Recent Streetsblog DENVER posts about Streetsblog Network

STREETSBLOG USA

A Big Opportunity to Reform the Vicious Cycle of Highway Expansion

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Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx made headlines recently with a speech about how America needs to rethink its approach to urban highways. But U.S. DOT’s influence is limited. States have the real power when it comes spending federal transportation funds, however, and a lot of states are still stuck in the cycle of addressing traffic congestion by widening highways, […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Mapping the Cost of Sprawl for Low-Income Workers

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How do highways and greenfield development exacerbate inequality? Richard Bose at Next STL shares this map of the St. Louis region, showing the share of income poor workers spend on transportation. Not surprisingly, as you go farther from the center, transportation consumes a greater percentage of people’s pay. What makes the case of St. Louis so tragic, writes Bose, is that the legacy […]
STREETSBLOG USA

America’s “New” Rail Systems Are Showing Their Age

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What should we make of the recent headline-grabbing service disruptions at Washington Metro and BART? This chart from Houston transit advocate Christof Spieler offers some important perspective. These transit systems are reaching the age where maintenance needs are increasingly urgent. Alex Block at City Block writes: BART, the snake digesting the mouse: Until seeing the data presented this way, I never appreciated how much of the […]
STREETSBLOG USA

What Would an Urban Agenda Look Like for Your State?

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Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper recently tweeted that “Ohio needs an urban agenda.” A group of local bloggers (myself included) think that’s a great idea, and we’ve been writing about what good state-level policy for Ohio cities would look like. Despite being one of the most urbanized states in the nation, Ohio doesn’t really have a coherent policy agenda to strengthen […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Oregon DOT Wants to “Change Cultural Norms” Related to Distracted Driving

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It’s refreshing to see public agencies go beyond PSAs to deter distracted driving, which contributes to thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year. With traffic deaths on the rise in Oregon, state officials are ramping up their efforts. Oregon DOT Director Matt Garrett has pledged to “change cultural norms when it comes to distracted driving,” reports Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland, […]