A new approach to addressing the potential transportation impacts of new development in urban areas, outlined in a new report by our State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI), could be a powerful recipe for reducing the demand for driving, while helping create more prosperous transit- and pedestrian-friendly cities.
For decades, most local, regional, and state governments have had a myopic approach to handling the transportation needs related to infill development: they require developers to add more street/road capacity. And this single-minded approach has produced lots of new, expensive roads that increase driving, pollution, roadway deaths, and impediments for people trying to get around without cars. A more productive approach seeks to minimize traffic from development before resorting to just building expensive, bigger and wider roads.
This month on Building Better Communities with Transit we’re joined by Eric Singer and Andrej Micovic, Associates at Bilzin Sumberg in Miami who talk about the creation of a unique ordinance in Miami-dade County that consolidates land use decision making. They also talk about how recent TIF districts and the county’s Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan interact with that ordinance and what’s important in writing planning code.
This month on Building Better Communities with Transit we’re joined by Bill Sirois, Senior Manager, Transit Oriented Communities with RTD in Denver. Bill chats about the success of the transit agency’s TOD program, the project to rehabilitate the historic Union Station (and the area surrounding it), and what comes next when the current period of transit expansion comes to a close.
Of the $2.3 billion that Congress has given USDOT for transit capital investments since Trump took office, USDOT has distributed a meager 20 percent to transit projects waiting for funding. These avoidable delays are costing local communities money and putting jobs at risk.
In our recent webinar, we were joined by three reporters for a discussion about pedestrian fatalities and how people can talk about the issue in a responsible and productive way. The recording of that webinar is now available along with answers to some of the questions we weren’t able to get to live.
Last March, Congress provided the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) with about $1.4 billion to help build and expand transit systems across the country. 142 days later and counting, FTA has obligated almost none of these funds to new transit projects. Our resource—Stuck in the Station—will continue tracking exactly how long FTA has been declining to do their job, how much money has been committed, and which communities are paying a hefty price in avoidable delays.
This month on the podcast Building Better Communities with Transit we’re chatting with Susan Henderson of PlaceMakers about the use and benefits of form-based codes. We talk about the focus of these codes (the public realm where people gather and interact with each other), how they are used to support transit, and how a code can affect the streets around them.
This month on Building Better Communities with Transit, our host Jeff Wood talks with Stan Wall of HR&A Advisors about value capture is and the NoMa–Gallaudet U station in Washington, DC. According to Stan, that station is “the most textbook, beautiful example of the possibilities in creating value and leveraging that to extreme positive benefit for a city.”
Following Intersections: Creating Culturally Complete Streets a few weeks ago, our two senior staffers behind the conference reflect on an incredible few days in Nashville where artists came together with transportation experts to talk about how we all can be part of building safer, Complete Streets.