Month: October 2009

Today's a big day for events in Los Angeles before the week turns into a series of events that can be described as Bikes! Bikes! Bikes!

The Senate environment committee released new details of its climate change legislation over the weekend, including the share of "emissions allowances" -- the revenue generated by regulating carbon in a cap-and-trade system -- that the bill would reserve for various sectors of the American economy.

Big news out of Miami last week as the city government approved "Miami 21," which the Congress for the New Urbanism calls "the most ambitious contemporary zoning code reform yet undertaken by a major U.S. city."

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Our friends at the transit mega-blog The Transport Politic put together an image to accompany yesterday's story that is perhaps the most beautiful thing I've seen since the birth of Samuel last month.  This map shows the Los Angeles rapid bus, light rail, and subway system that we could have in thirty years if all of the Measure R and LRTP projects are constructed. 

While taking my cat to the pet store earlier today, I noticed that at some point in the past month the automobile parking signs on Beverly Boulevard had changed.  It used to be that cars could park for two hours at metered spaces, the meters expired at 6:00 P.M. and there were no Sunday parking hours.  Given that I've never parked at the new metered areas, that extend from La Brea all the way to LA Cienega; I decided to check with some local businesses to see what changes they noticed since the signs have went up.

In a speech much anticipated by those tracking the D.C. environmental debate, President Obama today took on opponents of congressional action on climate change, decrying "naysayers" who "make cynical claims" that ignore scientific evidence of the harm caused by emissions.

(Editor's note: Originally, this was going to be a post written by Dana Gabbard about Metro placing their public Gold Line Eastside Extension documents online.  As I was writing the introduction, the story got away from me.  A deep hat tip to Dana for his help with this article and you can see the Metro presentation on the extension at the Transit Coalition Website.)

Bike lanes: In some cities people are literally dying to have them and some people go so far as to mark their own. Here in New York City, it feels like every time I get on my bike there is a new bike lane - sometimes on the left, sometimes buffered, and sometimes completely separated from automobile traffic.  To understand these lanes, I had the opportunity to go for a ride with the NYC DOT bicycle boys. They explained the classes of bike lanes and showed off some of these inventive facilities.  You can use Ride the City to find a safe bike route in New York City and watch this video to see what lanes are used on your route.