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It’s been scarcely three months since an oil train in Quebec exploded catastrophically, killing 47 people and leveling several blocks of a town. Then, last weekend, another oil-bearing train derailed resulting in another huge explosion: Residents for miles around saw and heard a “large fireball” shortly after 1 a.m., [fire chief] Phelan said. “There’s been no explosion or similar event like that since.” As before, local emergency responders were unable...

Parking reform may finally be coming. Here are eight reasons to hope for change soon: 1. Noah’s (P)ark. UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup, like a modern day Noah, has been carrying a new strategy for parking reform far and wide looking for dry land on which to release it. The three-step plan of action—charging market prices for curb spaces through performance pricing, rebating the proceeds to neighborhoods, and then eliminating...

This is the season climax, the culmination, the big reveal. Previously on Parking? Lots! Cities mandate off-street parking (guided only by junk science and groupthink). They do it in fear of territorial neighbors who want “their” curb spaces left alone. Our communities suffer horribly as a result. Information technology is shaking things up, though, and cities can now charge for curb spaces more easily. They can also share the proceeds...

In recent years, the Northwest has seen a raft of proposals to use trains to transport coal to export terminals and crude oil to refineries and ports. To better illustrate the effects of the plans, Sightline is analyzing rail crossings from Sandpoint, Idaho to Cherry Point, Washington in a special series, The Wrong Side of the Tracks. Large-scale rail shipping of coal and oil presents a basic physical challenge to...

From the same folks who want to build a gargantuan oil-by-rail facility on the Columbia River, comes this news today: More than 20,000 barrels of crude oil have spewed out of a Tesoro Corp. oil pipeline in a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota, the state Health Department said Thursday. State environmental geologist Kris Roberts said the 20,600-barrel spill, among the largest recorded in the state, was discovered on Sept....

Imagine if you could put a meter in front of your house and charge every driver who parks in “your” space. It’d be like having a cash register at the curb. Free money! How much would you collect? Hundreds of dollars a year? Thousands? How might all that lucre shift your perspective on local parking rules? The idea of a private meter (already available on eBay)—or a variant of it...

It must be a syndrome. A mass delusion of endless traffic growth. Or maybe the idée fixe that the future will resemble the 1950s. Earlier in the week I mentioned that, despite years of declines on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Washington’s transportation revenue forecasts assume that traffic will soon start growing, quickly and inexorably. It might be funny if the fiscal stakes weren’t so dire. Apparently, the same mentality apparently holds...

The government shutdown did not prevent the EIA from releasing new energy data yesterday. The figures in the latest coal report take us up through the end of June 2013: Nationally, coal exports tailed off a bit. The US shipped nearly 29.4 million tons of coal in the second quarter of 2013. By historical standards, that’s a lot. At present, the Western Customs Region plays only a minor role in the...

I want to be able to take matters into my own hands and make sure I cannot father a kid until I choose. –Brian, California For a long time, outdated perceptions have contributed to the lack of investment in birth control for men. Since women traditionally have borne the primary burden of unwanted childbearing and parenting, decision makers have long assumed that men wouldn’t be interested in contraceptives—or would have a...

There are places in this world the savvy traveler would never drive with any hope of finding street parking: Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, for example, or just about anywhere in downtown Los Angeles. That’s what you might think, anyway. If you actually drive to Fisherman’s Wharf today, though, you will have no problem finding a curb spot. A space will offer itself on each nearby block, if you’re willing...