Streetsblog.net

Decisions about cycling infrastructure don't really come down to money, or technical knowhow, or even the availability of street space. Ultimately, if you establish community consent and political will to make streets safe for cycling, the rest will follow.

When it comes to traffic fatalities, the scales of the American justice system are not weighted equally. Let's compare two cases.

The "Sustainability Gap" -- it ensnares politicians everywhere.

There's a long history of anti-urban propaganda in American politics. Here are a few classics of the genre: "Transit's a waste of money that needs a subsidy." (Nevermind that urban residents subsidize country roads.) Any reference to "elites" or, somewhat paradoxically, any mention of welfare would also achieve the desired result (as if rural areas were not collecting these funds). The name of the game is to cast city dwellers either as parasitic government dependents, invoking racial stereotypes, or as snooty liberals, whose tastes and values are suspicious and un-American.

As we head into the Memorial Day holiday, and move from one congressional recess to another [PDF], Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has given us something to do with our extra free time: Watch taxpayer subsidies to big oil climb higher and higher.

Bike licensing and mandatory registration -- can we just go ahead and file these under bad ideas?

Here's a story that would make any urbanist cringe. Last year in Seattle, the construction of a commercial building ("one of the nation's greenest") in a dense urban neighborhood was challenged by neighbors who said an environmental impact statement should be required because the building would block views.

We've written a few times about how transit referendums need a simple, to-the-point message summarizing what voters can expect to receive in return. Here's how they're doing it in Atlanta.

As part of her graduate studies, Emily Washington at Network blog Market Urbanism set out to determine if people were willing to pay a premium for housing in a walkable urban setting. She developed two different models to see if there's a link between housing prices and Walk Scores in 259 cities. Wouldn't you know it, she found a pretty clear connection. Washington shared the results of her research in a post yesterday and is asking for feedback on her methodology: