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Talking Headways: The Year in Transit Expansion With Yonah Freemark
Streetsblog Capitol Hill - Thu, 2016-01-28 16:28
This week Yonah Freemark is back on the podcast to talk about his annual transit project list. He
and Steven Vance of Streetsblog Chicago made a new way to visualize the transit projects in
various stages of planning and construction — an interactive, open source map called Transit
Explorer, for which he kindly asks for your assistance.
Yonah and I discuss whether subway systems are possible in the future given political and fiscal
realities. He points us to Toronto’s transit expansions and goes into how Los Angeles and Seattle
are now the big planners and doers in the U.S. We also talk about current trends like the
proliferation of streetcar projects and the public-private partnership model used to build several
commuter rail lines opening in Denver this year.
In true transit nerd fashion, I ask Yonah to look into future and tell us whether LA and Seattle
will vote for transit this year, how the H Street Streetcar will turn out, and whether Austin will
finally get over the hump and build rail in the core. Listen in and add your own predictions for
the year ahead in the comments.
Categories: New Urbanism
Call for Entries: The 2016 EDRA Great Places Awards
Project for Public Spaces - Thu, 2016-01-28 16:09
Great public spaces are the places that we remember fondly; they play a central role in the stories
we tell about ourselves and our lives. But even while places like parks, squares, markets, or
streets are well-used and well-loved, they often don’t get the public recognition they deserve.
This is why the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is committed to
recognizing professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design – design that
contributes to the creation of human-centered places.
EDRA is a global interdisciplinary community of research, design, and planning educators,
professionals, and students, that explores the links between people and their built and natural
environments. Founded in 1969, EDRA’s vibrant network of visionaries continue to anticipate
movements in research and design decades before they hit the mainstream.
In partnership with Project for Public Spaces, EDRA will hold its 18th annual Great Places
Awards on May 18-21, 2016 in Raleigh, NC. There are four award categories this year:
1. Place Design: Place design projects of various types and scales that have been completed
within the last five years, but have been in existence for a sufficient period of time to
enable assessment of how well the design responds to user needs.
2. Place Research: All types of research about the design and use of people-centered places
completed within the past three years.
3. Place Planning: Any plan generated within the past three years that makes proposals for
the future use, management, or design of a place.
4. Book Award: Any book published in the last three years advancing the critical
understanding of place or design of exceptional environments can be entered.
The Great Places Awards differ from most other design award programs, given their explicit
focus on Placemaking. Rather than basing the reward solely on good design, EDRA recognizes
the critical importance of creating human-centered places that provide meaningful environments
for the communities that use them.
Past winners have been projects that made a strong impact in their communities, such as 2015’s
Place Design Award Winner, Roosevelt Plaza Park. Roosevelt Plaza Park is a central open space
in Camden, NJ, where in late 2014 a Pop-Up Park enlivened the existing park and encouraged
residents, employees, students, and visitors to spend time outside. The main feature of the pop-up
was the Intermediate Bulk Containers which were transformed into a public space that consisted
of a piano house, a night-time light show, and a range of affordable amenities such as $15 orange
plastic chairs from Home Depot, and off-the-shelf patio umbrellas. The placemaking Pop-Up
came back for a second year in August 2015 as Roosevelt Plaza Park H2O, where the goal was
to encourage city residents and visitors to utilize and actively enjoy safe public recreational
spaces in the city, and consider implementing green infrastructure and innovative stormwater
management solutions at home. We hope to see another Pop-Up in Roosevelt Plaza Park in 2016.
Roosevelt Plaza Park Pop-Up |Design Team: Group Melvin Design and Sikora Wells Appel,
Client: Cooper’s Ferry Partnership and the City of Camden
In 2014 Seattle’s Pike-Pine Renaissance Project won the Place Planning Award where the street
was thought of as the city’s greatest public space. This plan presented a layered approach to its
design (light, middle, and deep) so that features such as temporary installations, pavements and
fixed furnishings, and allocations of right-of-way, would create better streets for people. This
resonates strongly with PPS’s prominent Streets as Places campaign, which is about helping
people begin to see streets in their entirety: not just their function in transporting people and
goods, but the vital role they play in animating the social and economic life of communities. The
plan has moved forward but is still in its early stages, and recently installed banners along the
Pike-Pine Corridor.
Image via Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
This year’s Great Places Awards competition seeks entries from a range of design and research
disciplines — particularly those projects whose significance extends beyond any one profession
or field. All submissions should show how research and/or public participation is linked to or
part of an environmental design practice, and vice versa. Submissions should also demonstrate
how an understanding of the experience of place may be used to generate insightful design.
Recipients of the Great Places Awards are selected by an interdisciplinary jury with diverse
backgrounds in urban design, research, and practice. The jury evaluates how each project, no
matter what the discipline, addresses the human experience of well-designed places.
The winning entries will be on display throughout the conference and publicized throughout the
year in various print and electronic publications.
All submissions for the 2016 Great Places Awards must be electronically uploaded to the
submission site at http://www.edra.org/greatplaces by 11:59pm ET on Monday, February
15, 2016.
The post Call for Entries: The 2016 EDRA Great Places Awards appeared first on Project for
Public Spaces.
Categories: New Urbanism
Study: Upward Mobility Much Higher in Regions With Less Sprawl
Streetsblog Capitol Hill - Thu, 2016-01-28 14:47
Living in a sprawling area, like Atlanta, or a compact one, like Boston, doesn’t just affect how
you get around. A new study published in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning suggests
it may also have a significant impact on your chances to escape poverty.
Children in a sprawling area like Atlanta are less likely to escape poverty than children living in
compact regions, according to a new study. Image: ATL Urbanist
The study by Reid Ewing at the University of Utah compared upward mobility across 122 U.S.
metro areas ranked from the most sprawling to the most compact. The researchers
found a “strong, directional relationship” between compact built
environments and upward mobility.
The study used previous research that measured the chances a child born in the bottom fifth of
the national income distribution will reach the top fifth by age 30. There are huge differences
between metro areas. For example, in Memphis Tennessee, the upward mobility rate was just 2.4
percent while in Provo, Utah, it was 14 percent.
The research team found that as compactness doubles, the chances of a child going from the
bottom fifth to the top fifth increase 41 percent.
Ewing looked at how sprawl may affect children’s life chances by influencing factors like racial
segregation, which previous research has shown to be negatively correlated to upward mobility,
and income growth, which is positively correlated. The direct effect of sprawl itself, the authors
found, was stronger than these indirect effects. They attribute the connection between
compactness and upward mobility to “better job accessibility in more compact commuting
zones.”
Ewing used data from Harvard’s Equality of Opportunity Project to assess upward mobility in
different regions. That research gained widespread attention for establishing the relationship
between residential segregation and children’s chances to escape poverty, which led some, like
the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, to connect the dots and pin sprawl as a culprit.
Ewing’s study is the first to specifically examine the relationship between upward mobility and
sprawling development patterns (though a previous study did find a relationship between
commute times and upward mobility).
Ewing and his team conclude that policy makers should consider the shape of the built
environment as a lever to improve economic justice, and use public investments to promote
walkable, mixed-use development that increases access to jobs.
Categories: New Urbanism
These are the problems the feds say WMATA needs to fix
Greater Greater Washington - Thu, 2016-01-28 13:45
by Stephen Repetski
In December, the Federal Transit Administration gave WMATA a list of 217 issues it needs to
fix in order to be a truly safe system. A month and a half later, the agency is on the right track,
but it will take years to prove that it has a healthy safety culture day in and day out.
FTA's safety oversight inspections monitor #WMATA's implementation of corrective actions to
improve Metrorail safety. FTA safety oversight staff observe WMATA track inspection on
Green Line at Waterfront Station. Image from the FTA.
