Issues & Insights

The secret to avoiding red lights during rush hour in Utah's largest city might be as simple as following a bus. Transportation officials have spent the past few years refining a system in which radio transmitters inside commuter buses talk directly to the traffic signals in the Salt Lake City area, requesting a few extra seconds of green when they approach.

A sidewalk isn't an option in one Portland neighborhood so several local groups are taking a creative approach with a series of colorful dots in varying sizes that mark a path for pedestrians. With breweries, stores, and a coffee shop bringing people to the area, there is a lot of foot traffic, which becomes dangerous when vehicles speed down the road.

The road where the Gaudreau brothers were cycling looks like many in Salem County, and it represents both the draw and the challenge of cycling here. Its scenic two-lanes wind past fields, farms, and wildflowers, but lawn signs complain about nearby warehouse development. Heavy, multi-axle dump trucks fly back and forth. There is no dedicated bike lane on the road and less than a foot of shoulder, perhaps not even that much, between the painted white line and the grass.

Jamil Modaffari grew up in Penn Yan, New York, a small, rural village of around 5,000 people. His mom didn’t have a driver’s license or access to a car, and public transportation was nonexistent. Their lives changed suddenly when Modaffari’s mother broke her back. Her injury and inability to walk to work forced her to leave her job.

It’s the other 800-pound gorilla in the room: Who will pay for the infrastructure that cities need to help residents choose greener modes of transportation like biking or riding an e-scooter?

A report on state government- and utility-driven initiatives affecting electric vehicles (including hybrids) shows the majority of such efforts continue to focus on rebates and incentives for consumers and commercial fleet operators to acquire them. However, regulations and actions to modify electricity rates relating to EVs and develop charging infrastructure are also moving forward.

A new peer-reviewed study refutes claim that road diets increase emergency response times, based on a review of EMS response times in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

There was zero electric bike traffic on the park’s scenic carriage roads five years ago, but e-bikes now make up roughly half of all bicycle traffic on the restricted gravel paths.

Many cities have yet to match rider enthusiasm with the financial investment, political will and physical infrastructure that it takes to keep bike and scooter share going.

There are many jobs at the port, some of which require a college degree, others that don’t. But young people have to know these careers exist in order to apply to do them. This tour is part of an effort in the Port of Baltimore to instruct educators about these jobs. That way, when their students are looking for work, they’ll think of the port.