William Lind, the Director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation, discusses the benefits of transit from a conservative perspective and addresses ways that liberals can engage conservatives in support of transit. Left Ahead produces podcast webisodes for bloggers in Massachusetts.
This study by Northeastern University confirms that, “transit investment frequently changes the surrounding neighborhood. While patterns of neighborhood change vary, the most predominant pattern is one in which housing becomes more expensive, neighborhood residents become wealthier and vehicle ownership becomes more common.” The report proposes policy tools that could be used to shape equitable neighborhood change in both old and new transit-rich neighborhoods.
This report by CEOs for Cities, “unveils the real reason Americans spend so much time in traffic and offers a dramatic critique of the 25 year old industry standard created by the Texas Transportation Institute’s Urban Mobility Report (UMR) – often used to justify billions of dollars in expenditures to build new roads and highways.”
The economic benefits of smart growth are broad and deep. The experience of communities across the country, urban to rural, shows that smart growth directly reduces public costs, improves rates of return for public and private investors, and avoids the expensive environmental, health and social equity costs of sprawl.
This overwhelming evidence is only helpful if we can put it to work when we need it. The goal of this Sourcebook is to help you do that.
This study, conducted by Victoria Transport Policy Institute for APTA, “investigates ways that public transportation affects human health, and ways to incorporate these impacts into transport policy and planning decisions. This research indicates that public transit improvements and more transit oriented development can provide large but often overlooked health benefits.”
A series of materials produced by the Center for Transportation Excellence, “designed to successfully respond to critics of public transportation. Opponents using erroneous arguments and fomenting fear are eroding the great strides made over the past decade. CFTE’s resources in this section can help transit advocates win battles with critics at home and nationally.”
These resources, compiled by from the Northeast-Midwest Institute, cover federal, state and local Brownfields incentive programs.
In spring 2010, SGA partnered with T4America and the Natural Resources Defense Council to commission a national poll assessing public opinion towards transit and transit funding, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies Inc. and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, and Metz and Associates. This presentation outlines the poll results.
This American Public Health Association report, “outlines how the connection between health and the built environment impacts the pocketbook; it also provides a summary of the process of planning, funding and building transportation systems, and discusses key opportunities for public health professionals to get involved in the process.”
This APTA report, “based on a March 2010 survey, provides a national perspective on the extent to which the current recession is affecting public transit agencies and the tens of millions of Americans who use their services. The survey asked APTA member transit agencies to report on actions they have taken since January 1, 2009 in response to the economic downturn and those actions anticipated in the near future.”