Examples of issues the FTA highlighted include a number of trains that ran red "stop" signals
and train operators saying they consistently felt pressure to stay on-time when running trains.
WMATA's interim chief safety officer Lou Brown said that the agency is "very serious" and
"very dedicated" to improving the system's safety, which would mean mitigating or resolving the
issues the FTA noted.
The full list, which is lengthy, stems from the FTA's large inspection of WMATA early in 2015,
some NTSB recommendations for WMATA that are still open, and the Tri-State Oversight
Committee (TOC). In fact, most come from the TOC, but that agency did not have powers to
actually make WMATA do anything; as many of them are still legitimate issues, the FTA
combined them in with their findings.
Until a new agency is set up to take over for the TOC the FTA will be in charge of overseeing
WMATA.
I've summarized some of the more interesting findings and explained why they are worth caring
about below:
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The group responsible for supporting the Automatic Train Control (ATC) system that
keeps trains safely separated is keeping track of inventory it no longer uses but not
whether tools are properly calibrated.
Sheets that Metro track inspectors use when looking at interlockings (that's where two
sets of track converge) have checkboxes already filled in before the inspector has even
checked the track.
The agency is not following it's own safety and security certification process as required.
Metro's safety office has been criticized by the Board of Directors for not being very
involved in enforcing safety procedures.
Metro allowed personnel without proper qualifications to operate rail equipment. In the
case of one accident, the work unit operator had been involved in a previous accident and
shouldn't have been in charge.
At several locations, hazardous materials that could react if the came into contact with
each other were not stored separately.
There is no formal procedure for testing and replacing emergency equipment used in real
emergencies or practice drills.
The communications group in charge of maintaining Metro's radio systems is required to
do more maintenance work than they have time for, and many communications
technicians haven't received classroom training on how to use the current digital radio
system.
Between Jan 1, 2012 and Nov 2, 2015, train operators ran past 47 red signals. There were
more signal overruns in 2015 than in either of the two prior years.
Metro is still running 1000-series rail cars; the NTSB has told them to replace the 1000series rail cars with safer equipment.
The Rail Operations Control Center where trains are dispatched and routed is noisy and
distracting, and the computer system doesn't have enough checks to prevent potential
human errors.
The Metro radio system still works poorly in some areas (although others have
improved). Train operators, police, and emergency responders can't communicate with
each other when the radio system doesn't work.
The safety department doesn't always review passenger complains that train intercoms
don't work. The intercoms, located at either end of each car, allow Metro riders to call the
train operator in order communicate with them in an emergency.
16 comments
Categories: CNU blogs
FDOT’s new Complete Streets implementation plan will take policy into practice
Smart Growth America - Thu, 2016-01-28 13:16
In September 2014, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) adopted a Complete
Streets policy to help make streets safer for everyone in the state. Now, a new plan created in
partnership with Smart Growth America will help turn that policy into on-the-ground changes.
On December 7, 2015, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) released its Complete
Streets Implementation Plan, an ambitious and comprehensive commitment to change the way
roads are designed and built in Florida to make them safer for all types of travelers, while also
promoting economic development and enhancing quality of life. FDOT developed the plan in
partnership with Smart Growth America and our program the National Complete Streets
Coalition over a period of nine months through our Multimodal Development and Delivery
technical assistance process.
For many years, Florida ranked among the most dangerous states in the nation for pedestrians,
with disproportionately high rates of pedestrian fatalities according to our 2011 report,
Dangerous by Design. The department’s 2014 Complete Streets policy laid the foundations for
making streets safer. Early last year FDOT took the next step and asked Smart Growth America
to help fully integrate a Complete Streets approach into the department’s practices, decisions,
and investments.
The Complete Streets Implementation Plan proposes a two-year schedule, and establishes
milestones and a process for monitoring progress to keep the initiative on track. It also outlines a
five-part framework and process to ensure FDOT addresses the needs of all users:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Revising guidance, standards, manuals, policies, and other documents
Updating decision-making processes
Modifying approaches for measuring performance
Managing internal and external communications and collaboration during implementation
Providing ongoing education and training
Passing a Complete Streets policy is the first step in making streets that are safer by design, and
creating an implementation plan like this is the single best way to make those policies a reality.
Smart Growth America looks forward to continuing our work with FDOT, and helping other
communities around the country develop and implement Complete Streets policies.
—
Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition are available to help state
and local agencies learn how to balance the needs of all users, develop Complete Streets policies,
and effectively implement those policies. Interested in working with us to make sure streets in
your state or community are safe and comfortable for everyone? Contact Emiko Atherton to
learn more about how we can help.
Categories: New Urbanism
In some cities, the housing construction boom is starting to pay off
City Observatory - Thu, 2016-01-28 12:58
To some observers, planners’ promises that more housing supply will push down prices don’t
seem to be working. In recent years, rents have jumped substantially, and it doesn’t seem like
market forces are working to ameliorate this trend. Although the historical evidence linking
faster housing construction growth and slower housing price growth is quite strong, it can often
be difficult to convince people who don’t spend lots of time with regression printouts—that is,
most people—of the relationship.
But there is good news on that front: rents in Seattle, Denver, and Washington, DC appear to be
easing significantly. In what a local business paper describes as an “alarming deterioration”—
though renters probably have different words for it—the average Seattle rent fell by $59 in the
last quarter of 2015, following a long period of rapid increases. Not coincidentally, vacancies
also increased by a full percentage point. The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that
landlords have reason to worry that things aren’t going to get any “better” for them: another
21,600 units of housing under construction should hold down rent growth into the coming year,
too.
It’s the same story in Denver. After a surge of new construction, vacancy rates shot up from 5 to
6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. As a result, median rents—which had grown by nearly
$250 a month from the first to the third quarter of the year—fell by $7 in the last quarter.
Denver’s getting a little more affordable. Credit: H. Michael Miley, Flickr
And in Washington, DC, real estate firm Yardi Matrix says that rent increases have been held in
check for the past year by the large number of new apartments coming online—and expects the
same pattern to hold for 2016.
In fact, this is a national story. Overall apartment construction, which has struggled to keep up
with the growing demand for rental units, surged by over 20 percent in 2015—and rent growth
slowed to 3.3 percent in December, and is projected by Zillow to fall to 1.1 percent by the end of
2016.
The growth of rents has fallen sharply.
The examples of Seattle and Denver ought to be a model for other cities seeing a surge of
central-city housing demand. There is an alternative to the never-ending upward prices of regions
like the San Francisco Bay Area, and it involves allowing housing supply to meet demand.
A key issue here is what you might call the “temporal mismatch” between demand and
supply. Demand can change very quickly for a variety of reasons: growth in the local economy,
popularity of a particular neighborhood, the unattractiveness or unaffordability of
homeownership, demographic changes, and so on. But supply changes slowly, because it takes
time for developers to recognize that demand has changed—and then it takes time to design,
permit, and build new capacity. This is especially true in places with restrictive land use laws.
But when supply eventually responds—as it has in several of these markets—rent increases
moderate, and in some cases rents even decline.
There are some other important lessons if you dig into the numbers a bit. As the Denver Post
points out, the vast majority of new construction in that city, as elsewhere, has been at the high
end of the market. As a result, vacancy rates are highest in more expensive neighborhoods. In
part, this is just the nature of new construction: it generally costs much more money to build new
than to maintain an older building, and so new construction will target relatively higher price
points. In addition, the long buildup of higher-end demand in central cities gave developers a
strong incentive to build to that market. As higher-end demand is better met and rents stabilize or
fall, it may become more profitable for developers to target slightly less affluent parts of the
market.
But this also shows the importance of allowing, and encouraging, low-construction-cost “missing
middle” housing over broad swaths of a city. That’s the kind of development that’s most likely to
be able to meet the housing needs of moderate-income households, without a subsidy—if not
right away, then after it has downfiltered a bit.
