Brad Aaron
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Recent Posts
Cartoon Tuesday: No Pressure
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Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News has a different spin on the Obama-McCain tire inflation hulabaloo. Click through for the full strip.
Corrals and Oases: Bike Parking in Portland
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The Bottleneck Blog isn’t the only one who can go to Portland to check out their best practices. Here’s one more from this summer’s Carfree Cities conference week in Portland. In this Streetfilm, Greg Raisman of the Portland Office of Transportation treats Elizabeth Press to a bike parking tour, featuring two designs that make the […]
McCain Impressed by US Trains, So Long as They Don’t Stay in US
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Our friend Sean Roche sent us a link to this brain-bending video of John McCain stumping in Pennsylvania. Just before the 1:00 mark, after McCain gives an ambiguous plug for electric cars, he unloads this doozy: "I was with Governor [Tom] Ridge yesterday, and we visited a General Electric plant in Erie that makes […]
Cartoon Tuesday: In Which We Blog About the Other Paris
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Click through for this cartoon by Gary Varvel of The Indianapolis Star, referencing the now infamous tussle between John McCain and Paris Hilton. (And click here if you have no idea what we’re talking about.) While the ‘toon itself bears a ring of truth, the bigger irony may be that the presidential candidate who’s […]
Colleges and High Schools Act to Keep Cars Off Campus
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With fall approaching, colleges across the US are encouraging students to come to campus without their cars. In Atlanta, Emory University is selling $250,000 worth of bikes, at a discount, to students and faculty. CNN reports that bike-share programs have started or will soon launch at Duke, the University of Washington, and at least two […]
Big Companies Bringing Bike-Share to Small Cities
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As metropolises like New York and Philadelphia consider the benefits of bike sharing, and with Washington DC already off and riding, smaller cities are getting in on the action as well, often through the initiative of major local employers. Last year, health care giant Humana started a bike-share for employees at its Louisville, Kentucky headquarters. […]
DC Defends Livable Streets Improvements as WaPo Declares “War”
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In an effort to improve safety and mobility for pedestrians and cyclists, Washington, DC has embarked on a number of livable streets reforms (market rate street parking), and is considering others (reclaiming auto-occupied street space for people). Though a recent article in the Washington Post casts these initiatives as a "war" against car commuters, it’s […]
New Mayor Could Weaken London Congestion Charge
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London Mayor Boris Johnson may scale back the congestion pricing plan put in place by Ken Livingstone, whom Johnson defeated in May. The Times is reporting that the current 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. flat rate charge could be altered in a number of ways, including a reduction in the hours during which the fee […]
Cartoon Tuesday: It’s (Not) Funny Because It’s True
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This AM New York cartoon, currently making the rounds on e-mail, was surely a ridiculous exaggeration when first published in 2004. But it’s not as far off the mark today. As the Times reports, Florida is the latest state to start giving away free "gas for life" as a lottery prize. And though the jackpot, […]
Contented Streets: Why Copenhagen Is the World’s Happiest Capital
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Why have Danes again been named the happiest people on the planet? Early this year ABC News cited bikes as "perhaps … the best symbol of Danish happiness," and in this clip from "Contested Streets" it isn’t hard to see why. Here, livable streets guru Jan Gehl and others explain the many ways an increase […]
Maryland Senator Ben Cardin: America Needs Transit, Now
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The $1.7 billion in public transportation funding promised by the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act would be a step in the right direction, but it pales in comparison to what might have been. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act — the cap-and-trade bill that died in the Senate last month — would have brought 100 […]
Obama, Ethanol, and the “New Metropolitan Reality”
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In a weekend speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Senator Barack Obama continued to distinguish himself on urban policy, talking up cities as vital economic centers worthy of investment. Harry Moroz of DMI Blog has the story. Obama opened with a reference to his time as a community developer in Chicago and he joked […]