Streetsblog Network

Seattle’s bike-share system, Pronto, is in trouble. Pronto is currently run as a private non-profit, but to continue operations, it needs a $1.4 million injection of city funds by the end of March, Tom Fucoloro at Seattle Bike Blog reports. The system’s ridership has not met projections — in a city with a mandatory helmet law, that’s not very … Continued

An office developer wants to rehab a derelict 88,000-square-foot historic building right along Cincinnati’s almost-finished streetcar line. This is exactly what should happen, right? Except the agency charged with protecting the city’s historic structures might actually sink the project. Guess why? Parking, of course! John Yung at Urban Cincy reports: An Over-the-Rhine development has hit a potential challenge after a 3-3 … Continued

Late last year Congress finally moved to boost the maximum commuter tax benefit for transit riders to the same level that car commuters receive. That means transit riders can buy up to $255 in fares each month with pre-tax income, just like drivers can pay for $255 in parking expenses with pre-tax income. Great news, right? Well, it’s definitely a step in … Continued

Republicans in the Washington State Senate are sending a message: Don’t mess with our socialized highways. To show they’re serious about subsidizing roads, they ended the tenure of Washington DOT chief Lynn Peterson. Senate Republicans used their confirmation authority to give Peterson “one week notice” that she would be fired, as one Democrat put it. Josh Feit at Publicola explains: [State … Continued

Imagine 20 percent of commuters getting to work by bike in a major U.S. city. No entire city is close yet (Portland, with the highest rate, is at about 6 percent), but some neighborhoods are getting there. Dan Malouff at Beyond DC shares new data from DDOT showing that in a few areas of Washington, the bike commute mode share … Continued

Cities making the most progress on protected bike lanes are seeing bicycling rates go up. But at the scale of a specific street with a new protected lane, it’s hard to know how much of the increase in bike counts is due to cyclists moving over from nearby streets, and how much is due to people biking the route for the … Continued

Detroit’s transit system has been in crisis now for years. Among the horror stories chronicled by riders: Buses that never come, two-hour commutes, jobs lost to unreliable service. But there’s hope in an effort to integrate the region’s disjointed urban and suburban transit systems into a unified regional network. David Sands at Network blog Mode Shift gives an update on what … Continued

Fresno State University was, until very recently, your prototypical car commuting school. The school began as an isolated agricultural institution and is still connected to a large university farm. Its transportation services haven’t extended much beyond subsidized parking. But over time, writes James Sinclair at Streetsblog Network member Stop and Move, the area around Fresno State became more … Continued

Montgomery County, Maryland, has an ambitious forward-looking vision for a bus rapid transit system, calling for an 81-mile network that would offer a way to bypass gridlock in the growing D.C. suburbs. But that plan is now in jeopardy. It looks like county officials with the power of the purse are signaling they’d rather shell out … Continued