StreetsBlog: A Detailed Blog on Transportation and Development

Photo by Nicholas Kibre/Wikipedia

StreetsBlog, a website that opened in 2006, features daily news coverage of sustainable transportation and sustainable development.  New York City, Washington D.C., and San Francisco are the website’s niche locations, but its coverage in New York is most expansive. StreetsBlog is sponsored by a larger nonprofit called OpenPlans, and receives its funding from reader donations, advertisements, and grants. Posts feature a variety of subjects about road and rail, such as the convenience of a bike-sharing membership, a review of a study examining obesity and car use, rail transport use in Zürich, Switzerland, and others.

I think StreetsBlog does a great job in its purpose of analyzing sustainable transportation developments because domestic and international efforts are featured. Its coverage also closely follows relevant legislation that could affect transportation or community development, such as this post criticizing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget. StreetsBlog is biased in the sense that it already has a set agenda on covering transportation and development issues, and the blog’s writers seem to be fairly well educated and critical on many issues. StreetsBlog does not feature a lot of coverage on rails, and I think it should try to.

Overall, the material on StreetsBlog could be very useful in analyzing case studies on road and rail anywhere. Readers get a good sense on the real projects that exist, and the possibility of expanding others.