Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Technology

6 Principles to Make Self-Driving Cars Work for Cities, Not Against Them

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 24, 2016 | No Comments

Self-driving cars are coming, and maybe sooner than we think. But the question of how they will shape cities is still wide open. Could they lead to less traffic and parking as people stop owning cars and start sharing them? More sprawl as car travel becomes less of a hassle? More freedom to walk and bike […]

Google Patents “Flypaper” to Save Pedestrians By Sticking Them to Car Hoods

By Angie Schmitt | May 19, 2016 | No Comments

The minds at Google have come up with a novel idea to protect pedestrians in the event of a collision with the company’s self-driving cars. The tech behemoth was awarded a patent this week for what it describes as a “flypaper or double-sided duct tape”-type substance beneath an “eggshell” exterior on the hood of the car. In a collision […]

High Stakes for Cities as Feds Start Regulating Self-Driving Cars

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 21, 2016 | No Comments

Last week as part of his State of the Union Address, President Obama announced a $4 billion investment over the next 10 years to test autonomous vehicles and get them ready for the market. Two days later at the Detroit Auto Show, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced that federal regulators would begin to develop coherent safety regulations for […]

Can a New Way to Measure Streets Help Advocates Tame Speeding?

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 29, 2015 | No Comments

You’ve heard of sensors that can count cars or bikes. Tools like that can help transportation planners make smarter decisions about where bike infrastructure is needed, for example. A new digital tool called Placemeter aims to measure streets at a much more fine-grained level, analyzing a variety of different aspects of movement in an urban environment. […]

10 Cities That Are Getting “Wired Transportation” Right

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 4, 2015 | No Comments

Which cities are making it easy to catch the next bus without a long wait, hail a ride with an app, or hop on bike-share? According to a new ranking from the Frontier Group and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Austin is leading the pack when it comes to embracing technological innovation that helps people get […]

NYPD Crash Data Now Easier to Use and Updated Daily

By Stephen Miller | May 7, 2014 | 8 Comments

The city went live with a major upgrade to NYPD’s crash data today. Information about traffic crashes was previously released via difficult-to-use monthly updates posted on the police department’s website. Now it’s available through a standardized feed updated daily on the city’s open data portal, allowing the public to sort crashes by time of day, […]

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