City Planning

car outlawed on island city

Mackinac Island — City Where Cars Have Been Outlawed Since 1898

Can you imagine what it would be like if there weren’t noisy cars everywhere spewing out smelly exhaust? Sounds nice, right? Well, apparently, there is a place that is just like that, and even located within the US — Mackinac Island, located in Lake Huron, has been car-free since all the way back in 1898. …

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Paying Employees To Not Drive In Washington, DC

Donald Shoup pointed out many years ago that if companies pay the costs of parking for their employees, a common fringe benefit (and an expensive one, at that), those employers are essentially giving “an invitation to drive to work alone.” Shoup continues to explain that it is time to level the playing field and has been promoting a …

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Car-Free Montreal Getting 3 More Streets In 2017

Montreal’s car-free network will continue growing in 2017, with 3 more street segments slated to be added to the network this year. To be more specific, the city’s mayor, Denis Coderre, has announced that he’s awarding $1.7 million in an effort to pedestrianize the 3 streets in question. The funds will be awarded over a …

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London Mayor Doubles Bicycling Budget

Here’s a bright note for many and needed news for those concerned about politicians keeping their promises, especially their environmental promises. All is well in London on this account. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is apparently aiming to make London one of those cities we pedestrians, cyclists, environmentalists point to and say, “Ah, if only — if only …

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Bicyclists Surpass Drivers In Copenhagen!

Also published on CleanTechnica. Those of us who try to keep abreast of urban planning and clean transportation news are familiar with the benefits of bicycling in terms of pure air, livability, quieter streets and homes, space and resource efficiency, a stable climate, and public life. We’re also aware that some places are much better than others. …

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MARTA Modernizing Transit Fleets

Via CleanTechnica: There’s good news on the transit front from Atlanta. Atlanta, long infamous for its car-oriented development, is now focused forward with an eye toward sustainable redevelopment. A MARTA initiative has been focused on modernizing transit fleets. Atlanta travelers will enjoy one of the newest fleets nationwide — after using some of the oldest in the country for years. Boosting ridership …

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Electric Bicycle Shop Offers Safe, Progressive Transit Options & Conversation To Community

It’s the time of year in Florida that is perfect for bicycling. From now until July, it is a refreshing active transport option without the worry of torrential summer downpours. I recently stopped by to visit Pedego of Sarasota and owner Michael Weatherby at a local electric bicycle shop that specializes in safe, comfortable electric bicycles in order …

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Denver: Include Affordable Housing If You Want To Build Higher

Denver City Council has shown some heart and is conscientiously planning redevelopment within underdeveloped areas of the city. Incentives toward development all too often exclude those most in need, but Denver City Council voted to require affordable housing if developers want to build higher. Along with density and walkability, Denver rightfully wants some affordable housing with …

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$200 Billion In Funding For Public Transportation

Via CleanTechnica. $200 billion in funding for public transportation could make a big difference in the air everyone breathes. It could make a difference in the day-to-day mobility of many travelers. As US elections near, there is a definite tone within the US political system. This election cycle grasps for our vote. I think about all the money spent …

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Transforming Barcelona — One “Superblock” At a Time

In a new wave of socially and environmentally conscious planning, Barcelona is taking back its streets from cars. The plan will convert up to 60% of the streets from road to green spaces, bike paths, and a boardwalk for pedestrians. To begin, a square of 3×3 city blocks of the Eixample district will be closed off …

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The Poor Subsidize Middle Class Free Parking — $440 Million From Car-Free Renters

You know the line: “nothing in life is free.” It’s not my favorite line, since it’s not completely true, but it does help to highlight the often illogical attraction we have to “free stuff.” By and large, people probably have a positive view of “free parking,” but the parking really isn’t free … not even …

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San Francisco Cuts Corporate Bus Stops, Car Use Increases

Things change, people change. Many believe it is time to embrace more change. Adapting to change is something one cannot avoid in my opinion, but it’s easier when changes don’t mean backtracking. A story from San Francisco highlights that more tech workers, who were recently shuttling to work from the city to the suburbs, are now commuting alone in cars …

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Changing The D.C. Real Estate Market, One Bicyclist At A Time

