Month: February 2010

This morning on the Streetsblog Network, Cap'n Transit is talking about setting budget priorities in lean times. Maintaining efficient, low-cost transit, he argues, should take precedence over keeping bridges toll-free -- especially if there's no political will to raise taxes:

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

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In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington, transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum. Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers, urbanists and suburbanites -- and, of course, Democrats and Republicans?

On May 19, a cyclist, let's call him Roadblock, was riding home late at night on Glendale Boulevard.  Roadblock's bike was lit up with front and rear lights and he was wearing a helmet.  Just a couple of weeks earlier, Roadblock had been part of the "die-in" protesting the street and law enforcement conditions that helped lead to the violent death of cyclists Jesus Castillo.  A couple of blocks from the Ghost Bike memorializing Castillo's passing, a Silver 2009 Jaguar registered to Glenn Gritzner slammed into Roadblock from behind sending the cyclist thirty feet in the air, before crashing to the ground.  The Jaguar sped off while Roadblock lay dazed and bloody in the street.

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The Obama administration last night revealed the names of local transit projects getting recommendations for federal aid under the U.S. DOT’s New and Small Starts programs, which are set to receive $1.8 billion during fiscal year 2011. The list includes some familiar urban projects — New York’s Second Avenue Subway, for instance, already had a … Continued

The other day, we wrote a post in hopes of starting a conversation about the way certain groups of people who ride bicycles -- notably, immigrants who ride to work and for work -- tend to get overlooked by bicycle advocacy groups and planners. The post (which grew out of an item by Streetsblog Network member Honking in Traffic) got a lot of responses, including a few from people who thought we were stating the obvious or being patronizing. (On Twitter, @feedmeshow put it this way: "Wealthy white person notices that some ride of necessity, as opp. lifestyle choice." Ouch.)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill