Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Atlanta BeltLine's Public Funding Should be Eliminated

November 6, 2012, 4:21pm

Baruch Feigenbaum

Last Friday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution printed my editorial that argued that Atlanta BeltLine Inc. is spending large amounts of public dollars while providing very little in return. BeltLine, Inc. disagreed with my analysis. To counter their argument, I have provided a more detailed analysis of why the BeltLine will not work.

Making the Case for Tolling

How a 'managed arterial' approach could cure Atlanta's congested roads

August 10, 2012

Robert Poole

What if it were possible to increase an arterial's traffic capacity by more than would happen by adding a lane each way - but without having to widen it? Miami and Fort Myers, Fla., are both looking into this idea. It's called converting an arterial into a "managed arterial." The basic idea is to give motorists a way to bypass traffic signals, by adding overpasses or underpasses to major arterials. Because those "grade separations" are costly to build, a small toll (e.g., 25 cents) would be charged, electronically, for each underpass a motorist used.

 

Brain Hubs and the Case for Labor Mobility

July 27, 2012, 10:44am

Tom Clougherty

Over at The American, Nick Schultz has posted an interview with Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at UC Berkeley and the author of "The New Geography of Jobs". Moretti's thesis is that new jobs and opportunities are increasingly clustered around 'brain hubs' - cities with well-educated workforces and strong innovation sectors. While old industrial areas decline rapidly, these 'brain hubs' thrive. According to Moretti's research, each new 'innovation job' brings with it five non-innovation jobs. If this is true, then one obvious implication is that labor mobility is vitally important. People need to be able to move where the work is...

Las Vegas City Neighborhoods Fare Worse Than Suburbs

April 25, 2012, 5:00pm

Baruch Feigenbaum

Much of the hype from the Great Recession has focused on how exurbs are losing population while closer in neighborhoods are gaining population. In reality the opposite is often true. At last week’s American Planning Association conference in Los Angeles, Alan Mallach of the Brookings Institution highlighted that in Las Vegas the suburbs and exurbs have survived the recession while the older parts of the city have not fared as well.

Romney's Transportation and Land Use Policies may be Little Different than Obama's

April 25, 2012, 1:54pm

Baruch Feigenbaum

One of President Obama’s landmark “smart growth” initiatives known as the Partnership for Sustainable Communities was also based on a Romney program. When Romney was governor of Massachusetts he fought sprawl and encouraged density. Romney’s administration worked to concentrate development in town centers, construct housing near transit stations, and improve existing roads instead of expanding them.

Livable Centers Initiative Grant Program Needs to be Refocused

April 6, 2012, 11:00am

Baruch Feigenbaum

The Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is intended to promote urban regeneration in metro Atlanta communities. But the projects it has funded have had little success in creating any sustained new economic activity. If ARC wants to continue with the LCI program, and if other cities want to follow the model, two simple rules should be followed: first, it should be funded locally; second, it should focus on activities that have been shown to actually underpin economic development, such as the construction and maintenance of roads –especially if it is funded by gas taxes.

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