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April 24, 2009

Bixi bike-share station
Bixi bike-share station
(Photo courtesy Montreal Gazette)
Bixi bike-share station
Bixi bike-share station
(Photo courtesy Montreal Gazette)
 

Highlights

  • Rethinking Government Center (Tom Palmer's Journal)
    "City Hall Plaza was never really completed. We never figured out how to activate it," said Kairos Shen, the city's chief planner, who of course wasn't even born when it was created. Now, as the Boston Redevelopment Authority reaches its 50th anniversary, he, his staff, and others are brainstorming about the surrounding Government Center district. "Whether we like it or not, this plan hasbeen completed. It's useful life as far as I'm concerned is over. What could it be?" Shen's address last week at a design study group of the Boston Society of Architects was billed as "The Greenway District and Green Growth District." And we learned a lot about the rapidly progressing study the city is doing on future height and density along the edges of the new Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

     

  • MBTA to lay off 75 to trim deficit (Boston Globe, WBZ)
    T set furloughs, freeze on wages
    By Noah Bierman -- The MBTA, facing deepening financial troubles, will lay off 75 employees and impose furloughs and a wage freeze on its nonunion workers, General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said yesterday. The layoffs, which will include Transit Police and call center employees, along with office staff and managers, will save $4.5 million to $6 million a year, but will probably not be enough to prevent the agency's budget gap for the coming year from growing even larger than the previous projection of $160 million, said Grabauskas. The cuts will not have a direct impact on bus, rail, or other commuter services.

     

  • Pike delays laying off toll-takers (Boston Globe, Boston Herald)
    Easter tieups shift agency's priorities
    By Noah Bierman -- AUBURN -- Backlash from Easter Sunday traffic snarls will delay or derail several cost-cutting measures, including planned layoffs, at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. The authority and Governor Deval Patrick had previously pointed to the toll-taker layoffs as evidence that the oft-criticized agency would deal with fiscal troubles by cutting costs in addition to relying on toll increases. But after the traffic problems on Easter, when a lack of toll takers on duty backed cars up as far as 8 miles at some interchanges, Patrick and Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr., who chairs the authority's board, said the agency must put more emphasis on customer service and rethink the planned cost reductions.

     

  • VIDEO: Making Streets Safer for Seniors (Streetfilms)
    Transportation Alternatives' Safe Routes for Seniors campaign started in 2003 to encourage senior citizens to walk more by improving their pedestrian environment. Funded by the New York State Department of Health's Healthy Heart program, this was the first program of its kind to address the needs of elderly pedestrians.

     

  • Bicycling is an important factor in less carbon-intensive commuting (US DOT)
    Of all the Fastlane entries over the first days of this Administration, the one that has generated the most responses is the one on my address to the National Bike Summit. We all know that bikers are passionate about their wheels; we also know that bicyclists are vulnerable to automobiles and need secure lanes and greater awareness from drivers. On Earth Day, it seems appropriate to talk about bicycling, not only as recreation, but as an environmentally sound commuting option. And, about what the DOT is doing to improve the cyclist's commute.

     

  • Bixi Close to Launching First Ambitious North American Bike-Share in Montreal (Transport Politic)
    3,000 bikes, 300 stations will grace the streets of Canada’s second biggest city
    Montréal, eager to promote itself as one of the continent’s most important cities, looked to Paris rather than modesty when developing its Bixi bike-sharing plan, which it will launch early in May. The service, which will begin with stations in the core of the city and close during winter months, will offer 3,000 bikes and 300 stations, putting it at a similar scale as Barcelona’s Bicing program, though still far smaller than Paris’ enormous 20,000-bike Vélib’.
     

"Streets"

  • Streets Are For People, Not (Just) Cars (Planetizen)
     
  • Brookline to tear up even more roads this summer (Brookline TAB)
     
  • Rotary to be sent for review [Hingham] (Boston Globe)
     

Walking

  • Not exactly solid footing: Officials gauge interest in Leverett Circle footbridge (Beacon Hill Times)
     

Bicycling

Transit

Cars/Parking

Transportation financing/Government

Parks

Development projects

Out-of-state

National trends

  • GOOD: The Transportation Issue (GOOD Magazine)
     
  • Bicyclists are changing our streets and cities (Seattle PI)
     
  • LaHood Implies Portland Streetcar Loop Will Receive Stimulus Funds, Points to City as Model (Transport Politic)
     
  • New Video Tells the Story of Sprawl (Streetsblog)
     
  • Bicycling is an important factor in less carbon-intensive commuting (US DOT)
     

International news