Sarah Goodyear

Lots of blogs around the Streetsblog Network are tackling issues related to bike commuting this week in honor of the upcoming Bike to Work Day on Friday. Baltimore Spokes weighs in with a post about how employers can tailor workplaces to encourage employees to ride in. Here are a few of their ideas:

The details of Rep. Jim Oberstar's plans for the next federal transportation bill are starting to come into focus. Last Friday, The Infrastructurist ran an item about a document on the subject that has made its way into the public eye:

How much should passengers pay for mass transit? What with the financial woes of transit systems around the country, it's been a hot topic. Today on the Streetsblog Network, we're looking at the question from a couple of different angles.

Today Transportation for America is releasing a 100-page document called "The Route to Reform," in which they outline policy recommendations related to the upcoming reauthorization of federal transportation funding legislation (download the executive summary here or the full report here). 

It's amazing how easy it is to be a radical when you talk about changing any aspect of car culture in the United States.

In more and more communities around the country, the benefits of complete streets -- designed for the benefit and safety of all users, not just automobiles -- are becoming clear. The latest advance comes in Hawaii, where the governor has signed legislation that makes building complete streets a state policy. Today on the Streetsblog Network, Transportation for America has the news, and a reminder that change at the national level is still possible:

We always like to hear about people jettisoning their cars for other modes of transportation, and there are several blogs on the Streetsblog Network that chronicle efforts to give up the personal automobile. They include Carless Parenting, based in Salt Lake City; The MinusCar Project, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Car Free with Kids, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. All are filled with inspiration and strategies for those who would like to go the same route.

Today, in honor of bike month on the Streetsblog Network, we hear from a cyclist in Long Beach, California, who was forced into the position of (unsuccessfully) educating a police officer about the right of a bike to ride safely out of the door zone. This via the Long Beach Cyclists blog:

When she wrote a column for the New York Sun last year about letting her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own, Lenore Skenazy was pilloried by many as an irresponsible mom. She stuck to her guns, though, and started a blog dedicated to "sane parenting", advocating the idea that we are over-sheltering our children from infinitesimal threats such as stranger abduction. According to Skenazy, the kind of independence represented by that subway trip is necessary and healthy for children -- and their parents as well.

Usually when we talk about someone having a windshield perspective on this blog, we don't mean it as a good thing. But today, courtesy of Streetsblog Network member Bike Portland, we bring you a windshield perspective that is actually quite helpful. TriMet bus operator Dan Christenson has written a guest column about how happy he is to see more bicyclists using lights at night -- because it means he sees them so much better: