Building systems that are designed from the start to be flexible, adaptable and reliant on empowered people can be an effective strategy to build up not only strong towns, but sustainable ones as well.
With our phones constantly at our sides, feeding us ads that seem a bit too on the nose, many can’t help but wonder if our phones are eavesdropping on us. While there's no easy answer, the evidence points to no. However, there's a far more sinister reason why tech companies choose not to listen to our conversations: they already have all the information about us they could ever need.
Acknowledging that vehicle travel is not destined to continue growing rapidly forever – and, more audaciously, suggesting that a new generation of Americans might prefer less car-dominated lives – can drive policymakers and the public to have a different kind of conversation about our transportation future.
The information in the CFPB's Consumer Complaint Database is a treasure trove of information about consumer experiences in the financial marketplace. But the database can present challenges for new users. Here's some information and tips for getting the most out of the database, and a new tool for downloading data.
In our transition toward a carbon free society we need to make public transit as appealing as possible. But a week long log of riding Boston’s “nice” train - the commuter rail - suggests that we have a long way to go.
Not every American city – and perhaps not any American city – can follow Madrid’s model exactly. But all have the power to encourage compact land use, expand public transportation, tame the negative effects of private cars in urban places, and facilitate the growth of shared mobility and vehicle electrification – unlocking powerful opportunities for cutting carbon from transportation.
Promising a lifestyle that is impossible to deliver – and that in many ways was never all it was cracked up to be – is how you burn public trust.
The number of transit trips taken in the Boston area increased by 11 percent between 2008 and 2014 – faster than that of any of the nation’s other top 10 transit cities.
Since its launch in 2011, FracFocus, a government- and industry-funded website, has been the only place where Americans could learn the details about chemicals and water used in fracking operations near their homes, schools and businesses. But FracFocus has never lived up to its promise of bringing true transparency to fracking. And now, at least one state is planning to set its own course for fracking disclosure.
