Let's face it, the end of 2008 presented a lot of bad signs that hopefully won't be carrying over to the New Year. President-Elect Obama seems to be pushing a stimulus plan that would poor billions into road projects and much less into transit or other green transportation and locally the streets are getting less safe for cyclists and pedestrians.
For both cyclists and pedestrians a series of high profile attacks from motorists popped up throughout the city, and many of the victims were our friends including GarySe7en and Ubrayj. Both were basically assaulted, neither was doing anything wrong or illegal.
In other bad news, it appears that the trend of bikes getting stolen is just going to grow in the New Year as thread after thread on forums such as Midnight Ridazz announces the newest veteran cyclist to lose their bike.
For pedestrians, be careful when you get into an argument with a motorist. More and more of them are using their car as a way to end arguments.
Despite all of that, I'm optimistic that the New Year will be a good one for the Livable Streets Movement both in Los Angeles and beyond, and hopefully Streetsblog will be a big part of that. For Streetsblog to continue to grow, I'm going to need your help to fill the blog with the kind of breaking news and analysis stories that have proven most popular and influential. So you tell me, what stories do you want to see more of in the next year? Billboards? The new TOD project down the street? Let me know in the comments section what you think Streetsblog has been missing.
