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.”
I don't want to undermine the importance of having public transit be safe, but media needs to stop covering "violence on the Metro" as if pubtrans is more deadly than car travel.
Sure, you're not the one driving the Metro so you don't feel as in control. But I suspect the numbers would show a lot more violence per day in car travel than pubtrans.
Let's work for violence prevention on pubtrans, but also stop stoking middle class fears of pubtrans. #Transportation#PublicTransit
“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
"The way to fight #crime is not with stops based on hunches and pretext, but by investing proactively in communities and with #policing targeted at people for whom there is suspicion of serious criminal conduct.
On the other hand, there is a real #trafficSafety problem in this country… #transportation officials should focus their efforts... better lighting… #protectedBikeLanes & pedestrian crossings; self-ticketing cars with speed limiters, … [#transit]" 🚎 🚲
Golze, J., & Sester, M. (2024). Determining user specific #semantics of locations extracted from #TrajectoryData. Transportation Research Procedia, 78, 215-221. - "stop points are extracted from the GPS #trajectories using the #Python framework MovingPandas"
Second #BikeTooter badge checked off, also took a bicycle on a city bus. The bus driver was less than amused at my attempts to cram two folded and worn dollar bills into the fare collector and said "gimme those, I'll do it!" LOL He also seemed to be trying to whip around corners and hit pot holes, LOL (the bike did not go anywhere it shouldn't have, the racks work). #bus#transportation
First lesson: the farmer's market here has no bicycle racks, and the folks in charge have ZERO idea what to do with them, despite the "NO BIKES" sign. They clarified and said bikes are fine, as long as you walk them. "NO ONE HAS ASKED US THAT BEFORE" is what they told me. They ended up letting me stash my bike next to their info booth while I walked around. #BikeTooter#Transportation
This was an interesting email to receive today. It reminded me of some things we discussed back on The Oil Drum about this very thing (the online archive still available: http://theoildrum.com/special/archives ) - how paving over all the old city & county gravel roads had introduced a pile of fixed costs (not just paving, but regular re-grading, snow plowing, etc) that towns would eventually have to shed.
In other words, at some point in the not too distant future, they will start turning roads back into gravel roads, slowly but surely, starting at the very outside edges and creeping inward until only a certain core of local paved roads remains.
Private automobiles are not the future of anything, and it is a gross mis-allocation of funds to waste money on expanding roads.
The communities that were crushed and divided by highways can be repaired, though they will never have the same vibrancy as before, nor will the original displaced inhabitants benefit in any way.
But it's a start.
"...Decades ago, people decided to create the freeways. Now, we must decide if we will continue this path or reverse the damage to repair our communities..."
Cidades demasiado dependentes de carros deviam ser vistas como sinal de subdesenvolvimento. A ideia de querer obrigar as pessoas a endividarem-se à fartazana para comprar latas rolantes mastodônticas para serem deixadas à noite em cima dos passeios das cidades não tem ponta por onde se lhe pegue!
That’s because a campaign to make Paris greener, primarily by reducing its dependence on cars, has transformed it into a shining example of what many environmental activists, city planners and transit advocates say ought to be the future of cities worldwide.
Paris has closed more than 100 streets to motor vehicles, tripled parking fees for SUVs, removed roughly 50,000 parking spots, and constructed more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of bike lanes since Mayor Anne Hidalgo took office in 2014.
Those changes have contributed to a 40% decline in air pollution, according to city officials.
“How did we achieve this?” Hidalgo said in a statement in March. “By assuming a major and radical rupture: the end of car-dependence.”
Finished the first draft of my play in iambic pentameter! Because I have the freedom to do weird shit now! Anyway, given that I've been bike commuting in Boston since 2008, I was thinking I could put together some bike commuting tips for folks considering it. Do you think anyone would want such a thing? #bike#bikecommute#transportation#boston