Architecture can no longer be conceived as an isolated object, detached from the technical networks that sustain contemporary life. This condition calls for new readings and approaches.
Senate Bill 1167 has received the most favorable press, based on the understanding that the e-bike problem is actually an e-moto problem. The ruckus and ER visits are not caused by pedal-assist class 1 and 3 e-bikes, but by throttle devices that often fail to cut off at 20 mph, leading to safety concerns.
Once a nice-to-have niche urban design concept, TOD has become an essential part of many urban neighborhoods. It has helped address the shortage of housing by enabling the development of higher-density residential communities near transit stations. It has helped revitalize countless once-deteriorating or static urban enclaves near transit hubs by activating sidewalks near the developments. And it has spurred walking and transit use, enabling residents of TODs to reduce or eliminate automobile dependency.
A vote six years in the making that would decimate the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system might soon be called off, potentially averting a major funding crisis for the agency - though advocates say there's more work to be done to make sure every DFW resident has the mass mobility options they deserve. Since the beginning of the decade, a handful of wealthy, sprawling suburban cities in the greater Dallas metro have been fighting
Let's start with the biggest issue on the horizon: the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Yes, the ultimate decision is about a year away. But sides are lining up for and against, and right now, the Surface Transportation Board, which is colloquially known as STB -- the railroads' economic regulator -- is considering the details of how the rules governing that decision will be applied.
Every city contains two transportation systems. One is the visible network of roads, rail lines, sidewalks, and bus routes mapped in planning documents. The other is the invisible geography of privilege and exclusion embedded within it: the neighborhoods that received highways instead of parks, the communities whose bus routes were cut, the sidewalks that abruptly end at the edge of a district.
This huge law that we've passed in 2021 - which Joe Biden said was the biggest law for public transit ever and was this enormous investment in inner city rail - ultimately panned out to have very minimal effects. There has been some increase in highway construction. But when it comes to transit investment, unfortunately the country is going in the wrong direction.