One common NIMBY argument is that new development is bad because it brings traffic. As I have pointed out elsewhere, this is silly because it is a "beggar thy neighbor" argument: the traffic doesn't go away if you block the development, it just goes somewhere else.But my argument assumed that … [Read more...]
Louisville and density regulation
Lydia Lo and Yonah Freemark have an interesting new paper ? EditSignon zoning in Louisville on the Urban Institute website. They point out that of the land zoned for single-family housing, 59 percent is zoned R4, requiring 9000-square-foot lots, which means no more than five houses per … [Read more...]
Urban Paths “World” Cup
Final update: the Milwaukee River Greenway is hereby declared the Best Urban Path in the United States! Sadly, it's among those that I haven't yet visited, a situation I'll need to rectify. I've invited a few Greenway partisans to write a guest post about what makes it the best urban path in America … [Read more...]
Los Angeles is Dense, St. Louis is Varied
LA at DawnGeographer at English Wikipedia., CC BY 1.0I visited Los Angeles last month, and I fully intended to take transit from my aunt's house in Long Beach to a meeting downtown and another in Westwood. With a reality check from Google Maps, she talked me out of it and lent me her car. It's … [Read more...]
The “outer boroughs” myth
One argument against bus lanes, bicycle lanes, congestion pricing, elimination of minimum parking requirements, or indeed almost any transportation improvement that gets in the way of high-speed automobile traffic is that such changes to the status quo might make sense in the Upper West Side, but … [Read more...]
Automobiles Seeded the Massive Coronavirus Epidemic in New York City
New York City is an epicenter of the global novel coronavirus pandemic. Through April 16, there were 1,458 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in New York City. Always in the media eye, and larger than any other American city, New York City has become the symbol of the crisis, even as suburban … [Read more...]
Interview with Onésimo Flores, Founder of Jetty
In this interview I talk to Onésimo Flores, Founder of Jetty, a (sort-of) microtransit company from Mexico City.Marcos Schlickmann: Thank you for participating in this interview. Please introduce yourself and talk a little bit about how Jetty came to life and what is your idea behind this … [Read more...]
A great new paper on how government fights walking
Many readers of this blog know that government subsidizes driving- not just through road spending, but also through land use regulations that make walking and transit use inconvenient and dangerous. Gregory Shill, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, has written an excellent … [Read more...]