But already, the power of increasing housing supply to halt rapidly rising rents is playing out in
real time in cities across the country. That’s something to celebrate.
Categories: CNU blogs, New Urbanism
When "aging in place" efforts extend beyond the elderly, everyone benefits
Greater Greater Washington - Thu, 2016-01-28 12:30
by Mitch Wander
Across the region, grassroots efforts are underway to make it easier for elderly people to
independently take care of errands and chores. But one group is recognizing the importance of
mitigating these kinds of challenges for people of all ages.
College students help serve dinner at a meal hosted by Glover Park Village. Photo by Street
Sense on Flickr.
Trips the doctor, food shopping, yard work, snow shoveling, and going to social events are all
examples of things that can get harder as residents age or sustain long or short-term disabilities.
Not having a way to do these things can cause people to live in isolation, eat poorly, worry a lot,
and have a generally lower quality of life.
While residents sometimes ask for help from neighbors when they can't do it all independently,
volunteers often step in and help.
This is commonly referred to as "aging in place," but more recently, "aging in community" has
become the preferred term because "community" reflects the value of strong and fulfilling bonds
that keep people engaged.
In 2010, Glover Park Citizens' Association president Patricia Clark and a team of volunteers
formed the Golden Glovers to formalize efforts to help seniors age in community, like seminars,
financial counseling, and end of life care. Before they even got started, though, they widened
their scope to include everyone in their community, recognizing that young and old residents
alike face both temporary and permanent conditions that could force them away from
independent living.
Very soon after it formed, the organization shed "Golden" from its name and started calling itself
Glover Park Village because, as a participant in Washington Area Villages Exchange (WAVE) it
wanted to apply the larger organization's "village" concept.
Glover Park Village offers tons of different services
Glover Park Village offers a broad range of services to make independent living more feasible.
Some residents need a helping hand with yard work, small fix-it projects and help using tools or
computers. Sometimes volunteers help with taking winter clothes out of storage and decluttering
living space. They also take people for walks, help with paperwork, and simply pay friendly
visits.
Others residents request transportation to medical appointments, prescription pickup, mailing
packages or grocery shopping. In those cases, Clark explained that the drive itself isn't always
why someone requests a ride to the doctor. Walking to and from parking spaces on both ends of
the trip adds additional complexity, making a door-to-door drive more feasible.
Still others are interested in the home visits and seminars for the companionship and social
interaction. Glover Park Village hosts regular gatherings with guest speakers, and attendees often
say that simply getting together as a community means as much as the speaker's topic.
Really, Glover Park Village volunteers do just about everything except personal medical care.
Addressing the situations of those they help is often more like peeling layers of an onion than
fixing a single problem, according to Clark.
"One neighbor needs an eye operation," Clark says. "Then, he stays at home at least a week to
recover. Transportation to and from the surgery is only part of his concern. We're working with
him to plan his meals and volunteers to keep him company. Before he schedules the surgery, he
wants to see and feel comfortable about his daily routine."
Glover Park Village has been running for five years now
At its five year anniversary, Glover Park Village boasts over 100 volunteers, including a pool of
20-30 available drivers, and provides services to over 100 residents. Glover Park Village
currently gets its funding from donations, not charging a dime for its services or events.
When Glover Park Village formed, the GPCA and ANC3B provided nearly $10,000 over a three
year period for early operating expenses such as background checks for volunteers, insurance,
website, database, printing and postage. Now organization, currently relying on resident
donations and volunteer efforts, is self-sustaining. The volunteers report that they appreciate their
own opportunity to strengthen the community and connect with fellow residents.
Glover Park Village works with residents of more than just Glover Park. It has triangle shaped
borders, with Glover-Archbold Park to the west, Whitehaven Parkway to the south and
Massachusetts Avenue to the east—that means it covers Glover Park, Cathedral Heights,
Massachusetts Avenue Heights, the Naval Observatory, and other nearby areas.
And in fact, neighborhoods across our region run a network of 48 villages that meet quarterly
through WAVE to discuss issues such as end of life care, hospital discharges and financial
liability. The DC Office on Aging organizes four seminars annually on topics relevant to
villages.
Ultimately, the village movement is about more than senior citizens needing a ride. It's a
reflection of how neighbors organize to identify needs of individual residents living
independently, resolve quality of life issues and build livable communities.
13 comments
Categories: CNU blogs
What 22 Million Rides Tell Us About NYC Bike-Share
Next City - Thu, 2016-01-28 11:52
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
More than 10 million rides were taken on a Citi Bike in New York City in 2015, and public data
released by Citi Bike suggests that many of those trips were commutes to or from work.
Related Stories
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The Busiest Bike in New York (and More Interesting Citi Bike Data)
Philadelphia’s [Insert Million-Dollar Sponsor Here] Bike-Share
NYC Official: Citi Bike Has Left “New Yorkers in the Lurch”
Jersey City Launches Bike-Share
Todd Schneider, who writes software at Genius, analyzed the data gathered between July 2013,
when the bike-share began sharing data publicly, and November 2015, a total of 22.2 million
rides. Schneider only included trips where the bike was dropped off at a different station than
where it was initially taken out, and also assumed that riders follow Google Maps biking
directions between the two stations. Naturally, this doesn’t account for people who take a
meandering route between stations for any number of reasons.
In all, the times and routes of rides follow commuting trends, suggesting that the bikes are used
primarily for utilitarian purposes. Most rides take place during weekdays, with peak hours during
8 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m., and follow similar traffic patterns as cars. For example, while the
bikes are predominantly used in Manhattan (88 percent of trips start and end in Manhattan), there
is a strong peak in trips from Brooklyn to Manhattan in the morning, while the reverse is true in
evenings. Rides taken during weekends tend to be spread out during the afternoon.
Schneider found the primary routes in Manhattan heavily favor roads with bike lanes:
“[Primary routes include] 8th and 9th avenues heading uptown and downtown, respectively, on
the west side, and 1st and 2nd avenues heading uptown and downtown, respectively, on the east
side. The single road segment most trafficked by Citi Bikes lies along 8th Avenue, from W 28th
Street to W 29th Street. Other main bike routes include Broadway, cutting diagonally across
Midtown Manhattan, and the west side bike path along the Hudson River.
Not surprisingly, rides dropped during colder months, rainy days and particularly on days with
any snow at all.
The 10 million Citi Bike rides taken in 2015 is significantly less than the 175 million taxi trips or
35 million Uber rides New Yorkers took last year, but does mark a 24 percent increase in
ridership from 2014. Part of that increase is probably from the addition of 2,400 bikes and 138
new docking stations throughout NYC during the past year. There are currently 7,500 bicycles in
the system, and Citi Bike plans to have 12,000 bikes and more than 700 docking stations by the
end of 2017.
Schneider’s analysis lends statistical support to the Bikeshare Transit Act, introduced by two
U.S. representatives earlier this month. The bill would define bike-shares as transit to further
open the gates to federal funding. Supporters of the bill say that bike-shares are an important
mode of transportation for many, and shouldn’t be treated as businesses catering primarily to
tourists.
For a deep breakdown of how he calculated his data, and to see a mesmerizing animation
mapping out rides taken over a 24-hour period in September, visit Schneider’s blog.
Categories: CNU blogs, New Urbanism
The Feds Want to Reform the Cult of “Level of Service”
Streetsblog Capitol Hill - Thu, 2016-01-28 11:40
The old way of making transportation decisions prioritized the movement of cars above all. The
Federal Highway Administration will encourage local agencies to shift to other methods.
Cartoon: Andy Singer via Project for Public Spaces
“What you measure is what you get,” the saying goes.
