Monorail in downtown Seattle, Washington by Edward Stojakovic licensed under Creative Commons.

Close, an interactive travel time map, could inform users about amenity gaps in their neighborhoods. Why vehicle sizes continue to increase in the US. Seville, Spain, adopts ancient Persian technology to cool its streets and bus stops.

Mapping tools could inform where you choose to live: Close, an interactive travel time map created by Nat Henry, allows users to visualize the proximity of walkable destinations that matter to them. By using a “time to furthest important destination” approach, Close may better reflect the walkability of an area compared to other measures like Walk Score. (Diana Lind | New Urban Order)

The policies that made cars so big: SUVs and trucks have come to make up 80% of vehicles sold in the United States. Policies like Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards being loosened for larger vehicles, EPA rules that assume electric vehicles generate no emissions, and blocking smaller vehicles from being imported, have led to increasingly bulky vehicles. Increased vehicle size contributes to higher traffic fatalities in the US, along with higher emissions and costs associated with road maintenance. (David Zipper | Vox)

Ancient ways of cooling streets: Researchers in Seville, Spain, are taking cues from a millennia-old Persian system of underground aqueducts, called qanats, to cool city spaces through a project called CartujaQanat. By feeding water underground, the system cools areas above ground by several degrees in the hottest months of the summer through a series of vents. Smaller-scale versions of the project are already in use, creating “bioclimatic” bus stops to cool riders as they wait for the bus. (Jesse Chase-Lubitz | Al Jazeera)

Radical rebirth of King’s Cross: Over the last 25 years, the industrial lands north of King’s Cross and St. Pancras stations in London have been redeveloped. 67 acres of land have been turned into 50 new buildings with space for 30,000 office workers and 1,700 homes of which 40% are affordable. But architecture critic Rowan Moore believes there’s still some personality missing from the space. (Rowan Moore | The Guardian)

The puzzle of climate change and housing: After the Great Recession, the feds cracked down on high-risk mortgages that led to the collapse of the housing market. Today, mortgages are more regulated on the buyer’s end, but many are still risky due to new and future impacts of climate change that aren’t part of the calculation of mortgage risk. As insurance rates rise because of this risk, it might be time for regulators to stop allowing banks to extend mortgages in areas that are likely to be impacted by the negative effects of climate change in the future. (Susan Crawford | Moving Day)

Quote of the Week

“It certainly doesn’t get us to being able to double service in the Denver area, which is what we really need. But this is a really exciting first step that’s critical to meeting all of our state and regional goals related to climate, air, quality, access, safety, you name it. This is a key part of it.”

Molly McKinley, policy director for the Denver Streets Partnership in Colorado Public Radio discussing the state transit funding deal made with oil and gas companies.

This week on the podcast we’re joined by Gabe Klein, Executive Director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. We chat about the Joint Office’s white paper focused on best practices and solutions for electric vehicle charging. You can find a full transcript here.