Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Yesterday the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released its signature report, The State of Metropolitan America. The study is a comprehensive examination of a range of data indicators on America’s 100 largest metro regions. According to the project’s website, the...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Thanks to Streetfilms and the National Association of City Transportation Officials, here is a neat video on a great new facility in Chicago's Millennium Park. It provides all sorts of services to bike commuters, other cyclists, and tourists. I really...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Has the automobile era jumped the shark? The Walkable and Livable Communities Institute thinks the answer just might be ‘yes.’ In an unsigned Facebook post (authored perhaps by walkability guru Dan Burden?), the Institute says: “I am ready to...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
As noted in my previous post, there is no question that sustainable land use requires, among other things, neighborhood density. Smart growth based on walkable neighborhoods, transportation choices, nearby amenities and the accommodation of an increasingly diverse society is the...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
There is no question that sustainable land use requires, among other things, neighborhood density. Indeed, I have basically staked my career on the proposition that we must increase the average density of our new (and, in some cases, existing) built...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Here are just a few tidbits from a new national poll conducted by Transportation for America, Public Opinion Strategies, and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates: An overwhelming majority (82%) of Americans believe the country would benefit from improved public...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Warren Karlenzig, founder and president of the consultancy Common Current, believes that many cities’ current sustainability efforts are misplaced. In particular, he asks, “should efforts such as focusing on renewable energy and energy efficiency [to power buildings] deserve the highest...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Eric Britton, the founder of the New Mobility Agenda and editor of the World Streets online newspaper covering international sustainable transportation recently posted a really nice étude while, fittingly, listening to one of Chopin’s nocturnes. Although we...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology today dramatically expanded its “location efficiency” mapping and analysis to 337 metropolitan areas across the country. This impressive resource details the housing and transportation costs associated with specific neighborhoods, along with neighborhood-based, per-capita driving...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Here’s an insight from relating human behavioral science to transportation: people who use a particular form of transportation such as driving or taking transit sometimes misunderstand the motives of those that use a different mode. We generally have a...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
The city planners of Anchorage, Alaska, are attempting to bring that city’s land-use regulations into the 21st century. In particular, they are proposing a variation on form-based zoning that would encourage mixed uses, orientation of development to the street,...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
There has been much discussion lately about which criteria policymakers should use to define “smart growth” or “location efficiency” for the application of policy. As all of us who have slaved over LEED-ND for the better part of a decade...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris of the UCLA urban planning faculty has recently released research findings suggesting that women feel particularly vulnerable for their safety in transit-related environments. In How to Ease Women’s Fear of Transportation Environments: Case Studies and Best Practices (Mineta...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Earlier this week, federal transportation secretary Ray LaHood announced $1.5 billion worth of grants to assist 51 pending transportation projects in 41 states and the District of Columbia. None will be more visible or symbolic of a new, more sustainable...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
David Alpert of the Greater Greater Washington blog has posted a terrific slide show indicating how DC's Metrorail transit system grew, one segment at a time, over 40 years. Here are three of the 31 images in the post: ...
