Streetsblog Network
“Pocket” Bike Lanes: A Small Step to Make Intersections Work Better?
A bike lane that appears at an intersection to help guide bicyclists out of the way of turning drivers — in Washington, D.C., they call this a “pocket lane.” David Cranor writes at Greater Greater Washington that the District is looking to add them along streets that don’t otherwise have bike lanes, targeting intersections where … Continued
August 15, 2016
If People Can’t Afford to Live Near Work, They Probably Won’t Bike Commute
How out of control are Bay Area housing prices? It costs so much to live in Palo Alto that Kate Vershov Downing — a lawyer who served on the Planning and Transportation Commission — announced this week that she and her husband — a software developer — are moving to Santa Cruz. She resigned her … Continued
August 11, 2016
If You Want to Fix Sorry Bus Stops, Don’t Forget to Tell the DOT
Streetsblog just wrapped up our 2016 Sorriest Bus Stop in America competition, with a waiting area on a state highway in Silver Spring, Maryland, beating out 15 other terrible bus stops for the crown of shame. For our voters, asking people to cross a six-lane divided road with no signal was unforgivable. To make the … Continued
August 10, 2016
That Time a Louisville Paper Fantasized About Bombing Its Own Downtown
When urban renewal took a wrecking ball to American cities in the middle of the last century, some places looked like a war zone. In fact, that bombed-out effect is pretty much what the proponents of “slum clearance” and related policies had in mind. In an amazing relic from June 29, 1955, unearthed by Branden … Continued
August 9, 2016
NTSB Finally Takes an Interest in Cycling Safety — Still Misses the Point
The National Transportation Safety Board is best known for investigating train crashes and plane crashes to figure out what went wrong. It’s an approach designed to prevent catastrophic incidents that claim several lives at once. But the much bigger risk in America’s transportation system is more mundane — the daily stream of traffic crashes that … Continued
August 8, 2016
How the New Google Maps May Change the Way You See the City
What can a Google Maps visual teach us about the cities we live in? Kyle Shelton at Network blog The Urban Edge has been exploring the latest update of Google Maps, which now highlights clusters of businesses, or “areas of interest,” in orange. Shelton says the highlighted zones can reveal unexpected pockets of commercial activity: … Continued
August 5, 2016
Chris Christie’s Transportation Record Is a Bigger Disaster Than Bridgegate
What a fiasco. Six years after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie killed the ARC transit tunnel under the Hudson so he could avoid raising the gas tax, the jig is up. The state has run out of transportation funding anyway. NJ’s Transportation Trust Fund dried up a month ago, bringing a halt to basic infrastructure … Continued
August 4, 2016
Where the People Walk: A Global Glance at Walking Rates
The way we move around is shaped by many factors — the physical environment, culture, technology, and economic status, to name a few. A new report from the engineering firm Arup, “Cities Alive: Towards a Walking World,” looks at how motorized cities can become walkable again. Brandon Donnelly at Network blog Architect This City lifted … Continued
August 3, 2016
Trading a Park-and-Ride for a Public Plaza and Bike Parking
More cities should copy this idea for their park-and-ride transit stations: At DC Metro’s King Street station in Old Town Alexandria, plans are underway to turn parking spots into a pedestrian plaza. This goes against the grain of typical transit agency practice. Despite the fact that park-and-rides are an inefficient use of scarce land, a … Continued
August 2, 2016
Great Cities Don’t Take Late-Night Transit Service Away From Workers
What a sad state of affairs for transit in the nation’s capital. As WMATA, the agency that runs the DC Metro, temporarily disrupts service to take care of necessary system repairs, it’s also considering a permanent end to late-night service. That is entirely unacceptable, especially in a city where so many people work outside the … Continued
August 1, 2016