Streetsblog

When he was commanding officer of the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn, the late Michael Ameri made the streets around his precinct house function better for walking and biking, and he started up monthly public meetings devoted to street safety issues. Later today, Ameri, who committed suicide earlier this month, will be remembered at a ceremony preceding the 78th Precinct Community Council meeting.

It's not even a new idea at this point, having made the rounds in the media about six years ago, but the "straddling bus" concept that some Chinese cities are purportedly considering continues to fascinate people. Straddling bus stories went viral again last week, with claims that the conveyance, which only exists as a scale model at this point, can carry up to 1,400 passengers while traveling above two lanes of car traffic as fast as 40 mph, according to CityLab.

California's cap-and-trade program is one of the boldest state-level climate change policies in the U.S. By capping statewide carbon pollution and then auctioning off emissions allowances, the state hopes to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate about $10.6 billion for projects to improve energy efficiency. Among other things, that money would support various rail and transit projects, including the state's high-speed rail line.

It's cliché at this point for newspapers to label any effort to improve walking, biking, or transit as a "war on cars." The latest in this proud tradition is Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley, who wrote recently that the city is waging "a shock-and-awe campaign targeting anyone who dares to drive in, through or around Seattle." What was it exactly that set him off?

Patrick Kennedy at Dallas Magazine's Street Smart blog says that when parking gets expensive, the conventional wisdom he hears is that more parking should be built. But what high parking prices really signify, he writes, is simply a strong concentration of businesses and/or housing -- the parking isn't even necessary.

In the past few years, a greater share of the population growth in and around Houston happened in the city itself, compared to the first decade of the millennium. The trend is pretty clear, reports Houston Tomorrow:

Select Bus Service on Woodhaven Boulevard will speed up travel times for 30,000 daily bus passengers and bring much-needed safety improvements to one of the city's most dangerous roads.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx criss-crossed the country last week on a tour of the seven finalists for U.S. DOT's $50 million "Smart City Challenge" grant.

Remember the uproar over the HOT lanes on I-405 outside Seattle? Republicans in the state senate fired transportation commissioner Lynn Petersen to register their displeasure with priced roads. The political furor isn't over. Bill Bryant, a GOP candidate for governor, continues to use the HOT lanes as a wedge issue against incumbent Democrat Jay Inslee.