Traffic flow and status quo: There are better ways to spend $10 billion than rebuilding the BQE
New York City plans to spend more than $10 billion on a project that will speed up climate change and increase the number of New Yorkers killed by traffic and pollution. The good news is that the city will hold meetings so the public can comment on the plan, which is rebuilding the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway (BQE).
"Cities should not just build green transport but actively dismantle car infrastructure"
Instead of desperately trying to reduce road congestion in the short term, politicians should be using traffic as a tool for making urban transport more sustainable, writes Phineas Harper.
MIT research finds that commuting distances are standard regardless of city size
Researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab have produced a series of maps visualizing commuting habits across Chinese cities. Titled Potato Project, the study used mobile phone location data from 50 million individuals across 234 cities to understand commuting patterns between a person’s home...
Gain a deeper understanding of America's vast system of roadways with these statistics. How have crashes – automotive, air, railway, and more – changed over time? How many bridges are structurally deficient now as opposed to 20 years ago? Get an idea of how the nation fares on travel times commuter delays, vehicle recalls, and more.
What Have Workers Done with the Time Freed up by Commuting Less? - Liberty Street Economics
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way Americans spend their time. One of the most enduring shifts has occurred in the workplace, with millions of employees making the switch to work from home. Even as the pandemic has waned, more than 15 percent of full-time employees remain fully remote and an additional 30 percent work in hybrid arrangements (Barrero, Bloom, and Davis). These changes have substantially reduced time spent commuting to work; in the aggregate, Americans now spend 60 million fewer hours traveling to work each day. In this post, we investigate how people spend this saved time on other activities. Using detailed data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), we find that employed individuals allocate their saved commute time toward leisure activities and sleeping, while reducing overall work hours.
Planning for Congestion Relief | Planetizen Features
The third and final installment of Planetizen's examination of the role of the planning profession in both perpetuating and solving traffic congestion.
New development review guidelines launched to reduce traffic, congestion | Boston.gov
Mayor Kim Janey today announced that the Boston Transportation Department, in partnership with the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) and the Environment Department, has launched guidelines for new developments over 50,000 square feet, which will facilitate a more efficient and transparent development review process. As part of the new guidelines, developers of large projects must complete a
How Oslo’s proposed parking reform could cost residents and visitors
Oslo City Council has proposed a massive shakeup to parking in the capital whereby it could potentially start charging motorists fees for leaving their cars on private land.
Building Momentum: Reform Parking, Reduce Traffic (Taming Traffic Series Pt.2)
Part two of the Taming Traffic webinar series will focus on the critical role that parking management plays in urban traffic reduction. Parking management ha...
They Set Aside Money for Their Commutes. Now They Can’t Get It Back.
Many people working from home or out of a job can’t access the hundreds of dollars deducted from their paychecks for transit expenses. “I’m unhappy because it’s a lot of money,” one woman said.