A Primer for California's Public Health Community on Regional Transportation Plans and Sustainable Communities Strategies
Increasingly, health experts and leaders in non-health policy are making strong connections between the built environment – our streets, transit systems, houses, stores, parks, and offices – and a myrida of health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, and traffic fatalities. Regional Transportation Plans are an incredible opportunity to shape the built environment in ways that yield positive health outcomes. This report is intended for public health and sustainable transportation professionals as well as local government officials to help them do just this.
“When you’ve got a house where the roof is failing, you don’t take out your savings and build an addition,” said Jeff Hobson, deputy director for TransForm, a transit advocacy group. “We feel like it’s nutty to go ahead and plan for more multi-billion-dollar extensions.”
Walkable, transit-oriented communities are seen as an antidote to unfettered sprawl. But outdated city codes vastly overestimate how much people drive and require excessive parking in th
published in San Jose Mercury News, December 5, 2011
No longer is a speedier commute the primary way to assess the benefits of 90 of the most expensive transportation projects being considered in the Bay Area over the next 25 years.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is looking at factors often ignored when assessing whether it is financially worthwhile to pay millions to widen highways and expand trains. Road fatalities and injuries, emissions reductions, the cost of owning and operating a car and even the health effects of physical inactivity are being considered in the Project Performance Assessment study now under way....
"This is groundbreaking analysis that could call into question some of the biggest transportation projects," said Stuart Cohen of TransForm, an Oakland-based public transportation advocacy group. "For projects that have a score under 1, or lead to greenhouse gas increases, it will -- and should -- bring on intense scrutiny."
"We are talking about authorizing a $6 billion project, one of the largest transportation projects in the history of the Bay Area, yet many important questions remain unanswered," said John Knox White, project manger for Transform, an Oakland-based transportation advocacy group. "If we do it right, we can end up with a world-class transportation system. But the commission's current approach won't do that."
On the heels of the sudden closure of a major commuting bridge in Louisville, KY, a new report shows that more than 18,000 of the nation’s busiest bridges, clustered in the nation’s metro areas, ar
Oaklanders dragged furniture and plants into the street on Friday, transforming parking spots into miniature parks—or “parklets”—for International PARK(ing) Day.
Oaklandish, on Broadway and 14th, was offering tacos in parking spaces in front of the shop, and passers-by could get a bicycle-powered smoothie—mixed in a pedal-driven blender—at the TransForm parklet on 14th Street.
TransForm Deputy Director Jeff Hobson hopped on the bicycle to give a demonstration; as he pedaled the blender blades whirred audibly. “At 12:30 there will be smoothies out here,” he said. “Bicycle-powered smoothies.”
September 15, 2011 - Last night, the Senate passed a six-month extension of the current federal transportation bill. The President is expected to sign it today.
published in San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2011
"The thing we would love to see is a comprehensive plan that will offer people transit options and increase carpooling and vanpooling," said Stuart Cohen, Transform's director. "Instead what we're seeing is an emphasis on expanding the (highway) system."
published in San Jose Mercury News, August 12, 2011
When John Leyba boarded Caltrain on Tuesday morning at the Diridon Station in downtown San Jose, he found it "insanely crowded" -- standi
Gas prices that averaged $4.32 a gallon in the region in May are "the largest factor, undoubtedly," said Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm, an Oakland-based transportation advocacy group. "There is clearly a change in behavior when you see $4 at the pump and $50 fill-ups for a midsize car."
But Cohen and others say it's not just the price of gas. Higher bridge tolls and parking fees have hit drivers in the pocketbook and led some to take the bus or train to save money. Some are cutting back on driving to reduce the cost of maintaining older cars as they worry about keeping their jobs.