That’s certainly true for transportation policy. And for a very long time one metric has reigned
supreme on American streets: “Level of Service,” a system that assigns letter grades based
on motorist delay. Roughly speaking, a street with free-flowing traffic gets an A while one where
cars back up gets an F.
Level of Service, or LOS, is what traffic engineers cite when they shut down the possibility of
transitways or bike lanes. It also leads to policy decisions like road widenings and parking
mandates. Even environmental laws are structured around the idea that traffic flow is paramount,
so they end up perpetuating highways, parking, and sprawl. Because if the top priority is to move
cars — and not, say, to improve public safety or economic well-being — the result is a
transportation system that will move a lot of cars while failing at almost everything else.
The good news is that there’s a growing recognition inside some of the nation’s largest
transportation agencies that relying on LOS causes a lot of problems.
Just last week, the state of California introduced a new metric to replace LOS in its
environmental laws. Instead of assessing how a building or road project will affect traffic delay,
California will measure how much traffic it generates, period. Car trips, not car delays, will be
the thing to avoid. This is likely to have the opposite effect of LOS, leading to more efficient use
of land and transportation infrastructure.
Change is afoot at the federal level too. Officials at the Federal Highway Administration are
looking at how they can spur changes like California’s LOS reform in other places.
Barbara McCann of the Policy office of the Secretary at U.S. DOT told Streetsblog that her
agency has been charged with reviewing internal policies that are an obstacle to better biking and
walking. “LOS is something that has come up with that,” she said.
Barbara McCann of the Policy Office of the Secretary for Transportation at U.S. DOT. Photo:
Barbara McCann
Despite what you may have been told, “there is no federal mandate for Level of Service,” she
said. The federal government has never compelled state and local governments to emphasize
LOS above all. But Level of Service is a deeply ingrained engineering convention.
Transportation planners might not be attuned to the value judgments inherent to LOS, or to its
flaws.
What FHWA can do is accelerate the adoption of alternatives to LOS. Over the next year or so,
McCann says, the agency plans to actively encourage state and local policy makers to consider
different performance measures.
As a first step, FHWA will soon release a case study about a local agency that is moving away
from using LOS. Then the agency will develop a peer-to-peer exchange, where cities and states
can share ideas and experience about shifting to other metrics.
Finally, as required by the 2012 federal transportation bill, MAP-21, FHWA is working on a
whole new set of performance measures for American transportation agencies. The law specifies,
for the first time, that states DOTs should track how they perform in terms of safety
and environmental protection. The law requires state agencies to set goals and report progress
toward meeting them.
One of the big unknowns is how the federal performance measures will define “congestion,”
which is one of the metrics state DOTs will have to assess. The law does not specify that
congestion must be assessed using LOS, but federal regulators could decide to do that — and if
they do, not much will change. A much better option would be to use a metric closer to what
California is doing — traffic generation, not driving delay.
The rule-making period is currently in progress, and McCann said she can’t discuss details
during that time.
Categories: New Urbanism
Ohio expected to join the growing ranks of state DOTs choosing to
#RepairPriorities
Smart Growth America - Thu, 2016-01-28 11:31
A road crew repaving Main Street in Lancaster, OH. Photo by Robert Batina via Flickr.
In 2008, just 6 percent of roads in Ohio were listed as being in “poor” condition. By 2011,
though, that number had ballooned to 20 percent — the state was failing to keep up with needed
repairs. Yet during that same time Ohio spent millions of dollars building new roads, taking
funds away from repair work and adding to the state’s future repair burden.
Many states across the country are in similar predicaments. As Smart Growth America detailed
in our 2014 report Repair Priorities, between 2009 and 2011 states collectively spent $20.4
billion annually to build new roads and add new lanes — projects that accounted for just 1
percent of their total road system. During that same time, states spent just $16.5 billion annually
repairing and preserving the other 99 percent of their roads. This despite the fact that roads
conditions were deteriorating faster than many states could fix them.
The good news is that several state departments of transportation (DOTs) are now recognizing
this problem and taking steps to correct it. Just last week, news broke that the Ohio DOT is
expected to announce a new “fix-it-first” policy that will prioritize road repair over expansion
across the agency. As UrbanCincy noted, “Officials say the move is economically driven [but] it
also comes at a time as activists around the country – including numerous cities throughout Ohio
— are increasingly calling for…a “fix-it-first” policy.”
If and when its new policy is announced, Ohio will join many other states that have adopted a
“fix-it-first” approach, including California, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont,
Virginia, and Washington.* The approach each of these states is taking can help keep roads in
good conditions for their residents while also reducing future financial liabilities for the DOT.
We look forward to following Ohio’s “fix-it-first” plans, and will continue to help state DOT
leaders change their investments for the better. If your state is interested in learning more about
prioritizing investment in repair, take a look at our Repair Priorities report.
*Update, February 1: An earlier version of this post included Wisconsin among the states with
fix-it-first policies. After some consideration, we have decided to remove them.—Ed.
Categories: New Urbanism
Planning Director Claims 6,600-Home Development on Farmland Isn’t Sprawl
Streetsblog Capitol Hill - Thu, 2016-01-28 11:14
According to local officials the yellow star will be developed as a “live, work, play” area and
will definitely not be sprawl. Map: Stop and Move
Building 6,600 homes on farmland outside city boundaries? Some might consider that the very
definition of sprawl. But leaders in the Fresno region beg to differ.
James Sinclair at Network blog Stop and Move reports that Norm Allinder, the planning director
for Madera County, told the Fresno Bee that such a development “doesn’t perpetuate the legacy
of sprawl,” because it is “contiguous” and “a logical expansion for urban development.” Wha?
Those homes are just the first round of 30,000 planned for unincorporated farmland outside
Madera County. Sinclair pushes back against the claim that this isn’t sprawl:
6,600 homes, starting off with 5,500 square foot lots, just off the highway, and surrounded with
nothing but farmland.
Sprawl? Of course not, the planning director says so!
“We want to create a place where you live, work and play,” he said, “a place where you don’t
have to rely on your automobile.”
Of course! Just look at all the places one can go without an automobile!
Single family homes, set inside winding, dead-end streets, all leading to larger arterials which in
turn direct one to a state highway.
The future has truly arrived in Madera County.
Sinclair says this development is very similar to one he wrote about just weeks ago. So sprawl
doesn’t seem to be on its way out in Fresno, even if local leaders feel the need to condemn the
land use patterns that they are facilitating.
Elsewhere on the Network today: Greater Greater Washington considers the wisdom of
Baltimore’s plan to tear down blocks of row houses. The Dallas Morning News’ Transportation
Blog reports TxDOT has found an additional $300 million to put into tackling urban congestion,
and by that they mean widening highways — good luck with that. And City
Observatory expands on how highway construction tends to create more demand for highway
driving.
Categories: New Urbanism
How would you grade the region's snow response?
Greater Greater Washington - Thu, 2016-01-28 11:03
by David Alpert
The Kojo Nnamdi Show is asking how you would rate your government's response to the
snowtorm, your neighbors', and your own. At 12:40, I'll be on the show to discuss this, and I
asked our contributors for their ratings.
Photo by Clif Burns on Flickr.
Joe Fox gave a succinct set of ratings:
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PEPCO/Dominion/BGE: A+. Don't forget what a disaster the last few real storms have
been. Teaming up w/ plow trains & tree trimming crews meant that what problems that
did pop up were fixed, and fast.
WMATA communication: A. They were ahead of the needs, and explained what they
were doing and why.
MNCPPC [Montgomery and Prince George's parks agency]: A. Many of the county park
roads were cleared, with bonus points for sanctioning sledding hills this year.
DC Government: B. Execution was good, but farther from downtown was rough.
