Brad Aaron
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Recent Posts
What Mister Rogers Can Teach Us About Cities and NIMBYism
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If you spend much time at community meetings, or you’re a Leslie Knope fan, you know that public forums are often where open-mindedness goes to die. Bill Lindeke of Twin City Sidewalks has been thinking about the contrast between urban NIMBYism and the ideals espoused by Fred Rogers, host of the legendary Pittsburgh-based public television show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” […]
Attention Cities: To Encourage Walking, Don’t Overlook the Basics
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When it comes to making it easier and safer for people to get around on foot, is your city covering the basics? If you live in the U.S., odds are the answer is “Not by a long shot.” Tim Kovach writes that his hometown, Cleveland, is getting good press for a zoning update intended to make parts of […]
Portland’s Bike-Share System Will Be an Interesting One to Watch
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Next week, leaders in Portland will decide whether to move forward with a long-awaited bike-share system. Assuming it proceeds, Portland’s bike-share is going to be an unusual one. Michael Andersen of BikePortland has everything you need to know in a series of posts on the proposed system (check them all out here). He reports that it would launch next summer with 600 bikes […]
Suburban Atlanta Pol: Why Fund Transit When We Can Wait for Robo-Cars?
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Gwinnett County is outpacing the Atlanta region in population growth. People who live there need transit to get to work, so much so that a recent poll found that 63 percent of likely voters were in favor of expanding MARTA service into the county. Gwinnett’s transportation director has asked for funds to restore bus service […]
How the Baltimore Red Line Could Rise Again
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Today on the Network, Gerald Neily at Baltimore InnerSpace has the back story on the ill-fated Red Line, the rail project axed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. Neily writes that the Red Line’s roots date to the 1960s, “when a 1.5 mile swath of West Baltimore was condemned and quickly destroyed for what is now the […]
How Baltimore Could Improve Rail After Larry Hogan’s Red Line Debacle
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Maryland Governor Larry Hogan killed Baltimore’s long-awaited Red Line so he could build a highway to the beach, but sitting on the shelf is another plan to augment rail service in the city. Writing for Greater Greater Washington, Jeff La Noue says the proposal includes three new infill stations on the MARC Penn Line commuter rail: one […]
The Public Funds Sports Teams, But Teams Won’t Fund Transit to Games
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Professional sports stadiums put a strain on transportation networks. While good transit service to games can lessen the traffic burden and help everyone get to sports venues more easily, this often imposes additional costs on transit agencies. Despite all the public subsidies pro sports teams receive, they rarely help pay for this service. It doesn’t have […]
Raise Your Kids in the Car, Says Stupefyingly Awful Web Site
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Want to talk to your kids? Stick them in the car. That’s the word-for-word headline atop a recent post on Driving, a Canadian web site that also believes lowering speed limits in cities — you know, those places where kids and parents walk — is “an exercise in futility,” because drivers. Both columns were penned by the […]
Biking the Last Mile in Suburban Copenhagen
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Tooling around on Google, Dan Malouff at Greater Greater Washington stumbled on the above image from suburban Copenhagen. What’s right with this picture? Note the (a) bike parking lot at the Friheden Street transit station, just across the (b) sidewalk from the (c) bike lane. Writes Malouff: One of the most important uses for bicycles […]
Jersey Pays Subaru to Bring Another Parking Crater to Downtown Camden
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Camden, New Jersey, took home the 2015 Golden Crater award for the nastiest parking scar in the country, and it looks like state and local leaders aren’t about to let the city rest on its laurels. Joseph Russell at South Jerseyist reports that, thanks to over $100 million in tax breaks from Governor Chris Christie and […]
What’s the Actual Cost of Amtrak’s Trans-Hudson Gateway Project?
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Five years after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spiked the ARC transit tunnel to redirect money to roads, politicians are finally discussing how to go about upgrading rail capacity between Jersey and Midtown Manhattan, currently limited to a pair of century-old tunnels under the Hudson River. But just about every announcement related to the proposed Gateway Project comes with a […]
Safe Streets Pioneer Deb Hubsmith Has Died
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Today the Streetsblog Network is mourning Deb Hubsmith, who died this week at age 45. Deb founded the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, a nationwide program that is saving the lives of children endangered by reckless drivers. If you’ve advocated for or cared about safer streets in the last 10 to 15 years, chances […]