Bicycle Infrastructure

The Federal Highway Administration is seeking to impose a new layer of bureaucratic review on New York City bike projects, which could significantly delay the implementation of street redesigns that have proven to reduce traffic injuries and deaths.

In a potent demonstration for safer streets, 1,000 Londoners staged a "die-in" with their bikes in front of the city's transportation offices Friday. ABC producer Meredith Frost shared the above image, taken during the 15 minute demonstration. It has been going viral on the Internet. The original photo was taken by a member of the public and given to the Stop Killing Cyclists protest group.

This week, Jeff and Tanya take on the Atlanta Braves' terrible, no-good, very bad decision to move their stadium to Cobb County, Georgia. We discuss cities that are (and are not) shaped like wedding cakes, and whether that means you need to smoosh your spouse's face in it. Tanya makes a pedestrian-rights argument against high-heeled shoes (and Jeff abstains from taking sides). We parse the differences between "shared streets" -- without marked-out space for cars, bikes, and people on foot -- and vehicular cycling.

Behold, Boston's new "super sharrows," a spin on the often-derided shared-lane marking. Boston's new twist is meant to give the feel of a bike lane, even when the space for one is lacking. The official term for this street treatment is "priority shared-lane markings," and they were debuted in the last few weeks on Boston's Brighton Avenue.

Houston-based architecture firm SWA Group has heads spinning today: Is their proposal to build a bikeway next to the Keystone Pipeline pure satire or a serious attempt to "bike-wash" the most reviled fossil fuel distribution project of our day?

For the second time in history, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case about rail-trails. At stake is the public ownership claim of hundreds of thousands of miles of right-of-way around railroads, some of which has been converted into multi-use trails.

This morning Andrew Sullivan highlighted a story in the Australian journal The Conversation that explains how the "macho" bike culture of the 1970s contributed to low cycling rates in that country and the United States as well.

Washington, DC's bicycle commuters woke up this morning to find that one popular rail-trail was closed due to the government shutdown, which took effect at midnight.

In a significant step forward for American bike infrastructure, the Federal Highway Administration issued a memorandum late last month essentially endorsing street designs like protected bike lanes.