SNAPPatx Brings the Love

April 22, Austin Post covers a great SNAPPatx story.  

Jace Deloney felt closed out.

Deloney studied political science at Lamar University and had always been politically aware and engaged. But, after moving to Austin in 2008 he started to feel closed off from the government. He could speak, but who would hear?

Blake said she started really becoming enthusiastic about social engagement during the 2009 South by Southwest Interactive conference.  Out of that came SNAPPATX - a platform that leveraged social media to aggregate thoughts, opinions and ideas about Austin mobility.

“A few young people really got into it.” Blake said. “It has created something of an online community. It served as a way for them to connect. They still talk and argue about issues.”

Read on . . . AustinPost

What Makes Successful Transit-Orient Development?

The "D variables" that define success:

Destination accessibility, how many attractions or jobs are accessible from a given site within 30 minutes

Density, meaning more apartments and townhomes

Diversity in the types of land uses, such as residential, retail and office

Design that is geared toward pedestrians

Distance to and from transit (measured by walking times)

Freeways That Should Come Down

CNU president John Norquist stars in this video from Streetfilms about the problem of inner-city highways and the steps some cities are taking to get rid of theirs.

"If you look at the real estate anywhere near a freeway, almost always its degraded," says Norquist. "You'll get surface parking lots, or buildings that have high-vacancy rates. No walking. Because it's really hard to design a freeway that would look good in a city."

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Highway Removal from Streetfilms on Vimeo.


Should Austin consider removing I-35, so through traffic uses SH 130 and local traffic becomes "local" again?  What do you think

The Cost of Free Parking

The City of Austin has been making a lot of changes in parking starting with a new "on-street" meter and most recently council approval to extend the hours for which they charge for parking.  If you thought this was a liberal, socialist conspiracy . . . think again.  


The American Conservative, April 4th: The Cato Institute today launched an excellent symposium on the high costs of free parking. It’s wonky stuff, to be sure, but challenges the Right’s refusal to engage with urban planning issues and blindness to all the subsidies going to our automobile-centric infrastructure. The lead essay by Donald Shoup, a UCLA professor of urban planning, contains some powerful arguments for parking meters with market-based pricing:


"Cities should set the right price for curb parking, because the wrong prices produce bad results. Where curb parking is underpriced and overcrowded, a surprising share of traffic can be cruising in search of a place to park. Sixteen studies conducted between 1927 and 2001 found that, on average, 30 percent of the cars in congested traffic were cruising for parking. For example, when researchers interviewed drivers who were stopped at traffic signals in New York City, they found that 28 percent of the drivers on a street in Manhattan and 45 percent on a street in Brooklyn were cruising for curb parking."


Read on . . .