Every day, The Overhead Wire collects national and international news about cities and sends the links to their email list. At the end of the week they post some of the most popular stories to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to Streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the D.C. region.
Reversible architecture: Many buildings are constructed to last a long time, but what if we built only for immediate needs, and repurposed buildings to meet new goals? This idea — that “not everything must be permanent to be valuable” — is the idea behind reversible architecture, a way of reimagining buildings as systems of structural and mechanical layers (here are some good examples). As our thinking about sustainable design evolves, architecture could adapt in ways that allow more responsiveness and less rigidity. (Enrique Tovar | ArchDaily)
Not enough factory workers: The United States has 400,000 open factory worker jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of young people going to vocational schools and community colleges is dropping, leading to a shortage of skilled workers — which is becoming employers’ biggest problem. It likely will worsen as job training is cut and the Trump Administration targets working immigrants. (Farah Stockman | New York Times)
Bus ridership drops in Los Angeles: LA Metro has seen a 10% to 15% drop in transit ridership since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began taking people off the streets. Many immigrants, including those legally in the country, fear going out in public and using transit as the possibility of being taken rises. Housing and transit advocates have asked Metro to protect riders as they go to and from jobs. (Christopher Buchanan, Colleen Shalby and Hannah Fry | Los Angeles Times)
Studying micropollution: When looking into micropollution, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are the first to have constructed a dataset of PM1 (particulate matter under one micron in diameter) pollution concentrations that come from wildfire smoke and diesel engines. Because PM1 pollution is smaller than PM 2.5, it has an easier time slipping past the body’s defenses and causing health problems. The new data allows researchers to look into health impacts where limited studies have existed in the past. (Leah Shaffer | Washington University St. Louis)
Managing big event congestion: The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) may reduce transit fares and increase parking charges during special events to reduce congestion. The proposal is part of a new strategic parking framework heading to the Toronto City Council soon. The change would encourage people to take mass transit to events instead of driving and using finite road space. (Becky Robertson | blogTO)
This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Ross Peterson to talk about non-emergency medical transportation and his new wheelchair-accessible transportation company RIDEtoo. We talk about transportation funding for medical visits and how the visits can be more efficient.
Quote of the Week
“We were aware of various studies that have been conducted regarding heat inside the [bus] shelters. So, we wanted to address this quickly. Our chair issued the call to come up with a concept that could provide some relief sooner rather than later.”
— Kenneth Brown, Houston METRO‘s director of service enhancements in Houston Public Media, on the need to lower bus shelter temperatures
Top photo from Wengang Zhai on Unsplash