Image by Linh Nguyen licensed under Creative Commons.

In New York, a high court says a transportation agency that didn't fix dangerous streets must pay damages to a child hit by a driver. Dayton, Ohio is struggling, partly because it tore down a lot of its old buildings to avoid higher vacancy rates. Uber is making some of its data more available to the public. Check out what's happening around the country in transportation, land use, and other related areas!

Court says street design shares the blame in a tragedy: A driver in New York City speeding at 54 miles per hour through Brooklyn hit a 12-year-old boy, and the state’s appeals court says poor street design is responsible for the boy’s injuries. Transportation authorities had been notified of the dangers of this stretch of Gerritsen Avenue before, and the court says they have to pay $19 million of the $20 million settlement. Advocates hope this will change the way cities and local groups approach street design. (Curbed)

Distressed in Dayton: When factories started closing in Dayton, residents started leaving and buildings that had a lot of architectural significance were bulldozed so the city would have fewer vacancies. That left Dayton both hollowed out and difficult to rebuild. This cartoon strip from discusses why Dayton has suffered and not rejuvinated. (A New Domain)

Uber makes its data more available: Uber released a new web-based tool that allows registered users to measure how long it takes to get from one place to another. The tool is backed by Uber's vast trove of data collected from drivers in its system but will only be available in three cities (DC, Sydney, and Manilla) for now. In the end, the hope is that this tool will give planners more information before making transportation planning decisions. (The Verge)

Welcoming the disabled makes for better cities: Cities that use universal standards to ensure that it’s easier for the disabled to get around are better places for everyone, says Angela Glover Blackwell, the president of Policy Link. Using the disabled rights movement for more access at Berkeley in the 1970's as a template, she discusses how inequality can be fixed by focusing on broader societal investments that will help everyone. (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

Will Ford really change transportation?: Ford Motor Company recently released a plan to pour resources into autonomous and electric vehicles. While Ford’s vision for how people might get around the cities city of tomorrow is intriguing, I worry that it will just be the same old streets and cars paradigm we’ve always seen. (HybridCars.com)

Quote of the Week

“Just as bad, on the flipside, wealthy NIMBYs have courted working class folks into believing that housing is the devil when, in fact, building more houses is what helps the working class continue to afford living in California.” - California blogger Brian Addison on how the housing narrative in his state has been hijacked. (Long Beachize)