In The News

Insurance Market Instability Threatens the Present and Future of Commuter Rail Service Railway Age, April 17, 2024 - In 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and made the largest Federal investment in public transit in the nation’s history. Between new investments and reauthorizations, the legislation committed $89.9 billion in public funding over a five-year period.

8 years into America’s e-scooter experiment, what have we learned? Grist.com, April 15, 2024 - The climate benefits of shared e-scooters depend upon how companies deploy and manage them, and what steps are taken to keep riders safe.

An Ode to the Northeast Corridor, the Rail Line That Keeps Amtrak Alive CityLab Transportation, April 12, 2024 - In his new book, David Alff employs a historical perspective to explain how trains became essential, if frustrating, fixtures of the bustling metropolises from the Mid-Atlantic to New England. He delves into the political decision-making and compromises that made the corridor what it now is and considers how transformative planned upgrades could be.

Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities Vox, April 9, 2024 - “Drive-throughs have been around a long time,” Charles Marohn, a former traffic engineer and well-known critic of America’s car-dependent urban planning, told me. Today, he said, “they’re becoming bigger and more obnoxious.”That trend conflicts with a key objective that US cities are increasingly prioritizing: creating a safer, cleaner, walkable, livable urban environment that’s less dependent on cars.

New Houston mayor reverses course on bike, pedestrian improvements Route Fifty, April 10, 2024 - Since taking office in January, the mayor ordered the removal of medians that served as pedestrian islands along one major thoroughfare. He halted construction and planning on other bike- and pedestrian-friendly improvements throughout the city.

Sometimes, to Make an Electric Car Better, You’ve Got to Make It a Little Worse The New York Times, April 8, 2024 - We’re at an inflection point in electric-car optimism. Over the past few years, as electric vehicle sales increased substantially and car companies announced an onslaught of new battery-powered models, it seemed that electric cars were a near-term inevitability. But for all the heady promise, E.V. enthusiasm seems to be cooling.

NYC will allow companies to test autonomous vehicles on its streets Gothamist, March 30, 2024 - New York City is now accepting applications from companies that make autonomous vehicles and want to test them on city streets.

This Small New Jersey Town Became a Different Kind of Suburb The New York Times, March 25, 2024 - A potential remedy for New York’s housing crisis — and the similar crises in other coastal cities — is on display in this small New Jersey town two miles west of the George Washington Bridge. Palisades Park is one of the few places in the New York metropolitan area where it is legal to replace a single-family home with something other than another single-family home. Over the last few decades, developers have bulldozed many of the old houses and replaced them with bigger, fancier duplexes.

Can a ‘Smart Highway’ in Texas Pave the Way to Self-Driving? CityLab Transportation, March 25, 2024 - In 2023, the Texas Department of Transportation announced it would partner with a company called Cavnue to pilot the country’s first autonomous freight corridor on a stretch of SH 130 north of Austin.

New Rules Will Still Push Carmakers to Sell More Electric Cars The New York Times, March 20, 2024 - Even if clean air rules announced on Wednesday in Washington are less forceful than some environmentalists would have liked, they should still have a powerful effect on the kinds of cars appearing in showrooms over the next several years, experts said.