Bicycle Infrastructure

Transportation Alternatives' Noah Budnick will be on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" this afternoon at 3 p.m. EST. He'll be debating Rob Anderson, the one-man wrecking crew who filed the 2006 environmental impact law suit that stopped San Francisco from building out its citywide bicycle network.

A recent poll conducted by AARP finds that Americans over the age of 50 are cutting down on car trips due to rising gas prices, but are finding public infrastructure, or lack thereof, to be an obstacle.

After Summer Streets wrapped up last Saturday, I headed over to Times Square to check out the progress on DOT's "Broadway Boulevard" project. The new street geometry and surfacing are mostly in place, while plantings and furniture have yet to arrive. The bike lane was also fully functional, making this pedicab ride across 41st Street a lot more pleasant than it would have been a few months ago.

This StreetsWiki entry is rounding into encyclopedic form quite nicely. Andy Hamilton, DianaD (who also brought us the VMT entry last week) and Streetsblog's own Aaron Naparstek have been piecing together a detailed look at the history and effectiveness of bike boxes:

Looks like there's a new preferred bike route from the Brooklyn Bridge to the west side of Manhattan, and DOT's signs and markings division wants you to know about it. The sign in this shot, snapped by Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson at the foot of the bridge, looks more like what you'd see from behind a windshield than from beneath a bike helmet.

The Ninth Avenue cycle track will be extended 10 blocks north to 33rd St.

Since our post from last week on tonight's Community Board 3 meeting, where DOT will be presenting its plan for bike lanes on Chrystie Street, several Streetsbloggers have wondered why a physically separated corridor is not being considered for this heavily-traveled route.

DOT plans for Chrystie Street would replace parking with bike lanes.

 On Tuesday, voters in Portland, Oregon elected Sam Adams as their next mayor. A former Congressional staffer and current Portland city commissioner, Adams -- who is a cyclist -- ran on a platform that emphasized environmental and progressive growth initiatives, including, in the words of the Oregonian, "use [of] the Portland Streetcar and better planning to spur urban renewal." Adams received strong support from the livable streets community, which helped earn him a 52-34 percent margin of victory.