Blogs

January 7, 2021

A Framework to Strengthen Transportation Planning

Uncovering JAPA: Tackle uncertainty using a robust decision-making framework for transportation planning.

November 12, 2020

Big, Open Data Offers New Tools for Transit-Oriented Development

Uncovering JAPA: How can planners use big, open data to look at transit-oriented development?

October 29, 2020

A Driver's License Can Equal Carpooling, Safety, and Social Justice

Uncovering JAPA: How can planners make driving safer and make stronger arguments for carpooling? What if planners could also become advocates for immigrants at the same time?

October 15, 2020

Changing Spaces Won’t Change Your Weight

Uncovering JAPA: Can making spaces more compact reduce obesity among young adults? It's not that simple.

September 17, 2020

Demographics Key to Transit versus Ride-Hail Choice

Uncovering JAPA: Ride-hailing is overturning the transport industry, but what are the factors leading people to choose it over public transit?

August 19, 2020

Centering Planning in the Federal Surface Transportation Debate

With the nation's current surface transportation law set to expire next month, APA Policy Director Jason Jordan explores the path to reauthorization legislation and the status of key planning priorities.

July 16, 2020

Where the Future of Transportation Is Leading Planners

Uncovering JAPA: The future of transportation remains uncertain, but scenario planning may help. Explore where planners might be headed.

A Simple Path to Sustainable Transportation

Uncovering JAPA: Shared autonomous vehicles will be part of the future, but do we need them to achieve sustainable transportation?

May 27, 2020

A Necessary Paradigm Shift in How We Use Urban Space

What planning changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic will be interim fixes, and which will stay permanently?

May 7, 2020

A "Wheely" Good Way to Save Commercial Corridors

Uncovering JAPA: How do we bring back the commercial corridor? In Toronto, the answer might be more bikes and fewer cars.

Painting a Richer Picture of Older Adults' Mobility Needs

Uncovering JAPA: Interviews, focus groups, and walking audits can be added to statistics to help create a full picture of the mobility needs of older adults.

September 5, 2019

Changing California's Way of Measuring Traffic Could Equal More Housing

Uncovering JAPA: Switching from Level of Service (LOS) measurement to Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) could streamline the development process in California.

August 22, 2019

No Eyes on the Street: City Officials and the Future of AVs

Uncovering JAPA: Cities have only dipped their toes in the water when it comes to regulating autonomous vehicles and their technology.

Federal Surface Transportation Debate Shifts Into High Gear

The nation's current surface transportation law is set to expire on September 30, 2020. Learn where work on the bill stands now, the legislative process ahead, and how planners can influence the outcome.

July 25, 2019

Ride-Hailing Could Boost Mobility Beyond Rich, Urban Areas

Uncovering JAPA: Ride-hail services are used by a wide range of people around Los Angeles, suggesting that they might provide increased mobility in rural, suburban, and low-income areas.

May 13, 2019

Planners Adapt as Infrastructure Gets Smarter

Technology is changing the ways we commute and communicate. How is this evolution influencing the physical shared space around us and the way it is managed?

October 11, 2018

Plan4Health Success Story: Missouri Uses Pop-up Traffic Calming Demonstrations

The Planners4Health initiative in Missouri addressed safety concerns by implementing traffic calming demonstration projects in sites across the state.

June 28, 2018

Plan4Health Success Story: Creating a Sidewalk Without Building a Sidewalk in Maine

The Planners4Health project in Northern New England implemented a traffic calming demonstration in Gray, Maine, to engage planners and public health professionals in healthy design strategies.

May 17, 2018

Complete Streets + Green Infrastructure = Vital Streets

The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, revolutionized its approach to designing, maintaining, and using its streets over the past five years. A program called Vital Streets has been central to improvement and evolution of transportation in the city.

April 23, 2018

Can Planners Get Ahead of the Autonomous Vehicle Wave?

Autonomous vehicles sessions continued to draw crowds on Monday at the 2018 National Planning Conference where more than 20 sessions on the topic are on offer.

April 4, 2018

Blue Bikes in the Big Easy

Blue Bikes, New Orleans's bike share system, was launched in December 2017. With 700 bicycles and 70 stations installed or coming soon, Blue Bikes service area includes all of downtown and a broad swath of neighborhoods from the Lower Garden District to Bywater, from the Mississippi River to City Park.

March 6, 2018

Transit a Focus of Next DOT Automated Vehicle Policy

The U.S. Department of Transportation held a listening summit in Washington to preview its AV 3.0 guidance set for a summer release date.

