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
Anatomy of a Dangerous Intersection
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Streets designed to facilitate fast driving are not suitable for safe walking. Unfortunately, transportation engineers often don’t design for safety unless a catastrophic event triggers public outcry. Katie Matchett at Where the Sidewalk Starts says the city of San Diego is planning changes at one intersection in an area where motorists routinely hit and injure people, but only after […]
The Name Says It All: U.S. Senate Unveils the DRIVE Act
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What does Congress envision for the future of transportation in the U.S.? Hint: The Senate’s transportation bill is called the DRIVE Act. Caron Whitaker at the League of American Bicyclists reports: As is evident in the acronym, The Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act, or DRIVE Act, is not focused on improving multi-modal transportation but rather […]
Even Amsterdam Wasn’t Always “Amsterdam”
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If you live in a city where people are trying to make it easier and safer to get around on foot, by bike, or via transit, you’ve probably heard that what works in other towns won’t work in yours. Amsterdam is often held up as a place where people magically move about using bicycles, trams, and their own […]
The Kindness of Safer Streets
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Is this really the best we can do? Dave Alden at Vibrant Bay Area writes that the above ad from Dignity Health (dignity!) depicting a driver getting out of his car to help a senior avoid being run over in a crosswalk is a pretty skewed notion of “human kindness.” [I]sn’t there something unkind about forcing the woman to […]
Milwaukee Could Pay Big Bucks for Downtown NBA Arena, and Its Parking
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Publicly-financed arenas for privately-owned sports franchises are usually a bad deal for taxpayers. And the proposal for a new Milwaukee Bucks facility looks like a humdinger. Patrick Small at Urban Milwaukee reports that city officials, including Mayor Tom Barrett, haven’t told residents exactly how much they could be on the hook for — though so far the Bucks have […]
The Globalization of Suburbia
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The above photo could be a scene from Any Suburb, USA. Except … what’s the deal with the helmet-free cyclist in street clothes? “Welcome to Orange County,” writes Andrew Stokols at TheCityFix. “No, not Orange County, California. This is Orange County, Beijing.” Stokols says walled-off suburbs modeled on U.S. “gated communities” are gaining popularity among the affluent […]
Portland Officials Expected to Adopt 10-Year Vision Zero Plan
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Officials in Portland, Oregon, are expected to adopt a Vision Zero program, with the goal of preventing traffic deaths and serious injuries in the next 10 years. Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland reports: On Wednesday Portland City Council is poised to take two steps on the road toward a full embrace of Vision Zero. They’ll […]
Houstonians See Folly of Debt-Financed Sprawl, Even If Leaders Don’t
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Voters in Montgomery County, Texas, rejected a road-building bond referendum. Despite local support for transit, county leaders plan to give the referendum another try. The Houston Chronicle reports that opposition to a $350 million bond measure, all of it for road construction, was led by residents of one affluent enclave who don’t want a traffic-inducing parkway extension. But there’s […]
Minneapolis May Drop Parking Minimums Near Transit
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Whether you own a car or not, if you live in a city, there’s a good chance you pay for parking. Building parking spots is expensive, but most cities require developers to build a certain amount of parking per residence, driving up the cost of housing. Nick Magrino at Streets.mn reports that Minneapolis is rethinking […]
Making Urban Cemeteries More Urban
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Should urban cemeteries be more accessible to the public? Alex Cecchini at Streets.mn thinks so. Cecchini points out that many city cemeteries are fenced off save for a single entrance point, effectively disrupting the street grid more than any superblock. A graveyard in his Minneapolis neighborhood, for instance, allows motorists to drive through but requires cyclists to […]
The San Diego Leaders Who Sacrificed People for Parking
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Earlier this year a street safety plan for Hillcrest and other San Diego neighborhoods was derailed afterNIMBYs complained about the loss of curbside parking. The plan was prompted to prevent incidents like the 2012 crash when a driver hit a mother and her 3-year-old daughter in a Hillcrest crosswalk at an intersection with a history of crashes. […]
Virginia’s Chance to Improve Commutes Without Building More Roads
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A Virginia state agency is weighing how to allocate new transportation funds, presenting an opportunity for the state to do more than widen and build roads. David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington reports that the Commonwealth Transportation Board is developing a formula to allocate funds approved by the state legislature in 2013. Though a new […]