But they aren't resting on their laurels. In today's post, they call on the city to improve pedestrian infrastructure further with the goal of increasing the percentage of people walking to work:

Walking in Cincinnati: It's good, and should be better still.

According to U.S. Census data, only 2.3 percent of the Cincinnati-Middletown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) commutes to work by foot...

So if safety isn't the issue in Cincinnati, then what is it? The region as a whole does not boast very dense development patterns outside of Cincinnati city limits and a few other pockets like Hamilton, Middletown, northern Kentucky's river cities, and Norwood. Furthermore, the areas that are appropriately designed lack any clear amenities for pedestrians like crosswalk counters, scramble crossings at high pedestrian volume intersections, or curb bump outs. Another major detractor is the lack of barriers between pedestrians and motorists like bollards, trees/landscaping, or on-street parking.

I would also contend that the physical condition of our pedestrian surfaces is also a major factor. Fully taking advantage of the Federal Government’s Safe Routes to School program is a critical piece of the puzzle, but so is the ongoing maintenance of our pedestrian surfaces. This may be tricky in the low-growth Midwest and northeast, but solutions like rubber sidewalks provide long-term maintenance savings in addition to the overall improvement in surface quality for pedestrians.

This Saturday at 10:00 A.M., I'll be joining the hosts of the popular Internet Radio show Bike Talk for a discussion of bikes, mobility, politics and policy. This is my first time doing live radio since a debate with Senator Karcher on a New Jersey Transit fare hike.  Hope I'm not too rusty.

For those of you that have never listened to Bike Talk!, it's pretty much what its name implies.  Topics on the show can range from a discussion on the best way to maintain a fixie, to something that happened on a recent group ride, to a policy debate.  Hopefully we stay away from discussions that are too technical of you might find out I don't even know the difference between a caliper brake and a cantilever break!  How embarrassing!

You can listen in to Bike Talk! at killradio.org and kpfk.org . If you miss the show, you can go to biketalk.us for the podcast. You can join the conversation at 213-232-0998. If enough of you call in to chat, maybe they'll invite me back again sometime.

Earlier this week, L.A. Streetsblog reached its one-millionth page view.  At the rate our readership is growing, it's going to take a lot less time to reach our two-millionth view; but it goes without saying that Streetsblog wouldn't have had the success we have had as a news source or activism tool without your help, readership, story suggestions, submissions, and comments.

So, thanks a million.  I'll see you all on Monday.

With all the remarkable recent livable streets improvements in New York, it's no surprise the tenth annual Walk21 Conference chose the Big Aplle. Visitors and attendees salivated over new pedestrian infrastructure and public spaces, including tours of the recently opened High Line and a special visit to the soon-to-be-restored High Bridge. Featuring a plethora of speakers, design charrettes and walking workshops, the three-day event drew experts from the UK, Austria, Japan, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Italy, and Australia, among other places.

We were able to speak with the organizers as well as conference registrants, and also got a chance to chat with headliners such as Jan Gehl, Janette Sadik-Khan, Kristina Alvendal (Vice Mayor of Stockholm), and Gil Peñalosa (Walk and Bike for Life, Ontario) about the future of walking and the vital importance of this conference in inspiring world leaders.

Much like Stephen Box yesterday, it's kind of a waste of time to write a bio for Joe Linton.  Currently, Linton is an author, artist and urban environmental activist involved mainly in transportation and water issues. He currently works for Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange C.I.C.L.E. www.cicle.org.

Of course, when it comes to Linton, that's the tip of the iceberg.  In addition to a career in advocacy that saw him co-found the Bike Coalition, labor for Livable Places and manage last spring's Bike Summit; Linton still finds time to volunteer as a ride leader, chair the Green L.A. Transportation Working Group, write his own "river blog" Creek Freak and program events for the Eco-Village.  Of course, all of that says nothing about his skills helping to program baby showers.

On Thursday, September 24, at 9:46 P.M., Samuel L. Newton was born to this world, increasing the number of Livable Streets Activists in Los Angeles by one.  Samuel weighed in at seven pounds, one ounce and was 21 inches "long."  He was brought home by his parents on Saturday afternoon.  Mother, Father, and child are resting comfortably, if occasionally.

