The first time I saw this ad I thought my eyes and ears were deceiving me. But no, there it is: a young woman holding a cellphone toward the camera as "nüvifone" maker Garmin beckons viewers to "communicate while navigating."

"With my nüvifone, I can take calls from my friends while I'm driving to them," she says as she's shown piloting an SUV with two passengers, one of whom accepts an incoming call on a phone mounted to the windshield. (Note to Garmin: Hands-free is not brain-free.)

Maybe the most egregious aspect is the "Do not drive while distracted" disclaimer -- which pops up as the young woman is depicted driving while distracted.

Toyota wants you to know that it's here for you. And not just as a car maker, as the company explains in this spot, ironically entitled "Community."

Like GM before them, Toyota wants to make sure you realize just how much their company means to you. Here's our voice-over:

"We acknowledge you are coming to despise automobiles, but your nation depends on our industry for so many jobs that, even if we only manufactured cardboard cut-out cars that you had to carry down your few remaining walkable Main Streets, you'd still need us, America."

Accompanying the ad is the aggressively cloying and patently manipulative "Beyond Cars" web site -- which if nothing else should serve as an irresistible culture-jamming target. What do we see, Toyota? For starters, we see a world where your product doesn't kill people.

Livable streets prodigy Elli Giammona. Photo: The Missoulian

Elli is a 9-year-old in Missoula, Montana who a couple of years ago began to question why she couldn't bike to school. When her mother explained that it wasn't safe because the road leading from their home to Hellgate Elementary -- a typical suburban arterial, from the looks of it -- didn't have a sidewalk, Elli took action.

With encouragement from her mom and the help of her younger sister and older brother, she petitioned Missoula County, gathering signatures and composing a letter explaining the benefits of a walkable Mullan Road. The Missoulian reports:

The letter is dated Jan. 14, 2009, around the time [county public works director Greg] Robertson was looking for a project eligible for American Reinvestment and Recovery Act dollars. Criteria? A quick turnaround, a project in the urban area, and one uncomplicated by problems like right-of-way negotiations and extra environmental reviews.

"Honestly, I didn't have any other projects for consideration at the time that would have met the criteria," he said.

Long story short: A new trail is expected to be finished in time for Elli to ride it to school next fall.

Not only has Elli made it safer for herself and her neighbors to ride a bike or take a walk, she's also made plain how completely the stars must align for something as simple as a car-free ribbon of asphalt to become reality. (Even now, the planned Missoula trail won't connect with the school because of right-of-way costs.) Just a few decades ago a kid riding or walking to school would be considered the epitome of American wholesomeness. Now it's a symptom of child neglect, in part because of infrastructure so obviously inhospitable that even a 7-year-old gets it.

Today was International Walk to School Day, and according to this Audi commercial, if you participated you're a big loser.

In all seriousness, this has to be one of the most obnoxious spots we've featured on Streetsblog. Basically, per Audi: If you take transit, you're a glutton for punishment; if you ride a bike, you're a hapless weenie.

But Audi owners? They're just like you: "trying to do their part" for the environment. Only they do it by driving a $30,000, fossil fuel-burning, CO2-emitting private automobile. Though it is "clean diesel" -- you can pretty much drink that stuff, right?

If you've got some free time at your desk over the next couple of days, drop in on the U.S. DOT distracted driving summit.

There are plenty of platitudes flying around about the obvious need for "awareness" of how dangerous it is to operate a multi-thousand pound projectile while reading or typing, but there are lots of of interesting tidbits too. This morning, for example, a AAA rep declined to say whether his group supports a national texting ban, while a Utah transit official suggested that those who want to text while commuting should consider public transportation.

You can follow the event through tomorrow afternoon via webcast or Secretary Ray LaHood's live-blog feed.

(editor's note: The idea of opening streets to bicyclists and pedestrians by closing them to vehicular traffic for temporary car-free parties has become such a mainstream idea in places such as New York and San Francisco that even Fox News is joining in on the fun.  Head's up Mayor Villaraigosa!  Below is NYC Streetsblog's Brad Aaron's coverage of the coverage is below.)

How much of a non-event was this year's Summer Streets in terms of media critique? In this Fox News piece, via Crooks and Liars, the story isn't traffic tie-ups or wacky spandex-clad elitists or howling business owners, but the fact that more everyday New Yorkers are taking to the streets on two wheels. Summer Streets, it seems, has become a mainstream event in just its second year. Reported the Downtown Express at the beginning of August:

"I thought last year it was going to cause havoc in the community," said John Fratta, chairperson of Community Board 1's Seaport/Civic Center Committee. "For the most part I was pretty pleased. It was a nice event." He said he supports the event this year.

