Dallas is big and it’s getting bigger. It’s one of the fastest growing areas of the country. In order to meet the growing demand for travel, Dallas has been building a fairly robust train network, and that striking boom in rail activity made it the perfect place to host the 21st annual Railvolution, a national conference on how to build modern cities around rapid transit.
Michigan’s roads and bridges are in desperate need of repair, yet the funding structure for transportation is broken. The measure on the ballot this May 5 attempts to remedy that. While Proposal 1 is not a perfect fix, the Michigan Land Use Institute firmly believes that the positive changes it would have for our infrastructure far outweigh the negatives.
Last month, the Michigan Senate passed a package of bills that would invest about $1.2 billion into the state’s aging transportation network. Now with only six days remaining in the lame-duck session, it’s up to the Michigan House of Representatives to act on a crucial investment strategy for Michigan’s crumbling infrastructure. MLUI believes the Senate’s package is the right approach.
My name is Kate Lewis and I am the newest addition to the MLUI team. I am currently serving a second year as an AmeriCorps VISTA here in Traverse City and I’m excited to be hosted by such an outstanding organization.
The Traverse City Area Transportation and Land Use Study (TC-TALUS), the regional transportation planning agency, wants feedback on their draft long-range plan, which recommends how local agencies should spend scarce transportation dollars. While there are many bright spots in the plan, it assumes we can build our way out of traffic problems with new and wider roads. It fails to recognize the role that demand-side strategies-like parking management, reliable transit and safe bike networks-play in reducing traffic at the busiest times of the day.
Recently, TC-TALUS-this region’s transportation and land use planning body-released a memo that described the challenges with our road network’s ability to handle the traffic that travels between the east and west sides of the Grand Traverse region. The document is intended to help the TC-TALUS board prioritize major transportation projects for the region’s long-range transportation plan. Here are a few reactions.