December 14, 2010

Snow Sweeper
A sweeper cleans the snow off of a cycletrack in Copenhagen
(Photo courtesy Copenhagenize.com)


Highlights

  • For bikers, walkers, a positive step (Boston Globe)
    By Eric Moskowitz -- The state’s highway officials are considering a plan to narrow the Longfellow Bridge’s Cambridge-bound side from two car lanes to one to provide nearly twice as much space for walkers and bikers. The step would mark a significant achievement for the environmentalists and other advocates who see the Longfellow as a prominent test of whether officials are serious about reversing decades of public policy favoring cars over other forms of transportation.
    Related: Latest Longfellow proposal good for everyone (Boston Globe)
  • City Discusses Use And Maintenance of Brick Paving (Somerville Patch, Ward 5 Online)
    The issue remains in Committee for further discussion.
    By Katie Lannigan -- The public works commissioner has been ordered to identify and repair all damaged bricks in Davis Square before the winter to avoid pedestrian accidents. The Board of Aldermen approved the order Thursday night. The Committee on Public Health and Public Safety also discussed the City's use and maintenance of brick pavers on city sidewalks and crosswalks this week. Meetings were held after residents expressed concerns about the possibility that the bricks posed a danger to the mobility impaired.
    Related: Letter: Somerville should place moratorium on brick paving (Somerville Journal)
  • Bike Lanes Removed After Complaints from Neighborhood Council (Charlestown Patch, Boston Biker, Universal Hub, Boston Metro, WBZ)
    The bike lanes that were installed on Main Street this fall were removed last week by city crews.
    By Kristi Ceccarossi -- City crews were in Charlestown early last Friday, grinding down the bicycle lanes that were painted along the length of Main Street this fall. It seemed the lanes vanished just as quickly and mysteriously as they had arrived, but, in fact, their removal was a direct response to complaints from the Charlestown Neighborhood Council.
  • MBTA raises roof for bikes (Boston Herald, MassBike)
    By Richard Weir -- The days of pedaling home on a soggy seat may come to an end for many commuters who cycle to the rails with 50 bike canopies being built at major MBTA train, bus and subway stations. The new bike ports — a handful are already under construction at rail stations from Worcester to Andover — will shelter 12 or more bicycles under a galvanized steel awning that will be located in well-traveled spots near platforms or entrances.
  • Expansion of Bike Lanes in City Brings Backlash (New York Times, Streetsblog)
    By J. David Goodman -- Over the last four years, the streets of New York City have undergone a transformation: More than 250 miles of traffic lanes dedicated for bicycles have been created, and several laws intended to promote cycling have been passed. The efforts by the Bloomberg administration have placed the city at the forefront of a national trend to make bicycling viable and safe even in the most urban of settings. Yet over the last year, a backlash has taken hold.
  • Deficit Commission: Raise The Gas Tax. And Soon. (Transportation Nation)
    By Todd Zwillich -- The president’s deficit commission is taking aim at the Highway Trust Fund in its quest to take a hatchet to federal spending and debt. The report from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform–out just this morning on Capitol Hill–calls for $3.8 trillion in deficit reduction by 2020. It’s a downright austere prescription including tax increases, spending cuts and other reforms designed to, as one member put it “right the fiscal ship” of the nation. The politically-charged document has politicians running to their ideological corners in anticipation of a brutal fight over fiscal policy.
  • VIDEO: Reality vs. Myth: The "dangers" of Dutch cycle paths (A view from the cycle path)
    By David Hembrow -- If cycling is to become "normalized" - i.e. something that the majority of the population sees as a part of their life, which parents encourage their children to do, and spouses encourage their partners to do, then it needs something different. All three types of safety become important. Dutch cyclists are the safest in the world due to infrastructure which keeps them apart from what is the greatest danger to any road user: motor vehicles. They also feel the safest due to street designs which emphasize both social and subjective safety, and this leads to a very high degree of participation.

"Streets"

