Washington will become the first state to embed an artist in a statewide agency, bringing a creative approach to advancing the agency’s goals like improving safety, reducing congestion, promoting economic vitality, supporting multimodal transportation systems, and creating healthier communities.
An art project about the historic streetcar in the border communities of El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, sparked public interest and then took on a life of its own. This month, the streetcars that once rolled through both border communities are back on the streets of El Paso, a demonstration of the power of art to capture the imagination of a community and create a better future.
This month, Building Better Communities with Transit is all about value capture. We chat with Professor Deborah Salon of Arizona State University her research on the topic and how institutional structure, entrepreneurship, and creativity play into successfully using value capture.
Since Transportation for America launched their Stuck in the Station resource, local leaders, journalists, editorial boards, and members of Congress have been loudly critical of USDOT’s failure to fund and advance transit projects. Here’s some of the most recent updates.
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.