Do More Roads Have Less Traffic?

Edward Glaeser’s Triumph of the City (Grush Hour, Apr. 11, 2012) Also discussed here: Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier [Paperback]  (352 pages, Edward Glaeser, Penguin, 2012) Today, we review a book by Edward Glaeser (with a nod of appreciation to Bern Grush’s blog) on [...]

Safe Roads for Seniors

Keeping Baby Boomers Mobile: Preserving the Mobility and Safety of Older Americans (25 page pdf, TRIP and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Feb. 2012) Also discussed here: Forgive and Forget (Streetsblog, Mar. 5, 2012) And here: Few U.S. cities are ready for aging Baby Boomer population (USA Today-Your Life, Mar. 25, 2012) [...]

The Next Congestion Charge System for New York City?

New York congestion pricing 2012 version  (Road pricing, Mar. 12, 2012) Also discussed here: Details of Sam Schwartz’s “Fair Plan” and Other Orcutt+Komanoff Highlights  (Ben Fried, Streetsblog, Mar. 7,2012) And here: The mother of all traffic plans hits NYC (Daniel Massey, Crain’s New York Business, Mar. 21, 2012) Today we review an interesting proposal to [...]

Turning Urban Highways into Parks for People

The Life and Death of Urban Highways ( 44 page pdf, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and EMBARQ, Mar. 2012) Also discussed here: Urban Highways Offer Cities New Opportunities for Revitalization (Erica Schlaikjer, The City Fix, Mar. 21, 2012) The report reviewed today summarizes the social, economic and environmental benefits that have resulted from [...]

How Does San Francisco Price On-Street Parking?

A Meter So Expensive, It Creates Parking Spots (Michael Cooper and Jo Craven McGinty, New York Times, Mar. 15, 2012) San Francisco is a leader among cities which want to reduce the number of drivers circling the block for an open space and adding to the traffic congestion found in many downtown areas. It is [...]

Respiratory Health Impacts from Exposure to Roadside Emissions

Association between proximity to major roads and sputum cell counts (6 page pdf, Julie Wallace, Liesel D’silva, John Brannan, Frederick E Hargreave, Pavlos Kanaroglou, and Parameswaran Nair, Can Respir J, January/February 2011) Today we review some research into respiratory health impacts from exposure to nearby roadside emissions in the highly industrialized City of Hamilton. Results [...]

Assessing Air Quality near Major Roads in Ontario, Canada

Environmental Guide for Assessing and Mitigating the Air Quality Impacts and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Provincial Transportation Projects (78 page pdf, Environmental Policy Office, Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Jan. 2012) Also discussed here: Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Transportation (Dianne Saxe, Envirolaw, Mar. 1, 2012) Although it is considered still a “draft”, the [...]

Monitoring Pollution from Downtown Construction and from Traffic in a Large City

Air Quality Monitoring Study of Construction Activities between 69th and 87th Street on Second Avenue  (22 page pdf,  Parsons Brinkerhoff, MTA Capital Construction, Jan. 17, 2012) Today we review an interesting study from New York City, where health concerns about dust from road construction were addressed by an assessment of air quality by roadside monitors [...]

Vehicle Emissions at Modern Roundabouts and Signalized Intersections

Quantitatively Determining the Emissions Reduction Benefits of the Replacement of a Signalized Intersection by a Roundabout  (16 page pdf, Maxine Hesch, Academy of the Holy Names, New York State Dept of Transportation, March 2007) Also discussed here: Impact of Modern Roundabouts on Vehicular Emissions  (10 page pdf, Srinivas Mandavilli,  Eugene R. Russell, Margaret J. Rys, [...]

Road Pricing in the USA

Road Pricing Can Help Reduce Congestion, but Equity Concerns May Grow (60 page pdf, United States Government Accountability Office, Jan 12, 2012 Also discussed here: Traffic Congestion- Road Pricing Can Help Reduce Congestion, but Equity Concerns May Grow (GAO-12-119, Jan 12, 2012) And here: GAO Highlights (United States Government Accountability Office, Jan. 2012) Today, the [...]

Pollution “Glue” and Congestion Pricing in London

Mayor Boris spreads ‘pollution glue’ across London (Jessica Shankleman, Business Green, Dec.23, 2011) Also discussed here: (Rav Casley Gera, Clean Technica, Dec. 28,2011) And here: Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Today, we review a new approach being trialed in London to reducing pollution hotspots by applying a chemical to the road which attracts particulate matter and [...]

