April 27, 2010

Boston Transportation
Making Boston's transportation system greener
(Photo courtesy Green Boston via Streetsblog)

Highlights

  • Menino hosts Bicycle Safety Summit at BU (Daily Free Press, Boston Globe, Boston Cyclists Union, Green Options for Sustainability)
    By Josh Cain -- Mayor Thomas Menino declared “the car is no longer king in Boston” before an audience of about 200 at the city’s first-ever Bicycling Safety Summit held at Morse Auditorium on Wednesday. “My administration has made it a priority to make the road safe for all travelers in our city,” Menino said. “We should have a shared, common respect for everyone who uses Boston’s roads . . . we all have the right to safe passage through our city streets.”
    Note: Steve Miller, who moderated the Boston Bicycle Summit, is also Board Member of LivableStreets Alliance.

  • Boston Endorses Parking Reform as Key Green Policy (Streetsblog)
    By Noah Kazis -- "Folks, you ain't seen nothing yet," Mayor Bloomberg told an Earth Day crowd yesterday. "The best and greenest days are yet to come." The PlaNYC update coming in 2011, he implied, would have a slew of new initiatives to make our city more sustainable, and he's taking suggestions. He could get some good ones from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Released on Earth Day, "Sparking Boston's Climate Revolution" [PDF], is that city's answer to the greenhouse gas reduction targets in PlaNYC. Many of the ideas -- green buildings, new bike infrastructure -- will look familiar to New Yorkers. But on one crucial green measure, Boston could be poised to leap ahead of New York: using parking policy to reduce driving.
  • VIDEO: Effective and affordable transportation [in Massachusetts] (NECN: Part 1, Part 2)
    When one looks at developed nations, the United States has the biggest income gap in the world.  The growing discrepancies between the rich and the poor can be seen in many places, including transportation. Effective and affordable transportation is central to a strong economy.  This is the topic of this edition of The Boston Foundation.
  • Cost of long commute offsets suburbs' bargain housing, study shows (Boston Globe)
    By Eric Moskowitz -- People who move to an outlying Boston suburb to find affordable housing or to get more house for their money often sacrifice the savings to higher transportation costs, according to a study to be released today by a national planning and land-use organization. The report, by the Urban Land Institute, is the first to quantify by community not only commuting costs, but the price of daily transportation around often-sprawling suburbs.
  • Plan for 34th St. Puts Buses and Feet First (New York Times)
    By Michael M. Grynbaum -- From the city that has banned cars from broad swaths of Broadway and put picnic tables in Times Square, here comes another great reshaping of New York’s streetscape. The Bloomberg administration is moving ahead with what amounts to a radical, river-to-river reimagining of another major corridor: 34th Street, the Midtown thoroughfare that is home to Macy’s — and some of the city’s most congested traffic.
    Related: Plan Gives Pedestrians a Plaza at Union Square (New York Times)
  • Would streetcars in D.C. spoil the city's vistas? (Washington Post)
    By Philip Kennicott -- Does the District of Columbia want to awe America, or inspire it? That's the philosophical question underlying the suddenly hot debate about streetcars, the overhead wires that power them, and the combined effect of both on the city's streetscape. Tracks already laid in Anacostia and along H Street and Benning Road in Northeast Washington show how close the city is to realizing the dream of adding an efficient modern streetcar network to its increasingly clogged grid of streets and balky, overcrowded Metro system. But an 1889 law that bans overhead wires in the historic city could slow implementation and increase its cost.

"Streets"

  • Charles River Bridges --
    • Letter: In reconstruction, focus on everyone who uses Cambridge bridges (Cambridge Chronicle)
    • Winning A Battle But Losing The War Over The Bridges? Help MassBike Turn the Tide (MassBike)
  • Coolidge Corner lane shift in effect (Brookline TAB)
  • Watertown OK's traffic study for Mt. Auburn Street (Boston Globe)
  • Rte. 9 work in Framingham, Natick to start soon (MetroWest Daily News)
  • Planning firm seeks to recast Lowell as a place where you can live without a car (Boston Globe)
  • Harvard Street narrowed in Brookline (Boston Globe)
  • Brookline's Dean Road bridge to close May 1 (Brookline TAB)
  • Plan for al fresco dining zone stirs debate in North End (Boston Globe)

Walking

  • Brookline residents question crosswalk plan (Boston Globe)

Bicycling

Transit

Cars/Parking

Transportation financing/Government

  • Traffic supervisors push for town to take over budget (Arlington Advocate)
  • VIDEO: Effective and affordable transportation (NECN: Part 1, Part 2)
  • Fed agency says better Big Dig safety oversight necessary (Boston Herald)
  • Police turn up heat on civilian flaggers (Boston Globe)
  • Somerville Aldermen Gewitz, Heuston propose creation of Green Community and Open Space Task Force (Somerville Journal)

Parks

Development projects

Land Use/Planning

Out-of-state

  • Detroit to put 30 miles of bicycle lanes on streets (Detroit Free Press)
  • Parking-Spot Finding in New York Gets Digital Aid (New York Times)
  • The Latest Skirmish in the Bike Lane Battles (WYNC, Huffington Post)
  • PDOT: Bike boulevards now known as "neighborhood greenways" (BikePortland)
  • VIDEO: Secure Bike Parking at Union Station (Streetfilms)
  • Why Cops Should Live in the Hood: Talking Traffic with Peter Moskos (Streetsblog)
  • On a Magazine's List of the City's 'Most Livable Neighborhoods,' a few surprises (New York Times)
  • VIDEO: BRT Hits the Las Vegas Strip (The City Fix)
  • VIDEO: WTOP Posts WABA/DDOT PSAs (TheWashCycle)
  • What Can SF Learn From Other Cities' Urban Water Projects? (Streetsblog SF)
  • Would streetcars in D.C. spoil the city's vistas? (Washington Post)
  • VIDEO: Making Muni Faster and More Reliable Through Bus Stop Consolidation (Streetfilms)
  • Sustainable Transport Saves New Yorkers $19 Billion Per Year (Streetsblog)
  • How bike traffic has saved our city time and money (BikePortland)
  • Plan for 34th St. Puts Buses and Feet First (New York Times)

National trends

International news