Analysis Posts
-
Southwest DC mobility innovation pilot could provide high-tech transportation equity solutions
After being paused for COVID-19, Southwest DC’s mobility innovation district is ready to pilot transportation equity through on-demand electric mini-buses. Keep reading…
-
Mapping the Washington region’s activity centers
A Brookings Institution senior research assistant explains how they labeled and mapped the Washington region in their recent study of the nation’s activity centers. Keep reading…
-
Comparing DC and San Francisco’s tenant purchase laws
For nearly forty years DC was the only US city to have a tenant-friendly right of first refusal law. That changed in 2019 when San Francisco passed its own right of first refusal act. Despite some similarities, San Francisco’s law has a different process for refusing sales and a narrower range of possible outcomes. Keep reading…
-
Why pedestrian deaths in the US hit a record high in 2021
Pedestrian death rates climbed to a 40-year high in 2021, but experts say the factors driving the surge in national traffic violence crisis emerged far earlier — and that policymakers urgently need to confront them. Keep reading…
-
Commuters in the region continue to choose gridlock
Around 80% of commuters in the region still drive alone or carpool, compared to around 15% who ride public transit. But transit ridership is much higher in Greater Washington than in most US cities. Keep reading…
-
Walkability is about the full walking experience, not just access to resources
Many measures of walkability boil it down to access to key destinations, but new Urban research expands the definition to include multiple measures of the walking experience. Keep reading…
-
Montgomery County needs more urban schools. Why is it afraid to build them?
Montgomery County has a shortage of school capacity in some areas, which recently led to a moratorium on approving new housing in many of the most transit-accessible parts of the County, triggered by a lack of capacity in those areas’ schools—even though many students come from existing homes, not newly built ones. Keep reading…
-
Traffic safety may be subjective, but designing the road shouldn’t be
A fundamental tenet of Vision Zero is the explicit acknowledgment that the transportation network needs to be designed for the safety of everyone - people driving, people using transit, people walking, and people bicycling or using scooters, etc. However, most (but not all) transportation infrastructure has been built to facilitate automobiles and roadway design that implicitly supports motor vehicle primacy and safety. Keep reading…
-
What if DC were all single-family houses?
American urbanists are starting to realize there’s a problem with single-family-exclusive zoning. But is it a problem in DC? For a thought experiment, let’s turn it around: what if all residential land in the District allowed nothing but single-family homes? Keep reading…
-
Unpacking the arguments against a traffic-calming plan for Bloomingdale
The District Department of Transportation is bringing long-awaited traffic-calming measures to First Street NW. Opponents say they’re getting in the way. Keep reading…