Vancouver’s transit network.
Every day at The Direct Transfer we collect news about cities and send the links to our email list. At the end of the week we take some of the most popular stories and post them to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the DC region. They are national links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.
Bike lanes for Atl: The Atlanta Regional Commission has approved $1 billion dollars for bike infrastructure in the region over a 25 year period. It sounds like a lot, but considering that it’s part of an $85 billion plan… is it? (Bicycling)
Redlining the future: Historic housing policies that barred minorities from living in certain neighborhoods. One consequence that’s still playing out is that very rich and very poor neighborhoods are increasing in number, and the children in the poor ones tend to make less money in the future and have more mental health problems. These cartoons explain the matter more in-depth. (Vox)
Sprawl Tax: Every year we hear about how much it costs Americans to be stuck in traffic, but what if we framed it as “how much policies that create congestion cause us?” Introducing the Sprawl Tax. In the 50 largest metro areas, sprawling land use costs commuters an average of $107 billion per year. (City Observatory)
Light rail in Austin: Transit advocates in Austin have been pushing for light rail for over 30 years. With the city focusing on mobility and a bond measure possibly going on this fall’s ballot, they are hoping that the rail segment will be added to the mix. (Austin American Statesman)
On the edge: A common theme among transit planners is balancing service for an urban core versus the regional edge. It’s important not to forget that transit functions as a network, meaning that if gets weaker in one place, it gets weaker everywhere. When we recognize that core improvements can help the edge and vice versa, our conversations are more productive. (Human Transit)
Quote of the Week
“These great shortcuts used to spread by word of mouth, but now they just spread like wildfire” – Traffic Engineer Paul Silberman on more and more cut through traffic directed off of main streets and into neighborhoods by the app Waze. (Washington Post)
Cross Posted at Greater Greater Washington