Sarah Goodyear

The Network is abuzz today with the news of the federal Sustainable Communities Initiative, a joint project of the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, unveiled yesterday by secretaries Ray LaHood and Shaun Donovan. Matthew Yglesias and Ryan Avent have weighed in, as has The Transport Politic, writing:

Today on the Network, more uplifting commentary from Ray LaHood. Posting on his (still unfortunately-named) "Fast Lane" blog, the transportation secretary sings the praises of America's cities as innovative economic centers, and pledges support for urban transportation systems and transit-oriented development.

The Obama administration has warned that misuse of stimulus funds will lower a state's chances of receiving federal help in the future. Today on the Streetsblog Network, however, The Infrastructurist has identified seven road projects in six states (Kentucky has two) that it calls "the most ridiculous new roads being built with stimulus money." In Texas, for example:

Automobile congestion is too often portrayed as mere nuisance or inconvenience. A new study from Germany, which we heard about via Streetsblog Network member blog The Hard Drive, reminds us that it is much more than that. The study, presented at the American Heart Association's 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention last week, shows that being in a traffic jam -- whether in a car, on a bike, or on a bus -- can triple a person's chance of having a heart attack:

Some disturbing news about stimulus spending on roads comes to us from Streetsblog Network member blog Sprawled Out, which covers the city of Franklin, WI. In that Milwaukee suburb, according to Sprawled Out's John Michlig, local bureaucrats are potentially on track to use stimulus funds to widen a local street in a particularly destructive way:

The Streetsblog Network is buzzing with bike news this morning, much of it related to the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, where the mood sounds really upbeat. Bike Portland has been doing some great reporting from the summit; yesterday, we brought you their summary of DOT Secretary Ray LaHood's pledge to be a "full partner" with bike advocates.

Today Streetsblog Network member The City Fix reports on the "cost of place" in the Washington, DC, area -- the way that the price of housing and transportation stacks up for people in the urban core and the suburbs. According to a report recently released by the Urban Land Institute,

Today on the Streetsblog Network, Richard Layman of Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space finds some interesting ideas about the future of American roads in a somewhat unlikely source -- the super-mainstream Parade magazine, which comes as an insert with more than 400 newspapers around the country and claims a circulation of 33 million. Layman looks at a Parade's cover story from yesterday, entitled How We Can Save Our Roads. The Parade article looks at an engineering practice called "practical design" that is being implemented in Missouri:

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we turn to member blog Trains for America, which looks at the idea of using  stimulus funds to bring rail-equipment manufacturing -- and expanded passenger rail service -- to the state of Montana:

We want mass transit in American cities, right? Right. So how are we going to pay for it?