Tanya Snyder

Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a new rule requiring automakers to install event data recorders, known as EDRs or black boxes, in all light passenger vehicles. While the rule would expand the number of vehicles equipped to record critical information in the moments preceding a crash, that alone won't aid investigations of traffic deaths or strengthen cases against reckless drivers. For black boxes to help get to the bottom of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, changes to local crash investigation procedures and to EDR technology itself need to happen as well.

Rep. Blumenauer Proposes Taking Oregon’s VMT Pilot National (Oregonian) Renewable Fuels Standard Could Get a Challenge (The Hill) CMAQ Will Pick Up 80% of the (Tiny) Cost of Chicago’s 645-Mile Bike Lane Network (WBEZ, Sun-Times) Vermont Comes Up $250M Short of Covering Maintenance Needs Alone (VT Digger) Wyoming’s in Trouble Too, And the Laramie Boomerang Thinks They Need to … Continued

Ford has spent the last few years fretting about how to reach out to Gen Y. The car company made news earlier this year when it re-designed its 2015 Mustang to appeal to buyers born between 1980 and 1999. (Apparently Gen Y just screams "shark-nosed grille and round headlights" to Ford.)

In 2006, 14-year old Kristen Bowen was killed on the train tracks near her house in the Chicago suburb of Villa Park. She was using a well-worn shortcut across the tracks that cut her residential neighborhood off from the school and the park they used. Four years after Kristen's death, her twin sister committed suicide by stepping in front of a train near where Kristen was struck. Those tracks are covered with balloon memorials and crosses, commemorating those who have died.

It's that time of year again, readers: tinsel, latkes, long lines, good cheer -- and our earnest hope that your spirit of generosity will inspire you to donate to Streetsblog.

OK, truth: Raise your hand if you find federal transportation legislation intimidating and incomprehensible.

Are More Cyclists Dying Because There Are More Cyclists? (LAT) Transit Ridership Keeps On Rising — So Don’t Do Anything Stupid, Congress (APTA) Six Reasons Why We Need a Carbon Tax (The Hill) Surprise! Grover Norquist Is Against Raising the Gas Tax (WaPo) Millenials’ Urban Leanings Jump-Start Rental Apartment Boom (Mobilizing the Region) In Which … Continued

Hybrid drivers: Nice try, but your wheels aren't really saving the planet.

NYT Chides Republicans For Blocking Infrastructure Investment Maybe the Auto Bailout Didn’t Win Obama the Election After All (WaPo) Shuster‘s “All-of-the-Above” Strategy For Transpo Funding (Patriot-News) Mica Insists on Light Rail Extension to LAX (KPCC) Michael Dukakis Recalls the Massachusetts Ban on Highway Building, Suggests an Encore (Globe) If Only CA’s Rail Plan Were Moving … Continued

California Republicans from Fresno and Bakersfield put their foot down in a House hearing yesterday, rejecting the high-speed rail project whose initial segment would run between those two cities.