Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Climate Change

Smoggy China to Observe World Car Free Day

By Jason Varone | May 11, 2007 | 1 Comment

The Financial Times reports that China’s cities will participate in this year’s World Car Free Day. These actions have a measureable effect. A recent study found that when Beijing ordered 800,000 cars off the roads for three days last year, local nitrogen oxide air pollution fell by 40 per cent. More than 100 Chinese cities […]

There Are Certain Facts That We’ve All Got to Face Up To

By Aaron Naparstek | May 10, 2007 | 4 Comments

Given that it was only a few months ago that Mayor Michael Bloomberg could be heard saying, "We like traffic, it means economic activity, it means people coming here," his pitch for a whole new set of progressive transportation policies at last week’s meeting of the Regional Plan Association was all the more remarkable: There […]

Biofuels, Bus Lanes and Beer

By Brad Aaron | May 9, 2007 | 7 Comments

Beer good, ethanol bad Pledging support for alternate fuel sources may make for feel-good politicking, but "simply" developing a substitute for gasoline could do more harm than good. Instead, a panel of experts said last week, Americans must seriously address their addiction to fossil fuels, along with the built environment that enables it. Moderated by […]

Building a Better Bike Lane

By Jason Varone | May 4, 2007 | 30 Comments

This weekend’s Wall Street Journal has an massive, full-page report on bike friendly cities in Europe. Initially the arguments for more biking were mostly about health and congestion, but in the last year concern for the environment has become an important factor compelling people to travel by bicycle: Flat, compact and temperate, the Netherlands and […]

PlaNYC Team Releases Transportation Technical Report

By Aaron Naparstek | May 1, 2007 | 7 Comments

The PlaNYC team has released the technical report providing the detailed background data for the transportation recommendations made in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s April 22 Long-Term Planning & Sustainability speech. It’s a big download — 25 megabytes and 166 pages — but if you are a New York City transportation policy wonk, it’s totally worth it. […]

Who Wants to Drive Into a City That’s Under Water?

By Jason Varone | Apr 30, 2007 | No Comments

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the outstanding Field Notes From a Catastrophe, covers climate change for the New Yorker. In this week’s issue, she takes up congestion pricing and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2030 plan: The case against congestion pricing is often posed in egalitarian terms. "The middle class and the poor will not be able to […]

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