Infographic: The United Names of America
- Alessandra Rizzotti and Kate Slovin contributed in America, News and Transportation

This infographic is a collaboration between GOOD and Kate Slovin

Many cities in America share the same names, including street names. Most cities name streets after numbers, trees, or landscapes. Because it is common for city planners to name the first street of cities Main Street or in honor of a historical figure, like George Washington, the most common street name in the United States remains “2nd” (or “Second”) Street.

Many street names haven’t changed over the last two decades because it can create problems with deed registrations and mail delivery, and can be costly. Yet some new street names are popping up to honor more recent politicians and local heroes. For example, did you know three streets in Florida and one in California were renamed to honor President Barack Obama in 2009? Check out this infographic to see the five most popular city names and other popular street names, including some very unique ones.

Underground Music: This Awesome App Won New York’s Public Transit Hackathon
- Meghan Neal wrote in Technology, New York and Transportation

If you’ve taken the subway in New York recently, you’ve surely seen the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new slogan: “Improving, non-stop.”

In that spirt, the MTA has been making an admirable effort to make riders’ lives better by embracing new technology. More than 30 stations now have WiFi available (and cell service coming too!), and there are plans to get the remaining stations wired within the next five years.  

More connectivity also means more opportunity for creative apps to improve the transit system. These, the MTA decided to crowdsource.

Continue reading on good.is

Innovation in the Streets: It’s Transportation Month
- Stef McDonald wrote in Living, Transportation and News

Let’s face it: getting from point A to point B isn’t always easy. Or fast. Or convenient. Or green. Think about how often we gripe about getting to where we need to go, whether it’s commuting to work, running to the grocery store, or driving to your kid’s T-ball game. Transportation can be a real bitch. 

GOOD HQ is in Los Angeles, which recently reclaimed the honor of being named the worst city for traffic in the U.S. You can imagine the conversations by our water cooler. We started to talk about transportation in our city and then other places—and then other countries. We’ve decided to put our attention to the issue of Transportation for the month of May. 

Continue reading on good.is

Illustration by Kate Slovin

In 1897, a Bicycle Superhighway Was the Future of California Transit
- Yasha Wallin posted in Transportation, Bikes and Biking

In 1897, a wealthy American businessman named Horace Dobbins began construction on a private, for-profit bicycle superhighway that would stretch from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. It may seem like a preposterous notion now—everyone knows Angelenos don’t get out of their cars—but at the time, amidst the height of a pre-automobile worldwide cycling boom, the idea attracted the attention of some hugely powerful players. And it almost got built.

Continue to vice.com

It’s Time for Americans to Chill Out About Gas Prices

A better strategy than wishing for lower prices and believing politicians who promise to magically make them lower would be to take actions that will break the link between gas and transportation.

Read the story on GOOD→ 

[currenteye]

Lift-off

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As we wind down our efforts to get to space on our own, it’s good to remember that we’ll now be carpooling, which will cost us only a cool $63 million per trip compared to our average launch cost of $1.5 billion.

Some of us in the office aren’t that sad to see the launches come to an end. 

Most of us are still trying to figure out what happened to our dreams of space, and exactly how it is we can get there still. Luckily we have a flowchart for that.