Bike and Ped Infrastructure Depends on Federal Funds, Too
With all the kerfuffle in Washington right now over the federal transportation law and the crisis in the Highway Trust Fund, it seems like an appropriate time to be reminded of the role that federal dollars play in funding bicycle infrastructure.
June 18, 2009
A Failure of Design in Downtown New Haven
Today, from Design New Haven, a tale of two shopping plazas.
June 17, 2009
Now Arriving: Transit-Oriented Development
Much of the talk on the Streetsblog Network in the past few days, perhaps prompted by the recently concluded Congress for the New Urbanism conference, is about transit-oriented development. The real estate crisis, it seems, may finally be pushing the issue into the mainstream.
June 16, 2009
The Two-Wheeling Future of Fort Worth
When you think of the best bicycling cities in the US, Fort Worth, TX, probably doesn't spring to mind. But there are some changes coming. Hundreds of miles of new bike lanes, "road diets" and a proposed streetcar system could fundamentally change the way people think about getting around town there.
June 15, 2009
New Urbanism, Old Urbanism and “Creative Destruction”
As you probably know, the Congress for the New Urbanism is holding its annual meeting out in Denver this week. Today on the Streetsblog Network, we've got a post from member Joe Urban (a.k.a. writer Sam Newberg) that talks about the real-life impact of the "new urbanist" approach to planning in that city, and the importance of conveying that impact to the public when trying to implement similar planning approaches elsewhere.
June 12, 2009
Will Memphis Rise to the Transit Challenge?
A few months ago, I went to Memphis for a wedding. I asked the people at my downtown hotel how I should get to the venue, which was also downtown, on South Main Street. They told me it would be about a ten-minute drive. Which let me know it couldn't be that far away.
June 11, 2009
To Reduce Driving, Put a Real Price on Parking
Today on the Streetsblog Network, Roger Valdez of Worldchanging examines whether making parking more difficult can actually reduce driving levels -- and recalls the frustration he used to feel before he was able to jettison his car:
June 10, 2009
To Reduce Pedestrian Fatalities, Focus Enforcement on Cars
Today the issue of pedestrian safety has popped up a couple of times on the Streetsblog Network. First, the folks at WalkBike Jersey report that a bill giving pedestrians more protection in the crosswalk has passed the State Assembly and is moving to committee in the Senate:
June 5, 2009
Slow Ride, Take It Easy
I've been thinking a lot about slowness lately. Part of my inspiration has been from necessity: I recently found an old tandem bike on Craigslist and have been using it to get around Brooklyn with the kid. It weighs roughly one ton. It has only one speed, and only one pace: stately. When riding it, I affect a lordly indifference to the cars and bikes that whiz by.
June 4, 2009
Meridian, Mississippi: What Trains Can Do for a City
When President Obama announced his plan for a national high-speed rail network earlier this year, one of the people invited to attend was the Republican mayor of a city you've most likely never heard of -- Meridian, Mississippi. And one of the rail routes, running from Atlanta to New Orleans, went right through Meridian.
June 3, 2009