Trends
Have scientists been measuring traffic wrong all this time?
Transportation is changing, compelling experts to reexamine the way they analyze transport problems – and they may have been operating with faulty data for decades, argues Todd Litman, executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, in a recent blog post on Planetizen. In the past, efforts to figure out how effective transportation systems are […]
Government projections of driving rates continue tradition of wrongness
The government is fairly shoddy at predicting the habits of American drivers, according to studies recently reported by The Atlantic. And the government’s repeated over-projections of American miles driven may exert a direct impact on infrastructure and transportation policy – and budgets – for years to come. According to The Atlantic’s Emily Badger, by now, […]
Confronting 11 pedestrian deaths this month, NYC’s new mayor talks traffic safety
Days after a weekend which saw four pedestrian traffic deaths, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his administration’s plan to reduce New Yorker traffic deaths to zero over the next 10 years. “The goal is literally to reduce fatalities on our roadways to zero. That is our singular focus,” he said, according to […]
Brussels receives a car-free makeover
Brussels, one of Europe’s most traffic-jammed cities, may soon go car-free — at least in part. The city’s newly inaugurated mayor, Yvan Mayeur of the Socialist party, hopes to transform the central area of Belgium’s capital into a pedestrian-only area, according to a recent report by The Atlantic. Brussels is notorious for its congestion. TomTom, […]
How do Americans get around? Not by driving
A new study by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group has found that in 99 out of the country’s top 100 regions, fewer people commuted to work in a private vehicle in 2010, as compared to 2000. These regions contain over half the US population, and are key to the US economy. More people are […]
Ericsson proposes sweeping program to reduce traffic congestion in Miami
Swedish multinational Ericsson plans to use its data and communications experience to help curb traffic congestion in Miami, Florida. The telecom giant announced a proposal during its annual event, NEST 2013, held this year in Miami Beach. ICT to address traffic woes Through its “Intelligent Transport Initiative,” Ericsson plans to use its advanced network of information […]
Electric school buses coming to California in 2014
By next year, students in San Joaquin Valley, California will breathe only clean air when they hop on to one of the many electric school buses their district is set to buy. Although all-electric cars have been growing in popularity in the U.S. for quite some time, the technology has never been employed in school […]
Driverless pods to be on UK streets by 2015
Milton Keynes, a city near London, is investing £65 million in infrastructure to enable self driving pods to run in the city. The first 100 ULTra PRT transport pods will hit its streets in 2015, and will travel between the town’s shopping center, office parks, and railway station. How the driverless pods will work […]
Golf carts now legal to drive on some city streets
Golf carts aren’t merely the stuff of prepubescent boys’ driving dreams and elderly golfers’ daily lives – they’re street legal in some areas. Supporters claim that golf carts are friendlier to the environment than their gas-guzzling counterparts, cheaper to run and maintain, and that the vehicles are particularly useful for short trips – which are, […]
Expert: Traffic jams signal economic vitality
Drivers take for granted that traffic jams are “bad” — who wants to sit at a standstill, burning off gas and anxiously planning out how we’ll compensate at work for the lost time? Yet a recent study suggests that in certain metro areas, traffic isn’t always all that bad — in fact, in certain areas […]