A six-month pilot in West Hollywood will make the famed Sunset Strip a better place to walk, reports local news site WeHoVille. For four blocks along Sunset Boulevard, the city will install seating, colorful light poles and painted sidewalk extensions to make crossing the street easier. It’s also building a parklet at 8818 Sunset Boulevard in front of indie bookstore Book Soup, where passersby can sit, enjoy shade, and pick up or drop off a book at a Little Free Library. Wayfinding posters will direct pedestrians toward food, drink and entertainment, as well as providing history of the area. “The pop-ups will create spaces to welcome pedestrians, invite walking, encourage interaction and dra

It’s easy in America to think of trains with lots of nostalgia and little else. We are so firmly grounded in the culture of cars that when we envision our future of transportation, we can’t see the humble train breaking free of its roots in the past. But the train is going through a reinvention that will make it even more important to the future of transportation than it already is. How to get around a megacity The number of megacities – cities with over 10 million people – rose from 14 in 1995 to 29 in 2016, according to the UN. And it’s still growing. By 2050, around 75% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. With so many people crammed into our cities, individually owned cars

Is post-Thanksgiving shopping mayhem a fading American holiday tradition? This year, even as overall spending increased between Thanksgiving and Black Friday, foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores reportedly fell by as much as 9 percent compared to 2017. That’s consistent with consumer trends since 2014, thanks to retailers widening the window for holiday bargains and more shopping migrating online. A downturn in traffic appears to be accompanied by fewer of the fistfights, stampedes, and storefront brawls for which Black Friday is justly famous. Parking lot accidents tend to spike the day after Thanksgiving, USA Today reported in 2017, as do claims of thefts from homes and vehicles—presum

A golden carpet of leaves unfurls over the slippery mud subfloor, leading the way into the forest. As the rush of traffic fades into the purl of a babbling stream and the crunch of branches underfoot, it's easy to imagine we're in some remote wilderness — an illusion crushed as that heavy-footed rustling in the woods reveals itself as not a graceful deer but some guy with a metal detector. Then this nature hike begins showing its secrets: a patch of brick cobbles underfoot, a strip of wood that once held a catenary wire, a skew arch bridge whose stylish, asymmetrical supports track at a jaunty angle, all dressed up with no one to impress. Click here to read the full article: http://www2.phi

When people complain about dockless scooters, it’s often because the scooters are parked in the middle of the sidewalk. But a new study from the Mineta Transportation Institute found that scooters rarely block sidewalk access. Researchers from Mineta and San Jose State University observed 530 scooters in downtown San Jose, California, in June and July 2018. They found that 90 percent of these scooters “did not disrupt pedestrian traffic.” These were mostly parked on the edge of sidewalks or next to street furniture, such as benches, planter boxes, garbage cans, or newspaper racks. The remaining 10 percent didn’t entirely block foot traffic, either. And fewer than 2 percent of the scooters bl

Philadelphia’s bike-share service is taking a step forward on the evolutionary tree this week, with the arrival of electric-powered pedal-assist bicycles to its fleet. Indego, the city’s bike-share service, started a two-month trial run of the new “e-bikes,” PlanPhilly’s Jim Saksa reports. “I thought they were awesome,” said Chamarra McCrorie, a city employee who regularly rides her single-speed bike to work, according to PlanPhilly. “The ride was very smooth, the speed picked up immediately, and I think it’ll be a great way for people to get around the city, especially in those parts that are more hilly.” Pedal assist e-bikes, which assist riders with an electric motor that turns on only wh

Last week I had surgery: I donated my bone marrow to a little boy with leukemia, thanks to Be the Match. I would do the surgery again in a heartbeat if it meant giving somebody a second chance at life. My only difficulty is that I can’t walk or stand for as long as I used to until my bone marrow regenerates, which will take about two more weeks. As someone whose primary transportation mode is walking, this has been a problem. Luckily for me, Be the Match is reimbursing my Uber rides to and from work because my nearest bus stop is a 15-minute walk away, and there’s no bench for me to sit on while I wait. But most people who have temporary or chronic difficulty walking or standing don’t have B

A lot of researchers are hitting the Uber and Lyft beat these days. And with new studies finding that ride-hailing increases vehicle miles traveled, the trend has been to chew-Uber-up-and-spit-it-out. However, a still-unpublished study from Carnegie Mellon University found that Uber and Lyft actually lower vehicle ownership rates. In fact, the companies could be responsible for reducing the total number of cars in the United States by nine million in 2015 alone, researchers Jacob Ward, Jeremy Michalek, Inês Azevedo, Constantine Samaras, and Pedro Ferreira found. The researchers studied Uber and Lyft’s effects in each state by focusing on vehicle registrations, gasoline usage, greenhouse gas

As SEPTA continues to advance the extension of the Norristown High Speed Line into King of Prussia, a group of regional business, civic and academic leaders are working behind the scenes to champion the project known as King of Prussia Rail (KOP Rail). Formed in October 2017 as SEPTA and the Federal Transit Administration released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for KOP Rail, the King of Prussia Rail Coalition believes that connecting the three largest employment centers in the Philadelphia region – Center City, University City and King of Prussia – will serve as a catalyst for economic development for the entire region. The King of Prussia Rail Coalition is led by an Advisory Commi

Long commutes and sedentary lifestyles are damaging to personal and public health, but while there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a healthier United States, our transportation network itself can serve as preventive healthcare. The United States spends more money on healthcare than any other country. In 2016, total healthcare spending exceeded $3.3 trillion dollars – a whopping 17.9 percent of the gross domestic product. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 75 percent of the nation’s total healthcare costs come from chronic but largely preventable diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes. Click here to read the full article: https://mobilitylab.org/201

Two years ago, voters across the country approved dozens of major transportation measures funneling billions of dollars into transit infrastructure projects. While there weren’t quite as many major transit-related referendums on ballots last night, some notable measures to fund transportation saw big wins, including several victorious candidates who made transportation a key part of their platforms. Governors make transportation a priority Several governors who won decisively last night campaigned on promises to bring better transit to their constituents. But none more effectively than Michigan’s gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer, who ran on the platform “Fix the Damn Roads” (which sh

Muji—the Japanese lifestyle brand known for satisfyingly minimalist, affordable, and functional products—is now a self-driving car designer. Created in collaboration with the Finnish autonomous vehicle company Sensible 4, the Gacha is an all-weather shuttle bus purpose-designed for arctic weather. The first fleet of Gacha buses is expected to be produced by 2020 and the companies think the autonomous vehicles could be used in public in Finland by 2021. “We are developing these vehicles so that they can become part of daily transportation service chain. Autonomous vehicles can’t become mainstream until their technology has been insured to work in all climates”, Harri Santamala, CEO of Sensibl

A lot of researchers are hitting the Uber and Lyft beat these days. And with new studies finding that ride-hailing increases vehicle miles traveled, the trend has been to chew-Uber-up-and-spit-it-out. However, a still-unpublished study from Carnegie Mellon University found that Uber and Lyft actually lower vehicle ownership rates. In fact, the companies could be responsible for reducing the total number of cars in the United States by nine million in 2015 alone, researchers Jacob Ward, Jeremy Michalek, Inês Azevedo, Constantine Samaras, and Pedro Ferreira found. The researchers studied Uber and Lyft’s effects in each state by focusing on vehicle registrations, gasoline usage, greenhouse gas