Out of Town

It's easy to tut-tut at the auto-dependent from the transit-rich confines of New York City. So, to get a taste of what it's like out there as the era of cheap gas seemingly draws to a close, Streetsblog sent me on a road trip. My destination was Athens, Georgia, where I checked on the state of bike-ped infrastructure in what could be a model small city for the future of American mobility. I'll be filing more Athens reports soon. In the meantime, here are some quick hits from the road.

Brad Aaron files this report from Athens, Georgia. 

 

Streetsblog contributor Ethan Kent sends along this item from CoolTown Studios, profiling what it calls "the contemporary urban delivery vehicle":

 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.

 Cyclists across the country celebrated Bike to Work Day on Friday, and Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press has inspiring video from New York, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas. 

A group of cyclists in Los Angeles continues its guerrilla rides on city freeways. In this video, via Streetsblog LA, riders are joined by rollerbladers as they cut through idling traffic on the 405. The "Crimanimal Mass" movement has gotten more sophisticated since the previous video installment, what with the narrative-style editing, helpful graphics and what seems to be an original score (which I could only tolerate for about four minutes before muting).

As a new class of automobile owners floods the streets of India with cheap cars, the city of Delhi is trying to stem the tide with a new Bus Rapid Transit program. Unfortunately, along with the cars has come the requisite sense of entitlement and modal prejudice, as EMBARQ reports: