Vehicle Miles Traveled
Leveraging the Choice Not to Travel
The pandemic accelerated the growth of remote services and telecommuting. Now is the time for urban planners to leverage these new opportunities to reduce vehicle miles traveled.
New Bus Only Lane Overcomes Opposition in San Francisco
Local business owners and the local elected official opposed the Geary transit-only lane project, but compromise and wide public support got the project across the finish line.
What Is Transportation Demand Management?
When a government creates incentives or disincentives to influence how and when you travel—that's transportation demand management.
WTPP June Issue Spotlights Livable Cities, Essential Transportation Components
The June 2023 issue of World Transport Policy & Practice spotlights livable cities and features articles about three essential components of livable cities: public transit, bicycling, and reducing car use.
Driving Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels in the U.S., Study Says
Congestion is increasing much faster than vehicle miles traveled, suggesting that the “new normal” of hybrid work and an influx of suburban residents is taking a toll on the nation's transportation system.
Connecting Land Use and Transportation Planning to Save the Climate
The United States will have to make major changes to long-standing land use and transportation paradigms to prevent the worst outcomes of climate change. How to make those changes was the subject of a recent podcast.
Opinion: Stop Trusting Elon Musk—on Tunnels, on Teslas, on Everything
Musk has leveraged social media intrigue and a hot streak on the market to become the standard bearer for autonomous vehicle technology. Trust Tesla at public peril, argues James Brasuell in this opinion piece.
Californians Could Get a Tax Credit for Not Owning Cars
The bill’s sponsors say it’s only fair to extend tax relief to Californians who don’t own cars as the state aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease driving.
'Are Gas Prices Too High?'
Nominal gas prices have never been higher. But are they too high? The question was posed by the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources to the Secretary of the Interior during a committee hearing on May 19.
Density and Driving: A Second Look
A common argument against more compact housing is that increased population density will only reduce vehicle miles traveled at moderate levels of density, as opposed to very low-density and very high-density areas. But this might not be so.
Planning for Congestion Relief
The third and final installment of Planetizen's examination of the role of the planning profession in both perpetuating and solving traffic congestion.
Day One of the National Planning Conference—Reunions, Pandemic Planning, Equity, and VMT
The American Planning Association gathers for its first in-person National Planning Conference since 2019. Planetizen is in attendance, and here is some of what we saw on the first day of the conference.
How Planning Fails to Solve Congestion
Solutions for congestion are never as simple and easy as armchair planners and engineers would like you to believe—especially those who suggest that congestion can be solved by forever building more roadway capacity.
Report: Northern Virginia Transportation Plans Will Induce More Driving
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s plans to widen and expand the region’s highways will lead to a sharp increase in vehicle miles driven, a new study shows.
Planning and the Complicated Causes and Effects of Congestion
What do planners know about congestion, and what can they do about it? Explanations and solutions are less obvious than they seem (part one of a three-part series).
What Is VMT?
A measure of the demand for vehicle travel on public roadways, VMT provides a metric for evaluating the potential impact of road projects and developments and could become an increasingly useful tool for assessing road usage taxes.
San Diego County Weighs VMT Proposal
San Diego County could tax developers based on projected vehicle miles traveled as part of a new CEQA requirement that replaces Level of Service with VMT.
Puget Sound Transportation Plan Fails To Meet Emissions Goals
A draft regional transportation plan for the Puget Sound region does not go far enough to significantly reduce emissions and meet climate goals.
Parking Induces Driving, Study Says
New research published in the Urban Studies journal does the difficult work of connecting the dots between parking and driving.
Where the Pandemic Has Scrambled Traffic Patterns
The map of metropolitan areas that drive least, and thus emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions, has been completely redrawn by the pandemic, according to a recent report.
Placer County
City of Morganton
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Dongguan Binhaiwan Bay Area Management Committee
City of Waukesha, WI
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Indiana Borough
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