Really Narrow Streets and Sustainable Cities

Thinking Small: The Narrow Streets “Movement” (Old Urbanist, Mar. 29,2011) Also discussed here: In praise of Really Narrow Streets (StreetsBlog, Jan. 4, 2012) And here: Recipe for Florence (New World Economics, Jun. 17, 2007) And here: (Narrow Streets Los Angeles, Dec. 3, 2011) Today we look at  some articles about cities with really narrow streets, [...]

Turning Parking Lots and Urban Highways into Parks

In Madrid’s Heart, Park Blooms Where a Freeway Once Blighted (Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, Dec. 26, 2011) Also discussed here : Parks in, Cars not out? Is that going to be our future? (World Streets, Dec. 27, 2011) And here: Madrid Rio (8 slides) Today,  the focus is on an article which reviews the [...]

Speed Kills, But So Do Speed Bumps

Urban Traffic Calming and Health: A Literature Review ( 152 page pdf, Olivier Bellefleur & François Gagnon, National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy, Institut national de santé publique du Québec,  Nov. 2011) Today, the focus is on a report that reviews the literature on health aspects of traffic calming. Among several surprising points is [...]

Freeways: divide and pollute cities today – greenspace tomorrow?

Are freeways doomed? -Several cities are tearing down highways, creating bold new public spaces — and building a future without cars (Dream City, Nov. 30, 2011) A number of cities in the USA have seen the light and replaced expensive, ineffective, polluting freeways that divide communities with parks and tourist vistas that unite them. The [...]

Tolls, Congestion and HOT Lanes in Canadian Cities

Congestive Traffic Failure: The Case for High-Occupancy and Express Toll Lanes in Canadian Cities (9  page pdf, Benjamin Dachis, C.D. Howe Institute, Aug. 31, 2011) The difficulty on introducing tolls as urban cities become more and more clogged with traffic is addressed in the report reviewed today which suggests high-occupancy toll ( HOT) lanes for [...]

How Expensive are Roads Built only for Cars?

Combating the Myth That Complete Streets Are Too Expensive (Tanya Snyder, World Streets DC, Dec. 8, 2011) Today, we look at reasons to build streets for uses other than driving (such as cycling and walking) and find that this is not only economical but also adds to the overall quality of life for cities that [...]

The Health Impact of Emissions from Light Traffic

Heavy vehicle traffic is related to wheeze among schoolchildren: a population-based study in an area with low traffic flows ( 8 page pdf, Martin Andersson, Lars Modig, Linnea Hedman, Bertil Forsbergand Eva Rönmark, Environmental Health, Oct. 13,  2011, The review today looks at research in northern Sweden and the health impact for children within 200 [...]

Health Impacts from Road Traffic and Railway Noise

Exposure to road traffic and railway noise and associations with blood pressure and self-reported hypertension: a cohort study ( 11 page pdf, Mette Sørensen, Martin Hvidberg, Barbara Hoffmann, Zorana J Andersen, Rikke B Nordsborg, Kenneth G Lillelund, Jørgen Jakobsen, Anne Tjønneland, Kim Overvad and Ole Raaschou-Nielsen,Environmental Health, Oct. 28, 2011) Today we review some research [...]

How Freeways Came About from Cities Designed for Cars

Planning for Cars in Cities – Planners, Engineers, and Freeways in the 20th Century (18 page pdf, Jeffrey R. Brown, Eric A. Morris, and Brian D. Taylor, Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 75, No. 2, Spring 2009) Today’s review article describes the development of major roads in cities, how and why they evolved [...]

Traffic Accidents and Optimum Congestion Charges

Traffic Congestion and Accidents(26 page pdf, Andrea Schrage, University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems, Nov.9, 2006) The report reviewed today looks at the calculation of optimum congestion charging with the cost of accidents included in that calculation. To do that the author considered the timing of the accident (earlier [...]

Danish Plans for Road Pricing and Congestion Charging

Congestion Charging in The Greater Copenhagen Area  (18 page pdf, The Municipal Forum, June 2008) Copenhagen appears to be on the road to implement congestion charges (or road pricing beyond the city) after the publication of a report (reviewed below) by their Municipal Forum which attempts to build on the successes of London and Stockholm. [...]

Roundabouts as a Strategy to Improve Air Quality

Modern Roundabouts, Global Warming, and Emissions Reductions: Status of Research, And Opportunities for North America  (16 page pdf, Tony Redington, Canadian Transportation Research Forum,  May 2001) The focus today is on how roundabouts can and are being used as a tool to reduce vehicle emissions at intersections compared to the use of traffic lights. The [...]

The opposite of congestion pricing – and it works

Unclogging roads by offering a reward (Road Pricing, Oct. 3, 2011) Also discussed here: Spitscoren (English translation – how it works) The carrot works more than the stick, so the saying goes. Today’s review article comes from Rotterdam in Holland where a system based on rewarding off peak use, instead of a congestion charge, has achieved [...]

