Archive for the ‘Urban Planning’ Category


Seattles Link Light Rail The Start of Something Big

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Right now, Seattle is making as serious a commitment to transit as any city in the nation. Recently, Streetfilms got to take a tour of the newest addition to the city’s network — the 13-station Link Light Rail, which opened in mid-2009.

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U.S. Parking Policies: An Overview of Management Strategies

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY
The relationships between parking infrastructure and transportation choices are as important as that between road infrastructure and transportation choices. Yet research on roads abounds while there is very little on parking.

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The Route to Reform: Blueprint for a 21st Century Federal Transportation Program

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

…America stands in desperate need of a new vision for our national transportation system. Just as the Interstate highway bill answered some of the most pressing mobility needs of the rapidly growing nation in the mid-20th century, a new federal surface transportation bill must answer the vastly different needs of America in the 21st century. The next transportation program must set about the urgent task of repairing and maintaining our existing transportation assets, building a more well-rounded transportation network, and making our current system work more efficiently and safely to create complete and healthy communities…

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Assessing the Benefits of Levees: An Economic Assessment of U.S. Counties with Levees

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

LEVEES.ORG
The recent list of U.S. Counties with levee protection obtained by Levees.org provides an opportunity to examine the economic benefits associated with levees. Compiled by FEMA from a National Flood Insurance Program database, this list includes 881 U.S. counties that have flood protection levees. As coastal Louisiana faced recovery from devastating flooding, the nation questioned the wisdom of massive public investment in levees and other flood risk reduction infrastructure. This question reflected a long running debate regarding human settlement in floodplains that have been modified by levees and related flood reduction structures. Now we have the data needed to more thoroughly assess the economic benefits of using levees and other structures to protect populations that reside and work in floodplains.

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The Public Works

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

URBAN OMNIBUS
Yes indeed, today in America we know that something is wrong, and we would like things to be better. Certainly the design disciplines have been energetic in engaging the converging crises of energy, housing, infrastructure, environment, climate change…

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Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

POLICYLINK
In St. Louis, MO, major cuts in bus service this spring left workers, students, disabled people, and elderly residents stranded and feeling bereft. Stuart and Dianne Falk, who are both in wheelchairs, told CNN they no longer would be able to get to the gym or the downtown theater company where they volunteer. “To be saddled, to be imprisoned, that is what it is going to feeling like,” Stuart Falk said…

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Andrés Duany, Architect, Author of “The Smart Growth Manual”

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Andrés Duany, F.A.I.A., is a founding principal at the architecture and planning firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). DPZ is widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, which seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment. Duany has authored several books, including “The Smart Growth Manual” (most recently) and “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.”

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Patrick J. Natale, Executive Director of the American Society of Civil Engineers

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Patrick J. Natale is the Executive Director, and Chief Staff Officer and Secretary, for the American Society of Civil Engineers

Patrick J. Natale on: infrastructure grades, lack of ongoing public concern about infrastructure, infrastructure and leadership, paying for infrastructure improvements, and the importance of government advocacy

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Transportation, Small Towns, and Rural Communities

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA
Access to jobs, schools, shopping, and critical community services is vital for Americans living in small cities and towns, and rural communities. But all too often there aren’t options for getting around, forcing families to drive long distances on poorly maintained roads to reach everyday destinations. By failing to preserve our existing transportation network and harness the power of new technologies, we are leaving millions of Americans isolated from economic opportunity…

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Written Comments from Brian Lehrer’s Radio Show on WNYC, with PA Governor Rendell and Steve Anderson, Managing Director, InfrastructureUSA

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Steve from Brooklyn
“I travel back and forth to Baltimore and Boston for work, and I prefer trains to planes. What’s going on with the high speed trains in the Northeast? When can I take a high speed train to Maine?”

Lorraine from Westchester
“Lots of talk about money for schools, but not so much about the buildings themselves. My school had has heating problems since October. Teachers and students are wearing their coats indoors and we are told to “send memos” to various administrators! It’s been a very cold winter.”

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