Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

May 14, 2009

New BRT Corridor
Proposed BRT Corridor for Silver Line Expansion
(Image Courtesy EOT)
 

Highlights

  • VIDEO: Lanes: A brief documentary on bicycle lanes in Boston (Dot Bikes)
    A brief documentary on bike lanes in Boston by Matthew Hihagchi, completed for Bob Nesson’s class Filmmaking in the Sustainable City at Emerson College. A screening to take place around June 10 or 11 at the Museum of Science.
New BRT Corridor
Proposed BRT Corridor for Silver Line Expansion
(Image Courtesy EOT)
 

Highlights

  • VIDEO: Lanes: A brief documentary on bicycle lanes in Boston (Dot Bikes)
    A brief documentary on bike lanes in Boston by Matthew Hihagchi, completed for Bob Nesson’s class Filmmaking in the Sustainable City at Emerson College. A screening to take place around June 10 or 11 at the Museum of Science.

     

  • 'Enhanced' Blue Hill bus line could resemble rapid transit (Dorchester Reporter, Bay State Banner, Commonwealth Conversations, Transport Politic)
    By Pete Stidman -- State and city leaders this week announced a $100 million federal stimulus project to greatly improve public transportation along Blue Hill Avenue from Mattapan to Dudley Square, including a new connection to South Station. It isn’t the light rail service that Roxbury’s transportation advocates have clamored for since the Orange Line was pulled off Washington Street in the late ’80s. And many in Mattapan were taken aback after being left out of the loop on the new proposal. Yet, it is a direct connection to downtown from a host of underserved neighborhoods in Mattapan and Dorchester and transportation advocates seem to be warming up to the plan.
    Related: Silver Line will expand, but not all are onboard (Boston Globe, Boston Herald)
    Related: Ugh ... the Silver Line (The Amateur Planner)
    Related: 'Little Dig' in danger (Boston Globe)

     

  • Transport system isn't the problem (Boston Globe)
    By Michael Dukakis and Fred Salvucci -- WHEN WE were first getting involved in Massachusetts politics in the 1960s, state government was a mess. Statewide officeholders served only two-year terms. The governor and lieutenant governor did not run as a team, so the state often ended up with a governor of one party and a lieutenant governor of the other. The governor had no power to appoint a Cabinet responsible to him, and state government was loaded with independent boards, commissions, and authorities.

     

  • The End of Car Culture (Esquire)
    It's not just erratic gas prices and a bad economy that's hurting automakers. It may be that Americans are changing.
    By Nate Silver -- This is surely one of the signs of the apocalypse: Americans aren't driving as much as they used to. In January, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, Americans drove a collective 222 billion miles. That's a lot of time spent behind the wheel — enough to make roughly eight hundred round-trips to Mars. It translates to about 727 miles traveled for every man, woman, and child in the country. But that figure was down about 4 percent from January 2008, when Americans averaged 757 miles of car travel per person. And this was no aberration: January 2009 was the fifteenth consecutive month in which the average American drove less than he had a year earlier.

     

  • Who Should Pay to Fix the Roads? (Wall Street Journal)
    A new report suggests that to prevent sprawl, we should up the taxes on those who have the longest commutes.
    By June Fletcher -- Should the cost of driving to our suburban homes go up? Yes, according to a report released by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young called Infrastructure 2009: Pivot Point. Those who drive the furthest to work should bear the biggest responsibility for paying for roads. "We should shift the funding from taxpayers to users," said Michael Lucki, global leader of infrastructure and construction at Ernst & Young and, one of the studies co-authors, at a press conference last week.

     

  • Traffic lights covered up by Ealing Council to test congestion 'cure' (The Times)
    By Ben Webster -- What would happen if traffic lights were suddenly switched off? Would there be gridlock or would the queues of frustrated drivers miraculously disappear? People in London are about to find out the answer in Britain’s first test of the theory that removing lights will cure congestion.For six months, lights at up to seven junctions in Ealing will be concealed by bags and drivers will be left to negotiate their way across by establishing eye contact with pedestrians and other motorists.

"Streets"

Bicycling

  • 2009 Bike Bible (The Phoenix)
     
  • The wheel deal: Bike rack cash there for taking (Boston Globe)
     
  • Cyclists flex political muscle (Boston Globe)
     
  • Cycling for a Few or for Everyone (WashCycle)
     
  • VIDEO: Lanes: A brief documentary on bicycle lanes in Boston (Dot Bikes)
     
  • Police seek suspect in Roxbury hit and run (Boston Globe)
     

Transit

Cars/Parking

Transportation financing/Government

Parks

Development projects

Land Use/Zoning

  • The arts overlay district in Union Square provides zoning relief, encourages growth (Somerville News)
     
  • Neighbors weigh in on vision for Broadway (Somerville Journal)
     

Out-of-state

National trends

International news

  • Traffic lights covered up by Ealing Council to test congestion 'cure' (The Times)
     
  • Bicing: Barcelona's Communal Bicycle Program Has Transformed The City (Huffington Post)
     
  • More cyclists means fewer accidents, says report (Guardian)
     
  • VIDEO: ASCOBIKE: Largest Bicycle Parking Facility in the Americas (Streetfilms)
     
  • Electric cars to sound like noisy sports cars to protect the blind and cyclists (Telegraph)
     
  • Speed-restricted car: a review (Telegraph)