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Transportation Law

Michael E Lewyn

Selected Works

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Law

Are Wide Streets Negligent?, Michael Lewyn Dec 2018

Are Wide Streets Negligent?, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

American commercial streets are typically designed to encourage rapid automobile traffic, thus making streets unsafe for pedestrians. In the 2016 case of Turturro v. City of New York, the New York Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict against a city for failing to slow down such traffic. This article describes Turturro, but shows how limited its holding was: the Turturro court emphasized a city's failure to study traffic calming, so if a city studies its options adequately it can avoid liability even if its policies are unsuccessful.

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Planetizen Blog Posts- First Half Of 2019, Michael Lewyn Dec 2018

Planetizen Blog Posts- First Half Of 2019, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Op-ed length articles on various land use-related issues.

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Engineering Standards In Highway Design Litigation, Michael Lewyn Dec 2017

Engineering Standards In Highway Design Litigation, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Highway engineers sometimes believe that if they redesign streets to improve pedestrian safety (for example, by introducing traffic calming techniques) they might be successfully sued for negligent design by motorists. This chapter suggests that in such situations, governments are likely to be protected by discretionary function immunity. In addition, the chapter discusses a variety of technical issues.

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Engineering Standards In Highway Design Litigation, Michael Lewyn Dec 2017

Engineering Standards In Highway Design Litigation, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Chapter in "Engineering Standards for Forensic Application." (coauthored) Focuses on soveriegn immunity for highway designers.

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Health And Safety Overregulation, Michael Lewyn Jan 2017

Health And Safety Overregulation, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Anti-jaywalking laws are designed to protect the safety of pedestrians. Similarly, police and child protection officials punish parents who allow their children to walk to school, in the name of child safety. This speech criticizes these policies and their justifications.

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Robocar Risks, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

Robocar Risks, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Suggests that policymakers should not widen roads or stringently enforce anti-jaywalking laws in order to accommodate autonomous vehicles.

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2007 Cnu Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

2007 Cnu Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

The Congress for New Urbanism (cnu.org) once had a group blog that I contributed to. These are my 2007 posts, mostly about the 2007 CNU conference.

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Planetizen Blog Posts September-December 2017, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

Planetizen Blog Posts September-December 2017, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Blog posts related to public transit, housing costs, and other urban issues.

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How Suburbia Happened In Toronto, Michael Lewyn Mar 2015

How Suburbia Happened In Toronto, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

No abstract provided.

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2015 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2014

2015 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

2015 blog posts on urban issues from planetizen.com

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The Criminalization Of Walking, Michael Lewyn Dec 2014

The Criminalization Of Walking, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Because walking improves human health and reduces pollution, one might think that the law should encourage walking and discourage driving But in fact, criminal law sometimes punishes walkers, in two major respects. First, state and city laws against something often referred to as “jaywalking” limit walkers’ ability to cross streets. As a result of these laws, police can fine (and even arrest) walkers. Second, bureaucrats and police sometimes interpret child neglect laws to mean that preteen children may never walk on their own, and have sometimes arrested child pedestrians' parents or sought to place the children in state care. This …

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