As you might have guessed, my presence at this site is going to be reduced for a couple of weeks while we adjust to life as parents and help Sammy through his all-important early weeks of life.  And let me tell you, it's killing me not to weigh-in on Audi's surreal anti-bike, anti-car, anti-alternative fuel but pro-unsafe driving on mountain roads commercial and our bankrupt state's rush to extend the exemption for certain hybrid vehicles to use HOV and HOT Lanes until 2016.

But of course, we're not leaving you alone; and no, I didn't interview a couple dozen people to fill the blog for three weeks.  Traditionally, Streetsblog doesn't publish on Yom Kippur, so starting tomorrow we'll be bringing you a two and a half week series of news and views from some writers you'll recognize and a couple of new names and faces.  And maybe I'll drop in later this week to take a few shots at some of the more outrageous car-culture items in the news.

There's a lot of exciting events on this week's calendar, including a public meeting on the "Safe Streets" legislation, Park(ing) Day and a slew of cool bike events this weekend.

Tuesday: Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, who is also running for the open City Council meeting in CD2, holds a community meeting in Burbank to discuss his currently-stalled Safe Streets legislation that would help keep rising speed limits at their current level.  The meeting starts at 7:00 P.M. at the Buena Vista Library, 300 N Buena Vista St.

Wednesday and Saturday:  The LACBC tried to fill in some of the information gap existing in L.A. County when it comes to bicycle and pedestrian planning when it does a mini-series of bike counts in Glendale.  For more information, please go to la-bike.org and to volunteer email labikecount@gmail.com

Friday:  Is Park(ing) Day!  Have I mentioned that before?  Several times?  You can make your own space, just look at some of the parks that pop up near you or join one of the two bike rides that are being planned.  Join me and whoever else who shows up for the Streetsblog Tour of the Park(ing) spaces from the Westside to the Downtown or the Greensters for their rolling park from Culver City to the Flying Pigeon.

Saturday:  If you don't need Lance Armstrong to go for a ride in Griffith Park, this weekend C.I.C.L.E. is sponsoring a true tour of L.A.'s gigantic open space.  The ride begins at 10:00 A.M. at the Merry-Go-Round.

Saturday: I often hear from Westsidazz that Venice is where the cool kids hang out.  That's never more true than this weekend when Venice is home to The Fourth Annual Venice Custom Bike Show.  For more information, visit their website.

Last Sunday's Streetsblog baby shower was a great event.  Thanks to Jessica Meaney and Deborah Murphy for all the work they did preparing the food as well as all my family and friends that were able to attend.  It was a great event, and we decided that we're going to do more of them.  Well, after I get used to not sleeping we'll do more of them.

In addition to being a fun time to plan mixers, the Tour De Ballona Bike rides or the Park(ing) Day ride; it also provides a chance to spread the Livable Streets message beyond the normal Streetsblog friendly outlets.  When we did the Tour De Ballona events in October 2008 and January 2009, the events were featured in the Daily Breeze and the evening news.  A Baby Shower is going to get less press, but still garnered press at Green LA Girl, Handmade Ransom Notes, a Facebook video by Stephen Box and lastly a Flickr set posted by me.  Not bad for what was a somewhat private event.

But to really help LA Streetsblog events get off the ground on our shoestring budget, I'm going to need your help.  I've set up a discussion group through the Livable Streets Network called LA Events which is to simply plan and execute Streetsblog events.  First on the calendar is next week's Park(ing) Day Ride and a December mixer.  If you've got other ideas, or want to help plan these next two events, feel free to join and throw them out to the group.

If you don't know how to set up a Livable Streets Network Account, you can read how to do that here.

Well, Labor Day has come and gone which means that you're just so out of fashion if you're wearing white and the Livable Streets Calendar will start to heat back up. It seems that Metro and the City Council take August off, so it's a good time to catch your breath, but now it's time to jump back in!

Tuesday: Anyone that reads Streetsblog is probably familiar with the Bike Kitchen, Bike Oven and Bikerowave bicycle co-ops. Now the Valley has it's own collective open two times a week called the Valley Bikery. Open 4-8 Tuesdays and 1-5 Saturdays at Valley Bicycles, Devonshire and Variel (one street west of DeSoto).

Wednesday: The City Council Transportation Committee is back in action, with new leadership and a new member. The agenda is not the most exciting in the world, but it will be interested to see new Councilman Paul Koretz's views on the Wilshire Bus-Only Lane as the Committee votes on whether or not to fund the EIR for the project. Meeting starts at 2:00 P.M. at City Hall.

