What I'm about to describe here sounds almost like a parody of suburb street-development-by-plumbers, but this is what's on the table tonight at the Board of Public Works Meeting: *LETTER FOR GREENDALE RELATIVE TO A JOINT APPLICATION FOR S. 51ST STREET – RAWSON AVENUE TO COLLEGE AVENUE FOR...

Lest we treat traffic like by-the-book plumbers (Bigger pipes! More asphalt) rather than enlightened engineers (Better solutions! Cleaner alternatives! Properly maintain what we have!), let's make this stimulus situation an opportunity to get on the right track(s). Do the right thing for state&#...

The AP reports that driving in America has undergone its most dramatic decline in history, as Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles during the 12-month period ending October 2008 compared with the prior year. “The fact that the trend persists even as gas prices are dropping,� said Transportati...

The question is asked in this article: "Who wants parking spaces to be the hallmark of a development?" Answer: Every developer in Franklin, Wisconsin. ABOVE: Shoppes at Wyndham Village/Target From The Washington Post: Where the Car Is King, Tysons Faces a Dilemma Urban Planners Take Aim at Free Park...

ABOVE: New York Times photo James Rowen notes that SEWRPC leader Philip Evenson is OK with the idea of toll roads in Wisconsin. The latest issue of THE WILSON QUARTERLY magazine contains a discussion of LEASED TOLL ROADS - - something Wisconsin will undoubtedly be tempted to look at. Indiana has a s...

Though this blog is more concerned with improving present suburban communities than it is in seeing them wiped out, a story in today's New York Times paints a pretty dismal picture for those suburbs that are even more far-flung - - the so-called "exurbs"; collections of subdivisions th...

James Howard Kunstler, whose name pops up often in this blog, is currently promoting his new novel, World Made by Hand, thus his somewhat higher profile in mainstream media. Just in the nick of time, too. From The Washington Post.: Wake Up America. We're Driving Toward Disaster. By James Howard ...

Excellent point made by a letter writer in the Journal Sentinel recently. Make transit an integral, pleasant part of infrastructure, and people will quickly incorporate it into their daily routines. We're about 12 years behind on this. Habit-forming transit Philosopher A.N. Whitehead's rule ...

James Rowen links to a terrific article about transit success by Alex Marshall, author of a favorite book of mine, How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Road Not Taken.  Meantime, Milwaukee wallows in dogma-enforced mediocrity.  You will recall that Charlie Sykes hauled out all the o...

A difficult pill to swallow for suburbanites - the culture of "happy motoring" and routine 45-minute daily commutes, one person to a car, is coming to an end. And we're stranded in suburbia without sane mass transit options. Heaven help us when we get too old to drive. Stranded in Suburbia...