In the lull following a tumultuous election season, we’ve been keeping an eye on how the new political appointments shake out and what they mean for transit, walking, and biking. With the balance of power in Washington remaining split, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. While the strongest transit supporters in the House […]

One of the most memorable stories of last year’s tsunami in Japan was the 83-year-old woman who escaped the waters by riding her bike. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Americans saw closer-to-home images of how bikes can help people in the face of disaster. We heard stories about New York City commuters who hopped […]

We’re taking a short break from Sandy-related coverage to bring you this success story from Anchorage, Alaska. Bet you didn’t know it, but Anchorage is a pretty respectable biking city. The 2010 Census said 1.5 percent of the city’s residents commute by bike, putting it ahead of places like Boston and Arlington, Virginia. Not coincidentally, […]

It wasn’t too long ago we reported that 48 states had elected to preserve funding for recreational trails, after the new transportation best price cialis bill made it possible for states to “opt out” of much of the funding for active transportation. That seemed like a good sign, but what followed is more encouraging still. […]

Not surprisingly, everybody’s talking about the Slate article that attempts to explain “Why You [presumably a motorist] Hate Cyclists.” Writer Jim Saksa basically concludes that motorist haterade is based mostly on logical fallacies that stem from the marginalization of cyclists, and our predilection to use anecdotes to confirm our own deeply held biases. Here’s a […]

The concept of “induced demand” for road space essentially means that new, or widened, highways will entice more drivers onto the roads, negating any congestion-reducing benefits of the new road. But induced demand doesn’t just apply to roads. Broadly speaking, it’s an economic concept that goes something like this: If something is free, or low […]

From a motorist’s perspective, few things are more frustrating than sitting at a red light when the lights ahead are all green. That would help explain the popularity of traffic signal synchronization, neatly timing lights so that someone traveling the speed limit can expect to wait only every several cycles. Many communities have seized on […]

“Level of Service,” or LOS, for short, is the rather arcane engineering standard that has turned streets all over America into funnels for car traffic. LOS is essentially a measure of traffic delay. Road projects are given a grade from “A” to “F” based on how smoothly traffic flows. The problem with this, as Jonathan Maus […]

It’s springtime finally, and you know what that means — bike season is heating up, and so is construction season (for a few cities, that means new transit is in the works). Also, Streetsblog is asking for your support as we continue fighting for a livable, healthy and sustainable transportation system. Things are really reaching […]

This is one of the worst parts of biking on a typical American street: You’re riding your bike and you hear a car coming up from behind you. It’s loud; you can tell it’s going fast. Does the driver see you? WHOOSH … the car passes you at arm’s distance. Nothing like a little trip […]

The end of the exurbs — that’s the way many pundits are interpreting the latest round of census data. The last year offered good news for cities and central suburbs across the country and bad news for the McMansion boomtowns of the ’90s. Of course, it wasn’t always that simple. Some metros — Detroit, Cleveland, […]

Hardly a day goes by here at Streetsblog without news of another American city getting serious about a new bike-share system, transit boulevard, or highway teardown. Cities are grappling with how to move beyond the 1950s-era, cars-first mentality, and the opportunities for change are palpable. It’s also unusual to go a day without seeing some […]