StreetNEWS (July 7)

Blog entry:
Highlights

Shoddy sidewalk grate$ on nerves (Boston Herald [1], Bostonist [2])
Boston’s priciest sidewalk just got more expensive, putting taxpayers nearly $500,000 in the hole as the city continues to defy a court order to make the Huntington Avenue walkway handicapped accessible. “I’m speechless that no one in the administration or the City Council has done anything,” said John B. Kelly, who uses a wheelchair and heads the Neighborhood Access Group. “It says to me the rule of law doesn’t enjoy much respect in this city.”
Plans unveiled for East Broadway transformation (Somerville News [3])
The hub of East Somerville is set for its makeover. Engineers and city officials say they have a plan to transform the eastern strip of Broadway into a “pedestrian-friendly, multi-modal, transit-oriented street,” rather than the two-lane speedway it is now. At a community meeting on Wednesday, June 25, Kimo Griggs, an architect with Design Consultants Incorporated, said Broadway has the potential to become a “more identifiable and stronger central business district.”
Suburban peace vs. pedal power (Boston Globe [4])
Looking out at a lushly wooded area beyond a stone wall on her 100-acre estate, Carole Wolfe's face darkened. There, in the distance, she said, nervously pointing a finger, stretches a former rail corridor that, if some have their way, could bring trouble upon this town where her family's roots date to Colonial times. "Instead of solitude," Wolfe said, "you'd be having people. Wolfe is among a band of vocal Sudbury residents raising the alarm against a proposed bike trail along a pathway where trains once chugged.
If only drivers would share the road, bicycling would be safer (Boston Globe [5])
Last week, as I was riding my bike in Milton, I noticed a guy in a pickup truck at a stop sign perpendicular to my path. I'm always looking out for possible danger when I ride because it's everywhere, and this time was no exception. After stopping at the sign, the truck came straight at me. If I hadn't swerved and yelled, I'd be roadkill right now. He missed me by a foot.
In Park Slope, Frustration With a Parking Holiday (New York Times [6])
Many of the cars on Richard Herbert’s block, in the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, seem to be on vacation, and a very lazy one at that. Someone’s Maserati sat in the same spot for most of a week, sunning itself, with one of its windows left open. “That’s a hundred-thousand-dollar car,” Mr. Herbert said. Another car, with New Jersey plates and a “For Sale” sign, has not moved from a parking spot for weeks now, he said. Other cars on the block have been similarly sedentary. The car holiday started in May, when the city announced the suspension of alternate-side parking rules to allow the city to replace 2,800 parking signs in the neighborhood.
Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices Cut Congestion (New York Times [7])
Soaring gas prices and higher tolls seem to be doing for traffic in New York what Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s ambitious congestion pricing was supposed to do: reducing the number of cars clogging the city’s streets and pushing more people to use mass transit. In May, with gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, traffic at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent compared with the same month the previous year. Preliminary data for June shows a similar decrease in traffic, and officials say the change is largely because of higher prices at the pump.
In Germany, Traffic Signals Become a Thing of the Past (ABC News [8])
In the small town of Bohmte, near Hannover in Northern Germany, traffic lights and road signs are a thing of the past. The city is the first one in Germany to have scrapped all 'road clutter' in a bid to make the streets a safer place for its 13,500 inhabitants. The community has taken part in project called "Shared Space," which was sponsored by the European Union. Seven partner cities from five European countries cooperated over the past four years in the project, which aims to combine rather than separate the various functions of public spaces.

"Streets"

Rusted bridge prompts concerns (Boston Globe [9])
Brownsberger: Alewife area traffic update (Belmont Citizen-Herald [10])
Woman killed while crossing Newbury Street (Boston Herald [11], Boston Globe [12])
Packard's Corner sculpture welcomes visitors to Allston (Allston-Brighton TAB [13])
City, state join to 'change the face' of Jackson Square (Boston Metro [14])
So long, graffiti: city's untag team is here (Boston Globe [15])
Traffic Headaches Persist on Vineyard Roads (Martha Vineyard Gazette [16])
Plans unveiled for East Broadway transformation (Somerville News [17])
Repaving in Newton uncertain (Boston Globe [18])
Editorial: Dewey Square in a new light (Boston Globe [19])
Private tunnels, public concerns (Boston Globe [20])

Walking

Shoddy sidewalk grate$ on nerves (Boston Herald [21], Bostonist [22])

