THE ART OF TRANSPORTATION (AND URBAN) PLANNING: Going Beyond the Technical Specs
It is through our built environment that we shape ourselves and the world. Living, working, and moving around in dysfunctional, cramped, unsafe, polluted, or just ugly places not only affects our mood...
View ArticleLEGACY TIME: Styles and Strategies for the Political Administration End Game
Tom Menino’s tenure is now measured in weeks. Deval Patrick is entering the monthly count-down period. But neither of them has left yet. And until they do, advocates (and everyone else) seeking to...
View ArticleSMART CITIES, POWER POLITICS, & QUALITY OF LIFE: Technology and What It’s...
Techno-utopians. It wasn’t long ago that we were being told that digital Information and Communication Technologies would solve nearly every problem and transform the world in wonderful ways, small...
View ArticleGETTING MORE EGGS FROM THE GOLDEN GOOSE: “Nobody in this Country got Rich on...
It takes resources to run a city. Of course, the most important resource is people: the capabilities and creativity of its work force, the strength and resiliency of its families and neighborhoods, the...
View ArticleEFFECTIVE AND DEMOCRATIC CITY (AND TRANSPORTATION) PLANNING: Neither Top-Down...
The Human Scale is a wonderful movie based on the powerful insights and work of progressive urban planner, Jan Gehl; it’s now available in CD format. Everyone who loves cities should see it. In...
View ArticleSTEERING THE ORGANIZATION: Using Decision-Point Criteria to Achieve Goals
MassDOT is legitimately proud of its progressive policies about creating a sustainable, multi-modal transportation system. But the transfer from policy to facts on the ground has been very uneven and...
View ArticleA NOTE FOR THE NEXT GOVERNOR: Travel is the Least Important Thing about...
Congratulations on your election. As you know, that was the easy part! Here’s something waiting for you: our transportation system is in crisis. We can’t seem to generate the political will needed to...
View ArticleMOVING BEYOND CAR LEVEL OF SERVICE (LOS): Measurable and Meaningful Criteria...
Scaled from A to F like an elementary school report card, automobile Level of Service (LOS) metrics are easy to measure and easy to understand. LOS is, essentially, the average amount of delay compared...
View ArticleProject Selection Criteria: Public Hearing Testimony
The following was submitted to the state Project Selection Advisory Council at their 7/29/14 public hearing in Boston. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this incredibly important topic. And...
View ArticleSTABILIZING EQUITABLE COMMUNITIES: Gentrification, Displacement, and Markets
It wasn’t long ago, when regional rail-trail conversions were the leading strategy for creating multi-use non-motorized travel corridors, that the biggest opposition came from suburbanites fearing that...
View ArticlePARKWAYS MOVING FORWARD: DCR is Not The Highway Department
It’s a pleasure to be able to praise a government agency: civil servants who try to live up to their public service mission are over-worked and underpaid relative to private sector peers – and always...
View ArticleTHE PURPOSE OF TRANSIT: Neither Reform Nor Revenue are the Needed Starting Point
It’s now semi-official – everyone agrees that the MBTA needs both reform and revenue. No one says (publicly) that the current T and Commuter Rail budget is too big for its mission. And that’s where...
View ArticleLOCAL GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: Three Choices, None Simple
There can be no question about the transformative power of today’s metropolitan economy. Major cities around the country hope to ride the wave of the growing financial, research-based, and digital...
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