February 6, 2018

Autonomous Vehicles: States Pave the Way

Technology is rapidly expanding our transit choices, and states are taking notice. What’s new for autonomous vehicles at the state level thus far in 2018?

Transportation Is One Key to Livable Communities for All Ages

Transportation is highlighted in the first of a series of blog posts on APA's Plan4Health webinar and seminar on “Planning Livable Communities for All Ages."

August 22, 2017

Plan4Health Success Story: Active Transportation Community of Interest

Through Plan4Health, the Puyallup Watershed Initiative’s Active Transportation Community of Interest in Pierce County, Washington, aimed to increase access to transportation options and educate the community.

July 11, 2017

Congress Behind on FY 2018 Budget and Appropriations Work, Again

Congress moves on the Budget and Appropriations Process, but uncertainty still looms for Fiscal Year 2018.

January 19, 2017

Michigan Joins Small Number of States With Self-Driving Car Laws

New state laws allowing for the testing of autonomous vehicles look ahead to the possibilities of the technology and the role of planning.

December 27, 2016

Autonomous Vehicles Zoom into Public Imagination in 2016

The explosion of interest in autonomous vehicles (AVs) is one of the top planning stories of 2016.

Keeping a Bike Plan in High Gear: Montgomery County's Public Engagement Plan

David Anspacher, lead planner for Montgomery County Planning Department's Bicycle Master Plan, explains how the department executed its long-term master plan.

October 12, 2016

New Federal Grants Boost Transit Oriented Development Planning

Federal Transit Administration recently announced $14.7 million in new transit-oriented development (TOD) planning grants. This year’s funding supports 16 grants in cities and regions around the country.

Change the Street, Change the World

Julián Castro and Janette Sadik-Khan explored the theme of ingenuity in communities at APA's 2016 Policy and Advocacy Conference.

September 15, 2016

Slow Your Street: A St. Louis Traffic Calming Success Story

Less than a year after pop-up traffic calming demonstrations in the city of St. Louis, permanent infrastructure changes have been installed on neighborhood streets.

September 14, 2016

Better Transportation Plans, Better Communities

Deron Lovaas of the Natural Resource Defense Council looks at what the Federal Highway Administration's proposal to incorporate Green House Gas performance measures in transportation plans could mean for planners.

September 12, 2016

Smart City Challenge Winner Readies for Implementation

APA member Kathleen McMahon, AICP, goes behind the scenes with the City of Columbus, Ohio, to find out what's next for the Smart City Challenge winner.

September 2, 2016

The Quaint Columbus Neighborhood That Is Ready to Get Smart

German Village may be known more for preservation than innovation, but Columbus’s Smart Cities grant has its leaders excited for the future.

August 26, 2016

Enlightening Students Through the Built Environment: Active Transportation

The Built Environment Education Program (BEEP) in San Diego, led by Benjamin Martinez, educates its students on how street design and active transportation shape their communities.

August 26, 2016

New Taxing Districts Access Federal Transit Funds for Chicago

Special transit tax increment financing districts have been created by Illinois to help assist in funding transportation improvements.

August 15, 2016

Smart Cities, Smart Mobility

Planning for Shared Mobility, a PAS report from APA, brings together real-world examples of shared mobility policies and best practices from cities across the United States.

July 6, 2016

Cities Subsidize Ride-Sharing to Boost Transportation Connections

The integration of ride-sharing services into municipal funding decisions holds the potential to be a low-cost way of boosting transportation investment and promoting regional integration.

June 15, 2016

Automated Vehicles and the Next Great Transformation of the Built Environment

Researchers at Florida State University and the Florida Department of Transportation document how automated vehicles may transform the built environment in coming decades.

June 7, 2016

Smart Cities: Behind the Scenes With Austin, Portland, San Francisco

This is the second of a two-part series on the plans behind DOT's Smart City Challenge.

May 25, 2016

Aviation and Economic Development Equals Aerotropolis

An exploration of the impact of an aerotropolis as a tool for economic development, sustainability, and growth management.

May 20, 2016

APA Staff Takes Part in National Bike to Work Day

APA staff share their thoughts on National Bike to Work Day and why supporting bicycle infrastructure is important.

May 10, 2016

Inside Look: Grand Opening of KC Streetcar

For the first time in more than 50 years, streetcars are running along the streets of Kansas City. APA was on the ground for the grand opening to get the inside scoop.