Climate Change

Since I founded Streetsblog Denver, the city’s media landscape has shifted, at least somewhat, to question automobile dominance and the general lack of good alternatives. Hell, one-time A-Line agitator Kyle Clark is now a hero of the movement.

Today, Denver is ranked as one of the worst cities in America for harmful air quality. Twice, Colorado health agencies have considered requiring commute programs. Twice, it was deemed too onerous an ask for Denver employers, even though employers in most western cities have been doing it successfully for two decades.

If you draw a massive venn diagram of all the characteristics we want out of our transportation system – safety, affordability, less congestion, less pollution, and more access that’s more equitable – you’ll find transit sitting right at the sweet spot in the center. This year, 2021, is the year to build a more robust and sophisticated transit system in Denver, and we may finally have the funding to do it, writes Matt Frommer, a Senior Transportation Associate with the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP).

Allen Cowgill: Expanding I-270 will increase pollution in neighborhoods inhabited mostly by people of color and could accelerate climate change by encouraging more people to drive.

It will take forever to electrify our transit systems, but yellow school buses could be switched over within the decade, a new report says.

Even if we electrified our entire vehicle fleet overnight, car pollution would still make us and the planet sick — and policymakers should start pushing for strong policy to mitigate the impacts of non-tailpipe emissions now, a new study finds.

A wave of U.S. car buyers nearly tied the all-time record for truck and SUV purchases, just weeks before the American people at large elected a President who wants to get rid of gas-guzzlers altogether by 2050.  

The U.S. can’t simply electrify its way out of the transportation-related carbon disaster — and thinking that it can might actually delay what really works: shifting people away from private vehicle ownership, and towards mass and active transportation, a new study finds. In order to maintain our national car addiction and stay within a national […]

The California senator isn't a flawless street safety advocate, but some of her history is making transportation advocates hopeful.