Search Results

Petroleum prices are cooling a bit: a barrel of crude has fallen $9 over the last few weeks, though at $46 per barrel, prices are still at a level that was unthinkable a few years ago. Nevertheless, the fall in crude will probably mean that gas prices will come down over the coming months, too.  Which makes it an opportune time to point out that, when it comes to the...

The provincial government in BC has taken another step toward a parking tax covering the entire Vancouver metropolitan area, as the Vancouver Sunreports. The parking tax is politically tied to constructing the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver light rail line and a new highway bridge. My enthusiasm for these three items are probably the inverse of public sentiment: I regard the parking tax as a terrific advance, the light-rail line as a mediocre idea,...

A striking lede: New research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finds that all the impervious surfaces-buildings, roads, parking lots, and roofs-in the continental United States cover an area nearly the size of Ohio. I have a love-hate relationship with this sort of fact: it’s shocking, but I don’t quite know what to make of it. Is Ohio a lot of impervious surface, or just a little given...

Gasoline prices are at their highest in recent memory and they appear likely to stay high for months. Is this a dream come true for climate defenders and transportation reformers? Far from it. Short-term price spikes, such as the one we’re enduring now, have surprisingly little impact on driver behavior. But they constitute a massive drain on the economies of fuel-importing regions such as ours. And they enrich oil companies,...

The Car and the City is an offbeat journey through three great metropolises. Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver–by car, train, bicycle, and foot. It’s a fascinating conversation with people who are quietly, but radically, rearranging the furniture of the modern city.