Europe

Intelligent Speed Assistance Takes First Steps Toward Broad Adoption in Europe
Car manufacturers are expected to strongly opposed regulations that would require speed limiting technology in all new cars.

Berlin Plans Massive Investment in Rail
A new Transit Master Plan will spend approximately €2 billion a year on tram, rail, and bus improvements.

What’s Behind the Free Transit Coming to Luxembourg
All of the country’s buses, trains, and trams will be free starting next year in a move to help residents struggling with the cost of living.

German Trains Running Late
A quarter of German long-distance trains ran behind schedule, and they're not likely to improve soon.

Road Tolls Considered to Replace Declining Fuel Tax Revenues as EV Sales Grow
Iceland is thinking ahead when it comes to revenue losses resulting from its newly adopted "Climate Strategy" that calls for ending petrol-powered, fuel tax-paying motor vehicles by 2030. Widespread electronic road tolls are being considered.

Scarf Depicting Rail Delays Sells for $8,650
A German rail commuter recorded each day’s travel by knitting a scarf.

What Happens When a Downtown Becomes Nearly Car-Free?
"Parking spots are now bike lanes, transit is fast and easy, and the streets (and local businesses) are full of people."

Battery-Electric Buses Might Not Be Quite Ready for Prime Time
Companies are marketing battery-electric buses as the transit vehicles of the future, but there is still much room for improvement.

The Netherlands Seeks Less Confrontational Strategies to Stop Fare Evasion
Rather than simply being punitive, the Dutch rail carrier is trying to find cost effective ways to collect fares and make riders feel welcome.

Banner Year for Electric Vehicle Sales
U.S. sales of plug-in electric vehicles, including those with internal combustion engines, increased by 81 percent in 2018 over 2017. But if you remove the best-selling Tesla Model 3 from the mix, the increase drops to 11 percent.

Progressive Carbon Pricing Policy Should Address Social Equity
Putting a price on carbon emissions is widely viewed as an effective tool to reduce emissions. It can also be applied to help those who stand to lose the most from climate change, thus enabling a socially just transition to a low carbon economy.

Friday Eye Candy: 300 Years of Land Use Transformation
The history of the earth since 1700 has been a history of human land use.

Learning the Wrong Lessons From France's Yellow Vest Movement
The widespread Yellow Vests protests, which initially involved hundreds of thousands of protestors in November, are wrongly being interpreted as a movement against carbon taxes and climate action, rather than a revolt against social inequities.

Electric Vehicle Incentives: A Tale of Two Countries
While Trump wants to end the EV credit program, in part to punish GM for closing unprofitable car manufacturing plants, Norway is scaling back the generous perks that have enabled EV sales to comprise almost half on new auto sales.

App Provides Real-Time Air Quality Data for Paris
Paris has made some incredibly ambitious and highly controversial policy changes to improve the city's air quality. In the meantime, there's a new app from Valeo to determine the state of the air quality in the city.

In Oslo, Streets for People, Not Cars
New measures will greatly reduce vehicle traffic in the city center as Oslo moves to put pedestrians, cyclists, and air quality before cars.

These Streets Were Made for Walking
Many streets and cities are designed for vehicles instead of for pedestrians. But policies and programs in cities around the world, and even in the United States, might be signaling a shift in priorities.

The Best Architecture of 2018 (From the Other Side of the Atlantic)
The Guardian's list of architecture's best in 2018.

Implementing the Paris Climate Agreement in Katowice, Poland
Representatives from nearly 200 nations have been attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Katowice since Dec. 2 to work on implementing the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Scheduled to end Friday, it will be extended two days due to discord.

EU Commission 'License to Pollute' overturned by top European court
The General Court of the European Union upholds action brought by cities: annuls in part the European Commission’s regulation setting excessively high NOx emission limits tests introduced following Dieselgate scandal
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service