Month: October 2010

Readers with long memories might remember that when Councilman Rosendahl was pushing for an anti-harassment ordinance for cyclists last January, his motion ran into trouble in the Public Safety committee.  Because the report from the City Attorney's (C.A.)office that would give cyclists more legal rights after a crash needs to be heard by the Transportation and Public Safety Committees, I reached out to the Councilman Greig Smith, Chair of the Public Safety Committee for his opinion.  The good news?  He's not going to stand in the way of the new motion.  The bad news?  He doesn't think too much of the C.A.'s recommendations:

They say it's a sign we're coming back to earth as a result of the recession. And perhaps it signals a growing environmental awareness. Certainly, the loss of cheap and easy credit is a factor, as well.

Earlier this year, the City Council ordered city staff to create a list of changes to city and state laws that could help cyclists see justice after crashes.  At the time, City Council Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl referred to the motion as an anti-harassment ordinance, and hopes ran high that the city could create a three foot passing law, or could somehow further criminalize unsafe and aggressive behavior by drivers.

A fantastic new visualization of 16 bike-share systems around the world lets you see how people are using public bikes from London to Melbourne. You can watch animated graphics, for example, of bikes getting picked up in one part of town and dropped off in another during rush hour. The site, created by Oliver O'Brien, a researcher at University College London, also lets you compare bike-share usage from city to city.

Those looking for hope in this era of transit service cuts took heart from the words of William Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), at the Rail~volution conference yesterday. In his keynote speech, he Millar reasons to hope for a better future -- despite the fact that 84 percent of APTA members were cutting service, raising fares, laying off personnel, or delaying projects this year due to budget cuts.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

On an atypically dreary day for October, Los Angeles County’s elected representatives from every level of government gathered with community members at Leimert Park to celebrate the receipt of a $546 million loan for the Crenshaw Light Rail project.