Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Economics

Why Bicyclists Are Better Customers Than Drivers for Local Business

By Tanya Snyder | Mar 23, 2012 | 31 Comments

Do local and state officials tune out when you try to talk to them about bicycling? Are they unconvinced by arguments about public health, transportation options, or clean air? Do business leaders send you packing when you suggest building new bike lanes and bike parking, fearing that the loss of car parking will keep customers […]

Record Fuel Exports Don’t Mean the U.S. Is Not Addicted to Foreign Oil

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 3, 2012 | 1 Comment

The AP is reporting that for the first time since Harry Truman was president, the U.S. is a net exporter of refined petroleum products. In fact, fuel was the country’s top export in 2011, totaling $73.4 billion. However, “the small positive net export balance on petroleum products is still completely dwarfed by the huge negative […]

Combating the Myth That Complete Streets Are Too Expensive

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

Live in a town where bicyclists and pedestrians are personas non grata and buses get stuck in automobile congestion? Do you put on your walking boots only to find that your city’s street design conveys the message, “These roads were made for driving?” It’s time for a complete streets upgrade, then – but often, when […]

How Value Capture Financing Will Revitalize White Flint

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

White Flint, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, should be a shining example of transit-oriented development. It’s centered on a metro station on the busy red line, sandwiched between the bustling suburban downtowns of Bethesda and Rockville. But instead, it’s “sprawling suburbia,” covered in surface parking lots and lacking a true road network. “Community members […]

New Urbanists: No Economic Recovery Without Smart Growth

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 6, 2011 | 14 Comments

What happened to the United States over the past several years is most commonly described as a recession. By the technical definition of the word we’re two years into a recovery. But it sure doesn’t seem that way. Meanwhile, a growing chorus of intellectual leaders says the country is experiencing something different than a normal […]

The Incredible Shrinking Megastore: Retailers Think Outside the Big Box

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 15, 2011 | 11 Comments

They lord over empty parking lots in Hazard, Kentucky; Twinsburg, Ohio; and Lewiston, Washington like the ruins of a lost civilization. Vacant Walmart stores are slowly decomposing in more and more American towns these days. More than 100 of them have been memorialized as part of the group Flickr pool known smugly as “They Sold […]

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