Infrastructure

In the 1960s and 70s, Chinatowns were threatened by highway development in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. None of the proposed highways was built, thanks to concerted efforts by the Chinese communities.

January 21, 2011 - Price Tags

A new report from the Political Economy Research Institute says that bike and pedestrian projects create 11 to 14 jobs per million dollars spent, while road construction only creates 7 per million.

January 19, 2011 - TheCityFix

This piece from Next American City looks at plans to dramatically rework streetscapes in Boston, and cheers the effort.

January 19, 2011 - Next American City

Writing for Metropolis, Karrie Jacobs bemoans America's slow pace of growth in transportation infrastructure, and blasts efforts as being too "incremental".

January 18, 2011 - Metropolis

With political pressure from both sides of the aisle palpable, Gov. Christie discusses how he analyzed and justified the ARC tunnel's cancellation.

January 18, 2011 - The Wall Street Journal

As the world's population urbanizes, rural areas are being abandoned. But they don't have to sit empty and unused, according to this piece from GOOD.

January 18, 2011 - Good

A new 20-km metro line has just been completed in Delhi, India.

January 17, 2011 - Railway Gazette International

January 17, 2011 - George Haugh

DOT Secretary Ray LaHood responds to a Washington Post editorial that condemned not only the California High Speed Rail project, but President Obama's vision for a national high-speed rail network.

January 17, 2011 - The Washington Post

Streetcars -- a relatively old transportation technology -- have more traction than high tech solutions like monorails in the modern age of mobility. Want proof? Just look at Disneyland, says Tom Vanderbilt.

January 15, 2011 - Slate

Aleppo, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, is undergoing a conservation project that includes the restoration of hundreds of houses, a new park, and rebuilding city streets and services.

January 14, 2011 - The New York Times

Photographer Andreas Gefeller has taken a series of photographs of clumps of overhead wires in Japan. The photos highlighting the chaos of the clusters by isolating them in space.

January 14, 2011 - andreasgefeller.com

Motorists driving into San Francisco during the morning rush hour are getting onto the Bay Bridge four minutes faster since July, largely due to congestion pricing.

January 14, 2011 - AltTransport

Funding shortage, collapse of I35-W Bridge, prompt community to prioritize maintenance over construction.

January 13, 2011 - Streetsblog Capitol Hill

January 13, 2011 - Tim Halbur

Beyond the fact that supplying lots of parking encourages driving, a new study quantifies the environmental impact of parking lot construction.

January 12, 2011 - The Infrastructurist

The Marché en Fer, a 19th-century era food market and a favorite Haitian hangout, has reopened its doors to the delight of locals.

January 12, 2011 - The New York Times

In a review of the new bike sharing program in London, The Economist raises the question of whether the city wrongly predicted the existing demand for the service.

January 11, 2011 - The Economist

Planetizen's Nate Berg posits that Burning Man, the yearly freak festival in the Nevada desert, has become "a highly planned, intricately organized and fully functioning city" of 50,000 people.

January 10, 2011 - Places Journal

The state of Detroit is alarming, particularly in its continued dependence on cars, but there is hope that the city could reinvent itself as an ecological metropolis, says Jeffrey Kenworthy of the Curtin University of Technology.

January 10, 2011 - Jeff Kenworthy