Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Road Design

Mapping How Far You Can Bike Without Breaking a Sweat

By Payton Chung | May 7, 2014 | 22 Comments

Any bicyclist knows that maps can be quite deceiving at first glance. The first time I tried to traverse San Francisco on a bicycle, I foolishly set out from the bike-rental shop on Fisherman’s Wharf with a basic street map, and decided that I’d avoid downtown traffic by heading south across the grid. While I was correct […]

What To Do When Main Street Is Also a State Highway

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 21, 2013 | 1 Comment

Like thousands of small towns across America, Jena, Louisiana’s main street is also a federal highway: U.S. 84. That’s actually been a positive thing overall for this town of about 3,000, which relies on passers-by for business. Until recently, U.S. 84 was simply a two-lane road through Jena’s historic downtown, indistinguishable from any other road, […]

Flint’s Ingenious Plan to “Right-Size” Its Streets With Road Diets

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 29, 2013 | 3 Comments

Flint, Michigan, is probably best known as the poster child for population loss and de-industrialization, as captured in the Michael Moore movie, “Roger and Me.” Though this town of about 100,000 has never fully recovered from the loss of 30,000 General Motors jobs that was the subject of that film, Flint is becoming known for […]

“Bikes vs Cars” Director Fredrik Gertten Sets Out to Expose the Car Lobby

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 17, 2013 | 9 Comments

Films like Fast Food Nation and Gasland introduced critiques of the food industry and fracking to a broad audience. But as of yet, the active transportation movement has lacked a full-length documentary feature that screens widely in theaters or goes viral on Netflix. Fredrik Gertten, a Swedish filmmaker with multiple full-length documentaries under his belt, […]

NACTO Urban Street Design Guide Sets Out to Change the DNA of Our Cities

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 24, 2013 | 19 Comments

In a direct challenge to the long-standing authority of state DOTs to determine how transportation infrastructure gets designed, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) yesterday launched its Urban Street Design Guide. NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide has already empowered cities around the country to embrace protected bike lanes and other innovative designs that […]

FHWA Endorses Engineering Guide for Walkable Urban Streets

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 13, 2013 | No Comments

Urban streets serve a much different purpose than rural ones: They’re for walking, socializing, and local commerce, not just moving vehicles. Unfortunately, American engineering guides tend not to capture these nuances. That can lead to a lot of problems for cities. Wide roads appropriate for rural areas are dangerous and bad for local businesses in […]

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