Cities Exploring Demand-Based Street Parking

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. At the end of the 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.

Cities trying to take back curb space: Curbs are some of a city’s most valuable real estate, but during the pandemic because of all the deliveries and outdoor dining they became even more crowded and complicated. The value of the curb, cheapened by years of free parking, is now being seen as an asset that can benefit both drivers and the city through appropriate pricing. Smart curbs and demand based parking charges are becoming more common. (Nathaniel Meyersohn | CNN)

Norway thinking past electric vehicles: Norwegian officials are having second thoughts on the all out promotion of electric cars in the country. While they have reached amazing transition numbers, the benefits have been going to more affluent residents at the expense of even more climate friendly modes such as biking and walking. Now cities are committing more to trip growth in active transportation and looking at more efficient ways of reducing emissions. (David Zipper | Vox)

Halifax shows the way on waterfront revitalization: How did Halifax Nova Scotia create one of the most vibrant waterfronts in Canada? Not by making big sweeping changes, but smaller targeted investments and changes year after year that all together made a huge difference in the end result. The waterfront shouldn’t have worked based on its location and is now reliably beating out a recent $200m redevelopment project for over 100,000 visitors a year. (Tristan Cleveland | Happy Cities)

Cement industry needs a full decarbonization: Cement production around the world creates more emissions than every country aside from China and the United States. Some companies have figured out how to reduce emissions and production costs by eliminating the use of clinker, a residue of burning coal used for making cement. But other processes are hard to create alternatives for and need solutions if emissions are going to be reduced for construction projects. (Jeff St. John | Grist)

Do highway caps reduce harmful air pollution: A highway cap on I-70 in Denver Colorado opened up for use in 2022 to dampen noise and exhaust from the expansion of the road below through one of the most asthma stricken neighborhoods in the city. But neighbors don’t believe the cap is actually reducing emissions and experts wonder if they only encourage risky activities in areas with high levels of particulates. (Sam Brasch | Colorado Public Radio)

Quote of the Week

I think the days of just literally bulldozing those projects over, just about anywhere, are gone. People will have to be thoughtful about where they are putting materials and separating materials.

–Michele Crane, Boulder’s city architect for facilities, design and construction in the Colorado Sun discussing the recycling of a whole hospital.

This week on the podcast we’re joined by Chris Fabian of Resource X to talk about his work on priority based budgeting.

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