Author Archive
Angry that speed is prioritized over safety? Here’s what to do about it
Last week was #SafetyOverSpeed week here at Transportation for America, where we took a deep dive on our second principle for transportation policy: design for safety over speed. We spent the week discussing how prioritizing speed makes it almost impossible for most Americans to reach destinations anyway other than driving. Now we need to do something about it. […]
Safety over speed: Safe streets are climate-friendly streets
Lowering speeds have more benefits besides saving lives: street designs that keep speeds low help reduce carbon emissions, too. In this blog post by our friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Ann Shikany and Carter Rubin discuss how safer roads increase rates of biking, walking, and transit ridership, and enable fewer and shorter car trips.
Safety over speed week: The key to slowing traffic is street design, not speed limits
Today, as “safety over speed” week continues, we’re running a guest post from our friends at Strong Towns that uses some simple pictures to explain how street design is a far more powerful tool for slowing down traffic and prioritizing safety compared to the strategy of lowering speed limits.
Safety over speed week: Prioritizing safety is intrinsically connected with improving transit service
Nearly every bus transit rider starts and ends their trip with a walk, and decisions made to prioritize vehicle speed over safety often have significant impacts on transit. This excerpt from the new book “Better Buses, Better Cities” helps explain how better bus transit and prioritizing safety over speed are intrinsically related.
Our three policy recommendations for cutting the maintenance backlog in half
Yesterday we discussed our first of three new principles and outcomes for transportation investment: “Prioritize repair.” But how? Today we’re taking a quick look at three policy recommendations Congress should consider implementing to help reduce the maintenance backlog by half. For decades, presidents, governors, and members of Congress from both parties have decried our crumbling […]
10 questions every presidential candidate should answer about transportation and climate change
On September 4, 10 Democratic presidential candidates will participate in a town hall focused solely on climate change. We have a list of questions related to transportation that we want every candidate to answer. Climate change is undoubtedly a defining issue of our times, and the transportation sector is the single largest source of greenhouse […]
Marcus Young to be Minnesota Department of Transportation’s first Community Vitality Fellow
Transportation for America and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) are excited to announce MnDOT’s inaugural Community Vitality Fellow, Marcus Young. Young will be embedded within the agency for a year in its Saint Paul headquarters where he will serve as an artist-in-residence, taking a fresh look at the agency’s goals to promote economic vitality, improve safety, support multimodal transportation systems, and create healthier communities
Senate Transportation Infrastructure Act makes welcome additions but fails to change the status quo
Today the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act, a bill that will reauthorize the FAST Act once it expires in September 2020. T4America director Beth Osborne offered this statement: “This first attempt at reauthorization from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has some notable new additions worth praising, […]
The Generating Resilient, Environmentally Exceptional National (GREEN) Streets Act introduced in the Senate today
Today Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced a bill that would measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled. This would be transformative. Transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gases (GHG), contributing 28 percent of the United States’ total GHG emissions. While many other sectors have improved, transportation […]
Announcing our inaugural Arts, Culture and Transportation Fellows
Transportation for America announces its inaugural class of fellows for the new Arts, Culture and Transportation Fellowship to help 11 individuals in four cities take their work at the intersection of arts and transportation to the next level.
It’s past time to elevate the national conversation about infrastructure beyond just the price tag. Learn more about T4America's three simple principles for federal transportation investment.
Read our new principles