The Fox segment does refer to the questionable Hunter College study on unsafe cyclist behavior (without acknowledging more revealing data on the causes of bike-car collisions), and there's a completely unsupported ticker squib that attributes complaints over spending on bike infrastructure to unnamed "critics." But these feel like token attempts to "balance" an otherwise positive story.

Who knows, maybe in a year or two even Steve Cuozzo will have to re-read his old columns to remember what he hated so much about car-free Times Square.

Picking up on a thread from earlier this week on how street design can be used to prevent high-speed crashes in dense urban environments, today on the Network we hear from Streetsblog New York regular "Andy B from Jersey," via WalkBikeJersey Blog.

On a recent drive along the Jersey shore, Andy found Route 35 packed with people, and the street ill-suited to accommodate them.

A 21-year-old pedestrian was killed at this Ocean City, NJ intersection in July. Locals say design changes are needed to prevent future casualties. Photo: pressofAtanticCity.com

Talk of pedestrian and bicycle traffic! It was everywhere and coming from every conceivable direction. This was particularly true in the Lavallette and Ortley Beach areas. Despite the volumes of bike and pedestrian traffic facilities for them were extremely minimal and often in poor condition. Bike lanes are nonexistent and even sidewalks were intermittent. Bicyclists came from every direction with only one of over a hundred having any lights even though it was completely dark by this time. Pedestrians were also hard to see, including ones making every effort to use the marked crosswalks. Local authorities did try to help pedestrians by placing construction barrels in the roadway to accent crosswalks but at night this seemed (to me at least) to cause more confusion.

With repairs coming soon at some point it is time for NJDOT to step up and come up with a Context Sensitive Solution for this highway that suits the needs of all roadway users and increases safety for all.

Traffic enforcement and equitable street design shouldn't be an either/or proposition, but what is the proper balance? Can citizens prod law enforcers and urban planners to work together to improve conditions for all road users? If so, where do we begin?

Also today, Transit Miami finds that Quito, Ecuador, is getting it right when it comes to people-friendly streetscaping, while UrbanCincy ponders the merits of signal timing in keeping speeds down. And WashCycle reports that Roanoke, Virginia, cyclists bulked up their bikes to illustrate how much street space is required for the average driver.

In Portland, fears of liability turned Safe Routes to School to "Safer Routes." Photo: BikePortland.org

"It’s pervasive throughout the country and we’re hearing about it more and more,” [Ping] said. The problem, according to Ping, is that many school principals and administrators feel that biking and walking to school is simply unsafe. They are concerned about being held liable for anything that happens during the trip to and/or from school.

In addition to studying the current scope of the problem, the Safe Routes National Partnership is putting together a team of legal experts who will craft a legal statement directed at school principals, outlining why improving biking and walking options will not increase their liability exposure. They hope the legal statement will also help allay the fears that lead to bike ban policies in the first place.

Though, as Ping points out, principals can't actually stop students from walking and biking, they can use their influence to discourage it. Administrators can also deny students a decent place to store their bikes during the school day. But if the issue is safety and liability, what about those high school parking lots?

Ping said one safe routes advocate he heard from countered a bike ban in their community by asking the principal whether or not he felt liable for kids who drive to school. “That’s a great way to push back on this idea.”

In response to the President's State of the Union Address in February, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) criticized the stimulus, arguing that it was "larded with wasteful spending." He pointed to the $8 billion devoted to high-speed rail as a specifically unnecessary expenditure. It became clear at that moment that the road to an improved American transportation system would not be a straight shot. How will the members of the Senate react when they are forced to consider expanding the federal commitment to transportation? That's what this Transport Index is intended to anticipate.

The health reform debate of the last several weeks has made evident the fact that Republicans in Congress will be able to rile up an intimidating opposition to legislation proposed by the Democratic Party. Though Democrats have 60 seats in the Senate -- a number that is large enough to vote down a potentially fatal filibuster -- the sudden arrival of thousands of right-wing demonstrators on scene at town hall meetings has slowed down and problematized the passage of any legislation.

Would Republicans stage a similar temper tantrum if the Congress embarked on a massive transportation program? It's unclear, but Mr. Jindal's reaction in February indicates that it's a distinct possibility.

What do you think of this ranking system? Can Democratic senators from Montana, North Dakota, and Arkansas be counted on to support a bill that invests in urban transit?

Photo: TITIG/Flickr

The report is brief but it does a great job pointing to the economic/health benefits of bicycling while dispelling myths commonly used to oppose bicycle infrastructure investments. For example a study of bike lanes on Bloor St. in Toronto concluded that the addition of bike lanes would be unlikely to harm local business and predicted that commercial activity on the street would likely increase. Three-quarters of merchants surveyed on the street believed that business activity would improve or stay the same if a bike lane replaced half of the on-street parking.

