Transportation Policy

As we reported yesterday, starting Monday, August 6, Car-Free time in Central Park will be increased by one hour in the morning on the Park's West Drive. Here are the details from the Dept. of Transportation:

By now we're all familiar with the litany of complaints about the City's new traffic control plan: It's an unfair and burdensome new tax; it's going to kill retail business and hurt the little guy; and most of all, it's just plain "un-American."

"Cyclists are so used to doing with scraps and they've been that way for so long that they are shocked when they get anything that satisfies their needs."

Two lanes in the middle of this Parisian avenue have been set aside for the exclusive use of buses, bikes and taxis. Private automobiles have been squeezed into the margins.

Luc Nadal of the Institute for Transportation Development Policy sends along these photos showing some of the exciting new things happening on Parisian streets these days.

Nobody knows whether the convoluted and difficult congestion pricing "deal" reached by political leaders yesterday will actually result in anything. The deal is complex even by Albany standards. A few things, however, are clear:

An enforcement camera in London captures a motorist in the bus lane.

Since we're talking about urban bike-sharing today, it's worth taking a quick look at Germany's Call-a-Bike program. The remarkable thing about this system is that you don't even need to leave the bicycles in a set parking spot. Using your cell phone you call the phone number on the side of the bike, a magic ray beam shoots out of the sky an unlocks the bicycle's rear wheel (I may not have the technological details correct there), and when you're done riding you call the number to close your transaction and leave the bike standing at any street corner in the city. It costs 6 cents per minute. Call-a-Bike is run by the Die Bahn, the German national transportation agency.