Trends
DOT campaign reminds: Everyone is a pedestrian
It can be an intimidating time to be a pedestrian – new federal statistics for 2011 have revealed that fatalities are on the rise, with estimates pegging a “pedestrian killed every two hours and injured every eight minutes in traffic crashes.” Plus, seventy-five percent of pedestrian deaths were in urban areas, and 70 percent of the […]
Top 5 new developments in transportation
It’s an exciting time for transportation – never before has getting from point A to point B been as fraught with questions about ease of use, customer experience, environmental implications and innovative progress as it is today. From dynamic parking pricing in San Francisco and taxi apps to world-changing bus rapid transport in Colombia, trends […]
U.S. license plates vs. EU’s: humor vs. efficiency?
Most of us have played the license plate game on long road trips, or taken a picture of a funny personalized plate like “IMLAWST” or “WHO5 HOT.” License plates do more than just entertain–they help our countries keep tabs on us in more ways than one. Interestingly enough, license plates were created before the dawn […]
Power tripping: How green are electric cars?
Electric cars have been touted as the green wave of the future ever since George Jetson first shot across the animated small screen in his aerocar. But just how environmentally friendly — and, dare we ask, just how cost-effective — are they? At least one researcher is asking exactly those questions. Ozzie Zehner, author […]
Federal gas tax means infrastructure funds running on empty
With the recent talk about who’s responsible for covering the costs of restoring and maintaining America’s crumbling infrastructure, many mistakenly believe that the gas tax, collected via the U.S. Highway Trust Fund, goes a long way towards maintenance and improvement costs for our nation’s highways. Yet upon closer inspection, the numbers point out some potentially […]
In CA, bike lanes are on drivers’ wishlists
Surveys in San Francisco and Los Angeles suggest that both drivers and cyclists want separate space for bicycles. This separate space in the form of bike lanes not only protects cyclists from automobile traffic, but also makes drivers feel safe around bicycles. This insight could prove useful for city planners who are often blamed for […]
Driving fatigue causes one in five crashes
A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) shows that 20% of car crashes result from drivers’ fatigue. The study also found that young drivers were more likely to crash if they drove while fatigued. The study is significant, as earlier estimates held that fatigue was responsible for just 2–3 percent of crashes. Charlie […]
Millennials drive less, but are roads safer?
“The Driving Boom—a six decade-long period of steady increases in per-capita driving in the United States—is over,” declares a recently released U.S. PIRG report. The report, which argues for replacing the driving policy of boom years with a more efficient one, found that Americans today drive less in terms of mileage than they did eight years […]
The car-free city: wave of the future?
Will cars have a place in the cities of the future? Not if today’s urban planners have much to say about it, according to Fortune. Future urban design will not likely revolve around accommodating cars and drivers, as it did in the past, according to experts at a seminar called “Smart Cities,” held at Fortune‘s Brainstorm […]