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A few weeks back, I wrote about an article that appeared in The Tyee, arguing that artsy, creative young people are abandoning Vancouver in droves. As evidence, the author mentioned data showing a decline in the number of young people in Metro Vancouver since 1996. The idea that Vancouver was pushing out young people struck me as sketchy. So I looked at the numbers a bit, and decided that the...

Will the deep-bore tunnel — the current choice by the city and state to replace Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct — go over budget? One way to answer that question is to look at what’s happened with other tunneling projects in the Seattle area. In a new report—Cost Overruns For Seattle-area Tunnel Projects—Sightline examines the cost history of four recent tunneling projects: the Mt Baker I-90 expansion tunnel; the downtown Seattle bus tunnel;...

Here’s a chart that almost speaks for itself:  sprawling cities require more driving—and hence, produce more CO2 from cars and trucks—than do compact cities.   The chart is from a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, comparing greenhouse gas emissions in 10 global cities.  The lessons are pretty clear:  compact cities in temperate climates, powered by low-carbon electricity, are the ones with the lowest carbon emissions.  It...

I remember the first time I drove into Vancouver in the late 1980s. Interstate 5 melted away into Highway 99 and eventually, I crossed over the Oak Street Bridge into a four lane city street with no turn lanes. How odd that the freeway didn’t just plow through the city with convenient exits at strategic points. What were they thinking? Instead, it was a game of trying to pick the...

As Lisa mentioned a few weeks back, a panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences recently concluded that compact, walkable neighborhoods can significantly reduce CO2 emissions from driving. USAToday described the findings this way: Meeting the growing demand for conveniently located homes in neighborhoods designed to encourage walking could significantly reduce the number of miles Americans drive while giving people more housing choices, a national research panel has concluded....

There are many reasons to love Vancouver, BC. It is a great international city with tremendous cultural diversity. Some of us truly see Vancouver as a bold leader in accommodating growth in sustainable compact communities. Personally, I like the fact that the Queen is on their money and they call the Mayor, “Your Worship.” Now there is one more reason to admire Vancouver—especially all you density devotees out there: secondary...

Conservative Northwest think tanks, I am calling you out. I want you guys to talk about parking policy. Yeah, you heard me: parking policy. By my count, there are 5 prominent right-leaning, market-oriented think tanks in the Northwest: Discovery Institute and Washington Policy Center in Seattle; Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Olympia; Cascade Policy Institute in Portland; and Fraser Institute in Vancouver, BC. Each of them prominently features a devotion to free markets...

We’ve talkedabout it before. Americans are plagued by an obesity epidemic and trying to find smart ways to improve health. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shares the results of The Measures Project, an attempt to review all the recent science on community-based strategies to reduce obesity. The report is an important starting point for establishing land use as a kind of preventative medicine—a...

You may have already heard of  Walk Score—an endlessly entertaining internet tool that lets people discover how pedestrian-friendly their neighborhood is.  Walk Score ranks neighborhood “walkability” based on the mix of stores and services that are within walking distance of any home in North America.  If you haven’t already, you should check it out—but only if you’ve got nothing pressing to do, since it’s pretty addictive. Now, the good folks...

Sometimes I feel a little like Captain Ahab, forever in search of an elusive white whale.  In my case, though, the whale is profoundly geeky: I’m in search of a definitive study, or set of studies, showing the relationship between urban design and transportation habits—particularly, how neighborhood design affects fuel use.  So far, that particular white whale remains elusive—but searching for it turns up all sorts of interesting tidbits.  Like...