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A while back, the Christain Science Monitor ran a fascinating article on one of the most counterintuitive subjects in transportation policy: the so-called Braess Paradox.  Stated simply, mathematician Dietrich Braess proved the unthinkable:  sometimes, building a new road—even a high-speed one—can slow down traffic.  (Here’s the Wikipedia page on the issue, if you’re curious. And note that Braess’s discovery can apply to computer networks as well as roads.) This is...

“Buy one, Daddy!” That’s what my daughter Kathryn said after her recent ride behind Daily Score reader Jay Morrison on his all-electric scooter. Jay’s Vectrix captured her fifteen-year-old heart. Just seeing it roll up in front of the house sent her scurrying to her closet for her most Italian-looking scarf, which then fluttered in the breeze as she toured the neighborhood. She rhapsodized about being picked up from soccer practice...

Here’s the word from the US Department of Transportation: [Vehicle travel] on all public roads for May 2008 fell 3.7 percent as compared with May 2007 travel…marking a decline of 29.8 billion miles traveled in the first five months of 2008 than the same period a year earlier. This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same...

Via Erica Barnett, Adam Stein has a fascinating post on San Francisco’s move to start treating parking rationally. Here’s Stein on parking spaces:  …their supply is fixed but the demand fluctuates greatly by day and by hour. For most goods, pricing matches supply with demand. But the price for parking is inflexible. Most spots are free. Others are metered at an artificially low rate. Residential permit parking creates local distortions. Private lots skim...

Here’s an interesting argument, regarding transit service in Vancouver, BC: The planned SkyTrain subway spur along Broadway and out to the University of British Columbia campus will cost taxpayers 15 times what it would take to build a tram line along the same route. In fact, for the $2.8 billion cost of the single 12 kilometre SkyTrain tube from Commercial Drive to UBC, Vancouver could build 175 km of tram...

The gist: Talking about smart city planning in terms of our core values — quality of life, family, freedom, choices — and emphasizing convenience and community character will set the stage for broad support of policies that make sure we build family-friendly and climate-friendly places to live. Talking Points: connecting our core values to policies that promote healthy, climate‑friendly places to live–and limit sprawl We know in our guts that...

An economy-wide cap on climate warming emissions—our preferred climate policy —has one enormous sticking point:  once the cap is in place, who gets the right to pollute? That’s the core of the debate over the “allocation” of emissions permits.  Literally billions of dollars are at stake.  And not too surprisingly, just about every industry you can think of believes that, once strict emissions limits are imposed, they should get a generous...

A few weeks ago, Clark wrote about truck drivers slowing down to economize on fuel. It’s a great story, but was it a real trend or just anecdote? Well, I’m here to report that there’s some truth to it. Or at least some truthiness. A recent Congressional Budget Office paper examining the effects of gas prices found: “Freeway motorists have adjusted to higher prices by making fewer trips and driving more slowly.”...

This is kind of clever:   Maybe I’m a sucker for this sort of thing—but it gave me a good chuckle. Still, after thinking about it a bit, I wondered:  can a clever ad really make cyclists safer? I suppose it’s possible.  Obviously, advertising has been known to change people’s behaviors and perceptions.  If it didn’t, it wouldn’t exist.  But if anything, the ad proves that focusing on 2 things...

Take a look:  somebody has ranked hybrid cars, based on how much money they save you.  Your best hybrid buys, in order, are…drumroll please…   The Toyota Prius, The Saturn Vue, and The Honda Civic. Unfortunately, the ranking methods aren’t completely spelled out. But as far as I can tell, the author compares the price difference between a hybrid car and its non-hybrid mate, and compares the extra cost of...