By Lauren Herstik | November 10, 2017 12:00PM (Photo illustration. Credit: Los Angeles Metro) A new city planning initiative aims to add affordable housing development near mass transit, but some real estate insiders question whether it does enough to entice market-rate builders. The Los Angeles Department of City Planning released the official Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) Affordable Housing Incentive Program Guidelines on Sept. …
Free Public Transit, and Why We Don’t Pay to Ride Elevators
The official release date for Free Public Transit is July 20th, 2018. You can access here a free sample of the book Free Public Transit: And Why We Don’t Pay To Ride Elevators, including the front matter, introductions, table of contents, the first chapter, and the notes on the contributors. ********************** “We don’t pay for elevators, do we? And rightly so. The very idea …
Free Public Transit is Gaining Traction Around the World
Making Free and Accessible Public Transit Happen Free transit has already been adopted by more than 100 cities including Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Recently, five major German cities have announced their intention to do the same thing. In Canadian cities like Winnipeg and Calgary, transit is now free for some people, or in some areas. (Even Ottawa has free transit for seniors …
Cities leading the way off cars and pollution
BY ADELE PETERS Fast Company, March 2019 In downtown Cairo, it’s not uncommon to see streets clogged with cars. But in a proposed redesign for a central thoroughfare, they’re hard to spot. Instead, in the concept illustration for what looks like the Egyptian version of Amsterdam, a two-way bike lane, a sidewalk, and a plaza filled with palm trees replace the sea of …
Visa to launch touchless transit fare system this spring, which can reportedly be done without replacing current turnstiles or terminal hardware
Visa to launch touchless transit fare system Rio de Janeiro will be the first city to roll out the system this spring, which can reportedly be done without replacing current turnstiles or terminal hardware. Katie Pyzyk, Smart Cities Dive, Feb. 26, 2019 Visa and smart card technology company Planeta Informatica have jointly released technology for contactless payments at transit turnstiles. Visa Secure Access Module …
Infill, more walkability, protected bikeways and more frequent transit service helped Minneapolis and Seattle reduce driving
How Two Cities Actually Reduced Driving, by Angie Schmitt, Streetsblog, Feb 8, 2019 27 Photo: The Urbanist Two American cities have finally cracked one of the hardest codes in city planning: Even with low gas prices, even with population growth, even with Uber and Lyft circling 24/7, Minneapolis and Seattle have reduced the amount of driving in their cities. Vehicle miles traveled are down 2 …
Can road pricing make transit more equitable if income is used for free transit, walk and bike infrastructure improvements?
Can road pricing be used to make LA’s transportation system more equitable? By Rayla Bellis, SSTI, February 11th, 2019 Tags: equity, road pricing California nonprofit TransForm and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a new report and toolkit with guidance for bringing equity into the implementation of congestion pricing. While conversations about congestion pricing and equity often focus on minimizing the negative—reducing disproportionate impacts to …
Aircraft start beating bullet trains in costs and travel times over distances greater than 620 miles
Vox.com Feb 2019 …Aircraft start beating bullet trains in costs and travel times over distances greater than 620 miles. That’s just a bit more than the distance between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. So even with a high-speed rail network across the US, there will still be a market for air travel, and no one is proposing to get …
Lack of adequate public transit service exacerbates environmental and economic disparities as well as climate change
By Basav Sen, Inequality.org, February 7, 2019 | https://popularresistance.org/lets-honor-rosa-parks-by-continuing-her-struggle-for-transit-equity/CREATE! The lack of adequate public transit service exacerbates environmental and economic disparities as well as climate change. Only 5.2 percent of commuters nationwide use public transit to get to work, but 11 percent each of Black and Asian-American commuters and 7.7 percent of Latinx commuters use transit. People of color are clearly more dependent on transit. This is …
Climate Mobilization Emergency Resolutions passed by local governments and 10 year decarbonization plans
Hoboken, NJ and Montgomery County, MD have led the way by passing resolutions brought by TCM organizers unanimously. You can download the full resolution texts. Download their resolutions below, and use them as a jumping off point for drafting your own. HOBOKEN, NJ RESOLUTION MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD RESOLUTION BERKELEY, CA RESOLUTION RICHMOND, CA RESOLUTION HOBOKEN, NJ RESOLUTION OAKLAND, CA …