Angie Schmitt
Recent Posts
How Can Cities Make the Most of an Infrastructure Spending Spree?
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Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have indicated that they intend to spend big on “infrastructure” if elected president. Whether this ends up making cities stronger or just fueling more wasteful sprawl, however, is an open question.
Local governments can get to work getting projects like these pedestrian improvements in West Jefferson, North Carolina, into their “shovel ready” pipeline. Photo: [...]
Transit Vote 2016: Raleigh’s Chance to Grow Smarter
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Wake County’s transit package would build 20 miles of BRT and bring frequent bus service to 83 additional miles of streets — vastly expanding the extent of bus routes that run at least every 15 minutes. Map: Wakeup Wake County
We continue our overview of what’s at stake in the big transit ballot initiatives this November with a look at [...]
Why American Trucks Are So Deadly for Pedestrians and Cyclists
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Large trucks are a leading killer of cyclists and pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas. While London has recently decided to kick the most dangerous trucks out of the city, in the U.S., truck safety regulations are much further behind.
Alex Epstein, left, a researcher with U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center, has been studying how side guards (the [...]
Transit Vote 2016: Atlanta May Finally Expand MARTA and Beef Up Bus Service
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Atlanta’s MARTA rail (left) hasn’t expanded much since the 1980s. On the right, D.C.’s Metrorail, which has grown substantially. Credit: MARTA, Greater Greater Washington
We continue our overview of what’s at stake in the big transit ballot initiatives this November with a look at Atlanta. Previous installments in this series examined Indianapolis, Seattle, and Detroit.
Back in the 1970s, both Atlanta and [...]
To Open Up Cities, Make Single-Family Zones More Flexible
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As the number of jobs in Seattle explodes, the city is grappling with how to make room for all the population growth that’s expected to follow. The city’s “Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda” maps out a strategy to do so, focusing mainly on infill development in denser areas near transit. Most of the city, however, is zoned for single-family [...]
You Don’t Have to Trash BRT to Make the Case for Light Rail, and Vice Versa
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In cities considering a light rail project, it’s common for transit opponents to suddenly cast themselves as big believers in bus rapid transit. They don’t really want to build BRT, they just want to derail the transit expansion. The light rail advocates then have to make their case not only on the merits of the project, but also in relation to [...]
American Traffic Engineering Establishment Finally Approves Bike Boxes
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Bike boxes are on their way toward becoming a standard street design measure. Photo: NACTO
The wheels of change grind slowly at the institutions that guide the American traffic engineering establishment, but they are moving forward.
This week, U.S. DOT issued interim approval for bike boxes [PDF], a treatment that positions cyclists ahead of cars at intersections.
Dozens of American cities [...]
There Will Never Be “Enough” Parking
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To accommodate everyone expected to come to downtown Rochester, Minnesota, by building more parking, you would have to pave over downtown Rochester. Graphic: DMC
Employees at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, have to accumulate 13 years of service time before they get an on-site parking permit. To get a sense of how much employees become invested in this system, check out this [...]
The Highway Era Is Over. When Will Our Institutions Catch Up?
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The highway era is over. The construction of the Interstate Highway System is essentially complete.
How much has changed at American transportation agencies since the 1960s? Image via YouTube
Americans will continue to log lots of miles on highways, but for the most part, the job of building them is over. We’ve already connected the places worth connecting by highways.
The problem is that transportation agencies — [...]
Atlanta BeltLine Visionary Speaks Out on His Very Public Resignation
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Not many planners get an opportunity to influence their city in the way Atlanta’s Ryan Gravel has.
Photo: Atlanta BeltLine Flickr via ATL Urbanist
The concept Gravel laid out in visionary master’s thesis — transforming forgotten railroad tracks circling the city of Atlanta into a recreational and active transportation corridor — laid out an entirely new organizing principle [...]
The Risks We Take By Not Letting Kids Walk to School
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American kids don’t walk and bike to school much anymore. Even after some modest progress in recent years, only about 20 percent of 5- to 14-year-olds walked or biked to school in 2012, compared to 48 percent in 1969, according to the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
Are kids better off in the back seat than out and about and walking? Photo: [...]
The 4 Biggest Sins Committed By Reporters Covering Pedestrian Deaths
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Each year, motorists on American streets kill nearly 5,000 pedestrians. The loss of life is enormous — equivalent to 12 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors — but the steady drumbeat of pedestrian fatalities doesn’t register as an urgent public safety crisis. Maybe it would seem more urgent if the press covered pedestrian deaths as the preventable [...]