Sunset over La Mesa, Calif. by geoff dude licensed under Creative Commons.

Conservatives are capitalizing on opposition to road pricing in a seemingly progressive California town. Gas price hikes hurt more because our cars are bigger. Why the way we design our cities has implications for the health of their residents.

How road pricing is upending politics: To pay for a $160 billion transportation plan that addressed the climate, San Diego, Calif. regional planners set their sights on a road usage charge. Now local Republicans in the suburb of La Mesa and elsewhere are seizing opposition to road pricing as a way to win votes, hoping people will vote for their pocket books over the climate. (Justin Worland | Time Magazine)

We forgot the lessons of the last gas spike: The last time gas prices got up to $4 a gallon, people speculated it would lead to smaller cars and more transit and density. That’s not what happened. Instead Americans are driving cars that are bigger than ever before, and restrictive zoning has pushed growth into car-dependent suburbs. (Henry Grabar | Slate)

City design and public health: Our cities have benefitted greatly from scientific advances, from vaccines for polio to a better understanding of how disease is spread. But our cities are not being designed in ways that promote the health of our population. School location decisions don’t allow kids to walk or bike to school while streets are often designed without adequate crossings. In addition to environmental impact statements, perhaps we should consider health as well. (Alan Ehrenhalt | Governing)

A modular project for the missing middle: When developers build new housing, they are often stuck on two sides of the spectrum, luxury or affordable. But most current housing needs are at middle income levels. To build more of this type of family sized housing, a Chicago developer has gone modular for a 40-unit project. The units are expected to cost around $245,000 compared to the city median of $315,000. (Nate Berg | Fast Company)

Starchitect dreams are our nightmares: “Starchitects” that purport to solve real problems are given all kind of publicity and press, but their silver bullet designs never seem to be rooted in reality. That leaves the rest of us in the lurch when the problems such as climate change continue without a real solution. These big plans are often silly, unrealistic, and part of a capitalist hope that endless growth will save us from ourselves. (John Kazior | The Baffler)

Quote of the week:

“In Portland, you can just park your cart somewhere, and it can just be in one spot, and in a lot of cities, that’s just not the case. So, I think that alone is kind of like the main reason Portland has such a vibrant food cart culture — you can have a set location.”

Portland food cart owner Jace Krause in Eater on what makes Portland’s food scene work.

This week on the podcast, Paul Lewis, policy director at the Eno Center for Transportation, discusses the transit capital cost report “Saving Time and Making Cents: A Blueprint for Building Transit Better.”