StreetNEWS (September 15)

Seven Dials crossing in London, an example of shared space
(Photo courtesy How We Drive)

• [BU] Bridge set for facelift (BU Daily Free Press, Boston Globe)
  By Max Levy and Lisa Merona -- The Boston University Bridge will likely undergo a makeover to address visual, safety and environmental concerns, officials said at a public meeting last night in the Cambridge City Hall Annex. About a dozen Cambridge Conservation Commission members joined engineers, citizens and advocacy group representatives Monday to discuss renovations for the 80-year-old bridge. STV Group Inc., the firm contracted by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to oversee construction on the bridge, gave a presentation on the proposed renovations.
  
  
• Boston Bike Riders 'Curious' About The Rules Of The Road (WBZ)
  By David Wade -- Pat Eger bikes into Boston's Financial District. He says the stretch of Cambridge Street near City Hall is the worst. "It's a little nutty." And you'll see that everyone is doing it. Pata Syamoto is a teacher at the Bicycle Riding School in Somerville. She's been very busy peddling the skill of pedaling to adults. Pata says biking in Boston is dangerous. "You go down Mass. Ave. and you are taking your life into your hands." So what is the city doing? Nicole Freedman is a former Olympian and the city's so-called "Bike Czar." "Boston has the potential to be absolutely world class as a biking city," she says.
  
  
• The MBTA Needs Debt Relief (Open Media Boston)
  This week's decision by MBTA leadership to renege on paying $43 million in back wages to thousands of unionized employees is but one more reason for the Massachusetts legislature to revisit the issue of debt relief for our state's main public transportation system. Serving almost 200 cities and towns around Massachusetts, the MBTA is the transportation lifeline for over 1.1 million riders daily - in a state with a population of 6 million. Last year, a coalition of transportation advocacy groups - including Alternatives for Community and Environment, the Conservation Law Foundation, and MassPIRG among others - called for the legislature to pay off over $2 billion of the beleaguered MBTA's debt, now estimated at over $8 billion.
  
  
• Police serve as two-wheeled referees for a three-way rivalry (Boston Globe)
  By Ethan Gilsdorf -- Drivers like to gripe about cyclists' failure to follow the traffic code. "They behave by their own rules," drivers complain. "Uh, hello?" pedestrians complain when bikes and cars whiz through crosswalks. "Do you even see me?" Then there's the complaint that police unfairly target cyclists while ignoring vehicles that side-swipe them and park in bike lanes. "Drivers don't respect our right to be in the road," cyclists say. Meanwhile, the ranks of law-abiding bicyclists seethe when renegade riders give them a bad name. Rival road warriors on the urban streetscape have their turf battles. Caught in the middle is Sergeant Kathleen Murphy. As head of Cambridge's Community Relations Bike Patrol Unit, she keeps the peace on the front lines of conflict among motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.
  
  
• You Want a Revolution (TIME)
  Carmel, Ind., is driving in circles. Since 2001, the Indianapolis suburb has built 50 roundabouts, those circular alternatives to street intersections that have become a transit fixture in much of the rest of the world. Because roundabouts force cars to travel through a crossroads in a slower but more free-flowing manner — unlike traffic circles, roundabouts have no stop signals — in seven years, Carmel has seen a 78% drop in accidents involving injuries, not to mention a savings of some 24,000 gal. of gas per year per roundabout because of less car idling.
  
  
• Are towns really safer without traffic lights? (Christian Science Monitor)
  By Isabelle de Pommereau -- BOHMTE, GERMANY -- When Ulrike Rubcic heard that her town would take down all of its traffic lights, she rolled her eyes in disbelief. Tucked between cornfields and cow meadows, the main street in this bucolic northern German community was also a thoroughfare with thousands of cars and trucks zooming to or from nearby Osnabruck. "Are we waiting for the first accident?" she thought then. But this summer the town reworked its downtown thoroughfare, not only scrapping the traffic lights but also tearing down the curbs and erasing marked crosswalks.