Walking

Bicycling

Transit

Cars/Parking

Transportation financing/Government

Parks

Development projects

Land Use/Planning

Out-of-state

National trends

  • VIDEO: Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan (The Onion)
  • State projects will drive funding for high-speed rail (Washington Post)
  • Fuel Tax, Anyone? (Transportation Experts)
  • National High Speed Rail Plan Unveiled, Despite Political Roadblocks (Reuters)
  • Midterms Threaten Obama's Rail Plans (New York Times)
  • Congress Threatens to Restore Unequal Tax Treatment between Drivers and Transit Users (Next American City)
  • Metro America's Commuting Methods: The Interactive Edition (Infrastructurist)
  • Traffic Beaters (Wall Street Journal)
  • In the U.S., Poor Communication and Poor Choices Plague Bus Rapid Transit (The City Fix)
  • Walk Score Ambles into 2,500 New Cities (GOOD)
  • Confessions of a recovering engineer (Grist)
  • A New Political Reality Settling in for National Transportation Financing (Transport Politic)
  • Two Wheels Are Becoming As Chic As Four (Citiwire)
  • Switching Gears: More Commuters Bike To Work (NPR)
  • A Third Of Highway Deaths Involve Drugs--Yes, 33 Percent (Transportation Nation)
  • Growing Conservative Strength Pub Transit Improvements in Doubt (Transport Politic)
  • Deficit Commission: Raise The Gas Tax. And Soon. (Transportation Nation)
  • EPA's 2010 smart growth awards go to innovative urban redevelopment and rural revitalization (Smart Growth America)
  • Rep. Oberstar Reflects On 36 Years Of Service (NPR)
  • No Free Parking (PhysicsCentral)
  • Hertz to offer electric Smart cars for rent (BusinessWeek)
  • Will Congress Extend Commuter Tax Break for 2011? (Forbes, Boston Globe)
  • See the bike IKEA just gave all 12,400 of its U.S. employees (BikePortland)
  • So You're Thinking Of Starting An Infrastructure Bank... (Transportation Nation)
  • New advocacy report: Getting Bikes on Bridges (LAB)
  • Amtrak As Subway Map (GOOD)
  • Americans Don't Want The Gas Tax Raised. Big Surprise! (AltTransport)
  • Amtrak Breaks Records During Thanksgiving (AltTransport)
  • As Ohio and Wisconsin Sink into Self-Imposed Austerity, California and Florida Profit on Rail (Transport Politic)
  • The Brightest: 16 Geniuses Who Give Us Hope -- Janette Sadik-Khan (Esquire)
  • Wheels When You Don't Need Them (Next American City)

International news

  • Why London needs a cycle revolution (CNN)
  • The Tiger Stone: A Contraption that "Prints" Roads (GOOD)
  • China Leads World In High-Speed Rail Tracks (NPR)
  • Sobyanin's horrific plan for Moscow (Market Urbanism)
  • Train Makers Rail Against China's High-Speed Designs (Wall Street Journal)
  • VIDEO: Cities in Focus: Curitiba (The City Fix)
  • VIDEO: 104 Years of Separated Bicycle Infrastructure (Copenhagenize.com)
  • VIDEO: Copenhagen Cycling in the Snow (Copenhagenize.com)
  • Images from the world's 10 (or 11) most walkable cities (NRDC)
  • Drivers at fault in majority of cycling accidents (BikeRadar)
  • Free Parking 'Not Effective' (North West Evening Mail)
  • VIDEO: Reality vs. Myth: The "dangers" of Dutch cycle paths (A view from the cycle path)
  • Copenhagen plans super highways ... for bikes (AFP)
  • Envied the World Over, Strasbourg's Tram Expands Again (Transport Politic)
  • VIDEO: Countdown timers on cycle traffic lights (A view from the cycle path)
  • Britain 'cannot afford' high speed rail, MPs told (Telegraph)
  • 300th CEMEX vehicle to be visited with sensors to keep vulnerable road users safe (BikeRadar)
  • A new study of data from Lyon's bike-share system could help planners (Grist, Technology Review)
  • Bike-Share Pilot Program Launches in Buenos Aires (ITDP)
  • Hume: Ford to Transit City: Drop dead (Toronto Star)
    • Not so fast, province warns Ford on killing transit plan (Toronto Star)
  • Dutch cyclists caught up in the wheels of success (AFP)
  • Complete Streets in North America: A Policy Platform to help Foster Healthy, Liveable Communities (ITDP)
  • Copenhagen: City (full) of Bicycles (Copenhagenize.com)
  • The Ultimate Bike Lane Snow Clearance Blogpost! (Copenhagenize.com)
  • European Road-Train Tests Move Forward (WIRED)
  • Bicycle freight: thinking outside the box truck (Grist)
  • New Freeway Revolt Grips Guadalajara (Streetsblog SF)
  • A real regional government would help to control sprawl (Montreal Gazette)
  • Biking in a winter wonderland (Globe and Mail)
  • Vintage Bicycle Traffic Photos from Copenhagen (Copenhagenize.com)
  • It's not about the bike (BBC)
  • VIDEO: Playing in the Street - Smacking The Culture of Fear on the Nose (Copenhagenize.com)
  • Pedestrians take to the streets; motorists learn to coexist (New Urban Network)
  • Cycle tracks that come to you as you go (Cycling Embassy of Denmark)