Lack of Groundwater Supplies Halts Sprawl Growth in Phoenix Area

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.

Signal timing turned off in Houston: An unreported change in the signal timing system along Houston’s Red Line light rail has led to delays on trains and service bunching. Advocates are concerned about what it means for the transit system as a whole after an anonymous transit operator pointed out the City of Houston re-timed lights in downtown. Signal timing on the main light rail artery allow the line to keep 6 minute service headways but the changes follow a pattern of pro-car decisions made after the election of Mayor Whitmire. (Jacob Jordan and Nicolas Cooker | Rice Thresher)

Commute times and sleep disorders: Scientists in Japan now have found that sleep can be impacted by housing and transportation choices. The researchers found that length of commutes and housing size can determine whether people have insomnia, which can lead to a whole host of other health problems. But the smaller housing sizes can be somewhat offset with reduced commute times in the Tokyo study area. (Osaka Metropolitan University | SciTech Daily)

30 year program to reduce smog: A 30 year program to reduce pollution in Santiago Chile is now paying off in better air quality. Over the last decade, hours of exposure to high levels of pollution has fallen 66%. But while particulates have been reduced, climate change induced ozone is on the rise. (María de los Ángeles Orfila | The Guardian)

BRT now on track: After two false starts trying to find a contractor to build a bus rapid transit line, the City of Raleigh has approved a $65m construction contract. The 5.4 mile project includes 3.3 miles of bus lanes and ten stations along one of the most heavily traveled bus routes in the city. It is slated to open in 2030. (Richard Stradling | News and Observer)

Water rights and suburban expansion: Half a million homes in the Phoenix region are now on pause due after the Arizona Department of Water Resources found that groundwater supplies were too limited for any future growth. With solutions and advocates that line up for and against them now falling on partisan lines, the state is grappling with what the future will look like and whether a want of sprawling affordable housing will drown out environmental concerns. (Tony Davis | High Country News)

Quote of the Week

Stable, affordable housing contributes to health and also enables better access to the health care system. By stabilizing housing costs and improving housing quality, assistance may remove barriers to preventive services and timely evaluation of symptoms. We see that reflected in earlier-stage diagnoses for several cancers.

–Craig Pollack, MD, MSc, MHS, professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health discussing findings showing how Federal housing assistance is connected to early detection of certain cancers.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by former FHWA Deputy Administrator Andrew Rogers to discuss how congress can help reduce traffic deaths and collisions with the use of technology.

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