• [BU] Bridge set for facelift (BU Daily Free Press, Boston Globe)
• Dozens of antennas coming to JP streets (Jamaica Plain Gazette)
• Route 30: What Could Be (Planning Livable Communities)
• Foreclosure eyesores soar as suburbs battle blight (Boston Herald)

• More New Bike Racks! This Time On Mass Ave Near Berklee (Boston Biker)
  
• Mayor: Boston to Be World-Class Biking City (BU Today)
  
• Boston celebrates cycling (BU Daily Free Press)
  
• No bike helmet? Lose your wheels (Boston Globe)
  
• Washington Street Bike Lane (Boston Biker)
  
• Biker Madness: Walk the talk on your two-wheeled freedom machine (Valley Advocate)
  
• Boston Bike Riders 'Curious' About The Rules Of The Road (WBZ)
  
• Getting his due after run-in with DPW (Boston Globe)
  

• MBTA reviewing bus routes as it considers service changes (Boston Globe, Boston Herald)
  
• Residents split on proposed bus route changes (Allston-Brighton TAB)
  
• T plans to kill JP loop bus (Jamaica Plain Gazette)
  
• Do The Shuttle (WBUR)
  
• T chief reveals 33 more raises (Boston Globe)
  
• The MBTA Needs Debt Relief (Open Media Boston)
  
• T board OK's delay in paying back wages (Boston Globe)
  
• 3 T workers accused of lying on times sheets indicted (Boston Globe, Boston Metro)
  
• MBTA circling the drain; Grabauskas targeted and scapegoated by the Patrick administration (Switchback)
  
• Editorial: When the T closes, taxis profit (Tufts Observer)
  

• The Inalienable Right to Speed (How We Drive)
  
• Auto traders: Families who give up their cars like their savings -- and their life in the slow lane (Boston Globe)
  
• Boston 1st in savings from forgoing car (Boston Globe)
  

• Land swap would expand park (Boston Globe)

• Getting it right in Union Square (Somerville News)
  
• Michael Flaherty fights new City Hall (Boston Herald)
  
• City Responds to Allston Plan (Harvard Crimson)
  
• Suffolk releases more details on 20 Somerset vision (Beacon Hill Times)
  
• Changes urged on BC plan to expand (Boston Globe)
  
• Near BC, little common ground (Boston Globe, Allston-Brighton TAB)
  
• Consultants tapped for financial review of Columbus Center (South End News)
  
• Revitalizing a neighborhood (Boston Globe)
  
• City pushes for hotel in Davis Square (Somerville News)
  

• High gas prices take toll on Mass. Pike (Boston Globe)
  
• Two state workers charged as thieving Longellow lunkheads (Universal Hub, Cambridge Chronicle)
  
• Troopers make case against civilian traffic flaggers (Boston Herald, Boston Globe)
  
• Police serve as two-wheeled referees for a three-way rivalry (Boston Globe)
  

• City of Sarasota Believes Streetcars May be the Ticket (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
• Growing suburbs now see mass transit as a good idea (Houston Chronicle)
  
• With Nostolgia in Overdrive, Double-Decker Bus Gets a Trial Run (New York Times)
  
• BART considers higher fares for peak hours (San Francisco Chronicle)
  
• Wheelchair-accessible trail opens in Vt. (Boston Globe)
  

• The Mystery of Ground Transportation (Planetizen)
  
• You Want a Revolution (TIME)
  
• The Conservative Case for Urbanism (American Prospect)
  
• Bush pulls U-turn as highway funds run out (San Francisco Chronicle)
  
• Congress Weighs Boosting Funds for Mass Transit (Wall Street Journal)
  
• Transit ridership surges nationally in 2nd quarter (Boston Globe)
  
• Still stuck in the '50s (Baltimore Sun)
  

• Never Mind the Bollards: Here's Shared Space (How We Drive)
  
• High petrol prices see bikes gain ground in the Netherlands (AFP)
  
• A Virtuous Cycle: Safety In Numbers for Bicycle Riders (Science Daily)
  
• Continuing Beijing's traffic restrictions? (The World)
  
• Are towns really safer without traffic lights? (Christian Science Monitor)