Congestion Pricing. Photo by .KM.

A very interesting study released earlier this month counters conventional wisdom, suggesting that a clear majority of people support tolling and road pricing. As the authors of the study, which analyzed numerous national and international public opinion surveys, clearly write in the conclusion of their report, “…in the aggregate, the public supports tolling and road pricing.”

The study’s findings will come as a surprise to many policy makers and elected officials who offer the standard response that tolling and road pricing are unpopular, and should therefore not be implemented lest they defy their constituents.

Traditionally, attempts to solve congestion have focused on building new roads or widening existing ones. But it’s clear that the strategy has not worked. That’s in large part because there’s a cyclical logic to road construction: as more roads are built more people want to drive cars, which in turn, drives the demand for ever more road construction. For decades now, there have been proposals for reducing the demand for road space by charging drivers who use it. But these proposals more often than not went nowhere in large part because of politics. Read the rest of this entry »

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A street in London built on a human scale. Photo by dnlb2.

The BBC has run a piece by Dermot Finch, the director of Centre for Cities, which argues that UK cities have a lot to teach their Trans-Atlantic neighbors on subjects such as suburban sprawl and traffic. Finch’s argument is broken into four categories:

• Tackling Gridlock
• Keeping Town and City Centers Alive
• How to Beat Suburban Sprawl
• Lavishing Attention on Cities

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Photo by Christopher Chan.

Yesterday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced that Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing bill would not move through Albany, a huge blow to New York City’s livable streets movement and Bloomberg’s ambitious PLANYC, which had congestion pricing as its centerpiece. The congestion pricing plan, which had the support of New York City’s City Council, called for charging drivers $8 for entering Manhattan below 60th street. Using the funds generated by charging drivers, New York City planned to inject an infusion of cash into the mass transit system which is strapped for cash and experiencing increasing ridership. With congestion pricing killed, it’s unclear where the funding for the city’s mass transit infrastructure will come from.

See our friends at Streetsblog for more coverage.

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Congestion pricing is good for the environment and public health. Photo by dlisbona.

A team of scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King’s College London conducted a study showing that London’s congestion pricing scheme has reduced air pollution in central London, saving Londoners as a whole 1888 extra years of life. The study focused on two types of pollutants from cars: NO2, a chemical compound known to cause acute and chronic bronchitis, and particulate matter (PM10), tiny particles suspended in the air which can become embedded in the lungs, causing asthma and bronchitis.

The authors of the study, which was published in the journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, are hardly sanguine about their results, noting that overall London saw only “modest” reductions in NO2 and PM10 levels. However, they also point out that, “Absolute and relative reductions in NO2 and PM10 were greatest within the congestion charging zone wards,” suggesting that an expansion of the zone would have an even greater environmental and health impact. Read the rest of this entry »

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NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking at Regional Planning Association annual meeting. Photo by Ethan Arpi.

In The World In 2008 - a supplement to the Economist - Mayor Bloomberg outlines some of the aims and inspirations for his super-ambitious PLANYC, a city-led initiative to convert New York City into one of the greenest mass human developments on earth. Mayor Bloomberg’s Plan, like New York City itself, is a postmodern mash-up with ideas and inspirations taken from cities around the world. In the Mayor’s own words:

In developing the climate-change strategies that underpin PlanNYC, we drew on the experiences of Berlin for our renewable-energy and green-roof policies; Hong Kong, Shanghai and Delhi for our innovative transit improvements; Copenhagen for our pedestrian and cycling upgrades; Chicagoand Los Angeles for our plan to plant 1m more trees; Amsterdam and Tokyo for our transit-oriented development policies; and Bogotá for our plans for Bus Rapid Transit.

The Mayor also mentions London, Stockholm and Singapore as inspirations for his congestion pricing proposal, one of the more controversial measures of his plan. (See: What Is Congestion Pricing?)

There’s an interesting story behind many of Bloomberg’s proposals; they come from cities in the developing world, places where municipal funds are hard to come by so every project must be constructed carefully for it to succeed. Another interesting point is that city leaders are increasingly communicating with each other, exchanging ideas and success so that they can be replicated throughout the world.

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Horses, like cars, are allowed in contemporary Istanbul. Photo “on the bosphorus bridge” by saragoldsmith on flickr.