Bowser had some head scratcher remarks on cars vs. peds, as well as why no travel ban
that were a bit hard to comprehend.
WMATA execution: C. Is it still a surprise that when OPM gives a three hour delay, that
rush hour will happen three hours later, and to set up service accordingly? Even with
trains every 8+ minutes, still no 8 car trains...
Citizens: C. These storms bring out the crazies, I noticed a lot more anger this time than
in 2010. But sidewalks on private property were cleared faster than before.
Montgomery, Prince George's, and VDOT (handling VA counties): D+. They did what
they could, but were woefully overmatched. Clumsy declarations of victory and broken
data trackers brought up comparisons with PEPCO of days gone by.
National Park Service: F. [See below.]
Contributors' views varied, but overall, there was a good amount of consensus. Here are some
key points and ratings, broken down by agency.
The National Park Service
The Park Service controls a lot of downtown parks and major trails around the region, but does
very little on snow clearance. Contributors unanimously agreed it flunked the storm.
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David Cranor: "The Park Service deserves a very low grade. The Mount Vernon Trail is
one of the only ones that was not plowed (thought I don't know about the Rock Creek
Park Trail). Sidewalks along NPS property were untouched. I realize they're budget
limited, but something needs to be done."
Neil Flanagan wrote back on Monday: "On my walk to work, through downtown to
Georgetown, most government sidewalks were walkable (if not clear), with the exception
of NPS."
Photo by Bill Couch on Flickr.
WMATA
 Kristy Cartier: WMATA gets an "A" for communication.
 Abigail Zenner: I agree with Kristy about WMATA. Our ANC has battled with WMATA
about better explanation on bus route changes. I was irritated they went to severe snow routes
Friday morning, hours before the storm was due. BUT, they were very clear about when and
where service would be restored and it was exactly as they said, at least in Glover Park.
 Dan Malouff: WMATA I think was OK but a bit too gun-shy on closing everything early, and
hasn't clearly communicated some stuff about reopening. For example, it's understandable that
some buses have to go on detour, but Metro seems to have no system in place to let riders know
if their bus is detouring or not.
 Mathew Friedman: I rode the G2 to work Thursday morning for the first time since last
Wednesday. It doesn't run from the "moderate" snow plan on up. Neither does the G8, which is a
major route running down Rhode Island Avenue. From my neck of the woods, those are the only
2 bus lines that run downtown and for a full week, neither was running. I can at least walk 5
blocks to Shaw Metro if I need to, but for folks further out, that's not an option. I would think
that taking so long to bring these bus routes and many others back online must leave a lot of
people stranded.
Photo by nevermindtheend on Flickr.
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Steven Yates: WMATA's response was...mixed. Trying to shelter the trains was maybe a
good theory, but the execution was obviously not great. Would it have been better to run
the trains underground on Saturday instead? I'm inclined to say no, just because you
probably don't want to be encouraging people to be out and about. The running of trains
for free on Monday was certainly a nice gesture.
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Travis Maiers: Metro is still operating at reduced service levels. They are apparently still
short railcars due to the blizzard. I give them high marks for communicating their storm
plan and being realistic on when service could be resumed, but I feel by now, 5 days
later, they should be back at full service. Their plan to shut down the system for safety
and to store railcars underground was prudent, but I'm not sure it was executed as well as
it could have been.
Svet Neov: I think WMATA did pretty well, since almost everything was running on
Tuesday. At my stop (Grosvenor) they did a great job cleaning the sidewalks—those
were done wayyy before the parking lot was.
DC
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Abigail Zenner: I thought they did a great job all things considered. Even northern cities
have trouble with storms of this size. I grade them a B+ or A-. The poor rhetoric
notwithstanding, DC did well.
I thought that many District agencies did a good job communicating on social media and
through emails to ANCs. My ANC colleagues would then send information to our lists.
[The Department of General Services] promised to clear areas around DCPS schools by
midnight Monday and Tuesday morning, the sidewalks all the way around Stoddert
Elementary was cleared including curb cuts and bus stops. I have never seen these walks
cleared so fast. I did also tweet at DCPS, Stoddert, DPR, and DGS.
Photo by nevermindtheend on Flickr.
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Steve Seelig: From a cycling perspective in DC, it was great. I rode from Friendship to
downtown on both Monday and Tuesday, and because only part of the roadways were
plowed, there was plenty of room in the curb lanes to ride where a car could not fit.
As for biking infrastucture plowing: an A+ for the Capital Crescent Trail -plowed from
Bethesda to Georgetown. An F for NPS on any of its trails. DDOT gets a C+ for just
getting to the L Street, M Street and 15th Street bike lanes.

Justin Lini: In DC's Ward 7, snow removal was a bit inconsistent. Parkside and a
number of other communities saw plows nearly every day of the storm. In some cases,
even blocks with public housing were cleared during the storm. However, some of my
neighbors in other communities didn't see any attention at all until Monday.
The Mayor's office also did daily briefings by teleconference with the ANCs. These were
useful because they communicated DC government's plans so we could set expectations,
but they also keyed us in on potential trouble. They also assigned us extra staff liaisons
that could help resolve issues with trouble spots.
We were able to get an important pedestrian bridge cleared by Monday evening. In the
past this bridge was never consistently cleared even in routine snow events. I don't know
if the other ANCs used their liaisons, but I found mine to be a good partner. I don't know
if previous administrations employed this measure, but I thought it was very effective.
Uncleared sidewalks are a huge problem in the ward. As of Tuesday many property
owners, especially large apartment buildings and retail areas, did not clear sidewalks
along some high volume corridors like Minnesota Ave NE. In some cases contractors had
blocked sidewalks or intentionally used them to store piles of snow. Many crosswalks are
also plowed over. The decision not to enforce sidewalk clearing laws on these properties
until late was a big mistake that shouldn't be repeated.
Mayfair Mansions, Ward 7, on Tuesday. Photo by Justin Lini.

Steven Yates: I can't really speak for other jurisdictions, but in my time here, I've been
mostly impressed with how well DC handles large amounts of snow, given that these
sorts of storms don't happen that often (oddly, smaller amounts of snow they seem to do
less well with). This storm has been no exception. The street I live in (which is by no
means a major street) was at least passable a few hours after the snow ended.
Alexandria & Arlington
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Ned Russell: Alexandria streets were far worse [than in DC] both for cars and
pedestrians, not to mention the DASH bus service did not run even on a limited schedule
to serve rush hour on Tuesday. Sidewalks across the station that peds need to use to
access Braddock Road were not cleared until this morning.
Svet Neov: The only complaints, other than slow sidewalk cleanup, I've heard is dead
end or small streets in Arlington which didn't get plowed until [Tuesday] night.
King Street Metro. Photo by Justin Henry.
Montgomery, Prince George's, and Fairfax
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Ben Ross: "I grade MoCo an A- on street clearing but an F on sidewalks. Our businesses,
at least in Bethesda, did very well on sidewalks, much better than in past big snowstorms.
[But] 27 hours after it has finished opening the roads to cars, the county has announced, it
will begin accepting complaints about unshoveled sidewalks.begin accepting complaints
about unshoveled sidewalks 27 hours after it finishes opening roads to cars. Ike Leggett
announced "common sense" enforcement of the snow shoveling law. In my mind,
common sense means that if you have shoveled out your driveway, you should have
shoveled the sidewalk.
Kristy Cartier: In Fairfax County, the roads had at least one lane Tuesday so I'd give
them a B+ (only because there are disappearing lanes). For sidewalks, I would give a D.
One person was walking on Rte. 50 near Rte. 28 and two people were standing on Reston

Pkwy Wednesday morning waiting for the bus. I hope that the addition of the Silver Line
stations improves Fairfax County's response to clearing at least some of the sidewalks.
