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About Melanie Curry (Edit profile)

Melanie Curry is former managing editor of ACCESS (curryme@uclink4.berkeley.edu).

Urgent Action Required

Melanie Curry

At a recent conference in Berkeley sponsored by the University of California Transportation Center, On the Road to Sustainability: From Research to Practice, researcher after researcher discussed the climate implications of a wide range of transportation issues. Participants heard how better coordination of systems for dealing with empty freight containers could reduce the numbers of truck trips; what effects, if any, various finance and land use policies have on the amount of driving people do; what new fuels are in the works and whether they hold potential for greenhouse gas reductions; how much aggregate— rock—is needed to complete California highway projects (a lot) and how much of it must be transported from overseas quarries. . . .

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2017-05-30T22:01:37+00:00Categories: ACCESS 31, Fall 2007|Tags: , |
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Introduction: Change Happens

Melanie Curry

In a constantly evolving field like transportation, it’s crucial for practitioners to be willing to shift perspective, or at least to rethink positions. What seems axiomatic in one period may change when new circumstances arise. Thus, for example, mid-twentieth-century advocacy of more roads to handle growing numbers of vehicles is being re-examined in the face of ever-increasing traffic congestion. Meanwhile new vehicle types slowly replace older ones; new types of buses share streets with old yellow school buses as well as hybrid cars and light rail; and our cities experiment with bus rapid transit, car sharing, traffic calming, and bike lanes.

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2017-05-30T22:02:45+00:00Categories: ACCESS 30, Spring 2007|Tags: |
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Introduction: Mel Webber (1920–2006)

Melanie Curry

With this issue, the University of California Transportation Center marks the fifteenth year of publishing ACCESS magazine. However, our celebration is tinged with sadness, because the founder and editor of ACCESS is no longer with us: Melvin M. Webber passed away on November 25, 2006. We miss him.

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2017-05-30T22:05:08+00:00Categories: ACCESS Special Issue, Winter 2006-2007|Tags: , |
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Introduction: We’re All Transportation Planners

Melanie Curry

For eighteen years, the University of California Transportation Center, with help from USDOT and Caltrans, has conducted and shared research on compelling transportation issues. During those years, the issues have grown in complexity right along with growth in population and sizes of cities.

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2017-05-30T22:17:48+00:00Categories: ACCESS 29, Fall 2006|Tags: , , |
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Why Bicyclists Hate Stop Signs

Joel Fajans and Melanie Curry

A bike commuter has a lot to consider before leaving for work. What route to take, considering hills and traffic? What clothes to wear, considering ease of movement, comfort, perspiration, distance, and weather? But these questions fade when compared to the safety, speed, and energy issues bicyclists deal with en route. Transportation planners know that incorporating bicycles into the transportation system can help ease traffic congestion by substituting bikes for cars; they also Why 1know that mixing cars and bikes can be tricky. But they seldom account for the bicyclist's concerns-matters that don't occur to the typical car-driving planner. Unless planners take bicyclists' concerns seriously, their efforts will do little to increase the numbers of bicycles or help bicyclists and drivers coexist safely.

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2017-05-31T21:26:01+00:00Categories: ACCESS 18, Spring 2001|Tags: |
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