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December 14, 2009

DesignLine Bus
New DesignLine Bus in NYC, which operates on a spinning turbine that recharges a lithium-ion battery
(Photo courtesy New York Times)

Highlights

  • Boston's western suburbs crowd state's list of accident-prone intersections (Boston Globe)
    Area communities crowd the state’s list of accident-prone intersections, with design flaws, train crossings, and just plain gridlock seen as main culprits
    By Jennifer Fenn Lefferts -- Sixty-one times a day, traffic screeches to a halt in downtown Framingham as the gates come down across the travel lanes and trains cross Route 126 right next to its intersection with Route 135. All in all, traffic stops for a total of two hours each day, and the end results, police say, are gridlock frequently extending through downtown and far too many accidents. Their view is backed up by the state Department of Transportation’s Highway Division, which recently ranked the Framingham crossroads in third place on its Top 200 High Crash Intersection Locations Report.
  • Survey says: MBTA not so bad (Universal Hub)
    More than 100 T riders who kept daily trip diaries for the annual TransitWorks Transit Diary Study reported that, on the whole, they were satisfied with T service - except for noisy, uncomfortable trains: TransitWorks believes as it did in the last Transit Diary Study that it is imperative for the MBTA to better address the misrepresentations of public satisfaction that are prevalent in media reports. Data shows that riders are, in fact, satisfied with their transit service. It is the charge of the MBTA to reinforce actual satisfaction levels to the riding public.
  • Proposal would ban texting at wheel (Boston Globe)
    City Councilors promote measure
    By Brian R. Ballou -- Motorists would be barred from texting or typing on a mobile phone while driving in Boston, under a plan city councilors hope will spur the state to impose a statewide ban.  Councilor John M. Tobin, who is crafting the measure, hopes that other communities pass bans and that state lawmakers act on up to 15 similar bills that have languished in the State House. “I don’t think we can wait any longer,’’ Tobin said during a hearing yesterday at which the council’s Committee on Public Safety heard from proponents of the measure, including the American Automobile Association, the Safe Roads Alliance, and the Boston Police Department.
  • Cyclists Redraw the Lines in Brooklyn (New York Times, Gothamist, NY Post, Yeshiva World News)
    By Sean Patrick Farrell -- New York’s bike lanes have become sources of civic pride and controversy as of late. The city has been adding hundreds of miles of lanes, routes and paths in the last few years, thrilling much of the city’s growing number of bicycle commuters. But when it recently removed a 14-block stretch of lane on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, many cyclists were not happy and took action.Two nights ago, a small team of anonymous painters rolled and sprayed back the lanes, which had been sandblasted off.
  • Tests link cancer to snarled freeway air (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)
    By Jim Steinberg -- "The evidence we are clearly seeing is the molecular cascade that can lead to the development of cancer," said Dr. Keith L. Black, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Black is a world-class surgeon who pioneered research on ways to open the blood-brain barrier, enabling medicines to be used in the fight against brain cancer. In as little as three months, the brains of laboratory rats begin to change after being exposed to the air around congested Southern California freeways.
  • 20mph speed zones cut road injuries by 40%, study says (BBC News)
    UK cities should have more 20mph speed zones, as they have cut road injuries by over 40% in London, a study claims.
    In particular the number of children killed or seriously injured has been halved over the past 15 years, the British Medical Journal reported. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study estimates 20mph zones have the potential to prevent up to 700 casualties in London alone. At 20mph, it is estimated only one in 40 pedestrians is killed in a crash. This compares with a one in five chance for someone hit at 30mph.

"Streets"

Walking

  • In Lexington, a plan for protecting pedestrians on Mass. Ave. (Boston Globe)
  • Six bills to keep an eye on at the federal level (WalkBoston Blog)
  • Pedestrian Crossing Behavior: Lemmings or the Lone Wolf? (How We Drive)

Bicycling

  • Bicycle built for two -- Can a love of cycling send them pedaling toward romance? (Boston Globe)

Transit

Cars/Parking

Transportation financing/Government

Parks

Development projects

Out-of-state

National trends

  • Cargo Bikes: Go Ahead And Bring The Kitchen Sink (NPR)
  • What Have We Learned From The Recovery Act? (National Journal)
  • Newswire: Big Cities Urge Bike Friendly Streets (BikePortland, The City Fix)
  • Plain Talk: Take off the transportation blinders (Captain Times)
  • White House: Better safe than sorry on rail-transit (PBS)
  • Has the American romance with the drive-through gone sour? (Slate)
  • National Infrastructure Bank: What's the Deal? (The City Fix)
  • Quality Transportation: Timing and Shaping a New Direction (Citiwire)
  • High-speed rail plan chugs along (Boston Herald)
  • Media Mayhem: Driving around in Circles (MNN)

International news