To Build a Better Bus Lane, Just Paint It

A plan to redesign Market Street in San Francisco uses a controversial approach used by cities around the world: eliminating personal cars entirely. This bicycle, pedestrian and bus-oriented layout approach reduces traffic accidents and fatalities; San Francisco plans to move forward with their plan in 2020.

Shared electric cargo bike programs like CargoB and Re:Ciclos offer affordable, sustainable transportation alternatives that can significantly reduce urban car dependency; however, their long-term success hinges on overcoming infrastructure, cultural, and economic barriers.

Wheels of Hope provides car rides to people who can’t drive due to illness, age or disability for no more than $20. Drivers provide more than just a ride and also provide company to the passenger and help with tasks if they need it.

In order to cut back on automotive emissions and traffic within the city center, Amsterdam has introduced road-dividing "cuts" - called "knips" in Dutch - along major roadways to make travel in the city center easier for pedestrians and public transportation users. These cuts consist of barriers set to close off short sections of a street, therefore disabling through-travel to cars. The city notes that a "knip" effectively cuts automotive traffic on a blocked-off road by 70 percent.

Recent efforts to bring a gender perspective, especially a feminist one, to urban planning are making cities safer and more inclusive. One Indian app called SafetiPin crowdsources ratings of public spaces based on various safety criteria like lighting, visibility, and transportation. Elsewhere, city planners and researchers are defining what a feminist city would look like. In Sweden, buses are incorporating "night stops" between regular stops to decrease the amount of walking at night needed.

After successful reports from countries around the world about the positive effects of congestion pricing, New York City looks to charge drivers in the most congested areas of the city in order to reduce traffic and environmental impact. The revenue from congestion pricing, which acts as a barrier for drivers in crowded city limits, is funneled back into the city's public transportation budget.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's de facto capital and megacity-to-be, has cut transportation times by providing a bus system that avoids traffic congestion and chaotic intersections. Though the bus system still struggles to provide comfortable conditions and convenient ticketing processes, commuters who take the bus report significantly reduced transportation times.

The city of Durham implemented a series of behavioral and economic nudges to encourage drivers to use alternative modes of transportation to get downtown besides cars. For instance, drivers could opt in to receive emails about bike and bus routes or be entered to win a cash prize if they took the bus. Together, the initiatives helped decrease single-driver trips downtown by over five percent.

Faced with poor air quality, the city of Oslo instituted a set of policy measures that have resulted in a dramatic improvement. Many of these policies center around transportation including incentivizing the production and purchase of electric cars, reducing the number of cars in the city, and creating car-free zones.

American cities can find solutions to low transit use by looking to other cities in Europe and Canada where the focus is on robust service and getting people to major transit hubs. These transportation systems use existing infrastructure and space with strategy so that transit is efficient and affordable. This in turn means more people are likely to use it because service is better.