From Planetizen: by Todd Litman In Washington State there is a proposal to tax bicycles so that bicyclists help pay for the roads they use. On the other hand, there is considerable political resistence to increasing fuel taxes to offset inflation, or to charging road tolls or parking fees to cover facility costs. These are part [...]

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This is the month when we all get to see what a better Riverside Drive could look like – two lanes of traffic driving slower on a safer street with more parking than presently exists in the two parking lots marring Tom Lee Park. In fact, the ugly parking lots could be moved completely out [...]

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We almost said that the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s decision to change its name would be one of the dumbest decisions it’s ever made, but then, we had to remember who we were talking about. This is the organization that is one of the most unbalanced, unrepresentative MPOs in the entire United States.  This is the [...]

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From Governing: Nearly two years ago, transit officials in Tallahassee did something that might be unprecedented: Overnight, they eliminated every existing bus route, created new ones, and they did it all without any gradual phase-in period whatsoever. Although officials with Tallahassee’s StarMetro said they were trying to fix a system that had become horribly inefficient, [...]

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From Atlantic Cities: The big news in U.S. public transit this week was that Americans took 10.5 billion trips in 2012 — the second-highest number since 1957, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Ridership rose more than a point over last year’s figures on buses and subway systems, nearly 4.5 percent on light rail [...]

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From Atlantic Cities: It’s no secret that conventional city planning emphasizes the automobile. The focus placed on metrics like car level-of-service lead to decisions that remove any obstacles to automotive speed and mobility — even a crosswalk can slow down traffic too much for a planner’s liking. The upshot of this approach, of course, can [...]

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From Atlantic Cities: You might say that a number of cities are heading the other direction on one-way streets. Dallas, Denver, Sacramento, and Tampaare just some of the places that have converted one-ways into two-way streets in recent years. Any number of reasons are cited for the shift: Livability: vehicles stop less on one-way streets, [...]

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From Governing: Nothing ruins a public transportation rider’s day quite like waiting around for a train or bus that never shows up. Turns out that if it happens enough, riders will start giving up on transit, according to a new report. University of California, Berkeley researchers examined exactly what effect a transit system’s unreliability has on [...]

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From Better! Cities & Towns blog: While on an individual level it is clear that today’s transportation agencies are filled with people who are professional and want to do the right thing, the institutional inertia is carrying them in wayward directions. We’re Pennsylvania bound this weekend with Curbside Chats beginning on Monday morning. I’m very [...]

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As Memphis Mayor A C Wharton has said, nothing is harder than changing the culture of government.  The Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority gets its chance, starting today. With the election of local businessman and former four-term Memphis City Councilman and Chief Administrative Officer Jack Sammons, the oft-criticized Airport Authority has the opportunity to [...]

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From Atlantic Cities: It makes intuitive sense that cities with high-density populations, low car ownership, and good mass transit systems have fewer fatal car crashes, and fewer fatalities involving intoxication, than cities where transportation almost always means driving. Cities with extensive subway systems — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington — are all near [...]

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From Atlantic Cities: For years, many transportation experts thought the success of a city’s transit system depended directly on the strength of its central business district. Surveys supported this idea (one from 1988 showed that four in five “choice” riders worked downtown) and it’s still considered the traditional view. So as cities began to decentralize [...]

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From National Air Transportation Association: Let me begin with a cordial reminder to all my airport manager friends that this commentary is not about you.  You know who you are – and aviation businesses need more people like you helping us build a strong air transportation system.  But for the rest of you, this article’s [...]

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The headline about the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s double standard for I-69 and I-269 provoked the image here of Jack Nicholson in The Shining: “I’m baaaaaaack.” And so it is for TDOT. With the election of Governor Bill Haslam, former commissioner of TDOT Gerald Nicely, got the boot as did his more sensitive approach to [...]

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The national Sierra Club has rightfully identified I-269 as one of the 50 worst transportation projects in the U.S.  The Sierra club explanation for why I-269 has a negative impact on the future of Memphis echoed many concerns heard here.  Here’s an earlier post about this unnecessary highway: I-269 will unquestionably take a toll on [...]

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Memphis, TN — I-269 is featured in the Sierra Club’s new national report: Smart Choices, Less Traffic: 50 Best and Worst Transportation Projects in the United States.   Sierra Club Chickasaw Group today highlighted the need to move beyond oil and why I-269 is an example of the kinds of projects that will keep the [...]

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Unfortunately, it seems that concerns about Elvis Presley Boulevard “improvements” were well-placed. As it stands, the $43 million, three-mile project is marginally better than when it was first announced, but it still fails to deliver its place-making potential because in the end, it still ended up being about cars rather than about creating a livable [...]

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From Planetizen: Charles Marohn turns a critical eye toward the inertia of federal transportation policy and the shortsightedness of its most treasured investment. Since America seems to be stuck with a federal transportation bill, he suggests ways to make it work. Arguably the greatest feat of civil engineering of the 20th century, the Interstate Highway [...]

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This is the second half of our summary of Memphis’ Strong Towns’ report by Chuck Marohn.  The first part of this summary was published Tuesday.  The 17 pages of the report provide a contextual framework for anyone who cares about Memphis’ economic success, about smart and better investments that pay the best dividends, and about [...]

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Chuck Marohn, executive director of Strong Towns, was in Memphis earlier this year at the invitation of the Mayor’s Innovation Team to lay out his philosophy of smart urban investments and to gather information and insights for his report for Memphis. “I intentionally approached Memphis as a blank slate,” he wrote in the report introduction.  [...]

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From Sierra Club: The local Sierra Club Chickasaw Group joined Councilman Edmund Ford Jr. and other organizations in a News Conference today to announce support for the 1-Cent-Per-Gallon-Gas-Tax Referendum. If approved by voters, the Referendum on the city of Memphis November ballot will send $3 million to the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to pay [...]

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