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:
Congestion pricing could be the only path to managing gridlock
Transportation agencies in the U.S. spend billions of dollars each year expanding highways to ease gridlock. Yet commute times have increased 20% over the last 50 years and traffic congestion is still worsening, according to a several reports. New research confirms congestion pricing may be the best path toward any kind of relief. New York’s program, which launched in January amid plenty of controversy, looks like a promising example. Read more here.
Legislators plan comprehensive bill to try to curb highway mayhem; traffic cameras under consideration
According to the University of Connecticut Crash Data Repository (CTCDR), 321 people died on Connecticut highways in 2024. That was a 4% increase from a year earlier, but 12.5% below the 367 who died on state roads in 2022. Still, that’s nearly 1,000 deaths on state roads over the past three years. Read more here.
US Housing Shortage by State, County, and City (American Enterprise Institute)
The American Enterprise Institute is a think-tank that produced an interactive map that displays the Housing Shortage estimates in the United States by State, County, and City. While observing at the national level, the state of Kentucky doesn’t appear to have all that large of a shortage of housing compared to some of the Western States like California, Washington and Hawaii or some Eastern States like New York, Florida and Massachusetts. This doesn’t mean that our great Commonwealth isn’t lacking in areas, especially here in Warren County. We sit at an estimated 3.5% shortage of housing units within the county. Which is the highest in the State alongside Fayette Co. (Lexington). At the city level, Bowling Green’s shortage (5.2%) exceeds that of Lexington’s by almost 2%. Housing is a major need here in Bowling Green/Warren County that needs to be addressed. Have a look at the data for yourself!
Stay Safe in Summer Heat
Multiple articles provide information on how to stay safe in summer heat and still remain active.
- Planning to be outside on a hot and humid day? Take these precautions. Read more here at NPR.
- Extreme Heat Safety: Learn how to stay safe during a heat wave and how to treat heat-related illness like heat exhaustion. See this from the Red Cross.
- All the Tips You Need to Survive Cycling in the Heat. Read more at Bicycling.com.
- 6 tips for staying safe in extreme heat if you’re a runner, cyclist or anyone else active outdoors. See this article from The Times Weekly.
Washington State’s New Shared Streets Law Could Set an Example for Pedestrian-friendly Design Nationwide
Washington recently became the first state in the country to authorize “shared streets,” a shift that could reshape how people move in cities across the state and serve as a model nationwide. Read more at State Smart Transporation Initiative.
Should Cyclists Treat Traffic Lights as Stop Signs and Stop Signs as Yield Signs?
OPINION: It’s Past Time for New York to Legalize ‘Stop as Yield’ for Cyclists. Read more at StreetsBlog NYC.