This report by Environment America, “details the dramatic growth of public transportation in 2008, and the corresponding energy and environmental benefits. These details are viewed in light of fewer miles driven in most states last year. It also documents transit growth across the country continuing into this year, highlights future potential benefits and outlines ways to improve the state of public transportation.”
The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science yesterday released a Congress-commissioned report entitled, Driving and the Built Environment: The Effects of Compact Development on Motorized Travel, Energy Use and CO2 Emissions. The study by a panel of transportation planning experts looked at the role smarter planning and development could play in reducing oil … Continued
Artists and community developers are not the most obvious partners — except for how strongly both believe in the possibility of transformation. Community Partnership for the Arts and Culture is holding Rust Belts to Artist Belt II, a conference held in Cleveland September 17th-18th, in the belief that artists and their work can affect strong … Continued
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
In addition to the recent endorsement of complete streets by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the other reports discussed earlier this month, we’ve learned of a new round of support for complete streets from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the new report, Moving Cooler.
This week: Lansing City Council passes a complete streets ordinance, Fairhope (AL) and Ankeny (IA) work toward their policies, and more.
At Streetsblog Captiol Hill, Elana Schor’s “Crunching June Stimulus Numbers: Roads Create Pricier Jobs Than Transit” confirms, so far, the predictions in SGA’s Spending the Stimulus: per dollar of investment, state road projects create fewer jobs than do state transit projects. The differences that she found are smaller than other studies have found, mostly, we suspect, because all the road project types are lumped together. Repair has long been found to produce more jobs than new roads.
Kaid Benfield is a Smart Growth America board member and the director of NRDC’s Smart Growth program. This post originally appeared on his NRDC Switchboard Blog. Our thanks to him for letting us run it in full here. -Ed.
I make no pretense of objectivity on this one. I’ve been working on LEED for Neighborhood Development for seven long years. It’s now finished and awaiting final approval by the three founding partners – NRDC (in consultation with the Smart Growth America coalition), the US Green Building Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Several bills recently introduced in Congress recognize the clear benefits that complete streets provide for improving the safety and livability of a community for everyone living there–regardless of age or ability.
Here in Washington, August is known for sweltering heat, but the real action is heating up back in your hometown. With Members of Congress back to their districts for August recess, now is a great time to talk to your representative about all the benefits of complete streets.