Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Sprawl

The State DOT Revolving Door: Meet Jerry Wray, Ohio’s “Asphalt Sheriff”

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 29, 2013 | No Comments

One of the top goals of the national transportation reform movement is to get state DOTs to spend their money more wisely. The feds distribute tens of billions of dollars to state DOTs each year with very few strings attached. But for every state like Massachusetts or Tennessee that’s decided to shift toward building walkable […]

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Today in Foreign Policy: American Interests Demand Walkable Communities

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 15, 2013 | No Comments

If you’ve had your head stuck inside street design manuals or engineering guides – if you’ve been thinking at the level of the bulb-out or the bollard – I’ve got a present for you. I wouldn’t have expected to find it in Foreign Policy magazine, but last week, Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation […]

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$450 Billion in Federal Subsidies Tilt U.S. Real Estate Market Toward Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 9, 2013 | No Comments

Real estate in the United States, it turns out, isn’t really guided by “the invisible hand” of the free market. In truth, federal policy puts a finger on the scale in a major way. Even apart from the quasi-governmental Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, the federal government is the single largest investor in the American […]

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In Philly, Housing in Walkable Places Held Up Better Than Suburban Housing

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 9, 2012 | No Comments

It’s been a bad few years for homeowners around the country, and those in greater Philadelphia are no different. But people who owned houses in Philadelphia’s center city or suburban areas near a walkable town center fared better than others. According to a new report from the Congress for the New Urbanism, the homes in greater […]

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There’s a Lot Riding on U.S. DOT’s Definition of “Congestion”

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 15, 2012 | No Comments

Congress has done its job, such as it is, and passed a transportation bill. Now it’s handed off the policymaking to U.S. DOT, which must issue a raft of rules, definitions, and guidance to accompany the new law, known as MAP-21. According to sources with intimate knowledge of this process, much depends on how DOT […]

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The Strain of Job Sprawl on Two-Income Households

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 9, 2012 | No Comments

When Mark Lampert was a kid, his mom stayed home with him and his brothers. His dad was out the door by 4:30 every morning, driving to the commuter lot in their distant Houston suburb to take the bus in to the city for work. He had friends whose parents both worked, and when those […]

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