Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Traffic

Urban Traffic Report Sparks Clever Headlines, But Little Transit Talk

By Elana Schor | Jul 8, 2009 | No Comments

(Photo: TTI Urban Mobility Report) The latest edition of the Texas Transportation Institute’s influential urban mobility report was released today, prompting a flurry of mainstream media coverage focused largely on a faux-ironic theme that would do Alanis Morrissette proud — the bad economy is giving us less traffic! The TTI found a one-hour drop in […]

New Report on Old Roads Uses Old Assumptions

By Elana Schor | Jul 6, 2009 | 2 Comments

A new report [PDF] on the costs of aging roads has gotten a lot of attention over the past week, with both Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Washington Post touting its conclusion on the danger of "deficient roadways." On its face, the report sounds like an argument for prioritizing road repair and modernization over […]

WHO Report Highlights Global Health Risk of Traffic

By Elana Schor | Jun 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

Pro football player Donte’ Stallworth was sentenced to jail today after killing a pedestrian in an alcohol-related crash. (Photo: AP) The disparity between the 13 percent of road fatalities suffered by non-drivers and the amount that the federal government spends on their safety — less than 1 percent — may come as a surprise to […]

High Gas Prices Won’t Cure Gridlock

By Charles Komanoff | Jul 3, 2008 | 18 Comments

It’s the New Math: a dollar-a-trip rise in the cost of fuel for a car trip to Manhattan is cutting traffic almost as much as Mayor Bloomberg’s eight-dollar toll plan would have done. Too good to be true, right? But that’s the slant of the front-page headline in today’s Times, "Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices […]

Historic Town Chooses to “Retain Its Charm” By Enabling Sprawl

By Ben Fried | May 12, 2008 | 23 Comments

On Friday, Streetsblog looked at how northern Virginia can’t get enough road widening. As a follow-up, Gary Toth of Project for Public Spaces directed us to another example of how smart growth faces hurdles in the places that need it most — in this case, the Trenton suburb of Bordentown, New Jersey (right: the main […]

Northern Virginia Locked In to Congested Roads

By Ben Fried | May 9, 2008 | 11 Comments

Suburbanites in northern Virginia are finding their streets more clogged with traffic than ever, and, as the Washington Post reported earlier this week, they aren’t about to get bailed out by road-widening projects. Here’s the crux of the problem, told from the Post reporter’s decidedly windshield perspective: Thoroughfares like Rolling Road are the blood vessels […]

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