Transportation and Infrastructure

Congestion Pricing in New York: How Will It Work?

May 19, 2023 / Comments Off on Congestion Pricing in New York: How Will It Work?

In April 2023, USDOT released the result of its environmental assessment of New York City’s proposed “Central Business Tolling” project—known more colloquially as “congestion pricing”—after years of examination and review. The result—a “Finding of No Significant Impact” or FONSI—means that the MTA can continue its process to implement a program to toll drivers for entering […]

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Parking Wars

April 7, 2023 / Comments Off on Parking Wars

We can no longer stay neutral; reasonable solutions must start to drive our decision making A woman walks into a restaurant to meet a group of friends. She proceeds to apologize for being late but explains she was looking for parking for the past 20 minutes. This sparked a vibrant discussion that opened their evening. […]

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Linking Transportation and Land Use

March 3, 2023 / Comments Off on Linking Transportation and Land Use

The planning profession often has to look ahead, to see the bigger picture, and help connect people to their destination. One principle that helps achieve this is linkage between land use and transportation. This is vital for organizing at the neighborhood, community, county, and regional scales. Transportation services and infrastructure can impact land use patterns, […]

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Moving Cities: Pittsburgh

February 24, 2023 / Comments Off on Moving Cities: Pittsburgh

Unique Public Transportation Infrastructure Among major American cities, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania finishes in the top ten for transit ridership. Impressively, Pittsburgh’s public transit system achieved this success without a single heavy rail line: all but one of the major cities with higher transit ridership than Pittsburgh feature at least one heavy rail line (Seattle is the […]

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The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: How Will We Measure Success?

February 17, 2023 / Comments Off on The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: How Will We Measure Success?

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) calls for historic investments in old mobility—notably, and not surprisingly, a lot of money available for highway development and redevelopment. The bill also calls for investment in new technologies, most notably in the future of electrification across all surface programs (including electric cars and buses). The middle ground […]

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The Pandemic’s Impact on Public Transit Ridership

February 10, 2023 / Comments Off on The Pandemic’s Impact on Public Transit Ridership

The 2019 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role of public transit agencies, albeit their challenging future. Buses, rails, street/cable cars, and on-demand services are among the most common modes connecting people to their daily destinations, like schools, workplaces, hospitals, and recreation centers. Looking across BLS’ four regions of states (Northeast, South, West, Midwest), the Northeast […]

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