The Hub 4/26/19: Clean Air Council’s Weekly Round-up of Transportation News
“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation-related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up to date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.
PlanPhilly: Family-friendly SEPTA Key to roll out – but not until 2020 – SEPTA plans to have key cards that can be used for a family trip sometime in 2020. Philadelphian families that rely on SEPTA have seen an increase in the cost of travelling as a group. Philadelphia has the most residents living below the poverty line of any major city. For those struggling to survive, an extra fifty cents per person adds up quickly.
Billy Penn: Philadelphia’s new version of street sweeping is…dusty – Philadelphia began using leaf blowers to clean the streets on Tuesday. This brings an end to a decade of Philadelphia being the only major US city with no street cleaning program to speak of. This novel approach spares drivers the inconvenience of moving their cars for street cleaning, which is the norm in other American cities. The noise pollution and dust kicked up by the leaf blowers is a health risk for pedestrians.
City Lab: How an Ancestor of the Bicycle Relates to Climate Resilience – Architecture students at the University of Buffalo were tasked with creating a 2 or more wheeled vehicle that is powered by a single seated rider pushing or kicking. The professors drew inspiration from a proto-bike, invented during the global climate disaster of 1815, called a laufmaschine. Students created 15 different human powered vehicles. As we prepare for the effects of climate change, human powered transportation solutions will be sorely needed.
Smart Cities Dive: Transit agencies celebrate National Get on Board Day – April 25th was the first ever National Get on Board Day. More than 200 transit agencies put out messaging highlighting the societal and economic benefits of public transit. There’s even a multimodal Buzzfeed quiz to determine what two modes of transit you are! In a time when transit ridership is declining, good PR is essential for transit agencies.
Strong Towns: Removing Parking Minimums: Lessons Learned and How to Pitch the Idea to Elected Officials – Removing parking minimums from municipal zoning codes is an important step in moving towards more sustainable towns. Strong Towns shares some tips for talking to your local government about eliminating parking minimums.
Image Source: City Lab
