Chicago’s rail transit infrastructure has a lot of unused capacity, Yonah Freemark wrote last week on the blog of the Metropolitan Planning Council, and making use of it might be cheaper and easier than expanding the system. Some of Chicago’s most transit-accessible neighborhoods are barely growing, but rents are rising fast, Freemark reported, an indication that […]

This may be the best evidence yet that attitudes about transportation are beginning to change in Texas’s major cities. As part of a plan to redesign and reroute Interstate 45 in the heart of Houston, TxDOT — that’s right, the Texas Department of Transportation — is proposing to tear down a short segment of the Pierce […]

There’s an interesting discussion going on over at Seattle Transit Blog over the region’s policies toward suburban job growth. Currently, Seattle region planners designate “regional growth centers,” with special rules designed to concentrate new jobs and housing in these areas. Regional growth centers also have an easier time capturing government infrastructure funds. Seattle Transit Blog’s […]

On streets where people drive fast, they are much less inclined to yield for pedestrians at unsignalized crosswalks, according to a new study published by the Transportation Research Board. Chris McCahill at the State Smart Transportation Initiative explains the research: The study, conducted in Boston, reveals that drivers are nearly four times more likely to yield for pedestrians […]

Over the weekend, the Tampa Bay Times blew the lid off a major police harassment story: Cops there issue more tickets to cyclists than in any other big Florida city, in the name of “bike safety,” but what their targets appear to be most guilty of is bicycling while black. Network blog Systemic Failure flagged the […]

Winning support for good transportation projects in the state legislature can be one of the most challenging political problems cities face, especially with the current revenue squeeze. And without support from the state, it can be impossible to build new transit lines. Mary Newsom at the Naked City recently sat in on a discussion about how Charlotte […]

It seems like the Trinity Toll Road — a proposal to build a wide, high-speed road right next to the Trinity River in Dallas — is losing momentum. But the politics of road-building in Texas are tricky, and the highway isn’t dead yet. Earlier this week, a “dream team” of advisers selected by Mayor Mike […]

Milwaukee is the poster child for the special kind of economic oppression that results from a combination of residential segregation, bad transit options, and job sprawl. This is a problem to some extent in almost every city in the country, but it’s worse in formerly industrial cities where big employers have decamped for the suburbs. And […]