THE WEEKLY "STREETS IN REVIEW"
Jan 1 - 7, 2007

[ed] This is a weekly review of the previous week's news, activities, and thoughts regarding urban transportation issues in the Boston area assembled by Jeff Rosenblum at the LivableStreets Alliance. Please send any content suggestions to jeff@livablestreets.info. Subscribe here [1] [2].

Get a free $10 CharlieCard! In collaboration with the MBTA, we are running a promotion: donate $50 to LivableStreets and get a free $10 CharlieCard. Help us continue to make this weekly newsletter happen. Click here for more information... [3] [4].

HIGHLIGHTS:

In the News:

• CharlieCard and fare increase in effect
• Patrick holds first cabinet meeting
• MBTA to get new commuter trains.
• Pedestrian critically injured by SUV in Roxbury

Ear to the Street:

• MassHighway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky to receive Achievement Award during National Engineers Week
• Gov. Deval Patrick has tapped former Boston Herald editor and reporter Jose Martinez as deputy press secretary
• Boston's CrossRoads Initiative in the Globe
• Opinion: "Stars aligning for New England rail", James RePass
• Cogliano opts for lower salary in job change
• Boston Public Health Commission gives $100,000 to Main Streets orgs for improving walkability
• Bicycling advocate to chair US House Transportation Committee
• DCR Parkways Guidelines Policy, Jan. 12 Deadline for Public Comments
• East Coast Greenway
• Commentary on failed "Bike Bill."
• BRA says wealthy only in Boston would be OK

Street Musings:

• Video on seperated bike facilities
• UK launches "Streets for People" network
• Europe, streets, sprawl, transportation, and climate
• City of Winston-Salem, NC includes additional $10 charge for vehicle registrations, goes to bike, ped, transit, and greenways
• Dutch Ban Segways From Public Roads
• Chicago hosts 4th "Healthy Streets" conference
• "From the Margins to the Mainstreem" report available
• San Francisco requires steel plates used during street construction to be bicycle friendly
• France wants to tax non-Kyoto Protocol countries imports
• Trails Resources
• UK taxi driver gets 420 MPH speeding ticket
• Latvia quadruples fines on jaywalkers, speeding - and horses
• Chicago taking steps to protect pedestrians in crosswalks
• Smart Bicycles in an Urban Area: Evaluation of a Pilot Scheme in London
  

This coming week: Click here for full calendar and details... [5] [6].

IN THE NEWS...

CharlieCard and fare increase in effect. Herald article... [7] [8]. Globe: Riders slow to warm to CharlieCard Globe article. [9] [10].

Patrick holds first cabinet meeting. From StatehouseNews, Jan 5: “Frankly, there is some work to do to figure out what exactly is the state of play in our government right now, what exactly the resources available are, what initiatives are underway that are held over from the administration and where the latitude is to put the people in that we want given the number of appointments that the outgoing administration made in the last couple of days,” said Patrick." "Attending the Cabinet meeting were Secretary of Public Safety Kevin Burke, Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, Secretary of Administration and Finance Leslie Kirwan, Secretary of Economic Development Daniel O'Connell, Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne Bump, Secretary of Transportation Bernard Cohen, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education Dana Mohler-Faria, chief of staff Joan Wallace-Benjamin, and Director of Policy and Cabinet Affairs Richard Chacon." "Former Gov. Mitt Romney spent his four-year term trying to gain control of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversees the Big Dig. The Legislature resisted his plan to merge the authority into the state transportation bureaucracy and Romney, though his appointees, gained control of the authority just before he left office. Patrick has indicated that Romney appointees controlling the turnpike board could be problematic for him." more... [11] [12].

MBTA to get new commuter trains. MBTA officials said they plan to buy 38 commuter rail locomotives and 75 double-decker coaches in a major step to improve reliability and cut overcrowding on the aging system. The locomotives would help keep trains running on time, and the new coaches would address common passenger complaints about overcrowding and failing air-conditioning and heating units. more... [13] [14]. NOTE: The double decker trains will improve boarding at North Station, where recent construction to enlarge the waiting area reduced the length of available platform -- Jeff.

Pedestrian critically injured by SUV in Roxbury. more... [15] [16]. NOTE: LivableStreets has all available data for bicycle and pedestrian crashes in the area in GIS, please contact Jeff if you are interested in having us help you with any data analysis and presentation-- Boston bicycle crashes... [17] [18], Somerville Ave. crash-map... [19] [20]. Also see NYC crashmap by Transportation Alternatives: more... [21] [22].

EAR TO THE STREET...

MassHighway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky to receive Achievement Award during National Engineers Week. more... [23] [24].

