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December 8, 2009

 
Blocked bike lane
A motorist blocks a bike lane in NYC
(Photo courtesy NY Daily News)

Highlights

  • VIDEO: Why the BU Bridge Is So Messed Up (BU Today)
    Explanations don't change the timeline; repairs will last for years
    By Nicolae Ciorogan and Seth Rolbein -- Why is the BU Bridge in such bad shape? What will multiyear repairs really accomplish? In the video, Jack Murray, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, tries to answer the questions and put the best foot forward.
  • Centre/South 'vision' nears completion (Jamaica Plain Gazette)
    Visitor survey starts tomorrow [Dec 5]
    Blocked bike lane
    A motorist blocks a bike lane in NYC
    (Photo courtesy NY Daily News)

    Highlights

    • VIDEO: Why the BU Bridge Is So Messed Up (BU Today)
      Explanations don't change the timeline; repairs will last for years
      By Nicolae Ciorogan and Seth Rolbein -- Why is the BU Bridge in such bad shape? What will multiyear repairs really accomplish? In the video, Jack Murray, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, tries to answer the questions and put the best foot forward.
    • Centre/South 'vision' nears completion (Jamaica Plain Gazette)
      Visitor survey starts tomorrow [Dec 5]
    Blocked bike lane
    A motorist blocks a bike lane in NYC
    (Photo courtesy NY Daily News)

    Highlights

    • VIDEO: Why the BU Bridge Is So Messed Up (BU Today)
      Explanations don't change the timeline; repairs will last for years
      By Nicolae Ciorogan and Seth Rolbein -- Why is the BU Bridge in such bad shape? What will multiyear repairs really accomplish? In the video, Jack Murray, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, tries to answer the questions and put the best foot forward.
    • Centre/South 'vision' nears completion (Jamaica Plain Gazette)
      Visitor survey starts tomorrow [Dec 5]
      By John Ruch -- A community “vision” for a redesigned Centre/South streets corridor is coming soon, along with new guidelines that may include such items as raised crosswalks on the intersecting streets. An on-street survey of visitors to the corridor will begin tomorrow [Dec 5] as a way of further informing the planning process. It’s all part of the city’s Centre/South Streetscape and Transportation Action Plan, which aims to have general design principles, and many specific fixes, in place by the middle of next year.
    • A system under strain (Boston Globe)
      T records detail hazards awaiting repair, raising questions about priorities
      By Noah Bierman -- One MBTA memo warns that wooden gutters holding electrical wires on the Green Line are “frequently catching fire.’’ Another cautions that a retaining wall beside commuter rail tracks in Quincy is deteriorating, risking its collapse onto the tracks and train derailment. And a third describes a set of circuit breakers, 30 years old and unreliable, on the Orange Line that could expose passengers and employees alike to extreme electrical fault currents: “The potential damage includes explosions, fire, flying debris, and release of hazardous materials.’’
    • Dallas' Former Bike Czar Tells Newbie Riders to Go Play in Traffic (Dallas Observer)
      By Kimberly Thorpe -- Paul Michael Summer figures he was 30 before he learned how to ride a bicycle. Oh, he knew how to pedal one well enough before then. Like many people his age—he's 59 now—Summer started bicycling to school in the fifth grade, carefully riding against the flow of oncoming traffic in Lake Highlands, just like his parents taught him. But that was the wrong way, said a helpful cop who stopped him one day and corrected his style. Ride with the traffic, the officer told him, but stay very, very close to the curb. That wasn't quite right either, but the lesson stuck with him when he left home to attend art school in San Francisco, where cars whizzing past him on the city's dizzyingly steep streets terrified him.
    • VIDEO: Bicycle Boulevards for NYC (Streetfilms)
      By Elizabeth Press -- We’ve seen lots of new, innovative bikeway designs appear on New York City streets over the past few years. But, there’s one very promising concept we haven’t seen – bicycle boulevards. Bicycle boulevard design uses a variety of techniques to create low-traffic, low-speed streets where cyclists mix comfortably with cars. They’re very popular in Portland and Berkeley, two cities with high bicycle mode-share. Here in New York, though, they don’t seem to be part of the playbook yet. In this Streetfilm we ask: Why not?
    • Walking, biking good for you and the planet: Study (Montreal Gazette)
      By Margaret Munro -- Pedestrians and cyclists should be made king of the urban jungle, according to an international study showing the big benefits of "mass active travel." It suggests money should be diverted way from roads to make walking and cycling "the most direct, convenient, and pleasant options for most urban trips." Pedestrians and bikers should also get "priority" over cars and trucks at intersections. The study is one of six reports on the "health dividend" of combating climate change published in the medical journal Lancet Wednesday.

    "Streets"

    Walking

    • Patriot Place bridge is off list of stimulus projects (Boston Globe)
    • Feds put kibosh on Patriots bridge (Boston Globe)

    Bicycling

    Transit

    Cars/Parking

    • Somerville Traffic and Parking Office offers extended hours before permit parking enforcement (Somerville Journal)
    • A holiday wish list for hands-free texting behind the wheel (Boston Globe)
    • Parking Cash-Outs: Better than Free Parking (EDF)

    Transportation financing/Government

    Parks

    Development projects

    Land Use/Planning

    Out-of-state

    National trends

    • Driven with distraction (Washington Post)
    • Entering the Superproject Void (New York Times)
    • Foreign Suitors Lining Up for U.S. High-Speed Rail Payday (New York Times)
    • Congress will debate gas tax increase, transportation secretary says (Star Telegram)
    • It Knows If You've Been Speeding (Slate)
    • The Smart Growth Manual: An Interview with Mike Lydon (NAC)
    • DOT to Award $280 Million in Inner-City Circulator Grants (Transport Politic)
    • Congress Considers New Jobs Package, and Highways Look Like the Big Winners (Transport Politic)
    • Overcoming Resistance to Narrower Streets (AICP)

    International news