Cities and Countries

Faced with an impending budget crisis, the Texas Department of Transportation has decided not to rethink its $5.2 billion plan for a third outerbelt through undeveloped grasslands around Houston. Instead, the agency has developed a proposal to basically shift a big part of its costs to the state's major cities.

One thing that impressed me during my three days in Zurich was I saw no cyclists crash while navigating the surface rails for the 15 tram lines that run all over the city. I was told by some there are certainly problems, and crashes happen, but I saw some real pro rail-riding behavior.

Donald Shoup may be known as a guru of smart parking policy, but even he has found a few surprises in the data collected so far from SFpark.

By now there's not much doubt that protected bike lanes can be a game-changer for cycling in U.S. cities. Making streets feel safe to bike on boosts overall cycling rates, attracting people who otherwise wouldn't even consider cycling. The safety benefits keep accruing as more people on bikes hit the streets, since drivers become more aware of the presence of cyclists and pay closer attention.

Can we all just pause for a moment and give Vancouver a standing ovation?

On the morning of March 29 last year, Chris Bucchere biked through a crowded crosswalk in San Francisco's Mission District, striking 71-year-old Sutchi Hui, who died of his injuries four days later. As should be the case for any traffic fatality, SF District Attorney George Gascón spent considerable time building a case -- collecting GPS data and surveillance footage and tracking down witnesses. While footage of the crash did not conclusively show that Bucchere had entered the intersection on a red light, he had been seen disobeying other traffic signals leading up the crash. In June, Gascón announced he would charge Bucchere with felony vehicular manslaughter.

In June, the New York Times published a story headlined "The Dutch Prize Their Pedal Power, But a Sea of Bikes Swamps Their Capital" that instigated much debate (over 365 reader comments in one day) and a torrent of emails to the editor. The Times followed up by seeking a "dialogue" with its readers about the supposed "swamping" of Amsterdam by bicycles. Then came all the echoes of the Times narrative inothermedia.

It wasn't de-industrialization that bankrupted Detroit, wrote Paul Krugman in a New York Times column yesterday. If that was all there is to it, then how do you explain the fact that Pittsburgh, once so dependent on the steel industry, is now recovering? No, what brought Detroit to this low point, more than the loss of factory jobs, was decades of unsustainable development patterns.

It's working. The Atlanta Beltline, still in its most formative stages, is already boosting business and promoting development, according to this report from a local news station.