Month: November 2011

It's been a year since a group of Westside homeowners filed a lawsuit against the Expo Bike Path that would run adjacent to the rail line through the Westside into Santa Monica.  The homeowners alleged that the categorical exclusion (CE) granted to the bikeway (a technical term meaning that only a partial environmental review is necessary) by Caltrans was wrongly granted.  In response, Caltrans pulled the CE and the city went back to the drawing board. The bikeway opponents declared victory and bike advocates fumed.

House leaders did not unveil a bill at their press conference this morning.

Noting a lack of large, publicly owned, land still available, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a plan to develop 50 pocket parks scattered throughout the city over the next year and a half.

Perhaps you've heard about Cleveland's terrible vacancy problem, generally attributed to the decline of the manufacturing industry.

Further evidence that the highway era in America is coming to a close: Under financial strain, a state DOT has stepped and up said it will stop expanding highways.

Featured Headline: There's been a lot written about bikes and the Occupy Movement here, at GRIST and Transportation Nation, but an article in Next American City makes the case that the Occupy Movement is a Livable Streets Movement (and vice-versa).  A must read, regardless of politics.

Via the LADOT Bike Blog comes a first look at the Spring Street Buffered Bike Lanes planned for Downtown Los Angeles. Having spent some time this weekend on the "bike paths" on 3rd and Broadway in Downtown Long Beach this weekend, I can't tell you what a difference a buffer makes.

Remember those radically different appropriations bills passed by the House and the Senate? And how I said they’d never come together, and they probably would never pass a 2012 budget anyway because all Congress ever does anymore is extend previous budgets because they can’t agree on anything?

If there's one thing we can all agree on, whether you bike, drive, or ride the bus, it's that American roads are in bad shape. Now the bill is coming due on our poorly maintained infrastructure, and America is coming up short.