traffic

Escapades on Lebanon’s North Yungas Road

This road offers a classical example of urban planning gone wrong and a real life illustration of the intricate relationship between the evolution of road infrastructure and that of society as a whole.   ... read more »

The Problem With Traffic Lights

I had always thought that traffic lights calmed traffic.  But last week at the Partners for Smart Growth conference in Kansas City, I learned that at least sometimes, there was a better alternative.   Some of us went on a tour of the city's Westside neighborhood.  The neighborhoo... read more »

Compact Cities Have Fewer Car Deaths

When traffic engineers widen roads and build new roads, they often cite "safety" as an argument.  Under this theory, the widest, straightest, fastest roads are the safest.  If this were true, car-oriented cities dominated by such roads would be safer than more compact, transit-oriented cit... read more »

how walking became a crime

I just heard an amazing set of presentations by Eric Dumbaugh and  Peter Norton (author of a new book, Fighting Traffic). Dumbaugh begin with a statistical table listing causes of pedestrians being killed by cars; nearly every cause somehow showed pedestrians at fault (e.g. jaywalking, pedestr... read more »

What I remember most about CNU 17

*The tours. Boulder's success in building a prosperous, pedestrian-friendly downtown and its utter failure in promoting affordable housing. ... read more »

Paris Urban Bike Sharing System Now Coming to London

The highly successful, 'super-smart' Velib urban bike sharing system implemented in Paris last summer is now coming to London, with over 15,000 bikes and 1,000 stations. ... read more »

EPA Urban Transportation Design Study in Governing Magazine

A study compared how well old-city street layouts handled traffic versus modern approaches. The results set off a firestorm. From Governing Magazine By ALEX MARSHALL When I drive my neighborhood streets of Brooklyn, which were laid out more than a century ago in a grid style, it’s obvious: These c... read more »

Ask CNU: Low-traffic New Urbanism

Today in Ask CNU, Sue from Durango asks, "has anyone quantified the impact that New Urbanism can have on reducing traffic around me?" It's rare -- but possible -- for new development to actually reduce the amount of traffic on the streets surrounding it; after all, it is still new development. Howev... read more »