Elizabeth Press

Ed. Note: As of 3:30pm EDT, the House has concluded debate on a 60-day extension of transportation programs, with a vote scheduled for later tonight. Stay tuned for further coverage.

"Cities for Cycling" is a project of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) to document, promote and implement the world’s best bicycle transportation practices in American cities. As part of the Cities for Cycling program, bikeway design experts take their show on the road, using the streets of different U.S. cities as their classroom and the new NACTO bikeway design book as their guide.

Friday is National Bike to Work Day, and if you're looking for a little motivation to get on your bicycle, meet Lucette Gilbert. Lucette says she is in her "very late 70s" and biking since she was seven years old. So, by my calculations, she has been riding a bike for some 70 years! She became a bike commuter in New York City during the 1980 transit strike and currently rides everywhere, including her daily trip to work from the Upper East Side to Union Square. Lucette's take on the state of bicycling in NYC: "People are not used to bicycles, but it's so heartwarming to see how many people are biking now."

In this week's episode of "Moving Beyond the Automobile," Streetfilms takes you on a guided tour of past, present and future highway removal projects with John Norquist of the Congress for the New Urbanism.Some of the most well-known highway removals in America -- like New York City's West Side Highway and San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway -- have actually been unpredictable highway collapses brought on by structural deficiencies or natural disasters. It turns out there are good reasons for not rebuilding these urban highways once they become rubble: They drain the life from the neighborhoods around them, they suck wealth and value out of the city, and they don't even move traffic that well during rush hour.

In the second chapter of Streetfilms' Moving Beyond the Automobile series, we're taking a look at bicycling.

Washington, D.C.'s Bikestation is one of the sleeker and more fully-featured bike parking facilities that Streetfilms has ever seen. Located at Union Station, the Bikestation provides secure parking for more than a hundred bicycles, offers repair, rentals, lockers, and a changing room. Members get 24/7 access.

While we were down in Washington D.C. for the National Bike Summit, Streetfilms got the chance to check out some of the innovative bike infrastructure. Tops on our list: the city’s first protected, contraflow lane for bicyclists. The D.C. DOT has redesigned 15th Street NW between U Street and Massachusetts Avenue to accommodate two-way bike … Continued

Last week, hundreds of bike advocates descended on Washington D.C. for the tenth annual National Bike Summit -- the largest one yet. Hosted by the League of American Bicyclists, the summit is always a great opportunity for advocates to share ideas and make the case for cycling on Capitol Hill. This year attendees encouraged their senators and representatives to sign on to several key pieces of legislation, including the Active Community Transportation Act, Safe Routes to School Act, and the Urban Revitalization and Livable Communities Act.

Tens of thousands of people from nearly every nation on earth have descended on Copenhagen this month for the UN climate summit. As the delegates try to piece together a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they're also absorbing lessons from one of the world's leading cities in sustainable transportation. In Copenhagen, fully 37 percent of commute trips are made by bike, and mode share among city residents alone is even higher.

At last month's Rail-Volution conference in Boston, Streetfilms was able to grab a few moments with William Lind, a politically conservative transit advocate. Lind aims to provide "liberal transit advocates" the language to build support for public transportation (okay, just rail) in terms that conservatives can relate to. Some of Lind's arguments don't reflect our views here at Streetfilms, especially his disdain for buses (which we don't cover in this video), but he makes a thought-provoking case for transit investment. Streetsblog readers won't want to miss his critique of highway spending as a massive government intervention.