StreetNEWS (August 4)

A cyclist on the George Washington Bridge in New York City (Photo courtesy New York Times)

• With bridges shaky, what if Boston lost its links to Cambridge? (Boston Globe)
  They're the pulsing arteries between two cities, connecting the Boston Brahmin with the Cambridge liberal, the button-down number crunchers with the big-think biotech lab rats, the thousands of students from Boston University with those at MIT and Harvard.
  
  
• Neighbors lose the chain-link and reconnect the community (Boston Globe)
  It's leafy, lush, lined with pretty houses and gardens in bloom. But there's something especially inviting about Oxford Street in Somerville that you can't quite put your finger on. Lawrence Paolella can. Driving along the street, the 70-year-old points animatedly at yards to his left and right. "Look at that one, or that one. What do you see? What don't you see?" he exclaims. "No fences!"
  
  
• Officials gear up for sharing plan (Boston Globe)
  Rent it. Ride it. Return it. Boston officials will evaluate that process in the coming months when they discuss implementing a bike-sharing program that could help residents cope with high gas prices and congested city streets.
  
  
• The Woonerf Deficit (New York Observer)
  What might more pedestrian-friendly streets mean for New Yorkers?
  NEW YORK, NY -- The Dutch call it a woonerf—a “livable street” resplendent with wide sidewalks, ample retail, greenery and minimal automobile traffic. It’s designed to boost quality of life for citizenry, the till for retailers and property values for landowners. Perhaps you’ve noticed that New York City doesn’t have many woonerfs amid its warren of streets, which make up one-fourth of the city’s land area. But what if it did?
  
  
• Cycling Back Around (Washington Post)
  Four Wheels Good, Two Wheels Better. In the City, an Old-Fashioned Conveyance Returns
  WASHINGTON, DC -- This is the summer of women on bicycles riding around town free as anything, wearing long dresses or skirts, sandals or even high heels, hair flowing helmet-free, pedaling not-too-hard and sitting upright on their old-school bikes, the kind with front baskets where they put their laptops, and handlebars that curve gently back in a bow shaped like the upper line of someone's perfectly drawn red lipstick.
  
  
• Highways Paved With Gold (Slate)
  You think the government is wasting a few billion a year on mass-transit subsidies. But what about the huge subsidies for cars and trucks?
  The Transportation Department reported that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May 2008 than in May 2007, a 3.7 percent drop. The result: rising demand for mass transit and declining revenues for the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by gas taxes. The Bush administration's counterintuitive policy response, as the New York Times reported, has been for the Highway Trust Fund to borrow funds from the department's mass-transit account.

• Hank Investigates: Longfellow Bridge (WHDH)
• Neighbors invited to make Everett Street greener (Allston-Brighton TAB)
• Brookline's hidden 'hoods (Brookline TAB)
• Community process begins for Rutherford Avenue/Sullivan Square project (Charlestown Bridge)
• Eastie to get $3.8 million renovation (Boston Metro)
• A rhythmic, rocking Cradle of Liberty no more (Boston Globe)
• Bridge Street work is planned; businesses brace for problems (Salem Gazette)
• Cape Cod trip just sails with Sagamore 'flyover' (Boston Globe)
• Neighbors lose the chain-link and reconnect the community (Boston Globe)
• Time again in Sharon to gather 'round the Square (Boston Globe)
• With bridges shaky, what if Boston lost its links to Cambridge? (Boston Globe)
• Road work ahead (Boston Globe)

• Gas prices fuel interest in bicycling (Beverly Citizen)
• It doesn't have to be just Bike Friday (West Roxbury Transcript, Allston-Brighton TAB)
• Bike Blog - Biking Boston (Miami New Times)
• Letter: Boston by bike (Boston Globe)
• Officials gear up for sharing plan (Boston Globe)

• Riders flock to T in record numbers (Boston Globe, Boston Herald)
  
• Riders going for 'Charlie' (Boston Metro)
  
• Stations for South Coast rail project under review (MetroWest Daily News)
  
• Framingham To Boston Bus Line In The Works (WBZ, Boston Metro)
  
• Free rides for MBTA workers (Boston Herald)
  
• Station rehab is costing more and taking longer (Boston Metro)
  
• MBTA suspends inspector who's also a full-time meter reader (Boston Herald)
  
• Discuss proposed Magoun Square Green Line stop (Somerville Journal)
  
• Wave of the future (Boston Globe)
  
• Reisner: Minimize the burden for providing Green Line maintenance in our city (Somerville Journal)
  
• Transit projects get EPA approval (Boston Metro)
  