Historically, Istanbul - once known as Constantinople - was a pedestrian city, a far cry from what it has become with its streets (and even its sidewalks!) clogged with cars. Animals, including horses (one of the main modes of transport back then) were not allowed within city borders in order to keep disease at bay and ensure food security. Keeping horses out was, in short, a way of regulating transportation in order to promote the health and well-being of Istanbul’s residents. The only person allowed to ride a horse in the city was the Sultan himself, and later on some of the higher-ups in his service.

In fact, the regulation was so effective and so important to the city that exceptions were rarely made. Ilhan Tekeli, an urban planner and historian at Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara, told me the following story to highlight this point:

An old man made a sword for Sultan Mahmud, II. The Sultan was so impressed by the beauty and craft of this sword that he wanted to reward the man. He asked the man what his wish was and the old man replied: “I am an old man, there is no strength in my legs, I can hardly walk. Allow me to ride a horse from my house to my shop.”

So the Sultan ordered his men: “Build this man a new house next to his shop.”

This is how committed the Sultan was to to keeping the city pedestrian friendly. His solution to the dilemma is also an early example of the ideal scenario urban planners advocate: live close to your work!
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For historical reasons, wireless systems for use in the transportation sector have taken a separate path for technology development. This divergence no longer makes sense. Every other sector in the economy is finding secure, reliable, and economical systems that use internet-protocol and are highly compatible. Continued insistence on separate radio frequencies, closed networks, and obscure proprietary standards mean that technology investments in transportation don’t take advantage of low-cost high-volume components developed for the consumer market or advances in communications hardware and routing software. Congestion charging cameras in London. Photo by jeroen020 on flickr.

Rest-of-the-World Trends: Open networks, Device Convergence, Open Standards, Extensible/Interoperable, Consumer products/parts (high volume, low cost), Redundant networks base, Robustness/Redundancy

Versus

Intelligent Transportation Systems: Closed network, DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications), Single-purpose devices, Proprietary, inflexible, Proprietary lock-in, high cost, path dependency, Can’t leverage others’ investment, Centralized command & control (single points of failure)

Below are my recommendations in priority order. Read the rest of this entry »

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New York Times Magazine writer Randy Cohen, aka The Ethicist, sits down with Mark Gorton from The Open Planning Project and discusses the ethical implications of driving, congestions pricing, biking and the use of public space by private individuals. Mr. Cohen argues passionately for cities that are clean, livable and pedestrian friendly. Moving to a post-car culture is not about asceticism, he argues, but quite the opposite: “what we’re talking about is how people can be happier…that the automobile undermines…our ordinary daily happiness…”

Special thanks to Rob Katz for finding this outstanding video!

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It’s not fashion week in Milan, so the chatter on the street is all about transport. Photo by William Butler Yeats

Best known for haute couture and hot wheels, the northern Italian city of Milan has followed the lead of London, Stockholm and Singapore (and maybe New York) by instituting a congestion charge on cars entering the downtown area. According to the BBC, all cars - except electric and hybrid vehicles - will be charged when they pass through one of the 43 electric gates that ring the perimeter of the city. There will be a steep fine for anyone who refuses to pay: 70 euros.

Letizia Moratti, the mayor, predicts a “30% cut in pollution levels and a 10% reduction in traffic.” Revenue generated from the fees will be used to cycled paths, mass transportation, and clean burning vehicles.

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Robin Chase at TED 2007. Photo by PMO on flickr.

Robin Chase, founder and former CEO of Zipcar, joins TheCityFix.com as a regular contributor. Robin will be cross posting select items from her personal blog, Network Musings, where she’s been writing on the world of sustainable transportation.

Robin Chase is founder and CEO of GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. GoLoco helps people quickly arrange to share car trips of all lengths between trusted friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and handles online payments from passengers to drivers for their share of the trip costs. GoLoco’s innovative combination of social networks and online payment systems recasts how we think about car travel, making it a time for socializing and with a new emphasis on trip efficiency, in order to reduce per passenger costs.

Robin is also founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world. Zipcar’s use of the Internet and wireless technology enables rental cars to emulate personal cars. Zipcar’s disruptive technology gives its members on-demand access to cars by-the-hour, revolutionizing people’s relationship to their cars and improving the quality of urban life for all.
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