Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Streetsblog Network

Why do transportation agencies spend so much money building new highways while letting their existing roads and bridges fall apart? Jason Segedy, the head of Akron’s metropolitan planning agency (AMATS), shared a few thoughts on that question at his blog Notes from the Underground. A big problem, he says, is that regional and state agencies […]

Suburban leaders in the Twin Cities region are angry. They believe too much money is being spent on transit in the city and not enough is being spent on highways in the region’s outer reaches. Political leaders from the five outlying suburban counties recently laid out these concerns for regional planners in what Twin City Sidewalks blogger […]

Now here’s a public works concept that holds a lot of promise. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has proposed a $42 million “8-80 Vitality Fund,” the goal of which is to make local streets safe places for physical activity for people of all ages and abilities, whether they’re 8 years old or 80. Anne White at […]

Last week, Amtrak announced that because of damage suffered during Hurricane Sandy, its infrastructure connecting New Jersey and New York City below the Hudson River will have to be repaired. Each of its two tubes will have to be closed, in turn, for a year or more, which would reduce capacity by around 75 percent on […]

There’s been a heated debate in Dallas the last few years about whether to build the $1.5 billion Trinity Parkway. While some early backers now oppose the project, key supporters like Mayor Mike Rawlings and North Central Texas Council of Governments transportation director Michael Morris have insisted that the road is absolutely necessary to prevent a complete […]

The advocates at 1000 Friends of Wisconsin recently completed a report [PDF] evaluating the Cheese State’s traffic projections. The organization compared actual traffic levels with Wisconsin DOT projections on 11 highways where the state has proposed adding lanes. The total cost of the proposed expansions is $3 billion. The report found that the state’s professional […]