Saturday: The Southern California Transit Advocates holds its monthly meetings at in downtown Los Angeles at 255 S. Hill St, 4th floor beginning at 1 P.M. In addition to the normal zaniness and advocacy, this month's guest speaker will be Michael Biagi, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) Landside Operations Manager who can talk about the changes to the "Flyaway" bus service to LAX.

Friday/ Saturday: The Eco-Village is sponsoring a street party and mural painting from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Saturday in front of the Eco-Village. If helping paint the beautiful mural isn't up your alley, come to hear "activist architect" Mark Lakeman who will challenge the way you think about Open Space the night before at the Eco-Village at7:30.  The Eco-Village is located just south of 1st street on Bimini Place.  For more information, visit the Eco-Village official blog.

Streetsblog will not be publishing on Monday, however that doesn't mean you have to wait until Tuesday for your Livable Streets fix. 

Jessica Meaney is throwing a baby shower for my wife and me on Sunday.  In addition to celebrating the first L.A. Streetsbaby, it's also a chance to meet and hang out with many of the people that you've gotten to know electronically or just other readers of the blog.  As we said on the e-mail invite many of you received, we're not expecting any baby presents; we just want to hang out on a Sunday on Echo Park Ave.

If you can make it, drop Jessica a line at jessica.meaney@gmail.com.

But I'd like the twitter feed to be about more than just promoting Streetsblog and providing an easy way to do live updates about "what Damien is doing and witnessing."  I'd like it to be a place for our community to send information back and forth to each other, so if you write or see a good story somewhere on the Internet, send it to me and I'll forward it along via the twitter feed.  Hopefully we'll be able to use the feed to provide even more news and opinion to Streetsblog readers and beyond.

You can email me anytime at damien@streetsblog.org.

Let me know what you think in the comments section.  If you like the live meeting coverage, want me to move the "LAist Model" where I just tweet every headline I write, or if there's another strategy I'm missing let me know.

We are excited to announce the official launch of Streetsblog Capitol Hill. With major transportation, climate and energy legislation coming before Congress in the next year or two we felt that it was critical to have a talented journalist down in Washington D.C. covering the issues on a daily basis. With the financial support of the Surdna Foundation and the Wallace Global Fund the Livable Streets Initiative has hired reporter Elana Schor to cover the federal beat for us. DC.Streetsblog.org (as it's known to your web browser) will be her new home. Sarah Goodyear, editor of our national blog nework, and talented writers like Ryan Avent will be contributing to Streetsblog Capitol Hill as well.

Broadly speaking, we hope to do two things with this new edition of Streetsblog. First, we aim to make it a high-quality daily source for news and analysis of federal transportation policy and related issues. We want to create a blog that is a daily must-read for the advocates, lawmakers, Congressional staffers, urban planning practitioners, policy wonks and lobbyists who are working to shape the future of America's transportation systems.

Our second goal for Streetsblog Capitol Hill is to help bring outsiders into the federal transportation policy-making process. For decades, transportation policy on Capitol Hill has mostly been an arcane, complex insiders game -- a game that's been played best by highway lobbyists. Streetsblog Capitol Hill will put locally-oriented livable streets advocates on the playing field and help them better understand the rules of the game. As the 293 bloggers who are now members of the Streetsblog Network make clear every day, a vibrant, grassroots movement for sustainable transport, smart growth and livable streets is active and growing increasingly powerful in cities and states nationwide. Streetsblog Capitol Hill will help connect these local activists to the important action taking place inside the Beltway. 

As you may have noticed, we've got a new reporter here at Streetsblog, Elana Schor. Elana will be covering this year's big federal transportation story down in Washington D.C. with an eye towards helping transit advocates and livable streets activists gain a better understanding of what has typically been a very inside-the-Beltway, highway-oriented process. If you have tips, comments or questions for Elana, email her: elana [at] streetsblog [dot] org.

Elana has covered Capitol Hill for more than four years, most recently as a staff reporter for The Hill, The Guardian, and the Talking Points Memo blog. Her work has also been published by MarketWatch and the Biloxi Sun-Herald. She holds a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and lives in Washington's very walkable Mount Pleasant neighborhood. 

Streetsblog's national work is being funded by grants from the Surdna Foundation and the Wallace Global Fund.

Regarding this national work -- here's a question for you: What would you like to see Elana cover in the coming months? Or, more generally, how would you like to see Streetsblog approach the federal transportation issues?

