They said this time would be different—just like the last time. But congestion pricing finally looks poised for arrival in New York City. Leaders in the New York state Senate and Assembly are expected to approve charging fees on vehicles entering the most trafficked parts of Manhattan, the New York Times reported on Monday. If the measure in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget gets the green light by the April 1 deadline, New York City would be the first place in the United States

It would be hard to find many people these days who would disagree with the fact that the amount of ‘severe’ weather events has seemed to increase in the past few years. Whether or not we subscribe to the theories of climate change, we would most definitely agree that both severe temperatures and large amounts of precipitation have affected many of our lives. This past fall, the UN Climate Council made the stark recommendation that the world must mitigate the effects of glo

Living near safe, high-quality biking and walking facilities actually improves people’s health, according to a new study that found a direct link between urban active transportation infrastructure and increased exercise. The study, published in the journal of Preventative Medicine, examined a random group in Vancouver, British Columbia, before and after the construction of the Comox-Helmcken Greenway, a 1.2-mile protected biking and walking facility. The study found that peop

Few institutions can shape a community like a state transportation department. The agencies charged with building interstates are often deeply involved with day-to-day decisions that determine how fast cars can go, how long lights stay red and where pedestrians can cross the road. Increasingly, though, those state departments of transportation are at the center of controversies over how they design roads and prioritize users of them. As urban areas have become more popular, s

Today, hundreds of thousands of students from over 100 countries are walking out of their schools to join a Global Climate Strike, part of a wave of youth protests around the world aimed at demanding immediate government response to the climate crisis. “I don’t want your hope,” said Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish student who initiated the movement, in her quiet, eloquent demand at Davos in January. “I want you to act. I want you to act as if you were in a crisis … as

Back in 2015, some of us were doubtful that Philadelphia officials would support something like Vision Zero, a Swedish-born concept that cities can prevent traffic fatalities by emphasizing street safety through better road design and planning. Despite Philly’s alarming rate of traffic deaths (97 the prior year), smart street design didn’t seem like a priority, especially when you looked at the number of lives lost to issues like homicide in that same year (248). But more and

It feels like there’s a new tech product “disrupting” the transportation industry every day, from e-scooters to mobility-as-a-service apps. But sometimes it’s the simple things that make the biggest improvements in our mobility. In this case, it’s benches and transit shelters. A new study found that the ability to rest is one of the most important factors affecting people’s happiness during trips. Researchers Shuyan Chen, Yingling Fan, Yang Cao, and Aemal Khattak used data fr

Turkish President Cuts Ribbon on Asia-Europe Commuter Rail Link The long-awaited, long-delayed spine of Istanbul’s regional rail transit network finally entered service along its entire length March 9. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut the ribbon to formally open the entire 77-km (47.8-mile) Marmaray rail line, which runs from Gebze in Asia to Halkali in Europe via an already-in-service 13.6-km (8.5-mile) subway tunnel that crosses under the Bosporus. Both the Inter