Will Charlotte Continue to Sprawl?

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.

Why are relocations plummeting?: Domestic migration as well as moves inside a metro region have declined as the cost of housing rises around the country and . Smaller cities are seeing some growth but mobility has declined after a pandemic rise. Over the long term, the lack of movement might limit growth in places where migration is the only source. (Giulia Carbonaro | Newsweek)

Plug in hybrids emit more: Data published by the European Union (EU) show that plug in hybrids emit six times the emissions that controlled lab tests showed. Real world data from 220k plug in hybrids was used to determine actual emissions. The EU will look to tighten restrictions on carmakers to ensure actual performance matches test data. (Transport & Environment)

Impacts of active transportation: To make the case for more transit investments, the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (MMC) undertook a research project to show the total economic impact of transportation policies. They found that transit investment generates triple the amount of GDP that private vehicle use does. Montreal has a goal of 75% active mode share by 2050. (Rachel Morgan | Global News)

Japan reduces speed limits: Japanese officials realized that about 300 children and elderly people per year were dying on roads without centerlines or speed signs that were set at 60km/hr (37mph). So they reset 70% of general roads to 30km/hr (18.6 mph). Japan’s traffic death rates are at an all time low but they are still seeking improvements. (Justin McCurry | The Guardian)

Charlotte growth: Charlotte North Carolina has grown into a big city with the typical problems that big cities have. But Mary Newsom asks why Charlotte is structured the way that it is politically and physically and laments the inability to stop sprawling development when the city had the chance. (Mary Newsom | Charlotte Ledger)

Quote of the Week

Imagine if the roughly half of us who say we want to be able to walk to meet our daily needs could live somewhere that made it possible — it would mean a dramatic transformation in the texture of American life. But that change need not come at the expense of people who prefer something else — the point is to create more choices, not fewer, and Americans who want more space, privacy, and to drive for most trips would remain perfectly free to choose that way of life.

–Marina Bolotnikova in Vox discussing the hidden demand for walkable neighborhoods in the US

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Karen Seto at Yale University and Zhe Zhu at the University of Connecticut to talk about their new study, The Urban Pulse.