Our staff comes across numerous articles each month that reflect current and trending planning practices, development patterns, and more. With each newsletter, we try to highlight a few that have made our wheels turn, with the hopes you might find them interesting or inspiring as well. Here’s the roundup:
North Carolina’s new parking law could reshape its transportation landscape
Under a new law in North Carolina, most cities and towns will not be allowed to set minimum parking requirements for new developments or changes in building use. This change comes amid a growing recognition that burdensome parking mandates worsen traffic, drive up development costs, and sometimes stifle development altogether. This shift opens the door for transportation agencies to harness parking management as a valuable tool for taming traffic and improving transportation options. Read more here at State Smart Transportation Initiative
Bigger isn’t always better: The hidden costs of larger vehicles
Vehicles in the U.S. have gotten much larger over the past few decades, and research suggests that this shift has had far-reaching consequences, making roads more dangerous for everyone while increasing emissions and other environmental impacts. Read more here at State Smart Transportation Initiative
NYC officials want to put rain gardens on top of bus stops
A bus shelter on Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood has a brand-new look, and city officials say it could be the start of an environmentally friendly redesign that could spruce up transit stops across the five boroughs. Read more here at Gothamist
These U.S. Cities Are Rewarding Careful Drivers With Fewer Red Lights
To reduce high-speed crashes, Albuquerque and Portland are using a strategy where traffic signals default to red until a vehicle approaches.Read more here at Next City