Health Risks with Cycling near Traffic

Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Acute Changes in Heart Rate Variability and Respiratory Function in Urban Cyclists (6 page pdf, Scott Weichenthal, Ryan Kulka, Aimee Dubeau, Christina Martin, Daniel Wang, Robert Dales, Environ Health Perspect, Oct. 2011) Today’s review article looks at the health risks for cyclists exposed to high and low levels of traffic along [...]

Estimating Revenue from New Toll Roads

Toll Avoidance and Transportation Funding (9 page pdf, Clark Williams-Derry, Sightline Institute, September 2011) Today we return to a review of a paper on experiences with tolling in many different places in the U.S.A. and, in this case, the tendency of this advocating tolls to overestimate revenue by 20-30%. Although this does not mean that [...]

The Costs of Using Roads

The price of transport – Overview of the social costs of transport (187 page pdf, J.P.L. (Joost) Vermeulen, B.H. (Bart) Boon, H.P. (Huib) van Essen, L.C. (Eelco) den Boer, J.M.W. (Jos) Dings, F.R. (Frank) Bruinsma, M.J. (Mark) Koetse , CE Transform, Delft, commissioned by Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, Dec. 2004) [...]

Treat Roads as Utilities?

Commercializing Highways (2 page pdf, Robert W. Poole, Jr, Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) Review, Dec. 2000) The paper reviewed today is more than a decade old but has many quotes that lay the basis for road pricing, starting with the concept of highways managed as arms length utilities instead of top-down politically managed, as [...]

Investing in Toll Roads Internationally

For Whom the Road Tolls: Reviewing Listed Toll Roads, Bridges and Tunnels (Seeking Alpha, May 3, 2011) Today’s review article contains an investment analysis of 23 toll roads in 8 countries which differ significantly both in national financial policies and in the amounts invested and the returns and dividends. While Italy has the largest market [...]

Deciding on When and How to Toll Roads

Big Numbers Win Prizes (Robert Bain, Apr. 8, 2009) Making the decision to begin tolling and then choosing which way to toll is a challenge that many municipalities and countries face today. Today’s review article looks at 21 ways that toll revenue and traffic are exaggerated or incorrectly estimated- and suggests ways to approach the [...]

Australian Tax and Environmental Price Reform

Tax Reform: Next Steps for Australia (42 page pdf, Commonwealth of Australia 2011) Australia, Germany and the UK and a few other countries have governments whose policies are influenced by a party that promotes environmental and economic sustainabilility and keeps in power the party leading government, as long as its policies reflect the political reality. [...]

The Future of National Highways

Inventing the Interstate (Tom Vanderbilt. New York Times, Jul. 15, 2011) Highways are the focus of today’s review- in particular the national highway system in the USA which compares to the TransCanada Highway system in its larger neighbor to the north. Having reached a zenith in the late 1900s, as we start to see a [...]

Why Are Some Cities Safer for Cycling?

Evidence on Why Bike-Friendly Cities Are Safer for All Road Users (12 page pdf, Wesley E. Marshall, Norman W. Garrick, Environmental Practice, March 2011) Today’s review article – safety for cyclists- is quite timely for this blogger who lives in the first city in Canada’s largest province to get segregated bike lanes (opened July 10), [...]

When does driving slowly become congestion?

Through his World Streets blog, Eric Britton provided the focus for today’s review which is about the need for vehicles to slow down and the added risks to life and limb from speeding which is accentuated with the You-Tube video above. A useful collection of links to earlier posts on Word Streets is given HERE To [...]

Why Pedestrians are a Priority in Europe – and not so much in North America

Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Alternatives(Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times, Jun. 27, 2011) The focus of today’s review is a discussion about changes taking place in many European cities that put the convenience of pedestrians higher than that of drivers. The result is that much fewer households see a need for – or even [...]

Seattle’s Road Pricing Pilot Project

Traffic Choices Study: Summary Report – A Global Positioning System Based Pricing Pilot Project: Evaluating Traveler Response to Variable Road Tolling Through a Sample of Volunteer Participants (40 page pdf, Puget Sound Regional Council, Seattle, 2008) Today’s focus is a summary report of a study completed 3 years ago aimed at assessing the feasibility of [...]

Does Building More Roads Cure or Cause More Congestion?

The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities (Forthcoming, Duranton, Gilles and Turner, Matthew A., American Economic Review, Feb. 2011) The article under review today confirms (with extensive evidence and analysis) what many of those who study traffic and road use already believed: that building roads does not relieve congestion, it adds to [...]

