For “biggest victory” I voted for what was perhaps the least sensational of the nominees. The choice not to expand the Deegan excited readers here, but it seemed to me that it did so less than any of the other nominees. But I think it’s the biggest victory because, while the other victories are exciting steps into the future, the choice NOT to expand a highway as a way to deal with car volume represents, I think, a shift from a particular strain of past thinking that is so unbelievably entrenched everywhere–among transportation experts and lay people alike–that changes or challenges to it are very significant.

And besides, it helps that The Bronx was spared, for once, the default “poop on The Bronx” attitude in metro-area planning.

The biggest victory is more people decided to try getting around by bicycle. They can destroy the transit system (financially they already have, along with the school system, etc.) But riding a bicycle is mostly a matter of deciding to do try it and sticking with it until your muscles get used to it, given even modest accommodation.

It is precisely for that reason that it, along with working at home, is what I have the most hope for.

I wish I could have voted for all four legislative fiascos.

Sorry, you live in Schneiderman’s district.

HSR rail is a greenwashed concept and induces sprawl.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/what-would-high-speed-rail-do-to-suburban-sprawl/

Who supports it? Crony contractors and central valley land speculators who plan on building more sprawl for 10s of miles around each HSR station.

http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/wheels-coming-high-speed-rail

#4 Larry Littlefield, “The biggest victory is more people decided to try getting around by bicycle.”

Yes! Absolutely! Couldn’t agree more.

But, Bloomberg, Sadik-Khan, and Obama are important according to Lester Brown’s “sandwich model of social change,” from the section of Plan B 4.0: “Three Models of Social Change”

“Many social changes occur when societies reach tipping points or cross key thresholds . . . The sandwich model of social change is in many ways the most attractive one, partly because it brings a potential for rapid change . . . The ideal situation for rapid, historic progress occurs when mounting grassroots pressure for change merges with a national leadership committed to the same change.”

http://www.livablestreets.com/streetswiki/three-models-of-social-change
http://www.livablestreets.com/streetswiki/plan-b/pb4book.pdf

(page 141 of linked pdf; page 256 of actual printed book).