How transportation planning is stuck in the past

A new report from the National League of Cities, "City of the Future: Technology & Mobility," details the many challenges city and regional leaders face in adapting their planning efforts to coming workforce and demographic changes. Bob Graves, associate director of the Governing Institute, writes about the report's findings in Governing Magazine.

"For all we hear about the impact that technology and social changes are having on urban mobility, you'd certainly expect to see their influence reflected in city transportation planning," he says. "For the most part, unfortunately, this simply isn't the case."

In short, Graves writes, the NLC study finds that the cities' planning efforts focus heavily "on the problem of automobile congestion and prescribe increased infrastructure in the form of new roads as the primary cure."

The study analyzed city and regional transportation planning documents from the 50 most populous U.S. cities as well as the largest cities in every state, for a total of 68 communities. Cincinnati didn't make the cut, but our regional planning shortcomings are certainly echoed in the report.

Read the full Governing Magazine story here.