Matt Johnson: I didn't have any trouble [Wednesday] morning. But [in the] afternoon, I
had to go to an appointment in the city, and drove to Glenmont. On my way from
Glenmont to the ICC, I discovered that the 3 northbound lanes are essentially functioning
as 1. The curb lane never appeared, except for the dashes periodically peeking out from
the edge of the snow. The center lane would run for a few blocks and then suddenly,
without warning, disappear, forcing drivers to swerve into the left lane, the only one left.
In addition, pedestrians were walking in the lane, since the sidewalks were impassible,
and unaccessible from the buses that run on Georgia. On the day after the storm, this
might be acceptable. But several days later, on one of the region's most important radial
corridors, this is quite intolerable.

Joe Fox: I've noticed that roads maintained by both state agencies (MD SHA and VDOT)
fared the worst, by far. I've posted several tweets about Colesville Road this morning,
which, despite having the ability to reverse lanes, has gone from 3 lanes to one the last
two days, wreaking havoc in the neighborhoods, and with a slew of bus lines.
To me, the fact that county/local roads/sidewalks/paths seemed to fare a lot better brings
to mind the argument that counties (Montgomery, Fairfax), should follow the lead of the
independent cities in their respective states and take control over their transportation
infrastructure (save for perhaps interstate highways and maybe toll roads) from the state
agencies, who are simply not equipped to handle local issues like intersection design,
traffic signals, and snow clearing.
Photo by Aimee Custis.
Overall
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Svet Neov: Given the amount of snowfall I would give the region a B. I flew home on
Monday morning after being stuck in Texas and used almost every mode of
transportation in several places around the area. The airports were back up and running
on Monday (as normal as possible). I flew into BWI which seemed to have no problems.
Ned Russell: After reading the discussion and thinking about all the things that go into
snow response, I give the region a B-. But there are a lot of things that could have been
done better.
Canaan Merchant: I'd give it a B-. For what we can expect of the region I think they did
well. But to get an A they're going to have actually acknowledge that people like to use
sidewalks, bike facilities and transit and work towards that as well.
What grades would you give? Fill out the Kojo show's poll and post your thoughts in the
comments. And listen in at 12:40 to hear me and Petula Dvorak discuss the issue.
If you're reading this before 12:40, it's also worth tuning in to Kojo for a segment on whether
high traffic fines change behavior (they don't), including Gabe Klein as one of the guests.
35 comments
Categories: CNU blogs
San Jose Is Getting “Future-Proof” Wireless Network
Next City - Thu, 2016-01-28 10:54
“Smart cities” are using sensors to do everything from monitor streetlights for maintenance to
scan license plates, above. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Parking spaces in Boston alert drivers to their availability. Streetlights in Kansas City dim and
brighten in response to motion. Now you can add San Jose, California, to the list of places
seeking “smart city” status. To connect info-collecting sensors and devices, the city will become
one of the first in the U.S. with a wireless network specifically designed to power the “Internet of
Things.”
Related Stories



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A Plan to Rebuild Downtown Christchurch, This Time With Sensors
A Vision to Turn Old Pay Phones Into Listening Devices
How Will Kansas City Run Its Plugged-In, Sensor-Filled Future?
Chicago’s Array of Things May Give Big Data Boost to Urban Planning
The move won’t just link up city utilities. San Jose will make the network available, low-cost or
free, to local developers to dream up their own applications.
The network, dubbed Starfish, is from Bay Area-headquartered Silver Spring Networks (SSN),
and is already used in Bristol, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Singapore. SSN is working to launch in
Kolkata, Chicago and San Antonio later this year too. Twenty-two million devices worldwide are
already under SSN’s network blanket, which features banking-level security.
SSN will bear the cost to install Starfish in San Jose and work with the city to design three
municipal pilot projects as part of San Jose’s demonstration partnership policy. Established in
2008, the policy empowers San Jose to team up with technology companies — most of them
local — to conduct first-to-market tests of new technologies that benefit the public.
Past partnerships have resulted in the installation of air quality sensors and some of the country’s
first electric vehicle charging stations. Teri Killgore, San Jose’s civic innovation manager, says
installing Starfish will facilitate more projects that rely on the Internet of Things.
“Now that we’ll have a better web of connectivity, we’ll be able to deploy more sensors and then
use that data to refine our services,” says Killgore. “One of the problems we have as a city, and I
know many cities have this, is we simply don’t have the fiber infrastructure that you would need
for all of these great ideas where your infrastructure could talk to itself or talk to other
infrastructure or talk to your management systems more effectively.”
That’s where Starfish comes in. In a nutshell, it’s a wireless network in which every smart device
hooked up to it serves as a signal relayer. Whereas cellular networks can become overwhelmed
and slow down when too many users try to access the same tower, Starfish-connected devices
create a web of relayers and receivers, allowing for much higher reliability and faster speeds.
“It’s secure, it’s everywhere, and it enables technology to be much more pervasive in the world
around us in a really cost-effective way,” says SSN CEO and President Mike Bell.
Whether such pervasiveness is good for our cities or us is still up for debate, but Bell points out
this connectivity can save cities money and resources by eliminating inefficiencies.
Streetlights dimming themselves when they’re not needed conserves energy and cuts costs. And
Bell cites even subtler benefits. When parking meters can write tickets, cars that might normally
troll city streets looking for violations can stay off the road.
Starfish can also support multiple applications at once, or be repurposed for different uses over
time. Bell says that means city agencies can justify the cost of installing the network on energy
savings alone; down the line, when other uses present themselves — like traffic signal timing —
the city can build them onto the same network.
“Our network is not only great today, but it’s future-proof,” says Bell. “We don’t know all the
things it’s going to be used for … .”
Killgore says San Jose doesn’t yet know exactly how it will use Starfish — the city already has
some smart parking meters and responsive parking garages — or whether it will actually save
money. “That’s really the open question mark for this industry. Show us that it really can either
generate more effective services, or [that] it can generate revenue more effectively for us.
“Could you use license plate readers on your garbage trucks to feed information back to our
police department about potentially stolen or abandoned vehicles? Could you use this as a way
for … lights in parks to communicate back to a central system to tell the maintenance crew when
there’s maintenance needed? The world is a possibility, but we really don’t know what will add
tremendous value yet. That’s where our creative entrepreneurs are going to be worth their weight
in gold.”
San Jose-area developers may be able to utilize the network in the next six months; the city will
decide which three projects to pilot by next year.
In the meantime, SSN will also host hackathons this year in San Jose, Bristol, Kolkata,
Copenhagen, Chicago and Singapore, encouraging entrepreneurs to come up with their own
applications for Starfish and the Internet of Things.
Categories: CNU blogs, New Urbanism
Ask Aaron Anything (And More on GE Leaving the Suburbs)
Urbanophile - Thu, 2016-01-28 10:46
Photo by Bubba73 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
I have a few things for you today.
First, I’ve started playing around with Instagram, so if you’re an Instagrammer, you can follow
me here: https://www.instagram.com/aaronrenn/
Second, I used to have a section of every staff meeting back in my Accenture days called “Ask
Aaron Anything” where I would field questions from my team. I want to start doing more of that
here. What would you all like to know? If anyone has questions you’d like me to answer here or
in a podcast, please send me an email.
Third, I want to follow-up on my story about GE leaving Connecticut for Boston. WNPR radio
in Hartford had me on to talk about this, so I want to share that segment with you today. If the
audio player doesn’t display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud.
Aaron Renn Podcast subscription links: iTunes | Soundcloud
Categories: New Urbanism
For I-66, outside-the-beltway lawmakers say "toss the facts, widen baby widen"
Greater Greater Washington - Thu, 2016-01-28 09:07
by Edward Russell
A group of Virginia state legislators from outside the beltway are urging Governor McAuliffe to
widen I-66 inside the beltway, rather than go forward with VDOT's transit and tolls proposal.
