Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Suburbia

Seven Transportation Improvements Everyone Can Agree On

By Tanya Snyder | May 16, 2011 | 7 Comments

The Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, is not always a transportation reformer’s best friend. Its scholars gave Florida Gov. Rick Scott inaccurate advice he then used to justify killing high-speed rail in his state. They want to prevent the gas tax from funding “peripheral” programs like transit and active transportation. But Reason Foundation experts have teamed up with […]

Can Transit Expansion Produce Sprawl Like Highways Do?

By Tanya Snyder | Mar 18, 2011 | 6 Comments

Here in the Washington, D.C. area, our Metro system is expanding. A new Silver Line will go all the way to Dulles airport and beyond, into exurban Loudon County. The projected station stops are named for highways, not neighborhoods or landmarks: Reston Parkway, Route 28, Route 606, Route 772. Ten of the 11 new stations […]

Report: Want to Ease Commuter Pain? Highways and Sprawl Won’t Help

By Noah Kazis | Sep 29, 2010 | No Comments

Imagine two drivers leaving downtown to head home. Each of them sits in traffic for the first ten miles of the commute but at that point, their paths diverge. The first one has reached home. The second has another twenty miles to drive, though luckily for her, the roads are clear and congestion doesn’t slow […]

Has the Government Been Bailing Out Sprawl?

By Ryan Avent | Nov 2, 2009 | 10 Comments

One of the themes of the financial and economic crisis we’ve faced over the past two years is that government, pressed into responding to serious economic pain, has often found itself supporting the activities that got us into this mess in the first place. Sign of the times? Side-by-side foreclosures in Massachusetts. (Photo: Yovani via […]

How Congress Can Help Create Suburbia 2.0

By Elana Schor | Oct 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

As Obama administration adviser Shelley Poticha noted this week, building more energy-efficient and hospitable cities — not to mention suburbs and rural areas — starts with clear terminology. "Sustainability" and "livability" are positive concepts that can be hard to define, but how can "transit-oriented development" be brought home to someone unfamiliar with the nuts and […]

Predicting the Future is Hard

By Ryan Avent | Sep 25, 2009 | 7 Comments

About two years ago, the Urban Land Institute published Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, which argued that it will be crucial to build cities in a more compact fashion if the country hopes to avoid substantial growth in vehicle miles traveled and carbon emissions over the next few decades. At […]

Show More Stories