I've found that Streetsblog tends to work best and engage readers most when we focus on the hyper-local and hyper-personal side of policy issues. Yet, unlike neighborhood street fights and seemingly timeless issues like sidewalk cycling and rolling stops, federal transportation policy often feels too big and distant to get a handle on. It sometimes feels more like a spectator sport, taking place on this whole other playing field where, I think, locally-oriented livable streets activists often don't feel like they have much influence.

So, this is going to be our challenge in the coming months: Cover the federal transportation policy process in a way that makes Streetsblog a daily read for national advocates, elected officials, Hill staffers and U.S. DOT personnel while also making the issues engaging and tangible to grassroots livable streets activists. By making transit coverage more accessible, the goal is to take the blinders off policymakers who have historically been beholden to moneyed lobbies rather than new ideas.

I'm convinced that the local activists are key. The hundreds of thousands of people across America who are working to make their own communities more bikeable, walkable and transit-oriented are the most powerful force for pushing federal transportation policy in a smarter more sustainable direction. We've just got to get informed and engaged. Elana is going to help us do that.

All you have to do is join the Community -- and post a profile photo -- between today and Wednesday, May 13 to get yourself in the running. Already a member? Just add or update a photo by the 13th and you too could win.

Why else should you join?

• We're building a national network of livable streets advocates. Your membership will grow the movement and help coordinate our advocacy efforts. We're glad you're reading Streetsblog, but it's time to take it a step further.
  
• Membership gives you a bundle of benefits, like the ability to contact other members, contribute to StreetsWiki, open and join groups, and keep abreast of  Community activity with our new account pages.
  
• To celebrate bike month!
  

Thanks to B’s Bikes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for their generous donation of this classic woven bike basket and its contents. Please note that profile images can be uploaded in jpeg, gif, and most png formats and will be judged on originality. Contact info [at] livablestreets [dot] com with any questions.

Since I've been writing for Los Angeles Streetsblog, the website has undergone a couple of re-designs.  While I think that currently the site is more navigable than ever before; there was one thing I didn't like about the new site.  Based on the emails I received, a lot of you agreed.

LA Streetsblog v.2 featured the logo featured on the left which was removed for the launch of LA Streetsblog v.3.  However, the programmers and artists in New York heard our cry and got to work.  Earlier today, the blank orange bar at the top of our page was blank.  Now we've been given back most of our old logo including our palm trees, our hills and our Orange Line.  We may have lost our cyclist to a couple walking their dog, but I don't think anyone that reads LA Streetsblog would have trouble seeing our clear bias in favor of cyclists.

If you're a fan of our logo, NY Streetsblog, SF Streetsblog and the Livable Streets Network have gotten similar upgrades.  Feel free to use those easy-to-use tabs to check out their sites as well.

Because I know this graphical update isn't going to receive the notice that the larger redesigns have, I wanted to take a bit of cyber-space to say thanks to everyone in New York that has worked to make this blog possible. 

From the fundraisers, to the programmers, to the graphic artists to the folks at Streetfilms, Los Angeles Streetsblog wouldn't be the same without all of your work.  First, a special thanks to Aaron Naperstek and Mark Gorton for their continued support and guidance and Ben Fried, Brad Aaron and Sarah Goodyear who provide great content for the national stories we run every day.  Last but not least, I think we can all agree that having such great writers at SF Streetsblog has led to much better coverage of state issues on the LA page as well.

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.

Here's a nice visual of what cities will look like when the livable streets movement has completely emerged from the wilderness (sorry for the extended metaphor, couldn't help it today). GOOD Magazine ran this photosim done by our very own Carly Clark in their transportation issue, with text by Streetsblog Editor-in-Chief Aaron Naparstek. They've got a whole interactive graphic that walks you through the elements of a livable street, and -- hats off to my coworkers -- it looks great.

GOOD is also putting on a photosim contest where readers can submit their own designs for a livable street. If you send something in, don't worry too hard about impressing the jury. Aaron will be the only judge.

Oh, and I was jealous of the live tweeting by IwillRide twitter of last week's Metro Board meeting.

So, today I happily invite you to join me at the Los Angeles Streetsblog twitter page.  I'm not going to tweet every story like LAist does, but will tweet selected stories, event announcements, results and the occasional live meeting.  If you were a follower of the laBikes twitter you'll discover that Los Angeles Streetsblog has recently requested to be a follower of you, so transitioning over should be easy.