But years of data say the multimodal proposal would be more effective.
I-66. Photo by Virginia Department of Transportation on Flickr.
What's happening with I-66
Over the course of 2015, the Virginia Department of Transportation settled on a plan to change
how I-66 inside the beltway operates.
Instead of the current configuration where the entire highway is HOV-only in the peak direction
during rush hour, the peak direction would become HOT, meaning single-occupant cars could
travel on it if they pay a toll, while HOV cars remain free.
In exchange for letting single-occupant cars onto a highway they're currently not allowed to use,
toll revenue would go to improving transit.
Then, after a few years of operating like that, VDOT would study how traffic changed, and either
widen I-66 or opt not to.
That plan had been gaining steam all through 2015, as VDOT did the planning to take it from
rough concept to fully fleshed out project.
Some just want a wider highway
Then the Virginia General Assembly began its 2016 session, and a prominent bill proposes to kill
the project, replacing it with a straight-up widening of I-66. The bill's author, western Fairfax /
eastern Loudoun delegate Jim LeMunyon, consistently advocates for bigger highways, and has a
history of trying to cut transit and bike/ped funding.
Governor McAuliffe, who supports the transit and tolls plan, says he won't veto the bill if it
reaches his desk on the back of support from Northern Virginia's delegates.
That prompted a group of seven other lawmakers, all from the outer suburbs of Northern
Virginia, to urge VDOT to drop the transit and tolls plan, and support widening only.
No lawmakers from inside the beltway, where this plan would actually take place, signed on to
the letter.
Analysis says the transit and tolls plan is better
VDOT's transit and tolls plan has been in the works for 13 years. Studies in 2003, 2009, and
2012 built towards the 2015 proposal, all of which determined a widening-only approach
wouldn't work very well.
Most recently, in 2015 VDOT ran three projects through a sophisticated computer model called
"HB-599," to see how they would affect traffic congestion. The three projects:
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"Transform66 Inside," the transit and tolls proposal
"Widen I-66 Inside," a widening-only alternate
"Transform66 Outside," an entirely separate project outside the beltway, that's less
controversial.
The outcome: For inside the beltway, the transit and tolls proposal is a far more effective project
than widening only. It reduces congestion on I-66 much, much more than widening only would.
Never mind the added mobility and benefits to car-free urbanites. Simply in the terms of
reducing highway congestion, the model says the transit and tolls proposal is better.
Image by VDOT.
Be objective, unless being objective doesn't produce what you want
Ironically, the HB-599 process is Jim LeMunyon's own brainchild. It's the result of a bill he
sponsored in 2012 to force Northern Virginia to objectively evaluate the congestion reduction
effects of major projects.
But now the HB-599 results are in, and alas, they aren't what LeMunyon hoped for. According to
LeMunyon's own hand-picked metrics, the transit and tolls project is better than just widening.
But none of that matters to the outer suburban politicians who just want bigger highways. For
them, I-66 seems to be a case of "Damn the numbers! Widen baby, widen!"
What will happen?
Until a bill to block tolls becomes law, VDOT is continuing to move forward with the transit and
tolls plan. If the plan stays alive, construction will begin this summer, and the project will open
in the summer of 2017.
With Governor McAuliffe threatening to withhold a veto, some of Northern Virginia's
lawmakers will need to come out in support of the transit and tolls plan. Virginians can contact
their lawmakers via the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
137 comments
Categories: CNU blogs
Today’s Headlines
Streetsblog Capitol Hill - Thu, 2016-01-28 08:58
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Moving Forward in Georgia: Bipartisan Bill Opening Door to Dramatically Expanded
MARTA (AJC)
Cobb County Okays Construction of Controversial Highway Bridge to New Braves
Stadium (AJC)
Amtrak Studying Replacing Rail Service Lost in Katrina (The Hill)
Honolulu City Council Approves Extension of Tax to Fund Light Rail Project
Overruns (KHON2)
Vulnerable Road Users Law Moving Forward in Florida (Florida Politics)
New Jersey Commuters Desperate for a New Hudson River Train Tunnel (Fox Business)
Commute Times for Low-Income Workers in the Bay Area Have Doubled (TechCrunch)
Most DC Bike Lanes Still Buried in Snow (WaPo)
Categories: New Urbanism
Breakfast links: Fines and transit fights
Greater Greater Washington - Thu, 2016-01-28 07:30
by Joe Stenhouse
Photo by Mr.TinDC on Flickr.Back on track, sort of: All Metrobus routes are running on a light
snow plan today. All rail stations are open, but trains are only running every 8 minutes. Federal
offices are open on a 3-hour delay and many school districts are still closed. (WTOP)
Railroad is public: The homeowner who claimed he owned part of an old railroad right-of-way
along the Purple Line route lost his case in Maryland's highest court, paving the way for Purple
Line construction. (Bethesda Magazine)
Giant fines for snow fouls: DC has issued over one million dollars in fines for snow emergency
parking violations since Friday. (Post)
Snowblind technology: DC's plow-tracking website was supposed to show the city's progress
clearing streets. But it wasn't very accurate, as it only reported on the location of DC-owned
plows and overstated how much salt the plows spread. (Post)
The Snojo Nnamdi Show: Today (Thursday) at noon, the Kojo Nnamdi Show will discuss
traffic fines with Gabe Klein and Jessica Cicchino; then at 12:40, David Alpert and Petula
Dvorak will grade the region's response to the storm. (WAMU)
Crime is crime: The DC Council debated and then shot down a proposal for higher penalties for
crimes committed on public transportation. The debate centered around whether higher penalties
deter crime and if transit crime is unique. (Post)
Maglev madness: The idea for a maglev train from DC to Baltimore, championed by Governor
Larry Hogan, is a "white elephant," says an op-ed. It would be massively expensive, and
Maryland could improve MARC for more benefit at less cost. (Post)
DC's streetcar past: A new book on DC's streetcar history explores Congress' endless
meddling, how a streetcar company quickly restored service after a fire engulfed cable
machinery, and the equivalent of "manspreading" in the early 1900s. (Post)
Bike to bicycle kicks: The renderings for the new DC United stadium show several bike lanes
called for in the MoveDC plan. (TheWashCycle)
FHWA fickle on fonts: The Federal Highway Administration keeps changing its mind about the
best font for roadway signs. Citing new legibility research following a major font change in
2004, new signs on US highways will revert to 1940s font. (CityLab)
Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.
45 comments
Categories: CNU blogs
Reno Designer Goes From Outer Space to Shared Space
Next City - Thu, 2016-01-28 07:00
Brianna Bullentini
Next City isn’t just a news website. We’re a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire
social, economic and environmental change in cities. Part of how we do that is by connecting
our readers to urban changemakers and holding an annual Vanguard conference bringing
together 40 top young urban leaders. Brianna Bullentini is a member of the 2015 Vanguard class
from Reno. Upcoming Vanguard conferences will be in May 2016 in Houston, and Montreal in
2017.
Related Stories




We Put 31 Artists, 25 Architects and 18 Urban Planners in a Room. Guess What Happens
Next.
Welcome to Chattanooga
Urban Planning and Design Aren’t Optional
This CEO Wants to Change the Real Estate Game for Low-Income Neighborhoods
Name: Brianna Bullentini
Current Occupation: Lead designer at The Basement, an upcoming multiuse incubator space of
both retail and food vendors who all celebrate the craft of the hand, and owner of RAWBRY
Cold-Pressed Juice Bar and Lifestyle brand.
Hometown: Reno
Current City: Reno
Twitter Tag: @rawbrybar
I get to work by: Walk. I intentionally moved a block away from my project to help it move a
little faster. (I don’t think the construction workers are too happy about that.)