• Happy Birthday! (No Free Transfer)
  

• Think you know the rules of the road? (Los Angeles Times)
  
• New Brookline taxi policy could shake up cab ownership (Brookline TAB)
  
• Hub parking rates idle at No. 2 in US (Boston Globe)
  
• The Urge to Merge (New York Times)
  

• Federal funding denied for Border-to-Boston trail (Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle, Tri-Town Transcript)
  
• Festival to shine light on beaches (Dorchester Reporter, Boston Globe)
  
• Port Norfolk park dream gets $7m boost in bond bill (Dorchester Reporter)
  
• Foss Park Scores (Somerville News)
  
• Draw 7 friends look after their section of river (Somerville Journal)
  
• Editorial: Enhancing the backyard [Debunking rail trail concerns] (Boston Globe)
  
• Not all Franklin Park's roaring is at the zoo (Boston Globe)
  

• Theater District tower proposed (Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Boston Herald)
  
• BC, neighbors at odds on traffic plans (Allston-Brighton TAB)
  
• Perspective: Charlesview plans should promote economic diversity in housing (Allston-Brighton TAB)
  
• Geneva housing proposal reveals difference in vision (Dorchester Reporter)
  
• Selling out (South End News)
  
• Corcoran closing loop on Bayside redevelopment (Boston Business Journal)
  

• 13 questions for Ian Bowles (Boston Globe)
  
• Road work funds shrink (Boston Globe)
  
• Transportation planner has traveled the world to manage projects (Somerville Journal)
  
• A Tool for Building Healthier Public Projects and Policies (WorldChanging)
  
• Editorial: Toll-payers win a pair (The Enterprise)
  
• Legislature agrees to back Pike finances (Boston Globe)
  
• Your View: Taking the long view on roads, bridges (South Coast Today)
  
• Editorial: Lawmakers lobby to boost gas tax... (Boston Herald)
  
• Editorial: ...But pork untouched (Boston Herald)
  

• For the Hard Core, Two Wheels Beat Four (New York Times)
  
• Many Families Limiting Themselves to a Single Car (New York Times)
  
• Williamsburg Walks Doubles Foot Traffic on Bedford Avenue (Streetsblog)
  
• FHWA wants Portland to test un-colored bike boxes (BikePortland)
  
• Stamford studies return of trolleys (The Advocate)
  
• Cop Assaults Critical Mass Rider. Charges Filed Against Cycling (Streetsblog)
  
• Summer Streets PSA (Streetfilms)
  
• OC turns to pedal power by dusting off old bikes (OC Register)
  
• Road Rage In Portland: Bikes, Cars Clash (Newsweek)
  
• The Woonerf Deficit (New York Observer)
  
• Md. shifts tack on transit policy (Baltimore Sun)
  
• Emeryville firm pays employees to bike (San Francisco Chronicle)
  
• The Post on Safer DC Streets (Washington Post)
  
• Freewheelin' Gears Up for the Political Conventions (The Bike-Sharing Blog, WashCycle)
  
• Streetlife stars in pedicab rides [Portsmouth, NH] (Boston Globe)
  
• Bike The Falls (Streetfilms)
  
• Golf carts take to the road [Ashkum, IL] (CNN Money)
  
• Slower is Faster in DC (How We Drive)
  
• Cycling Back Around (Washington Post)
  
• Clang, Clang, Clang -- Sounds Like Great Idea (Hartford Courant)
  

• Big Surprise: America's Fittest Cities are Also Most Walkable Cities (TreeHugger)
  
• Bikers, pedestrians seeking better Web maps (Business Week)
  
• Navigating The Science (And Sociology) of 'Traffic' (NPR, USA Today)
  
• Motorists on track to drive less this year (Boston Globe)
  
• Gas'onomics 2008: Drive less, pay less, ride more (Los Angeles Times)
  
• Drop in Miles Driven Is Depleting Highway Fund; Loan From Mass Transit Is Urged (New York Times)
  
• Highways Paved With Gold (Slate)
  
• AP IMPACT: Little progress since bridge collapse (Yahoo! News)
  
• More Cities Join National Park(ing) Day (MarketWatch)
  
• Reforming the Nation's Transportation Agenda (Planetizen, The Fast Lane)
  
• Bus travel grows as fuel soars, airfares leap (AP)
  

• Jakarta's Car-Free Day on the Rise (ITDP)
• Parliament gives Crossrail all clear (New Civil Engineer)
• Concrete Dragon, a Book Review (WorldChanging)
  
• When is the next bus coming ... exactly? [Ottawa, Canada] (WorldChanging)