February 11, 2009

Transmilenio
TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit in Bogotá, Colombia
 

Highlights

  • Lessons From Bogotá (Brookline Perspective, Boston Biker)
    Once again, an inspiring urban leader has come to Boston. Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogata, Columbia held forth at multiple speaking engagements last week, thanks to the LivableStreets Alliance, Walk Boston and the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy. As with Nicky Gavron, the former deputy mayor of London who I saw speak last year, there was much food for thought as we heard about the farsighted transformations realized by this remarkable urban leader.
Transmilenio
TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit in Bogotá, Colombia
 

Highlights

  • Lessons From Bogotá (Brookline Perspective, Boston Biker)
    Once again, an inspiring urban leader has come to Boston. Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogata, Columbia held forth at multiple speaking engagements last week, thanks to the LivableStreets Alliance, Walk Boston and the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy. As with Nicky Gavron, the former deputy mayor of London who I saw speak last year, there was much food for thought as we heard about the farsighted transformations realized by this remarkable urban leader.

     

  • Mayor's bike plan draws support, criticism (Dorchester Reporter, South End News)
    By Pete Stidman -- The first year of real bike planning in the city of Boston has come to a close, and the city's bike coordinator, Nicole Freedman presented the results to a crowd of around 175 people at the Boston Public Library last Thursday. But despite 250 new bike racks, the first bike lanes of any length now painted on Commonwealth Avenue, and even a bike lane in the works for Dorchester Avenue, not all were happy.

     

  • Governor not certain on gas tax hike (Boston Globe)
    By Matt Viser -- Governor Deval Patrick is considering raising the state's gasoline tax by as much as 29 cents per gallon, which would at once give Massachusetts the highest state gas tax in the country while generating enough revenue to potentially rid the Massachusetts Turnpike of tolls. But administration officials, responding yesterday to a leak reported in the media, said the governor also was considering a gas tax increase as low as 5 cents and that no decisions have been made.

     

  • Final Senate Compromise Appears to Avoid Cutting Transit Funds (The Transport Politic)
    Nelson/Collins Compromise Focuses Cuts on Education and State Fiscal Stabilization
    The final version of the compromise stimulus bill, which was formulated by a group of about 20 moderate senators, has been released by Senated Ben Nelson (D-NE). It does not decrease funds currently proposed to be allocated to high-speed rail or transit programs, but it does not meet the higher standards for funding for fixed guideways and New Starts that were provided in the amendment added to the House version of the bill by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

     

  • Rider Paradox: Surge in Mass, Drop in Transit (New York Times)
    By Michael Cooper -- ST. LOUIS -- Buses will no longer stop at some 2,300 stops in and around this city at the end of next month because, despite rising ridership, the struggling transit system plans to balance its books with layoffs and drastic service cuts. One stop scheduled to be cut is in the western suburb of Chesterfield, Mo., just up the road from a bright, cheerful nursing home called the Garden View Care Center. Without those buses, roughly half of the center’s kitchen staff and half of its housekeeping staff — people like Laura Buxton, a cook known for her fried chicken who comes in from Illinois, and Danette Nacoste, who commutes two hours each way from her home in South St. Louis to her job in the laundry — will not have any other way to get to work.

     

  • Japan's Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson (New York Times)
    By Martin Fackler -- HAMADA, Japan -- The Hamada Marine Bridge soars majestically over this small fishing harbor, so much larger than the squid boats anchored below that it seems out of place. And it is not just the bridge. Two decades of generous public works spending have showered this city of 61,000 mostly graying residents with a highway, a two-lane bypass, a university, a prison, a children’s art museum, the Sun Village Hamada sports center, a bright red welcome center, a ski resort and an aquarium featuring three ring-blowing Beluga whales.

"Streets"

Walking

Bicycling

Transit

Cars/Parking

  • Turns out, money really does drive speeding tickets (Boston Globe)
     
  • Broken meter? How rare, says City Hall (Boston Globe)
     

Transportation financing/Government

Parks

  • Nonprofit takes over park system for Big Dig (Boston Globe)
     

Development projects

Out-of-state

National trends

International news

  • Amsterdam Edging Ahead of Copenhagen as Most Bike-Loving Euro-Capital? (TreeHugger)
     
  • Can We Learn from China's Stimulus (Streetsblog)
     
  • Japan's Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson (New York Times)
     
  • Beijing Offers Subsidy to Discourage Dirty Cars (The City Fix)
     
  • Thefts puncture Paris bike scheme (BBC News)