Photo by Russ Morris via Flickr.

Today on the Streetsblog Network, people are questioning the status quo.  Sustainable Savannah
writes that the faltering economy provides yet another good argument —
along with slowing traffic and making streets safer — for converting
one-way streets to two-way.

Elsewhere around the country,
talk continues to be about stimulus spending on transportation. And
it’s not happy talk. Christof Spieler at the Citizens’ Transportation
Coalition in Houston, TX, laments the lack of vision in the stimulus proposals coming out of his state and others:

Picking up a list of already designed projects also perpetuates the
status quo in transportation planning, a status quo that has increased
how much we drive, decreased access to alternative forms of
transportation, and increased dependence on oil. We are overdue for
reevaluating transportation priorities; pulling projects off the shelf
doesn’t do that.

The Missouri Bicycle Federation lets the numbers
tell the story of the stimulus requests in that state: 94.4 percent for
roads (47.1 percent of that for expansion), 3 percent for transit, and
how much for bicycles? Zero.

Also coming out of the
network’s discussion list this morning is a call for action in Seattle,
where after years of debate and community activism, the fate of the
city’s waterfront–where the Alaskan Way Viaduct has blocked access for
generations — will be decided before the end of the year. The People’s Waterfront Coalition
is asking this week for a last push for support for the
surface/transit/I-5 option for the viaduct’s replacement, rather than
the construction of another elevated highway.

You can find out more about the complicated history of the viaduct replacement on network member blog Orphan Road.