Congestion Pricing Cuts Air Pollution in New York City

New York. CC0 Public Domain.

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.

Pricing brings better air quality: Cornell University researchers have found that (de)congestion pricing in New York City has cut air pollution by 22%. 42 air quality monitors across the city were observed for 518 days and reductions were found after January when pricing was implemented. Researchers were also surprised at the size of the decline, citing other cities with pricing that had much lower reductions in particulates. (David Nutt | Phys.org)

Housing needs skilled workers: To meet the demands of the housing industry, 723,000 workers must be added every year through 2028. Angelo Farooq argues that the solution is a national workforce mobilization that will catch up the supply of much needed skilled workers to the demand. If we don’t find a way to build housing, it’s possible our economy and quality of life will suffer more for it. (Angelo Farooq | Los Angeles Times)

Leave the transit agency?: Several cities in Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s service area are considering leaving through a vote. The state legislature caps a transportation sales tax that can be used locally which often pits cities against regional agencies. But despite blustering from city leadership of leaving, it seems like many people aren’t unhappy with the agency and a recent survey found a very low support for voting against staying. (Alex Wolford | D Magazine)

City builders just games about cars: Car enthusiasts tired of racing games should look to another type of game focused on cars: city builders like Cities: Skylines. According to Byron Hurd, these games are all about cars, whether you love them or want to exclude them completely. And the design of a good city is made possible by the way people think about how cars interact with the built environment. (Byron Hurd | The Drive)

Migration influences local housing politics: Migration flows between cities throughout the pandemic and after have brought changes to discussions about local policy including housing. As people move to new cities from more constrained locations, their vision of what they saw brings new thinking on how to fix the problems so they don’t repeat elsewhere. (Allaire Conte | Realtor.com)

Quote of the Week

Vision Zero’s failures in more than two dozen cities fit a predictable pattern, according to the Post analysis and interviews with experts in traffic safety. Motorists are hostile to measures that slow traffic and favor pedestrians. Local leaders give token or tepid support. Spending on pedestrian-friendly improvements is not prioritized. The U.S. government, meanwhile, never backed up its pledge with federal action or significant funds.

–Rachel Weiner, Ian Duncan, Emmanuel Martinez, and Dylan Moriarty in the Washington Post discussing the United States’ lackluster support for traffic safety.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Tony Jordan, President of the Parking Reform Network.

Want more links to read? Visit The Overhead Wire and signup.