U.S. DOT Looks to Cancel Bike Lane Projects

Entrance to a raised, protected bike lane on W. Becher Street. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Giant White Houses: Giant houses painted white are popping up all over the United States. The oversized homes try to maximize square footage and reflect trends driven by real estate speculation and a want of more space. As the market favors certain types of construction such as these white houses, the space becomes less about home and more about financial investment and long term gains. (Dan Kois | Slate)

Giving up a car to buy a home: Ken Miguel-Cipriano was able to purchase his first home in Grand Rapids Michigan by making some lifestyle changes which included a big one in much of the United States, giving up a car. As someone who has been taking transit all his life, it wasn’t a new endeavor, however it did allow him to save up for a down payment. The cost of owning a car can be as low as $10K per year but over time those savings add up. (Allaire Conte | Realtor.com)

A nation of homebodies: Research shows that since 2003 people have spent more time staying at home than going out but that trend accelerated during the pandemic. Even before the pandemic, people were spending 30 minutes less time outside the home on a daily basis. But the shift has serious implications and impacts. More people are working from home which has economic impacts on office and retail but also transit ridership and mental health struggles including loneliness. (Brian D. Taylor, Eric Morris, Sam Speroni | The Conversation)

Trump DOT wants bikes, green projects gone: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has sent out a memo asking for a complete review of IIJA projects that go against Trump‘s executive orders related to diversity, equity, and climate policy. The memo specifically targets “green infrastructure” while also calling out bike lanes and electric vehicle infrastructure for funding pulls. This move also follows discussions on the next transportation bill that would focus mostly on road funding and state DOT formula funds. (Gersh Kuntzman | Streetsblog USA)

City pioneering flood insurance: The City of Fremont in the SF Bay Area is pioneering a citywide flood insurance mechanism called parametric insurance. While parametric insurance has been used for neighborhoods this specific type has never been used for a whole city. If a flooding parameter is met, a payout is triggered and that money can be used for recovery or helping individual residents. (Leslie Kaufman | Bloomberg/Insurance Journal)

Quote of the Week

Arguments in favour of increased urban density seem to emanate mostly from Western scholars and policymakers. Western cities, however, are not only far less dense than those in Asia, rarely crossing the 10,000 people per square km mark, they are also losing population, both due to low fertility rates and various economic issues, creating a phenomenon known as ‘shrinking cities’. They need to shore up their economy through a pro-growth strategy.

The situation is quite the opposite in India. Cities are extremely dense and urbanisation is set to increase for the next few decades. Given the natural tendency of economies to agglomerate, Indian cities look set to grow even denser. India needs to decide at which cut-off point density becomes counterproductive even in economic terms.

-Dr. Ramanath Jha in Observer Research Foundation discussing density in the context of Indian growth.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Ren Yee of UN Studio at the Mpact Transit + Community conference in Philadelphia.  We chat about the cognitive workload of pedestrians and creating safe opportunities for mind wandering and absorbing information.

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