Below is a short Canadian film on how car-dependent infrastructure and city design is failing us.  Since it’s Canadian, multiply everything discussed exponentially to get the impact of sprawl on US cities. Pay special attention to Dr. Karen Lee, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control and now advising NYC on how to build for […]

Since 1980 regional transit planners have confused building a new public transit system with relieving congestion on area freeways. It is time to clear this confusion. They need to think urban! Think big! Think Love Field in the 1920’s, then DFW in the 1970’s. Fast forward 50 years – we need a transit system to stimulate and support, to shape the built form of the core of a new world class city. DART should be in the city-building business.

Never believe a traffic engineer talking about economic development.  If you’ve learned anything throughout all of this mess, let it be that. Like all highway projects, part of the justification is always economic development.  Occasionally the rhetoric gets crazy enough to suggest more driving will cleanse the air and the waters of Lake Minnetonka. On […]

For whatever reason this morning, I woke up thinking about Austin.  I have no idea why.  Perhaps it was a past question rolling around in the ol’ sub-conscience (I have a tendency to stew over such things half-asleep all night long), “why is Austin’s traffic so bad?”  Aren’t they a bunch of hippies riding around […]