The area I grew up in is: Suburbs in Reno. Heart of the city in New York City.
What is your favorite city and why? Florence, Italy, because you can just feel the family
atmosphere and love about it. The smells and the winding streets, it’s such an inviting and
ornately beautiful city from every detail. (Also wins over my heart because my family is
originally from Lucca, a town just an hour west of it.)
Did you always want to be a designer? No. Honestly, until the age of about 12 I thought I was
going to be an astronaut. Even went to space camp at Cape Canaveral and everything. I had a
poster of John Glenn in my room for years. It was about middle school when I came to the
realization that my gift for “spatial” design didn’t necessarily involve ‘outer space.’
What are the hard parts about your job? The juggling. I think I wear about 18 different hats
any given day. I am not just the designer, but the manager, the mother, the janitor, the book
keeper, the secretary, and the list goes on … I love them all though.
What is the biggest challenge facing cities today? The dependency on cars and electricity. We
have dug ourselves into a hole. Urban development from here on out needs to facilitate walkable
cities and self-generated energy sources.
What’s your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)? In simple terms, I want to leave the world a
better place than how I found it. In doing so, my big hairy audacious goal would be to design a
better living experience on Earth as we know it. Whether that be through human interactions
with each other, or with their everyday objects and spaces. Designers are able to literally design
every little thing we touch and make it for the better, so I hope that within my lifetime I am able
to make the world a little bit brighter as we, a culture, travel from one impactful experience to
the next.
What’s the best professional advice you have received? One of my favorite all-time
experiential design mentors and now dear friend in NYC, Lionel Ohayon, told me “no idea is
ever too big or impossible.” He always insisted, at the very least, “start at the moon.” At the
inception of every single design idea, go big, build the castle in the clouds. Society/building
department/or budget will whittle it down to “reality” for you. It’s your job, as the creative, to
deliver something almost unimaginable.
Brianna’s latest project, in the basement of Reno’s historic 1933 post office, will be a multiuse
incubator space of both retail and food vendors who all celebrate the craft of the hand.
What career advice would you give an emerging urban leader? To practice what you preach.
We all know there are always more environmentally beneficial, healthy and “sharable” ways to
live, but it’s often easier said than done. So … if you believe in a method or are advocating a
movement, then live it. People won’t follow if you aren’t following it yourself.
Brianna Bullentini | TEDxReno
Categories: CNU blogs, New Urbanism
Ranking 100 U.S. Metros on Growth and Inclusion
Next City - Thu, 2016-01-28 06:00
A coffee company owner in Tulsa, whose metro region ranks as a top performer when it comes
to inclusive regional growth in the U.S. in a new study. (AP Photo/Justin Juozapavicius)
Where once there was a seemingly endless competition among cities and outlying suburbs to see
who could steal away each other’s corporate headquarters or factories with the best tax
incentives, starving municipal budgets and lining the pockets of shareholders, there’s now a hint
of big-picture cooperation. A lot of that arm wrestling is still going on, to be sure, but history’s
trend lines are leaning toward a future where entire regions work together to build economies
that work for all.
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Today, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released a report and data
visualization tool that will be useful for those looking to foster that unified feeling.
“Metro Monitor: Tracking growth, prosperity, and inclusion in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan
areas” is a response to the shift toward better regional coordination of economic policies and
toward measuring regional economic success by also how growth is achieved and who benefits
from it.
“We’re seeing a trend where a lot of regional economic development organizations are starting to
look beyond growth, and we’re plugging into that conversation,” says Richard Shearer, senior
research analyst and primary author of the report. “Having a shared vocabulary, a shared point of
reference regionally is important for growth, prosperity and inclusion.”
The Brookings team aggregated data from three different sources: Moody’s Analytics, U.S.
Census Bureau population estimates and decennial census data. Getting the data to be
comparable across metropolitan areas also meant having to aggregate county-level data for some
data sets, as well as millions of survey responses not always grouped by consistent metropolitan
areas.
“This information isn’t always accessible, it’s buried at different sources, not all public,” Shearer
says. All in all, the team went over about 250 gigabytes of spreadsheets and other data files to
assemble the report.
What did they find, after all that? From 2009 to 2014, 95 metropolitan areas saw progress on
conventional growth measures (gross metropolitan product, total jobs, aggregate wages). Only 63
metropolitan areas saw progress on prosperity measures (productivity, average annual wages,
living standards). A mere eight metropolitan areas registered progress on inclusion measures
across the board in that timeframe.
“Growth and prosperity have not seemed to have impacted inclusion outcomes to a great extent,”
Shearer says.
The report’s inclusion measures begin with median wage, which isn’t influenced by wage growth
only for the top half of earners in the population. Employment rate, measured as the percentage
of the working age (18-65) population with a job, also falls under the report’s inclusion metrics.
“Using that ratio as an employment measure lets us get around the fact that even though some
outside that age range are working, most are in school or retired,” Shearer explains.
Last, but not least, the report’s inclusion measures considered what’s called “relative income
poverty” — the share of workers who earn less than half the median income. It’s a popular
yardstick in affordable housing development; it’s not uncommon for affordable housing to be
defined as costing no more than one-third of income for someone earning half the area median
income.
From the Brookings Institution’s “Metro Monitor: Tracking growth, prosperity, and inclusion in
the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas”
The report does not have an exact focus on inequality (which is a focus of other work from
Brookings). Shearer says they wanted to focus on outcomes around inclusion rather than changes
in disparity. It’s about expanding upon the growth mindset — more jobs, more prosperity, more
inclusion — rather than mixing in something that should be moving in the other direction, like
inequality.
“Inequality is more complicated and also affected by things that are largely outside the scope of
what mayors or local governments can control,” Shearer explains.
The top five performers overall on inclusion: Tulsa, Oklahoma; Springfield, Massachusetts; San
Jose, California; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Detroit.
From the Brookings Institution’s “Metro Monitor: Tracking growth, prosperity, and inclusion in
the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas”
Hold the celebrations, however.
“Many of the places ranked highly on inclusion not because they saw progress, but because they
saw less regression than their peers,” Shearer says.
The report also looks at inclusion by race and ethnicity. The median wage gap between whites
and other races grew in 58 out of 100 metropolitan areas from 2009-2014. The relative income
poverty gap between whites and other races grew as well, in 69 metropolitan areas. Across the
board, progress has been mostly mixed, with most areas experiencing growing and shrinking
gaps across the three inclusion indicators.
Shearer notes that areas that performed best on overall inclusion performed poorly on closing
racial and ethnic gaps — and vice versa. Across the Great Lakes metropolitan regions, which did
well on overall inclusion, most or all of the benefits accrued to whites. Meanwhile, in the Sun
Belt, racial gaps closed, but only because whites at the lower end of the income ladder did worse
than in other regions.
“In neither case is the story especially good,” Shearer says. “Gaps are shrinking for the wrong
reasons and gaps are growing for the wrong reasons.”
Brookings plans to publish the report on an annual basis.
Categories: CNU blogs, New Urbanism
Besaw's Opens TODAY!
Urban Portland - Wed, 2016-01-27 18:33
After months of planning Besaw’s has moved into their new home in the Slabtown Marketplace
on the corner of NW 21st and Raleigh, a home Urban Works helped them identify, just a couple
blocks from St. Jack and a stone’s throw away from their previous location. We at Urban Works,
like many of you out there, have been patiently awaiting the opening and can't wait to once again
be able to enjoy the Besaws' menu in its new location.
The new space features a new custom built brick oven, a casual setting and large outdoor patio.
Chef Dustin Clark, formerly of Wildwood, is bringing back the classics and creating new dishes
that are sure to entice. Get the lowdown here.
Categories: New Urbanism
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