You can find the LAB report, with plenty of U.S. success stories, here. If there is a downside to this bit of positive economic news, it could be that in one of America's most hospitable cycling towns -- Portland, Oregon -- would-be pedalers may have a tough time finding an affordable starter ride. Cash for beater bikes, anyone?

Today on the Network, Ohio member blog Xing Columbus questions a recent article in The Columbus Dispatch that attributes Franklin County pedestrian fatalities to carelessness on the part of the victim. According to a Columbus police officer interviewed in the story, local people killed by cars are usually jaywalking or "just walking in the road" -- where "you might not see a person until you’re right on top of them."

Photo: Columbus Dispatch

Even if all the statements are true, I didn’t like the tone of the article. It seemed like pedestrians were being blamed for their own deaths. One might think that the driver of a vehicle capable of killing someone might be held responsible for hitting people in the roadway at least some of the time.

Xing Columbus wonders if local police have data to back up their claims, as none was cited in the article. An August 13 editorial in the Sacramento Bee, however, points to a study from the UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center showing that "more than 80 percent of crosswalk collisions are related to driver behavior."

So some skepticism is in order when drivers say, "the pedestrian ran (darted, dashed) in front of me" or "came out of nowhere" -- especially when the pedestrian is unconscious (or dead), and there are no witnesses at the scene.

Regardless of statistics, the prevailing sentiment seems to be that, by inserting themselves into the domain of cars and drivers, pedestrians and cyclists are asking for it.

Not that further proof is needed, but if you really want to get worked up, have a look at the comments on a weekend pedestrian fatality in Athens, Georgia. As friends of the victim expressed their condolences to his family, one Athens Banner-Herald reader wrote:

Why is it that everyone can show sympathy to the person who caused the accident but no one seems concerned with the real victim in all of this -- the driver who had to watch someone basically commit suicide on the front bumper of his vehicle? My heart goes out to that driver. That must have been a horrible situation to be forced into.

Also today: Streetsblog San Francisco reports that the looming BART strike was averted over the weekend; The Wash Cycle has an update on what was once called "The Stupidest Bike Lane in America"; and Bike Portland marks another successful Sunday Parkways event.

A grand jury in Asheville, North Carolina has reduced the charge against a motorist who allegedly shot a cyclist in the head from attempted first-degree murder to felony assault.

Charles Diez

Wheras Diez originally faced up to 13 years in prison, felony assault carries a penalty of around two years. Reports the weekly Mountain Xpress:

Grand juries deliberate in secret, and District Attorney Ron Moore submitted both the assault and attempted-murder charges. He told Xpress that he doesn’t know why the grand jury rejected the murder charge.

We don't either, but we can guess. 

(h/t Cookster)

Via Gizmodo: A laser device that allows cyclists to project their own bike lanes has gone from cool idea to prototype. Positive reponse to the concept from Alex Tee and Evan Gant of Altitude Inc. was significant enough to put LightLane into production. See the beta version in action above. Thoughts?

Fallout continues in the wake of last Friday's narrow passage of the Waxman-Markey climate bill, otherwise known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, in the House of Representatives. Paul Krugman can't believe 212 reps voted against it, while Matthew Yglesias points to a conservative faction that has branded eight Republicans who helped pass it as "traitors."

Global devastation: Not as catchy as "Billie Jean."

There is little about the world we live in and rely upon today that will be familiar or viable in that world just 90 years from now. Water, agriculture, land use, species -- our survivability -- will be in a totally different territory. Really, not just metaphorically.

We need this reality to get at least as much attention as Michael Jackson's death. It should motivate more tweets, more street action, more conversations, more pondering about what life means, makes it worth living, legacies, life potential, and the fate of offspring.

If MJ's death motivated to you spend 4 minutes listening to a song you wouldn't have listened to last week, then email your Senators and tell them the climate change bill before them is far too weak and too slow. Tell them that you'll willing to commit more than $175/year by 2020 in high energy prices (the impact of the House version of the bill), and then start talking with everyone you know.

Also today: Second Avenue Sagas questions the relevance of the Straphangers Campaign; DC Bike Examiner wonders if motorist-cyclist conflicts are over-hyped; Carfree Chicago hopes for a transportation commissioner who gets it; and Bicycle Fixation applauds an effort in the UK to encourage cycling among rail passengers.

