Greater City Providence

News & Notes

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News & Notes Brian Williams Doesn’t Get How Streets Work. Will His Four Million Viewers? [Streetsblog]

Here’s the profile of New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan that aired on “Rock Center with Brian Williams” last night. The show reaches more than four million people, which isn’t enough to win its time slot but adds up to a lot more eyeballs than the print circulation of any NYC daily paper. In all likelihood, it reached a bigger American audience than any other piece of media content about reclaiming city streets for public space and more efficient modes of transportation. So how did NBC’s Harry Smith and his producers do with the assignment?


Treasuring Urban Oases [The New York Times]

Writing in The New York Times last week, Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor of urban planning, took note of “a profound structural shift” in America during the last decade or so, “a reversal of what took place in the 1950s.” Back then drivable suburbs boomed while center cities decayed. Now more and more people want to settle in “a walkable urban downtown.” The most expensive housing in the country, and not just New York City, is in “high-density, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods,” he said.

But what makes high-density neighborhoods pedestrian friendly?


Study: Men over age 45 more likely to crash on icy and snowy roads [Inforum]

Those risks, notable as winter approaches, are even greater if the older men are driving four-wheel-drive pickup trucks, Purdue University researcher Fred Mannering found. It could reflect a false sense of safety, he said.

“There may be a sense of invulnerability with four-wheel drive trucks leading the drivers to not slow down as much as they should,” Mannering said in an interview. “The reality is that four-wheel drive gets you up to speed faster in snow and ice, but it doesn’t help you stop any quicker.”

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