Today on the Streetsblog Network, we’re featuring a post from Alex Steffen at Worldchanging that takes on the ever-burgeoning fetish for "green" technologies. Everywhere you look these days, there’s talk of "going green." But Steffen, who’s been paying attention to these issues for 20 years, says the ecofads are hopelessly inadequate. His post, which is […]

A few weeks back, we told you about the dire situation for transit in Lorain County, Ohio, part of Greater Cleveland that’s been hit hard by the recession. At that time, county officials were threatening to cut all bus service after voters rejected a sales tax increase that would have gone in part to fund […]

When does going backward mean progress? When you’re talking about bicycle use in the city of Beijing. According to Streetsblog Network member The City Fix, Chinese officials have woken up to the idea that the city’s traditional bicycling culture, which has been in sharp decline over the last 20 years, should be restored and fostered: […]

The importance of core urban areas to a region’s economy is the subject of a post today from the always thoughtful Aaron Renn, who blogs at The Urbanophile. Renn examines data that suggest job growth (or decline) in a metro region’s core counties is a good indicator for the overall health of those regions. Renn […]

Today on the Streetsblog Network, Yonah Freemark of The Transport Politic looks at the new Brookings Institution report on suburban poverty levels and the connection to future transportation planning in those regions. Freemark, who recently wrote about how the city of Paris is extending its transit infrastructure to its traditionally lower-income suburbs, points out that […]

"There’s nowhere to park." That’s what a lot of drivers think, even when there is parking available very nearby — say, on the upper level of a parking garage. This disjunct between perception and reality, which can lead to municipalities overbuilding parking facilities that end up standing empty, is the topic of an intriguing post […]

Today on the Streetsblog Network, a fascinating look at the top 50 "low-car cities" in the United States — that is, cities in which a high proportion of households do not own a car at all. Human Transit‘s Jarrett Walker digs into a list (from Wikipedia) of the US cities with populations over 100,000 with […]

Sidewalks blocked by construction are a problem everywhere — perhaps even more so since the real estate bubble burst, and so many projects have been indefinitely halted. Today on the Streetsblog Network, Broken Sidewalk reports on the issue from Louisville, Kentucky. Apparently developers in that city routinely make no provision for the safe passage of […]

Today on the Streetsblog Network, a post from member blog VTA Watch, which covers the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority in California. The blog’s author discusses the impact of upcoming service cuts on the people whose mobility, and ability to participate meaningfully in their communities, depends on public transit. The post also goes on to […]

Today on the Streetsblog Network, member blog Riding in Riverside sets out to explode the myth of the "wundercar" — a vehicle powered by sustainable fuels that will allow us to hold onto our driving lifestyle and all its accoutrements, while saving the planet and feeling "green." That kind of futuristic fantasy isn’t going to […]

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we have a post from Andrew Faulkner, who writes a blog called The Exquisite Struggle in St. Louis. Faulkner writes about how for many people his age (he’s 25), living in a walkable neighborhood is a high priority. He has set his life up so that a car is just […]

Pretty much everyone involved in the movement for livable streets has by now read the reports and studies about the importance of street design in pedestrian safety. But nothing can bring the point home like what happened to the writer of the Streetsblog Network blog Imagine No Cars: He was hit by a car. First […]