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What do you call a place where you can walk once you get there, but most people arrive in a car? Atlanta has plenty of these places, which Darin Givens at ATL Urbanist calls “drive-to urbanism.” Givens interviewed Atlanta planning commissioner Tim Keane on the subject. Here’s what Keane had to say about how Atlanta can get beyond “drive-to urbanism.” … Continued

America’s convoluted regulation of passenger rail helps explain why the U.S. is so far behind other developed nations when it comes to rail travel. For instance, Federal Railroad Administration safety regulations perversely make us less safe by ignoring global best practices and instead forcing operators to use heavy, outdated equipment. Not only do we have safety rules that are no good for … Continued

Escambia County, Florida announced WiFi on its buses last week. So did Charleston, South Carolina. Kansas City had it months before. And Atlanta‘s working on it too. It’s a trend that’s gaining speed quickly among transit agencies intent on luring young people to their service, according to Chad Chitwood, a spokesperson for the American Public Transit Association. For several years, the … Continued

On Tuesday, the Boulder City Council officially caved to opponents of a safer street design and voted to renege on the Folsom Street protected bike lane and road diet. We learned that the city’s elected officials only support safe, bikeable streets when it’s comfortable for them, and it doesn’t take much to make them uncomfortable. Speeding — and therefore … Continued

A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America’s much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads. CAP highlights three “white elephant projects” that illustrate how billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds are squandered thanks to a lack of accountability in the transportation funding process. “States receive federal … Continued

Advocates for safer streets in North Carolina have beaten back an attempt to outlaw street designs that put people first. A provision inserted by state senators Trudy Wade and Andrew Brock would have forbidden road diets in North Carolina cities under certain circumstances. The amendment threatened to outlaw what are some of the most successful examples of … Continued

Tim Sullivan is a Salt Lake City planner and author who traversed the western United States via bike, bus, train, and foot in order to write “Ways to the West: How Getting Out of Our Cars Is Reclaiming America’s Frontier.” Sullivan loves the sense of freedom and independence of the West — a concept a lot of … Continued

Here’s a cool video from the Reimagine West Colfax event last month that converted West Colfax Avenue from a street designed strictly for cars into a place for people to gather, walk, and bike safely. The above time lapse shows volunteers constructing a parklet — a miniature gathering place reclaimed from traffic lanes or parking spaces — from … Continued

American transportation policy places a premium on delivering big, shiny new things. As much as the big state transportation agencies and their political bosses love pouring concrete, they tend to avoid keeping the things they build in good working condition. Many state DOTs still spend upwards of 90 percent of their annual budgets on new construction, according … Continued