We look at three states where legislation has been proposed to hamper the rollout of bus lanes, EVs and more. Florida has even banned bus wraps, but not because Governor DeSantis cares about bus riders.
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These U.S. Cities Have More Parking Lots Than Housing - They paved paradise again and again and again.
by Frank Jacobs, Big Think May 17, 2024
"...On average, about one-fifth of all land in city centers is dedicated to parking. But what’s the actual harm being done by all that parking space? For one, city centers that are more “parkable” become less walkable. In other words, fewer things are casually accessible.
...Americans’ attitude toward driving is changing. The share of high school seniors with a driving license has dropped from 85.3% in 1996 to 71.5% in 2015. The rise of shared, multi-modal, and (soon, they keep promising us) autonomous mobility will further reduce the need for driver’s licenses, individual cars, and massive parking facilities in city centers.
Perhaps it’s time for American cities to become denser, more lived-in, more walkable—and less “parkable.”
People seem to be having a hard time getting away from the idea of centralized power supplies in favor of networked dispersed power from local rooftops and such. I don't know why. You'd think people and towns would be tired of being fleeced by for-profit providers and unreliable out-of-town or out-of-state owners who defer maintenance until a crisis is reached...
@shekinahcancook@ai6yr It's something I find quite strange. In the UK domestic solar panels are VAT (tax) free and the surplus electricity can be fed back to the grid for useful money-you can even get them from Costco*. Yet there are still very few around. And public/commercial buildings have acres of space doing nothing that could be used to replace expensive electricity. Surely some of them could afford the upfront investment.
*Ours being installed in a couple of weeks 😀.
What is it going to take to get through to elected officials and progressive transportation planners, that they're working with a machine that's been designed to build freeways through poor neighborhoods and coerce anyone who could afford it into cars? A machine made of #trafficEngineers and #police which then accreted a century of CYA, cultural, legal, and bureaucratic armor against change? Giving the DOT more money for safety won't ever get us out of #carSupremacy. It's designed to not.
The whole ten-year cycle of planning and public outreach and design and legislature allocating funding, to do some cast-in-place concrete curb-protected sidewalk with bike stencils on it, that isn't wide enough to carry as much bike traffic as there are cars on the street, with no design-speed consideration, sharp corners and blind spots at intersections... It was conceived & designed as a way to get people on bikes out of the way of motorists, who are the important road users with places to go.
@msquebanh that's great news!! When I did my study abroad in Vancouver, I took the ferry to visit a friend in Victoria for a long weekend. It was a blast! I had taken the ferry several times in Seattle, but the BC ferry was magical.
@msquebanh this was, gulp, 17 years ago. The price at the time was reasonable. I didn't have a car, so it was the bus down to the ferry, then my friend picked me up at the terminal. I miss the Pacific Northwest, but it's so expensive now I'd never be able to afford to live there.
The passenger station & #train depot will function as assembly, repair, maintenance & operational center for long-delayed & anticipated – #FirstEver#RailLine of its kind in the southern metropolis.
@BarbChamberlain I would happily accept a speed limiter on my car, just like I have one on my e-bike! Above a certain speed, the motor shuts off. Wanna go faster? Pedal harder/get out and push!
#IslandLink#bus company has expanded its service to northern #VancouverIsland, taking its fleet past Campbell River for the first time.
“The company now has Vancouver Island covered,” owner Phillip Morgan said Friday.
Riders can catch the bus from #PortHardy at 8:30 a.m. and arrive in Victoria by mid-afternoon. The northern run from Victoria will arrive in Port Hardy by 5:30 p.m., Morgan said.
“I’m wondering if something subliminal has happened after reading Bicycling Monterey. I’ve been riding the Rock Island Greenway Trail for the last week and a half. Just a wonderful and beautiful ride! It’s not Monterey, California, but a real gem for Peoria, Illinois.”—Richard Coers