Transportation

Bikestravaganza: Grist’s top bike stories of 2011

Photo: John Monoogian IIII spent the day yesterday digging through 18 — count ’em, 18 — pages of search results in a quest to find Grist’s Overarching Narrative of the Bike in 2011. I laughed. I cried. I almost blew tea on my laptop. Then I biked home on streets that were blissfully bereft of […]

Greg Hanscom Transportation

New York City to test electric taxis

Within a few months, it will be possible to step out onto a New York City street corner and hail a Nissan Leaf. The city's starting a pilot program to see how the cars fare as taxis, and exploring the possibility of an all-electric fleet. But EV enthusiasts shouldn't get too excited yet. Nor should […]

Sarah Laskow Cities

Great idea: Bike accident report cards

Bike lawyer Josh Zisson, of Bike Safe Boston, had these cards printed up so that bikers would have immediate legal recourse if they got in an accident. The cards sport a clear graphical representation of Massachusetts' bike laws, and space to record the details of the accident, the driver's plate number and insurance information, and […]

Jess Zimmerman Transportation

Unzipped: Car sharing takes a bite out of Americans’ drive time

Kids these days — they don’t like cars. What’s up with that? A new survey by the car-sharing company Zipcar finds that Millennials just don’t see cars as the ticket to freedom that their parents did. According to the survey, 55 percent of Millennials have actively made an effort to drive less, while 78 percent […]

Greg Hanscom Cities

Cops mock Seattle jogger nearly killed by a truck

In Seattle, a semi truck hit a jogger, nearly killing him. While the jogger lay almost dying, the police officers who responded to the accident were busy sneering at his decision not to drive a car. This being 2011, their comments were caught on video. Here's the most relevant excerpt, from the local TV station […]

Sarah Laskow Cities

Zen and the art of urban transportation

This is excerpted from a longer story in GRID Chicago. To read the original, which includes a (somewhat hair-raising) ride to work with the commissioner, click here. When forward-thinking Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) Commissioner Gabe Klein reported for work on May 16 as part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new administration, it marked a sea […]

John Greenfield Cities

Highway to hell: More roads = more traffic

Photo: Cyril PlapiedCross-posted from Sightline Daily. Tuesday’s news carries a story that I’ve been expecting for a while: Connecting Washington, a task force convened by Washington’s governor, has called for $21 billion in new transportation investments over the next 10 years. I haven’t seen the recommendations themselves, only the news report. But it looks like […]

Clark Williams-Derry Cities

Critical List: Brazil notices oil drilling has consequences; bikes made out of wood

Brazil discovers that oil drilling is not good for the environment. Also, Congress is kicking renewable energy to the curb the way a mean person would a really cute puppy. Like these. Oh, wait, don't buy those, they came from puppy mills. People collectively put their fingers in their ears and go LA LA LA […]

Sarah Laskow Transportation

Awesome vintage bike map shows cycling’s golden age

Big Map Blog has turned up a fantastically detailed map of California's bike routes in the 1890s. It was published by George W. Blum and endorsed by H.F. Wynne, the president of the California Cycling Club in 1895. Mr. Blum was based, it seems, in San Francisco, and that's where the map is centered. It […]