Transit
Basics
How Clayton County Turned Its Zero-Transit Nightmare Around
Whether Tuesday’s election left you feeling elated or devastated, there’s one happy story we can all rejoice in: Clayton County, Georgia, will finally get transit service.
November 7, 2014
Ohio DOT’s Defense of the Transit-Inaccessible Transit Meeting
On Friday, the Ohio Department of Transportation held a meeting ostensibly to gather feedback from transit riders in the Dayton and Cincinnati regions. But ODOT held the meeting in exurban Lebanon -- a hour's trip by car from Cincinnati and totally inaccessible by transit from either city.
November 3, 2014
6 Transportation Ballot Initiatives to Watch Next Tuesday
Next week, voters in Maryland and Wisconsin may tell state officials to keep their greedy paws off transportation funds. Louisianans will consider whether to create an infrastructure bank to help finance projects. Texans will weigh the wisdom of raiding the state’s Rainy Day Fund for -- what else? -- highways. And Massachusetts activists who have been fighting to repeal the state’s automatic gas tax hikes will finally get their day of reckoning.
October 29, 2014
Are Federal Transit Models Short-Changing Universities?
Planners of the new Tucson streetcar predicted that it would carry 3,600 passengers a day. Just three months after it opened, the figure is 4,700. Builders of the light rail between Minneapolis and St. Paul that started running in June foresaw 33,000 daily riders in 2015; the count has already passed 37,000.
October 27, 2014
By a Wide Margin, Americans Favor Transit Expansion Over New Roads
If only our nation's spending priorities more closely tracked public opinion: A new poll [PDF] from ABC News and the Washington Post finds that when presented with the choice, Americans would rather spend transportation resources expanding transit than widening roads.
October 23, 2014
Got Transit Troubles? The Problem Could Be the Chain of Command
If you still have to juggle multiple farecards for the various transit systems in your area -- or if urgent maintenance issues in the city core are going unattended while the suburbs get a shiny new station -- the problem might run deeper than the incompetence everyone is grumbling about. The root of it all might be embedded in the very structure of the agencies that govern your transit system.
October 13, 2014
Talking Headways Podcast: Zero Deaths, Zero Cars, Zero Tundra Voles
Special guest Damien Newton of Streetsblog LA joins Jeff and me on this episode to tell us all about the Los Angeles DOT's new strategic plan, which includes a Vision Zero goal: zero traffic deaths by 2025, a vision all of our cities should get behind. He walks us through the oddities of LA politics and the pitfalls that may await the plan, as well as one really good reason it could succeed. (Her name is Seleta Reynolds.)
October 9, 2014
Census Data Shows How Much Less Millennials and Gen-Xers Commute by Car
Cross-posted from Brookings’ The Avenue blog. This article is the second in a short series examining new Census data on transportation trends.
October 8, 2014
The 10 Best and Worst Cities to Catch a Bus to Work
It's been called "the geography of opportunity." And David Levinson is trying to make a science of it.
October 7, 2014
So Your City Is Adding HOT Lanes. Will They Work for Transit?
High-occupancy vehicle lanes can help incentivize carpooling (and let solo drivers sit in punishing congestion). But too often, transportation agencies spend millions of dollars to widen the road to make carpool lanes, instead of simply designating existing lanes. To recoup some of the expense, the agencies also let drivers pay to use the new "high-occupancy/toll lane."
October 7, 2014