Moving Together, Faster
Regurgitating some news here–mostly from the Herald– and adding a layer of commentary.
Bicycle Advocates, led by the Green Mobility Network are inserting themselves into the planning process in South Miami. Click here to catch up with the effort to make Sunset Drive more amenable to bicyclists. This is a worthy initiative, and one that has [...]
Peter Calthorpe, an urban planner working on the California high speed rail project, wrote a very good piece in the San Francisco Chronicle on the lack of transit funds in the current form of the economic stimulus. Check it out—it sounds like something we would say here. We definitely agree that there is not enough [...]
Image: John Darkow, The Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri
With gas tax revenue falling fast the federal government fears that it may not be able to meet its commitment to states for road projects currently under way. So what does Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters suggest? Simply “borrow” money from the mass transit fund. According to the [...]
There are several reasons why widening highways is usually a futile strategy to combat traffic congestion. For one, highway widening projects are costly and time consuming. It has also been well documented that adding new capacity to highways creates induced demand, which essentially means it will generate more traffic on the road. Consequently, over time [...]
Ah, the 1950′s, a time when the US economy was rebounding from the stresses of World War II and federal money was freely flowing every which way to rebuild a struggling economy. The most notable “achievement” which evolved from this hasty federal spending was the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (Dwight Eisenhower Interstate [...]
The conclusion to the three part story on Auckland, New Zealand’s car addiction. This part concentrates on the sustainable and economic benefits of upgrading to alternative transit. They accurately rip apart the notion of cars, highways, and the expanded option of “personal independence” contributing an “economic benefit” to society…
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toll-stoppaytoll, originally uploaded by Robertson Adams.
More tolls to come? What will they fund?
-Via TM reader Robertson
$8 Billion Congestion “Solutions“. May I cite the Downs-Thompson Paradox:
“It follows that increasing road capacity can actually make overall congestion on the road worse. This occurs when the shift from public transport causes a disinvestment in the mode such that the operator either reduces frequency of service or raises fares to cover costs. This [...]
Sorry about the delay folks. I’ve been trying to catch up on all the news I missed last week, while replying to a week’s worth of e-mails, and recovering from some illness I contracted on the way back from Mexico City’s disaster of an airport. Never again will I fly through Mexico City [...]
The new tolls on the 836 will be opening up soon (July 1) along with the new MDX 3 mile west extension of the highway. You can read all about it here. But, once again, the comments section of this article is where we’ll find some of the finest examples of the Miami [...]
I’ve often defined the “Miami Mentality” on this site as the state of mind prevalent in our region which is generally for transit options, so long as other people use them. The Miami New Times quoted my “Miami Mentality” theory today when discussing the new MDT 7-day pass, which sadly means that my theory [...]
Here at TransitMiami, we often are very critical of Miami’s auto-oriented planning legacy. However, while Miami has recently made strides toward a denser, more sustainable, more pedestrian-oriented city (Streetcar, Miami 21, countywide efforts such as metrorail expansion), the Phoenix-Tempe-Mesa metro area continues its pursuit to be the King of Sprawl. Tempe council members and [...]
I may have gone a little picture happy below. But, I’ve come across a bunch of stunning pictures of two major up and coming transit systems on complete opposite sides of the globe. The first two are of the Porto, Portugal brand new Urban Transit Rail system. Mind you, this is a city of 1.5 [...]
