the current Congress, but it shows what national transportation policy centered on reducing greenhouse gas emissions might look like.
February 9, 2016