Month: October 2010

Community members, activists and researchers met at THE Impact Project’s Moving Forward Together conference in Carson last weekend. THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project is a local collaboration of environmental justice organizations and academic institutions that banded together to fight pollution from the goods movement/ logistics industry in Southern California. http://www.theimpactproject.org/

Last March, the City of Burbank repaved Verdugo Avenue and repainted the street to remove a car travel lane and add a bike lane.  While the plan had been on the books since the passage of the city's bike plan in 2003, the Burbank City Council only approved the road diet for a six month trial period.  To make certain policy, not funding issues, would decide whether or not the diet stays; the Council passed approved enough funds for the diet and, if necessary, funds to remove the diet all at once last year.

As any seasoned urban planner will tell you, hell hath no fury like a homeowner faced with a nearby zoning change.

Thanks to Transportation for America for putting together this handy map of U.S. DOT's TIGER grant recipients. It shows the geographical reach of the program, as well as the broad range of projects benefiting from the grants.

We'll start live-tweeting the Metro Board Meeting at 9:00 A.M.

You have to hand it to the Not Under My Back Yard (NUMBY) contingent in Beverly Hills.  They really know how to make a lot of noise without a lot of facts.

This is the fourth installment of Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s series on key governor’s races. Earlier we brought you stories about a candidate who likes bikes but isn’t sure about transit in Tennessee, the choice between light rail and bus rapid transit in Maryland, and how bike paranoia is cutting the GOP off at the knees in Colorado. Here we turn to Texas.

The vote was the culmination of more than a year of contentious debate over the future of the city's taxi system. In 2009, in anticipation of the approaching deadline, the city commissioned a taxi study to guide future decisions. In either haste or impropriety, the city's awarding of the taxi study contract was tainted by dubious processes, then terminated. Remaining  funding was deemed insufficient for the study's completion. Taxi company interests pressured the council to extend lucrative franchises essentially unchanged. Taxi workers pressed for completion of the city study, expecting results to include steps toward labor and environmental reform.

This Friday at 7:30 P.M. riders and their police escort will pedal out of the Wilshire/Western starting point for the next chapter in the "new" Critical Mass.  Ever since the LAPD was caught on tape violently "policing" Critical Mass in May, police bicycle riders (and some using motorized vehicles) have joined the Mass to help make the protest ride as safe and smooth flowing as possible.  As word has gotten out that Critical Mass is now the safest bike ride in North America, the number of riders has swelled from a couple of hundred to an estimated 2,000 last month.