Bike/Ped

Biking and walking have leveled off and are becoming more dangerous. The federal government and states aren't doing enough.

Peter Defazio, the new chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, talks bikes, pedestrians and transit — and getting us off fossil fuel.

The goal is to connect every neighborhood with safe biking and walking infrastructure and art that pays homage to each area's unique culture.

There's a clear relationship between transit use and reduced traffic deaths. So why do federal safety efforts ignore it?

Barcelona is making headway on its "superblocks," clusters of nine city blocks where car traffic is restricted and public space is expanded. This BBC video shows how a superblock functions: Most of the street space is reserved for walking and biking, while motor vehicles are limited to narrow, indirect rights-of-way.

When a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, shot and killed Philando Castile earlier this month, the encounter began with a traffic stop. The stop fit a pattern: Castile had been pulled over many times before -- 46 times in 13 years -- but few of those citations were for dangerous driving. More prevalent were stops for minor issues like vehicle defects or misplaced license plates -- the type of justifications that police are more likely to use when stopping black and Latino drivers throughout the country.

The more people bike on the streets, the safer the streets are for everyone who bikes. This phenomenon, originally identified by researcher Peter Jacobsen, is known as "safety in numbers." And that's exactly what American cities are seeing as they add bike infrastructure -- more cyclists and safer cycling -- according to a new report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials [PDF].

Traffic fatalities in America hit a seven-year high in 2015, with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for a disproportionate share of the alarming increase, according to preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The U.S. Census is the most widely cited source of data about how Americans get around. It's updated regularly and it covers the whole country, but it comes up short in a number of ways. The Census only asks about commute trips, and commuting only accounts for about 16 percent of total household travel [PDF]. What happens when you measure the other 84 percent?