Public Transportation

Bumper to Bonkers

For public transportation to survive, we all need to ... drive more? 4
Posted 1 month ago Could traffic jams convert drivers into subway riders? Are eco-parking garages the key to increasing train use? A look at the inescapable role of the car in our every deliberation, even when that deliberation is how to ditch the car.
Sen. Ben Cardin answers Grist’s questions on public transit and mountaintop removal mining 0
Posted 2 months ago Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who boasts close to a perfect score from the League of Conservation Voters, has become a key player on green issues in the Senate and an important voice against mountaintop-removal mining. He was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
Off the rails

Washington Post features rail hack job from Robert Samuelson 4
Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Today, the Washington Post's lame excuse for an economics columnist, Robert Samuelson, wrote an extremely regrettable piece arguing that investments in high-speed rail are misguided. But this is no honest entry into the discussion of how best to invest in transportation infrastructure. It's a hack job, plain and simple.
This Week in Placemaking

The greenest grocery store, biggest “living wall,” and more eco-innovations 5
Posted 4 months ago
From the country's greenest grocery store in Augusta, Maine, to a soaring transit station in Anaheim, Calif., we survey the landscape of green-building projects in the news.
Trip the light rail fantastic

Seattle light rail finally opens doors to passengers 4
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
It's been a long time coming, but starting this Saturday, it'll be "all aboard!" when Seattle's light rail trains pull into the station.
Going Topless

Ask Umbra on buying a convertible 6
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
A college-bound student with muy generous parents wonders which convertible car she should buy. Umbra, somewhat agog at the question, manages to uncover an answer.
Radiant Cities: Driving It Home

One man’s plan to re-create suburbia, sans cars 1
Posted 5 months ago
If Sherman Lewis has his way, he and 950 other homeowners will soon be living in a car-free California paradise. But can he shift his vision into high gear, or will it stall out?
Ray (and Shaun and Lisa) of Hope

Feds get cozy for sustainable communities 3
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
A new partnership will promote affordable housing, public transit, and walkable neighborhoods. Pinch us, we're dreaming.
Point A to Point Whee!

The best U.S. transit systems you never knew existed 15
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Certain cities are public transit all-stars: New York, San Francisco, D.C. But what about the rest of the country? As cities rethink how their residents get around, we take a look at transit innovations gaining speed in unexpected places.
Radiant Cities: Levittown, India-style

The folks behind the Nano take their vision to suburbia 5
Posted 6 months ago
What's the next big thing in international architecture? It might be tiny, tiny houses.
Pedal Pushers

Iowa City needs bike sharing 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
An op-ed in the University of Iowa paper says the 80,000-person city needs bike sharing desperately -- and can do it better than big cities.
Oy Convey

Ask Umbra on escalators 1
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Moved by a column about elevators, a letter-writer wonders about the eco-perils of escalators -- and Umbra rises to the challenge.
So Long, Saturn

I sold my car, and I couldn’t be happier ... I think 20
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
The road from deciding to ditch your car to actually doing it can be bumpy -- find out how one urban driver navigated her way to auto-freedom.
Amtrak Joe Says Don't Go

Can you catch swine flu on the subway? 3
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Vice President Joe Biden said he would tell family members to avoid planes, subways, and even cars for fear of contracting swine flu. But the official message is much less dramatic. Who's right?
Not Faring Well

The United States of Transit Cutbacks 0
Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago
Transit ridership is at a record high! But the budget crunch means at least 85 major systems are considering fare hikes, service cuts, and layoffs. Transportation for America maps the depressing truth.
Training wheels

Obama lays down plans for high-speed rail 19
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago
President Obama unveils big plans to create a world-class passenger rail system across the country.
You asked for it

Seattle’s transit-supporting sales-tax hike goes into effect 0
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago
As of April 1, residents in King, Pierce, and Snohomish county started paying more sales tax, and that money is going toward Sound Transit expansion.
Myth: Using less energy = sacrifice 8
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Mention "reducing demand" to Average Jane American and she'll assume you mean conservation: turning off lights, drying clothes on a clothesline, riding a bike to work, wearing a sweater when it's cold inside. And when she thinks conservation, she'll generally think, ugh, there go the dirty hippies telling me to feel guilty and be miserable again.

Both these associations are bogus.
Myth: Climate policy is primarily about putting a price on carbon 9
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Raising the price of carbon will lead to the cheapest, fastest emission reductions only if all else is equal, and in the real world, all else is not equal.
C-SPAN in the hizzy

Senate committee rocks the house on ‘sustainable transportation’ 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
All the youths are buzzing about the fact that C-SPAN now allows their video to be embedded. Wicked roasty! (That's what the youths say these days.)