In Washington D.C., where biking has doubled in popularity since 2009, commuter choices are producing wide-reaching effects. Professionals are giving up the ‘burbs and highways and opting instead for their bikes to get to work. If the bike traffic jams weren’t proof enough, the change in the real estate market is. Developers are unloading their …

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NYC Names Director for New Regional Planning Office

In news that really seems past due, New York City appointed its first Regional Planning Director. The role went to Carolyn Grossman Meagher, who previously was the Director of Governmental Affairs for the city’s planning department, but most recently has been pursuing a master’s degree in urban planning at Harvard. The plans to create a Regional Planning office …

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Y Combinator To Study “Building New, Better Cities,” But Is It Shortsighted?

According to a recent blog post from Y Combinator, an early stage technology startup incubator, the organization wants to “study building new, better cities.” At first blush, this desire to improve something really basic — our daily living habitat — as opposed to the fairly conventional challenges that many tech startups take on, which maybe …

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Taking It To The Streets, Portland Style

It’s always inspiring to see what a few small groups can create when taking matters of their community into their own hands. Portland recently caught a great view of this, when Better Block PDX joined forces with the Broadway-Weidler Alliance and Northeast Broadway Business Association to run an actual test of a street redesign. They took one …

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Google’s “Popular Times” A Potential Game Changer

When it comes to city planning, research is the key – the key to fluid transportation, efficient land usage, and reasonable allocation of resources. Tim Barton recently made some poignant observations regarding Google’s “Popular Times” feature and how the data gathered by the media juggernaut could be distributed to and utilized by urban planners to better …

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Car-Free Sundays With Less Air & Noise Pollution

In São Paulo, Brazil, citizens are enjoying less air and noise pollution – at least on one day a week. On Sundays, during what is called Paulista Aberta, motor traffic is restricted on the popular Paulista Avenue and the street is dedicated to cyclists and pedestrians. Grassroots group Minha Sampa campaigned for the event since …

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Georgia Government Denies Public Transit Expansion

While it looked like Atlanta, Georgia’s Metropolitan Area Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) was on its way to receiving much-needed funding and updates, the bill that would have enabled this was killed in the legislature late last week. It was reported that the bill would have allowed Fulton, Dekalb, and Clayton counties to levy a half-cent …

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$64 Million Bike & Ped Plan For San Diego Moves Forward

Recently, Next City reported on San Diego, California’s $64 million plan to construct a bicycle and pedestrian transit system complete with “protected bike lanes, pedestrian greenways, curb bulb-outs, road diets and more.” The Downtown Mobility Plan, if adopted, will reinvent the way cyclists and pedestrians travel the downtown streets. “Just getting to this stage is …

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Bike Commuting Triples In London, Driving Halves

The streets of London have seen an increase in bike riders and a decrease in car commuters. According to an article published by the BBC, the number of cyclists during rush hour will outnumber cars within the new few years. According to Transport for London, over the last decade and a half car drivers have …

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Bogotá Gets Two-Way Bike Lane On Important Street

Originally published on Gas2. Bogotá, Colombia, has a new vision for bicycle transit. A new message if you will. As part of the city’s 16th annual Car-Free Day, February 4th, the people helped transform one lane of a bustling city street into a two-way bike-only lane. The city had already introduced a bike lane on …

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Nike Sponsoring A New Bikeshare In Portland

Portland has been the #1 large city for bicycling (in the United States) for a long time, considerate and supportive of bicycle commuting. The city shows that planning and consideration make a difference, and the city has even gone without any bicyclist deaths from accidents for several years. The latest news from Portland (other than this) is that Nike is sponsoring a …

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70% of US Mayors Prefer Bike Lanes over Parking or Extra Driving Lanes

A substantial majority of US mayors would prefer to see more biking lanes in their cities, even at the expense of street-side parking or extra driving/passing lanes, according to a new survey from the US Conference of Mayors. The 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors — which queried 89 different mayors, from a variety of economically …

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“Go LA” App Integrates All Popular Modes

A new smartphone app, dubbed “Go LA,” is now available to give residents of Los Angeles a means of accessing data on most transportation modalities within a single app. The app was developed by the City of Los Angeles in conjunction with Xerox. It allows users to view comparisons (costs, time, distance, carbon emissions, etc) of the …

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