Cities and Countries

The Chicago City Council has approved by a vote of 40-5 a deal to privatize the city's 36,000 metered parking spots for the next 75 years, trading meter revenues for an upfront payment of $1.15 billion.

Let's give a warm Streetsblog welcome to Mr. Theo, the newest member of the Livable Streets Network. You may recognize Theo as the star of the Louisville, Kentucky transit system's YouTube hit, "Bikes-on-Board." Sure, some LSN members will criticize him for uploading a photo of himself standing next to a vehicle that gets about 7 miles per gallon and runs on leaded fuel. But give the man some credit for supporting urban infrastructure investment; his personal web site is BigDiggity.com. If you're looking for a transit-oriented M.C. in the River City area, Mr. Theo is available for hire.

At a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom asserted the project will be "so much more extraordinary than Grand Central Station."

Clarence Eckerson rounds out Streetfilms' series on Boulder, Colorado with this long-form opus. Boulder was recently awarded a rare platinum rating from the League of American Bicyclists, and here we get a flavor for the city's bike network and the story behind it. I like this telling detail: When it snows, Boulder's bike paths get plowed first.

Two-and-a-half years after a judge issued an injunction preventing the city from adding any new bicycle infrastructure to its streets, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the San Francisco Planning Department have released a 1353-page Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the San Francisco Bicycle Plan. At a cost of more than $1 million, the city has attempted to demonstrate in excruciating detail what would seem to be obvious: better bicycle amenities contribute to increased cycling and an improved environment.

Via Transport Politic, some encouraging transit news from Iraq, where the mayor of Baghdad recently announced plans to move ahead with the city's first subway lines. The Guardian reports:

San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency gave the go-ahead Tuesday to curbside parking reform that will encompass a quarter of the metered spaces in the city -- about 6,000 spots. Under the 18-month pilot, called SFpark, the agency will vary prices for on-street parking and city-owned lots based on demand, intending to reduce unnecessary car trips and cut down on cruising for spaces.

Bixi, Montreal’s new public bicycle-sharing program, has been listed among Time Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2008. While a pilot version of the system debuted this fall, the real action begins next spring, when 2,400 bicycles will appear on city streets along with 300 solar-powered stations. The bikes are designed to withstand the abuses of … Continued