Brad Aaron

Today's toon combo comes to us via the Times' By Design blog, where Allison Arieff has posted a paean to Steven M. Johnson, an inventor, author, cartoonist and former urban planner described by Arieff as "a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller." Many of Johnson's "whimsical musings" are transportation related, and at least one of them (which Johnson called the "Treadaround") has become reality.

While President Barack Obama promoted wind power and cap-and-trade legislation, VP Joe Biden spent Earth Day talking up transit. Public radio's "The Takeaway" reports that Biden held a presser at a bus maintenance facility in Landover, Maryland, to tout a $300 million investment in hybrid buses and other municipal vehicles as part of the federal stimulus package. Said Biden:

When it comes to promoting environmentally sound transportation, is Streetsblog better than a Prius? If you think so, cast your vote for the Livable Streets Initiative in the Treehugger “Best of Green” contest. There are 17 entries in the “Cars and Transportation” category, ranging from “Best City for Public Transit” (Bogota) to “Best Freight Shipping … Continued

If you're in need of a little comic relief today, try this seemingly subversive pro-jaywalking message from the Muppets.

As livable streets advocates work to make headway in breaking the cycle of American auto dependence, the folks at Planetizen have put together a video narrative that explains how we got here. "The Story of Sprawl," a double DVD set produced by Managing Editor Tim Halbur, is a compilation of historical films dating from 1939 to 1965, documenting the confluence of factors that fostered the quintessential land use motif of the 20th century: far-flung, low-density, driving-intensive residential and commercial development. The discs include commentary from planning notables including Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, John Norquist, Neal Peirce, James Howard Kunstler and Robert Cervero, featured in the clip above.

Environmentally-conscious citizens of India aren't alone in their concern about the rollout of the Tata Nano, the "world's cheapest car." But in an op-ed piece for Forbes, Projjal Dutta, the director of sustainability initiatives for the MTA, writes that American critics should look to their own example if they expect developing nations to follow a more sustainable path.

Who’s next? Photo: wodaking/Flickr The New York Times’ Freakonomics blog has picked up on proposed legislation from Wayne Krieger, an Oregon representative who wants every bike owner in the state aged 18 and older to pay a $54 registration fee every two years. “[B]ikes have used the roads in this state forever and have never … Continued

Wisconsin's Jeff Frings is an avid bike rider. He's also a photographer for Milwaukee's Fox 6, which may be why this report is among the most fair and balanced we've seen on cyclists' right to the road.

Today the Streetsblog Network takes us to India, where some fear the recent launch of the highly-anticipated $2,000 Tata Nano -- a.k.a. the "world's cheapest car" -- will wreak havoc on the environment and already crowded public spaces. Hard Drive has the story: 

What if news articles of shootings, stabbings and other deaths used the same language normally employed to describe traffic collisions? Today on the Streetsblog Network, David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington points to media coverage of a crash in Culpeper County, VA, as an example of our tendency to view traffic violence as an immutable force of nature.