Bicycling

Demand rises for bike riding lessons for adults (Boston Globe [23])
Gas prices increase bike commuting (Belmont Citizen-Herald [24])
If only drivers would share the road, bicycling would be safer (Boston Globe [25])

Transit

MBTA ridership increases, turnpike traffic lower as gas prices rise (Boston Herald [26])
Legal Sea Foods lampoons MBTA ad policy (Boston Business Journal [27])
MBTA bus ridership spikes in May (Boston Metro [28])
Soaring fuel costs derail T's budget (Boston Herald [29], WCVB [30])
Commuter rail to test new ticket plan (Boston Globe [31])
MBTA warms to plan for Fields Corner mural (Dorchester Reporter [32])
After over 100 years, a trolley clatters down retirement road (Dorchester Reporter [33])
T line's extension extension at risk (Boston Herald [34])
Editorial: The mass clamor for mass transit (Boston Globe [35])

Cars/Parking

Agency may grow Boston Common garage (Boston Business Journal [36])
Parking Fines Increased In Boston (WBZ [37])
In wake of fatal Brookline crash, some call for crackdown on illegal parkers (Brookline TAB [38])
Cabbies seek pay hike, citing gas expenses (Dorchester Reporter [39])
Zen and the art of Boston driving (Boston Globe [40])

Parks

Suburban peace vs. pedal power (Boston Globe [41])
Price tag aside, $15m boathouse aimed for public (Boston Globe [42])

Development projects

Mayor calls BC's $1b expansion plan an intrusion (Boston Globe [43])
BC Neighbors plot new push to corral dorms (Boston Globe [44], Allston-Brighton TAB [45], Allston-Brighton Bulletin [46])
Opinion: Thinking outside the big box (Brookline TAB [47])
A decade later, future of Brookline Village storefront still in question (Brookline TAB [48])
1501 Comm. Ave: Charing Cross condos get nod from 'higher-ups' (Allston-Brigton TAB [49])
Columbus Center asks for boost of $40m (Boston Globe [50])
Forest Hills residents weigh MBTA proposal (Jamaica Plain Bulletin [51])
Owners hoping to put life in the theater [Hyde Park] (Boston Globe [52])
Some fear 'vision' of Union Square (Boston Globe [53])
On the road to becoming a hot spot [East Boston] (Boston Globe [54])
Moving in, moving out [Chinatown] (Boston Globe [55])

Transportation financing/Government

Editorial: Making (no) sense of police details (Boston Globe [56])
Editorial: Manual collection takes its toll (Boston Globe [57])
Letter: Three problems to reckon with (Boston Globe [58])

Out-of-state

In Park Slope, Frustration With a Parking Holiday (New York Times [59])
GOP bashes bike to work (Denver Daily News [60])
Commuters ditching cars for bikes, foot power (San Francisco Chronicle [61])
Concerns deflate city's bike rental proposal (Portland Tribune [62])
Hybrid-cab deadline has fleets fuming (New York Post [63])
Bus company bets fuel cost means profits (Nashua Telegraph [64])
Blumenauer unveils his 'Gas Price Relief Act of 2008' (BikePortland [65])
House Passes Bill to Boost Transit Funding (Streetsblog [66])
Maryland Senator Ben Cardin: America Needs Transit, Now (Streetsblog [67])
False Creek North - The Residents' Views (Planetizen [68])
For City Commuters, Same Old Story for Another Vehicle: Parking Is Scarce (New York Times [69])
Confusion on Bronx Buses Over Pre-Pay System (New York Times [70])
Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices Cut Congestion (New York Times [71])
Block Party Summer (Streetfilms [72])
Where the Car Is King, Tysons Faces a Dilemma (Washington Post [73])
A call for more Sunday Parkways (BikePortland [74])
Drivers Feeling Shunned by D.C. (Washington Post [75])

National trends

Oil Shock: Analyst Predicts $7 Gas, "Mass Exodus" of U.S. Cars (Wall Street Journal [76])
The Premature Obituary for Suburbia (Dave Writes [77])
Editorial: McCain's agenda on Amtrak (Boston Globe [78])
Car Sales at 10-Year Low (New York Times [79])
10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas (TIME [80])
30 billion fewer miles driven, and counting (Seattle Times [81])

International news

Road rules 'set against' cyclists (BBC News [82])
In Germany, Traffic Signals Become a Thing of the Past (ABC News [83])
Arriba Sevilla! (Streetsblog [84])
Contested Streets: Why Copenhagen Is the World's Happiest Capital (Streetsblog [85])