Gov. Deval Patrick has tapped former Boston Herald editor and reporter Jose Martinez as deputy press secretary. more... [25] [26].

Boston's CrossRoads Initiative in the Globe. "Last year, the mayor hired a top-notch city planner, Toronto-based Ken Greenberg , to think about the long strip of new land that is being created downtown, where the overhead artery used to be. That land is owned by the state, and the city has little to say about it. But city land does, of course, come right up to it on both sides. Working with Boston's planning staff, Greenberg came up with a concept he calls the Crossroads Initiative. It will lace the city back together across the scar of the Big Dig. The laces will be green. They will be the key streets that cross the Dig, now to be transformed with tree plantings, wide sidewalks, and other amenities. It's the kind of thoughtful, humane planning that makes a difference. And the mayor backs it. If it's fully implemented, he'll be leaving the legacy of a great public realm." more... [27] [28], photo... [29] [30].

Opinion: "Stars aligning for New England rail", James RePass. In short, for the first time in memory, every New England state and New York have elected leadership from both political parties that is fully attuned to the basic economic challenge we face — poor infrastructure — and wants to address it. more... [31] [32].

Cogliano opts for lower salary in job change. From: STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE, Jan. 5 2007. " No longer transportation secretary, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman John Cogliano is opting for a salary that’s more than $100,000 less than the one he’s entitled to under statute. Rather than the $226,000-plus hauled in by former chair Matthew Amorello, Cogliano will receive his salary at the same $120,000 rate he earned as the Romney administration’s top transportation aide. 'I feel that being a public servant, people that are working in public service ought to be paid appropriately,' Cogliano explained.With six months left in his tenure as chair – with new Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen set to take over in July, Cogliano has also moved into smaller quarters than the richly appointed one occupied by Amorello, his spokesman said...Cogliano said he plans to meet with Cohen early next week, but hasn’t spoken with anyone in the Patrick administration about its plans for the agency. Asked about the future of the MTA, Cogliano said, 'I can’t comment on it now. I’m unaware what they’re thinking.' Asked if he planned to serve out the remainder of his term, Cogliano said, 'I’d like to meet with the new administration and talk to them.' He said he thought he’d succeeded in bringing reform to the Turnpike. Cogliano, a Romney political backer, rose to the Cabinet level and then, following Amorello’s ouster in July, the chairmanship after serving as highway commissioner. The Foxborough resident said he takes the commuter rail from Mansfield to Back Bay Station, then walks to the MTA’s Transportation Building offices. "I’m a firm believer in public transportation,' he said. 'And it’s very convenient for me.' more... [33] [34].

Boston Public Health Commission gives $100,000 to Main Streets orgs for improving walkability. Projects include: reducing trash and litter, develop “walking teams” matching older and younger adults to walk together, publish a walking guide to businesses, bike racks for strategic locations, explore measures to enhance pedestrian safety, organizing walking promotions, installing a set of permanent pedestrian-oriented “mile markers” to help better understand the links among shopping, recreational areas, T stops and landmarks. more... [35] [36].

Bicycling advocate to chair US House Transportation Committee. The Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives chose longtime bicycling advocate Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) to chair the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the 110th Congress. "I am pleased and humbled by this vote of confidence," Oberstar said. "I look forward to the many challenges ahead for this Committee and am ready to work with Members on both sides of the aisle, and the Administration, to move our agenda forward for the good of all the American people." more... [37] [38].

DCR Parkways Guidelines Policy, Jan. 12 Deadline for Public Comments. more... [39] [40].

East Coast Greenway. The December 20 route planning workshop resulted in a draft report. click here for the report. [41] [42].

Commentary on failed "Bike Bill." Bostonist.com... [43] [44]. Globe article... [45] [46]. Boston Phoenix... [47] [48].

BRA says wealthy only in Boston would be OK. Anonymously overheard: "At the annual AIAS conference (www.aias.org) held at the Back Bay Sheraton over New Year's weekend, a senior BRA official suggested in his comments, as part of a panel discussion on Urban Planning, that it would not necessarily be a negative development if Boston living was only affordable to the well to do. A fellow panelist Globe Architecture critic Robert Campbell, took the official to task noting that successful cities result when people of all incomes and educational backgrounds can and want to live and work in the city. According to audience members the fact that the press and other elected officials were not present prevented a quite larger public discussion and outcry about the official's comments."

STREET MUSINGS...

Video on seperated bike facilities. New York City cyclists, planning and policy experts and even the former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia make the case that the designers of New York City's bicycling infrastructure need to do more than just paint lines on asphalt. Watch the 8-minute video... [49] [50].