How much car traffic will a new building generate? Engineers and planners are constantly trying to divine the answer to this question in the belief that it will tell them the “right” number of parking spaces to build, or how to adjust streets to accommodate more cars. The standard reference to guide these decisions is the […]

In many ways, Calgary, Canada’s third-largest city, is very much like a sprawling American city. But in one way, it’s very different: It’s a huge transit city. Despite being composed mostly of sprawling single-family homes, in this Canadian energy boomtown, 50 percent of downtown workers arrive by transit and another 11 percent by bike — way […]

What happens when you ask people point blank what they want from their local transportation system? In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the city of Stockton recently asked people at a public meeting what types of transportation investments they’d prefer. Stockton, population 300,000, was especially hard hit when the housing bubble burst, declaring bankruptcy in 2012. […]

In a continuation of a long-term trend with devastating results for city residents, job creation in the Milwaukee region in the wake of the Great Recession has been focused in the suburbs. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that Milwaukee County has recovered only 35 percent of the jobs it lost in the economic downturn, meanwhile the […]

Remember that time you attended a public meeting about redesigning a street, and when the issue of free on-street parking spaces came up, the discussion was so thoughtful and productive that you walked away feeling refreshed and full of optimism? Me neither. But Bill Lindeke at Streets.mn has imagined the rational community discussion about parking […]

A successful highway revolt in Dallas? It’s looking like a distinct possibility as supporters of the Trinity Toll Road project continue to defect, leaving a lonely few against a growing coalition opposed to the highway. The last few months have dealt a number of setbacks to the proposed $1.5 billion road, which would slice through […]

If there’s one region in the country that desperately needs better transit, it’s Milwaukee. And there are a ton of places that badly need better transit. The notoriously segregated Milwaukee region lacks strong transit connections between the city and growing suburban job centers. About 47 percent of the region’s African American population, mostly concentrated in […]

In Atlanta, the regional planning commission recently created a “millennial advisory committee” in response to lackluster retention of young college grads. Bradley Calvert at Family Friendly Cities notes that the agency should be even more alarmed by the drop in the population of kids in the city: Between 2000 and 2010 nearly 12,000 children plus their parents […]

A 7-year-old girl was critically injured in Springfield, Massachusetts, last night trying to cross the street to reach the library. Her 8-year-old cousin was also seriously injured in the collision. The younger girl is not expected to live, according to reports. Charles Marohn of Strong Towns was visiting the area at the time, and he says that […]