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Toward a Robust and Accountable Transportation Planning Process

By Gary Toth on Oct 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

Gary Toth following up on his reflections on the USDOT webinar, Forum on Livability.
As a career transportation geek, I found it particularly encouraging to hear talk about a new transportation planning process attached to performance measures which go beyond the overused and myopic focus solely on auto oriented [...]

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The Changing Face of Transportation in America

By Gary Toth on Sep 24, 2009 | 13 Comments

Communities and advocates have been pressing the US transportation industry to be more proactive about achieving livability goals for decades. Yet, the transportation industry continued to pursue the notion that the safety and mobility of the motoring public was paramount.  Prior to the Obama Administration, these calls fell on deaf ears; now, it seems, we [...]

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Park[ing] Day ’09: Turf’s Up!

By Ken Farmer on Sep 22, 2009 | Add Comment

For one glorious day each year, an international celebration of street life commonly known as “Park[ing]  Day” reclaims parking spaces as people spaces in cities ranging from Santiago to Copenhagen. As described by its local New York City organizers—Transportation Alternatives, this monumental day is intended to

“support the conversion of [...]

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Transformative Transportation Policy in Abu Dhabi

By Gary Toth on Aug 18, 2009 | Add Comment

The third in a series of reflections from the travels of a 34-year veteran Traffic Engineer from the New Jersey Department of Transportation.  Gary Toth, who had previously never been abroad, spent a week in the United Arab Emirates capital city of Abu Dhabi. He found [...]

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Where the Sidewalk Doesn’t End: What Shared Space has to Share

By Gary Toth on Aug 17, 2009 | 11 Comments

The second in a series of groundbreaking reflections from the travels of a 34-year veteran Traffic Engineer from the New Jersey Department of Transportation.  Gary Toth, who had previously never been to Europe, spent a week touring the Netherlands with fellow PPSers Fred Kent and Kathy Madden.  Their mission was to learn more about [...]

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Transmilenio: From People-Mover to People-Connector

By Tom Peyton on Aug 13, 2009 | 2 Comments

By Tom Peyton and Ethan Kent

Bogota’s Transmilenio Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) has been receiving a lot of attention recently. PPS was actually touring Transmilenio headquarters (while there to speak at a conference) the morning the New York Times featured the system on its front page. Bogotá has a [...]

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Exiting the “Forgiving Highway” for the “Self Explaining Road”

By Gary Toth on Aug 7, 2009 | 17 Comments


The first in a series of groundbreaking reflections from the travels of a 34-year veteran of New Jersey Department of Transportation.  Gary Toth, who had previously never been to Europe, spent a week touring the Netherlands with fellow PPSers Fred Kent and Kathy Madden.  Their mission was to learn more about [...]

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A Few More thoughts on the Myth of the Great Wide Way

By Gary Toth on Jul 30, 2009 | Add Comment

As noted in a previous PPS blog post, an organization called Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) commissioned preparation of a report called On A Crash Course: The Dangers & Health Costs of Deficient Roadways. I would like to add a few observations to the great article written by Renee Espiau entitled “The Myth of [...]

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Great Streets for San Francisco

By Craig Raphael on Jul 8, 2009 | 3 Comments

The San Francisco Great Streets Project kicked off last night with a riveting speech from Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia and champion of livable streets reforms. Peñalosa spoke to the benefits of reclaiming valuable street space for pedestrians and emphasized that the amount of space allocated to cars is [...]

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Building Quality Communities Around Transit in the Tappan Zee Bridge Corridor

By Craig Raphael on Jul 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

One of the most vital transportation links in the New York metropolitan region, the Tappan Zee Bridge is due for a major upgrade to satisfy growing travel demands. New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), New York State Thruway Authority and MTA Metro-North Railroad are [...]

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From One-Way Rotary System to Modern Roundabout

By Aurash Khawarzad on Jun 25, 2009 | 15 Comments

It turns out that roundabouts may be part of the panacea for our greatest traffic woes. Across America, towns and cities of all shapes and sizes have been choosing modern roundabouts over antiquated signalization equipment and expensive grade separated interchanges. The choice of a roundabout, or a modern roundabout, rather, makes sense for several [...]

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Improving Transit “By Any Means Necessary”

By joshkent on Jun 16, 2009 | 4 Comments

Malcolm X once said that “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” And so we found ourselves in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn at the first annual Bedford-Stuyvesant Malcolm X celebration, as guests of the Malcolm X Merchants Association (MXMA). We were there to educate ourselves [...]

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