Car culture
Basics
How Buffalo Moved Away From Parking Requirements
One promising trend in urban planning is the push from a growing number of U.S. cities to reduce minimum parking requirements for new developments. As the name suggests, parking minimums require developers to build a certain amount of spaces, regardless of whether a community wants or needs them. The result is an excess of parking that can lead to more vehicle pollution, worsen traffic congestion, and drive up housing costs. In some cases, the steep cost of building parking prevents a project from moving forward at all.
March 25, 2021
Why We Need To Stop Calling Auto-Centric Roads ‘Assets’
Your city can't sell a road to the next town over when it needs a little cash. So why do our municipal accounting standards count highways as "assets"? Advocates say it's time to fix that. Image: Jay Galvin via Creative Commons
February 18, 2021
Study: Yes, More Parking Does Put More Cars on the Road
A new study finds something transportation reformers have long suspected, but never proven.
February 10, 2021
A Look Back at Bezos’s Dirty Legacy on U.S. Roadways
Jeff Bezos stepped down from the top spot at Amazon yesterday, but his toxic legacy on America's roadways isn't going anywhere.
February 5, 2021
Why Buttigieg’s Midwest Roots Might Make Him a Great USDOT Secretary
Is Buttigieg a hayseed Hoosier who wouldn't know a headway from a harvester, or a political ecoterrorist hellbent on leaving rural American in the lurch and laughing all the way to the Amtrak station? Neither: He's a guy from South Bend.
February 4, 2021
Why America Can’t Rein in Teen Speeding
Teenage driver crash rates are four times higher than drivers over 20. But some advocates think addressing the problem will take far more than the enforcement and education. Let's dig in.
February 1, 2021
What the History of Autonomous Vehicles Can Teach About Our Transportation Future
Alex Davies new book, "Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car," offers a glimpse into an industry that will rapidly upend our transportation landscape — and some worry will kill even more vulnerable road users.
January 25, 2021
Study: Taking An App Taxi More than Doubles Your Roadway Impact
The average Uber or Lyft customer is responsible for adding more than twice as many car miles to his city's roads as he was before he started using app-taxis to get around.
January 23, 2021
Joe Biden Becomes the First Traffic Violence Widower to Hold the U.S. Presidency
Joe Biden is president — the first one in U.S. history who's lost a child and a spouse to our national traffic violence epidemic.
January 20, 2021
NHTSA Blames Everyone But Itself For Crash Spike
The Trump administration's top roadway safety agency offered a final kiss-off to America by blaming drivers for killing each other so much last year — with zero acknowledgement of the administration's own failures to implement life-saving policies.
January 14, 2021
