Seattle resident Heather Barnett was making her usual bike commute to the University of Washington campus last September when she was t-boned by an SUV driver who blew a stop sign. Needless to say, it was a life-altering incident for the young woman. She tore her MCL, chipped her femur and broke her tibia, both […]

Quick, what’s the neighborhood with the most going on in Seattle? No need to ask a local. Walk Score has introduced ChoiceMaps, a new tool to help people find which parts of a city have the greatest “depth of choice” in terms of amenities like grocery stores. The tool uses Walk Score data to show the […]

There’s a whole lot of potential in Richmond, Virginia. This smaller southern city has many of the right ingredients for a walkable, bike-friendly city, says Dan Malouff at Beyond DC: It’s small, with only a million people in its whole metro area, but it has a relatively large downtown and some very high quality urban […]

A recent study by Michael Manville at UCLA [PDF] has been making the rounds on the Streetsblog Network. Examining areas of Los Angeles where parking regulations had been loosened, Manville found that “when parking requirements are removed, developers provide more housing and less parking, and also that developers provide different types of housing: housing in […]

The National Transportation Safety Board, whose current chair, Deborah Hersman, is the reported frontrunner to replace Ray LaHood as transportation secretary, is the federal agency charged with “assisting victims of transportation accidents and their families.” These are the people who investigate every single plane or passenger train crash. But NTSB doesn’t have much to say […]

Right now, legislators in Washington state are facing the possibility of gridlock over proposals for new transportation revenue and spending, in which case they could put the transportation package on the ballot. The key question legislators should consider, says Adam Bejan Parast Seattle Transit Blog, is whether their proposal would win over pro-transit voters. And the […]

You know we’ve reached a low point in U.S. infrastructure policy when state officials are selling off public utilities in order to fund $1.7 billion highway interchanges. Contrast American gimmicks with the progress of some of our international competitors. Systemic Failure reports today that China is now operating four high-speed rail lines at a profit, […]

In 1998, the citizens of Charlotte, North Carolina, voted to raise their sales tax by a half cent in order to improve transit. They used that money to build the Lynx light-rail and to expand bus service, boosting ridership an impressive 100 percent. Now Charlotte is moving forward with plans for a $119 million streetcar […]

The famed “War on Cars” — who among us hasn’t heard this tired hyperbole tossed around with wild abandon? Want to install a bike lane? Gasp! “War on cars!” Speeding cameras in school zones? “War on cars!!” Raise tolls to cover the huge cost of roads? “WAR ON CARS!!!” You know how it goes. Paul […]

Oh, the lengths governors around the country will go to in order to avoid raising the gas tax. Recently we’ve seen Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell propose eliminating his state’s gas tax and replacing it with a sales tax, while Deval Patrick in Massachusetts went the more moderate but still disappointing route of calling for an income tax hike to pay […]

Remember how the Jetsons promised us flying cars? Well, futuristic visions of car travel have a way of falling short of the wild expectations. Jarret Walker at Human Transit wonders if some of the grand visions coming from driverless car prognosticators might be similarly science-fiction-esque. He takes particular issue with author Richard Gilbert, who speculates in […]

Loyal readers, it’s that time of year again: We’re reach out to our most important supporters — you — to help power our work building a strong voice for the national livable streets movement. This year we’re giving away some really cool prizes. Supporters who give $50 or more will be entered to win a […]