It's the largest transit system in the United States, moving millions of people daily throughout New York City and beyond and serving as the lifeblood of one of the largest economies in the world. Unfortunately, writes Streetsblog Network member Benjamin Kabak on Second Avenue Sagas, those who depend on the MTA -- and those whom the MTA depends upon -- are often ignorant of its plight and seemingly indifferent to its fate.

Photo: Jennifer Aaron

The best quotes from Haddon’s articles are from those who say they will turn to their cars. “Now I know what I’m going to do next week. I’m going to pull out the car,” Angela Pacheco of Brooklyn said, because the 30-Day Unlimited Ride is going up the cost of a whopping three gallons of gas. Another rider in another Haddon piece echoed Pacheco. “Might as well get a car,” Marcia Roberts, a Queens resident, said.

This is the attitude that explains why our mass transit system doesn’t have political support. This is why people are going to be fighting with MTA employees over the new fares. This is why politicians refuse to toll the East River bridges, refuse to allow the city to implement camera-enforced bus lanes. This is why the agency that runs our subway system -- a system that transports over 5.2 million people per day -- is struggling to keep it in a state of good repair.

On the eve of yet another fare hike, transit advocates have themselves to blame. We haven’t united behind the proper message; we haven’t overcome a powerful auto lobby; and we haven’t made our voices heard by those who hold the purse strings. One day, that will change. For now, we’re left with higher fares and a transit authority on life support.

All of which begs the question: If New York City doesn't recognize the value of a healthy transit system, who will serve as the much-needed role model for the rest of the country?

In happier Network news, Streetsblog San Francisco reports progress toward lifting the bike infrastructure injunction. Meanwhile, World Streets talks up shared public spaces, Hard Drive advises a reader on motorcycle noise, and Bike Portland bids farewell to Michael Jackson with -- what else? -- a bike ride.

Nate Silver, the stat-mining fortune teller behind FiveThirtyEight.com, has written a piece for Esquire suggesting that Americans may be weaning themselves off their collective auto addiction. Falling gas prices aside, driving has been on the decline since late 2007, Silver notes. Taking factors like population and unemployment into account, he wonders:

Could it be that there's been some sort of paradigm shift in Americans' attitudes toward their cars? Perhaps, given the exorbitant gas prices of last summer, Americans realized that they weren't quite as dependent on their vehicles as they once thought they were.

Silver also points out that between 2004 and 2008, cities that took the biggest hit in home prices, like Las Vegas and Detroit, were "highly car-dependent," while Portland, Oregon had the largest gains.

While President Barack Obama promoted wind power and cap-and-trade legislation, VP Joe Biden spent Earth Day talking up transit. Public radio's "The Takeaway" reports that Biden held a presser at a bus maintenance facility in Landover, Maryland, to tout a $300 million investment in hybrid buses and other municipal vehicles as part of the federal stimulus package. Said Biden:

This program, the Clean Cities program, is in its 15th year. Already it's saved two billion gallons of petroleum used since its inception. And now, it's time to ramp it up. Ramp it up in a big way. We know it works.

As reporter Andrea Bernstein points out, this is not breaking news. What's interesting, she says, is the seemingly intensifying focus of the White House on transit as the fight over the next round of federal transportation spending approaches.

I would say that up to now there has been mostly disappointment among people who care about mass transit in the Obama administration. People felt that the recovery act only had $8 billion dollars, now that's $8 billion but it's $8 billion out of $800 billion, so that's 1% and that's all the money for transit, and they were saying that isn't enough money, it doesn't show a real commitment, you can't really change things with that.

So when they begin to see the administration talking about high speed rail, when they begin to see the administration talking about mass transit going as Joe Biden did yesterday to a transit station for his Earth Day thing, they're thinking ok, so maybe this administration is going to put serious muscle behind this. As a reauthorization fight comes up, speaking to a lobbyist from NRDC who has expressed great disappointment up to now, and he said you know, I think things may be beginning to turn.

When it comes to promoting environmentally sound transportation, is Streetsblog better than a Prius? If you think so, cast your vote for the Livable Streets Initiative in the Treehugger "Best of Green" contest.

There are 17 entries in the "Cars and Transportation" category, ranging from "Best City for Public Transit" (Bogota) to "Best Freight Shipping Innovation" (giant kites attached to cargo ships). We've been selected "Best Green Transportation Advocacy," and as of now we're neck and neck with Copenhagen ("Best City to be a Cyclist") in the overall competition.

Nominees are ranked by readers on a scale of 1 to 10. You can read about them here, or skip directly to the voting here. Voting ends at 9:00 P.M. tonight.

Let's show those Danes who's boss.

If you're in need of a little comic relief today, try this seemingly subversive pro-jaywalking message from the Muppets.