Some Truths about Congestion and the Case for Congestion Pricing

Congestion is Welfare Reducing (Andrew Smith, Seattle Transit Blog, Feb. 22, 2011)   The article reviewed today in simple terms makes the case for road tolls as likely the only sustainable way to reduce congestion – which in the U.S. cost 4.8 billion hours in time wasted in the year 2010. It all comes down [...]

Are Roads a Public Good?

Urban[ism] Legend: Transportation is a Public Good (Market Urbanism, Feb. 22, 2011)   Today’s review article looks at the concept of a public good as applied to roads (and by extension to road tolls) and to transit, showing that is how the good is used or overused that something becomes public or private. To see [...]

Is there (or should there be) a War on Cars?

The First Casualty of a Non-Existent War: Evaluating Claims of Unjustified Restrictions on Automobile Use, and a Critique of ‘Washingtons War On Cars and the Suburbs’ (35 page pdf, Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Mar. 11, 2011)   Todd Litman’s latest report is the focus of today’s post. He analyzes the claims by a [...]

Driving and Walking in the City

No Accident: Traffic and Pedestrians in the Modern City ( John Rennie Short; Luis Mauricio Pinet-Peralta, Pages 41 – 59, Mobilities, Feb.1, 2010)   Today’s article comes thanks to the World Streets blog which reprinted much of an article from the journal Mobilites by Short and Pinet-Peralta. It looks at the enormous cost of a [...]

Modelling Rush Hour Emissions for Ottawa’s Major Roadways

Development of a Methodology for Estimating Vehicle Emissions (416 page pdf thesis, Jennifer Armstrong, Carleton University, AMICUS service of Library and Archives Canada, Aug. 2000)   The report reviewed today is a ground-breaking thesis by a graduate student at Carleton University’s engineering school which won awards from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and the Professional [...]

Green Roads- an oxymoron?

Greenroads (488 page pdf, Greenroads Version 1.5 Manual, Feb. 4, 2011)   While the title of today’s review article implies a little cynicism about the environmental benefits of roads and the vehicles that use them, there is no doubt that the two guides now available to rate them and identify ways of reducing their environmental [...]

What Causes Sprawl?

Do Large Residential Subdivisions Induce Further Development? A Spatially Explicit Hazard Analysis of Land Use Change in Charlotte (Bev Wilson &Yan Song, Journal of the American Planning Association., pages 5 – 22, December 2011 Also discussed here: Sprawl Breeds Sprawl (Angie Schmitt, Streetsblog, Feb 8, 2011) Today’s article looks objectively at what causes sprawl (development [...]

How to Price a Road

Thanks to GrushHour for this video about road pricing

Paying for Roads and Pricing Transportation

Image via Wikipedia Do Roads Pay for Themselves? Setting the Record Straight on Transportation Funding (45 page pdf, U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Jan. 2011) Also discussed here: do roads pay for themselves? (Human Transit, Jan. 6, 2011) Although the report reviewed today examines how roads are paid for in the USA (and how that is [...]

Congestion and Road Pricing in Canada

Stuck in traffic -Our rush hours rank with the world’s worst (Macleans, Jan. 11, 2011) Also discussed here: The Canadian Case for Congestion Pricing (Pollution Free Cities, Aug. 19, 2010) And here: Congestion Pricing Discussion Paper (17 page doc, City of Ottawa Environmental Advisory Committee, May 13, 2010) Today’s review article looks at the state of [...]

Traffic-Related Air Pollution Impact on Brain Development

Image via Wikipedia Residential Proximity to Freeways and Autism in the CHARGE study (26 page pdf, Environ Health Perspect, Dec.16, 2010) Also discussed here: CHARGE (Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment) The article reviewed today provides yet more evidence of the health impacts on those exposed to traffic and vehicle emisisons within 300 [...]

Impacts of Road Tolls, Parking Rates and Lane Reductions on Urban Pollution

  Traffic control policies to reduce pollution in Perth CBD ( 24 page pdf, 25th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research, 2003) The article reviewed today looks at the impact of varying four traffic controls on pollution levels: fixed and varying road toll charges, parking rates and lane reductions. The results indicate a [...]

Road Diet- putting a curb on roads

Image via Wikipedia Road Diets Fixing the Big Roads (15 page pdf, Walkable Communities, Inc. March 1999) Also discussed here: Applying the Road Diet for Livable Communities (20 slides, ITE, 2005) And here Summary Report: Evaluation of Lane Reduction “Road Diet” Measures and Their Effects on Crashes and Injuries(6 page pdf, Highway Safety Information System, [...]