baltimorespokes

-Justin Davidson, New York Magazine
…
Public space comes in a range of shades. In the sixties, its cultivation was effectively delegated to private developers, who were permitted to put up bigger office buildings if they provided sidewalk-level oases where workers could eat their lunch. In the eighties and nineties, New York began to rejuvenate its parks, restoring enclaves that offer a cushion from noise and congestion. Now the Department of Transportation has realized that its jurisdiction covers the basic unit of urban life: the street. There, lifestyles intersect and city dwellers co-exist with people different from themselves. It’s where we learn toleration, where leisure shares space with urgency, commerce with activism, baby carriages with handcarts. When it is narrowed by garbage or overwhelmed by traffic, then the street reverts to its most primitive use: as a corridor. But a truly public place allows people to move at many different paces, or not to move at all.
Continue reading “Because Robert Moses Would Have a Coronary If He Were to See Our Streets Now”

For folks who want to sign the Rails to Trails economic recovery petition, which simply asks President-elect Obama and Congress to consider:
"supporting explicit funding for trails, walking and biking in the upcoming economic recovery package. Funding active transportation is a cost-effective investment that creates jobs and leads to healthier people, stronger communities, decreased oil dependency, and reduced climate change emissions"
as part of our nation’s economic recovery plan.
Continue reading “Rails to Trails economic recovery plan online petition”

The Journal’s Ana Campoy reports:
As politicians debate how to break the nation’s addiction to foreign oil and curb its global-warming emissions, laypeople are already setting an example: They’re cutting back on driving.
That’s not just because they were shocked into conserving when gasoline prices surpassed $4 a gallon earlier this year, points out a new study by the Brookings Institution titled “The Road… Less Traveled.”
U.S. drivers began pushing the brakes four years ago — well before gas prices began shooting up. But it was 2007 when, for the first time, the number of miles traveled in the U.S. actually fell compared with the prior year.
That’s because, at this point, there are relatively few people eligible to drive who aren’t doing so already. The growing use of public transit and the sprouting of shopping centers in residential areas are also helping, the study says. These are changes the authors don’t expect will be reversed in coming years, even if gas prices keep falling.
The drop in miles driven will likely force the massive reorganization of transportation policy that experts say is badly needed, but that policy makers have so far skirted.
For starters, Congress will have to figure out how to make up for the shortfall in gasoline – tax revenue, which is used to fund transportation projects, as people use less of the fuel. Short-term, Brookings says, lawmakers should raise gas taxes, and while they’re at it, they should index them to inflation so that they rise along with overall prices. In the long-term, the study suggests a carbon tax.
But aside from securing new revenue streams, Congress will need to do a better job of assigning the cash. According to Brookings , traffic data suggests that either the build-up of road lanes is outpacing the growth in the number of cars that roll on them, or that fewer cars are driving over existing roads than in the past. Either way, the report says, if the number of miles Americans log “continues to fall—and states continue to build more roads—the nation may be wasting scarce transportation dollars on unneeded roads.”
Continue reading “Road Kill: Americans Are Driving Less, Which is Good and Bad”

Link found between ‘active transportation’ and less obesity in 17 countries
-Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Jim Richards is no kid, but he loves to ride his bike. At 51, he has become a cycling commuter, pedaling 11 miles from his home in the suburbs to his job in downtown Knoxville.
"It really doesn’t take that much longer" than driving, he insists.
And he gets 40 minutes of exercise twice a day without going to the gym, which he attributes to a 20-pound weight loss.
New research illustrates the health benefits of regular biking, walking or taking public transportation to work, school or shopping. Researchers found a link between "active transportation" and less obesity in 17 industrialized countries across Europe, North America and Australia.
"Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates," authors David Bassett of the University of Tennessee and John Pucher of Rutgers University conclude.
Continue reading “Leaner nations bike, walk, use mass transit”