General Transportation:
- MPR: MnDOT Commissioner Finalist for U of M Job
- Tom Sorel is one of two candidates for the director job at UMN’s Center for Transportation Studies
- StreetsBlog: Land Use AND Transportation: The Importance of Understanding the Connection
- Details the links between land use, transportation, and livable communities
- Huffington Post: Addressing Transportation Inequality to Keep America Moving
- Excellent article about the inequalities caused by not properly funding transit options
- Crossroads: Transportation Solutions: Reactive vs. Proactive
- Blogger contemplates how best to handle transportation systems and problems
- Planetizen: The Sustainable Transportation Divide
- Does sustainable transportation mean better cars or fewer cars?
- StreetsBlog: MnDOT Placed Signs on the Sidewalk…
- In an attempt to keep Road Construction and Detour signs from blocking car traffic, MnDOT made several sidewalks in S. Mpls inaccessible
Transit:
- Star Tribune: Barb Thoman: There’s Room for Both Buses and Rail
- TLC’s Acting Executive Director, Barb Thoman, responds to Mike Meyers’ editorial on Light Rail
- Grist: Lester Brown: Reclaiming the Streets
- Overall editorial about Bus Rapid Transit, bicycling, and transportation infrastructure in urban settings
- Hindsight: Light Rail is the Right Investment
- A response to the Mike Meyers editorial below
- Star Tribune: Mike Meyers: Light Rail, Popular and a Boondoggle
- Mike Meyers rant that buses are better than light rail
Bike/Walk:
- NPR: Cyclists and Drivers Can Keep Each Other Safe
- Interview with Loren Mooney of Bicycling magazine –Minneapolis gets a shout out right at the end!
- Pioneer Press: Friends of Burnsville Teen Killed in Bike Accident Tell the Stories of his Life
- 15-year-old Tejas Malakapalli was died several days after being hit at an intersection
- Star Tribnue: Exercise: Good for Body, Spirit
- A young woman with MS describes how bicycling (a year round commuter with a modified bike to hold her crutches!) has renewed her energy
- Planetizen: Cities Seek to Quantify Rise in Bicycle Ridership
- Planners in cities across the country are installing electronic sensors to track how many people are making use of bike lanes and trails
- Duluth News Tribune: Crosswalks a Danger Zone
- Profiles the dangers to pedestrians when crossing busy streets
- StreetsBlog: Bike Infrastructure Where You Live
- In honor of National Bike Month, StreetsBlog is asking readers to send in photos of bicycle infrastructure
- Star Tribune: Pedal Power Expanding in the Suburbs
- BWTC’s Steve Clark is quoted!
- MetBlogs Minneapolis: Bike to Work Week May 17-21
- Interview with Bicycling editor Christie Mattheis about the Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities and women bicycling
Roads:
- Finance & Commerce: Minneapolis Tackling more than 30 Miles of Street Work this Year
- The City of Minneapolis plans to resurface, reconstruct, renovate or seal coat more than 30 miles of city streets
- Finance & Commerce: MnDOT Agrees to $6.2 Million Diversity Program
- After four years of negotiations, the MnDOT has agreed to spend more than $6 million in federal road money on workforce-development goals for people of color and women
- Metrolinx Blog: An Infinite Corridor, Reinventing the Automobile, and the Resilient City
- Interesting blog about the future of automobile designs
- Planetizen: Evolving Beyond the Long Commute
- Car commutes used to be long by necessity. But that’s no longer the case, according to Richard Florida in this video from The Atlantic
- Winona Daily News: MnDOT: New Winona Bridge a Certainty
- MnDOT confirms that there will be a new bridge but where it will be placed and what will happen to the old bridge have not been determined
National:
- METRO Magazine: Rogoff: Administration Committed to Public Transportation
- Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff told business and transit stakeholders that the Obama administration is committed to keeping the nation’s transit systems efficient and maintained and asked for a similar commitment from them
- New York Times: Transportation Lobby Girds for Assault on Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill
- Several groups, including state highway officials and road builders, are arguing that the climate proposal diverts much-needed cash away from crumbling infrastructure
- National Journal: How Should We Prioritize Highway Spending?
- Has well written write up of Fix It First
- MinnPost: Minnesota Transportation Projects may Fall Victim to House GOP’s Earmark Moratorium
- The House Republicans’ one-year moratorium on earmarks this year may affect funding decisions that stretch far beyond their pledge’s expiration date
- Infrastructurist: What Does “Livability” Mean to the U.S. Government
- Reaction to the U.S. DOT Strategic Plan for 2010 through 2015
- Public Policy & Sustainability Blog: The US DOT’s Disappointing Strategic Plan
- Blogger insists that the Strategic Plan is misguided because it doesn’t focus on capacity expansion
- Politico: James Oberstar Stymied on Transit Bill
- House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar slammed White House economic advisers ‘who never had a shovel in their hands or a callus on their fingers.’
- Planetizen: Senate Climate Bill Called a Gas Tax
- The American Power Act climate legislation by Senators Kerry and Lieberman, unveiled May 12, does have fees that oil refineries must pay, but is it a stretch to callt he bill a disguised gas tax?
Other Cities:
- StreetsBlogNY: Traffic Threatens Older Pedestrians Most of All
- New Report from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign shows that pedestrians over 60 years old, and especially over 75, are far more likely to be killed by cars than younger walkers
- Huffington Post: Ride Your Bike!
- Post about some of the key DC figures participating in National Ride Your Bike to Work Day
- Washington Post: Bike Commuter Rides to Defense of D.C. Bike Lanes
- Editorial in support of installing more bike lanes in D.C.
- Press Release: Bike Lanes Added to San Francisco Streets
- San Francisco added 14 miles of bike lanes in 3 hours
Other:
- Planetizen: Explaining Houston’s Lack of Effective Public Transit
- Despite being one of the largest cities in the U.S., public transit in Houston has not kept up with its population growth. Kristie Lewis offers five reasons why.
- Scribe Communications: Urban Land Institute Presents Six ‘Best of the Decade’ Smart Growth Awards
- Profiles six of the more than 100 entries for projects, policies, events, plans, programs and initiatives in the San Diego/Tijuana district
- StreetsBlog: Car-Sharing on Steroids?
- Car-sharing seems to be taking off –this blog profiles several views on car-sharing and its reach