News

One-way or two-way streets more efficient? It depends on what you measure

By Chris Spahr The debate over one-way versus two-way streets has been ongoing for more than half a century in American cities. Counter to prevailing engineering wisdom, a new study finds two-way streets may be more efficient, if one is measuring getting people to their destinations. Many cities

Connecting cars electronically may benefit BRT as well

By Robbie Webber As research on connected vehicle technology has advanced, writers have hailed the potential impact on traffic congestion and questioned the safety for non-motorized users of the roadways. But “talking cars” may also be a boon to bus rapid transit (BRT) as well. For a BRT line

Washington business community ups support for operations, preservation

By Eric Sunquist The Washington Roundtable, a group comprising many of the state’s largest businesses, is urging passage of a nine-cent increase in the fuel tax. What’s most interesting about the proposal, however, is not the revenue ask, but where the group wants the money to go: for major

An environmentalist’s call to curb the federal role in transportation

By Eric Sundquist In the post-Interstate-building era, questions about the role of the federal government in funding surface transportation have become more common. Critics from donor states, for example, have argued that they should just keep their money at home, avoiding the transaction costs

Mexico City tackles congestion head-on

By Mary Ebeling As recently as 2011, Mexico City ranked among the world’s worst for traffic congestion. But now, Mexico City’s improvements to their transportation system can serve as a model for other municipalities to learn from. The city shines as an international example of a rapidly

Florida’s freight infrastructure investment named an innovation to watch

By Chris Spahr Florida’s statewide approach to freight infrastructure investments has been highlighted in the Brookings-Rockefeller Project on State and Metropolitan Innovation’s Top 10 State and Metropolitan Innovations to Watch. Latin America is the fastest growing regional trade partner

App crash leaves Washington Metro riders in the lurch

By Eric Sundquist Like most large transit system, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority makes its real-time data available to third-party developers, with the expectation that they will provide and update smartphone bus-arrival apps. In December, however, one of the most popular apps,

New York City’s subway train operators taking unilateral action to prevent fatalities at stations

By Bill Holloway Following two widely publicized incidents of waiting passengers being pushed into the path of oncoming subway trains, the Transit Workers Union has directed its subway train operators to slow trains to 10 mph when entering station areas to enable them to stop if riders are on the

Virginia governor proposes scrapping gas tax, raising sales tax to fund transportation

By Eric Sundquist Most discussion of possible solutions to the problem of stagnant gas tax revenues has focused on increasing user fees in some way – e.g., by raising fuel taxes, adding tolls, and/or adding VMT-based fees. The Minnesota Transportation Finance Advisory Committee called for all

Silicon Valley shuttles change the face of public transit in San Francisco

By Mary Ebeling The high tech world is fueled by young, well educated, and largely urban workers. Companies hiring these workers – Facebook, Google, and Apple for example – are located in suburban Silicon Valley, about an hour south of San Francisco. To compete for and retain this talent