Day: July 13, 2009

Especially after the events of last Friday, it's always a sobering moment when you read about cyclists being killed by drunk or otherwise reckless drivers.  However, in this instance there is a silver lining to the tragedy; for once the driver is being charged with murder and not a lesser assault charge as we see all to often.

The White House Office of Urban Affairs, which has drawn criticism for its inactivity at a rocky economic time for the nation's cities, capped a day-long summit today with a speech by President Obama.

The Wall Street Journal reports today on the growing number of cities around the country that are in talks to outsource local transit systems to cope with the budgetary pressures of the recession.

(editor's note: Some of the details of the Highland Park shooting have been left intentionally blank at the request of the ride organizers for their safety.  Keep that in mind in the comments section, please.  Update:  A couple of people have asked me for the address of the attack so that they could avoid that area on bicycle.  I can't give the address of the alleged shooter, but can say the shot was fired at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Longfellow Street in Highland Park which is very, very close to the house in question.)

Over the past couple of months, we've been following a story in Savannah about a crackdown on jaywalking -- a crackdown prompted by the death of a tourist who was hit by a car on Oglethorpe Avenue in the city's historic district. Streetsblog Network member Sustainable Savannah has done a great job of articulating why the jaywalking ticket blitz was an inappropriate and ineffective response to the problem of unsafe streets.

More headlines over at Streetsblog Capitol Hill