Posts by Will Schroeer
Will Schrooer is the State Policy Director for Smart Growth America. He has 20 years experience designing and directing transportation and land use policy evaluations for government, nonprofit, and private clients; examining costs and benefits, feasibility, economic, social, and distributional impacts. During the 1990s, Will was an Economist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in the Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation, where he led the agency's Transportation Group. He received a 1996 National Planning Award from the American Planning Association, and two EPA Service Awards, one for contributions to the U.S. Climate Change Action Plan. He then spent 9 years leading the smart growth practice at ICF Consulting, helping federal, state, and local clients take smart growth from policy idea to built project. Will holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Carleton College, and a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University. For more information about staff and contact information, visit our staff page.
Friday, August 21st, 2009
No Comments | Tags: 120 days, Economic Stimulus
At Streetsblog Captiol Hill, Elana Schor’s “Crunching June Stimulus Numbers: Roads Create Pricier Jobs Than Transit” confirms, so far, the predictions in SGA’s Spending the Stimulus: per dollar of investment, state road projects create fewer jobs than do state transit projects. The differences that she found are smaller than other studies have found, mostly, we suspect, because all the road project types are lumped together. Repair has long been found to produce more jobs than new roads.
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
No Comments | Tags: Automobiles, Complete Streets, Safety, Streets, Transportation
The report featured in last Thursday’s Washington Post (“Highway Conditions Contribute to Over Half of Fatal Auto Crashes”) got it half right: highway design does affect safety. But the argument that road and bridge widening is a cure for fatalities is wrong. That recommendation could have been written in 1959, and has been refuted on the ground in projects around the country.
Monday, June 8th, 2009
1 Comment | Tags: Minneapolis, Minnesota, parking, Planning, Transportation
Far too often, the insanity of minimum parking requirements drive development decisions, to the detriment of just about everyone — a theme best developed by UCLA’s Don Shoup in his terrific book, The High Cost of Free Parking. Another story, as both data point and lesson: Our favorite local micro-brewery gives tours; we went last Friday evening, where we heard a version of this story.
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
2 Comments | Tags: Children & Schools, Complete Streets, Health & Aging, New Reports
Pediatricians should help work against conventional suburban development (top) and for traditional neighborhoods (lower). Why? For starters, so kids can walk to school again. AAP’s Policy Statement includes this drawing by Duany, Plater-Zyberk. A version of the drawing is available at http://www.dpz.com/research.aspx, Diagram #25.
Yesterday, the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted a ground-breaking policy statement on [...]
