Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
California Assembly Hits, Kills Traffic Justice Bill
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The intersection of Market and Octavia — one of the most dangerous in San Francisco for cyclists. Flickr photo: sfbike Safe streets advocates often ruefully say, "if you want to kill someone and get away with it, do it in a car." In fact, unless alcohol is involved, very few motorists who kill vulnerable road […]
How Quickly Will Caltrans Embrace Complete Streets Policies?
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Photo: Thomas Hawk Though it may seem esoteric, one of the biggest impediments to designing streets for people is the over-reliance on design standards that have long privileged movement of vehicles over any other consideration on the streets. That’s why advocates cheered when U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood published a policy paper recently that, at […]
GM Unveils New “Envy” and “Pride” Models, “Lust” and “Sloth” to Come
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Image: New York Times. I’ve railed on General Motors and Segway in the past for the myriad impracticalities of their tandem Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (P.U.M.A.) prototype. Now they’re at it again, making headlines today by unveiling the first three models in their new Electric Networked Vehicle (EN-V, pronounced "envy") line, including the Jiao, […]
Gov Signs Transit Funding Bills, Money Coming for Local Operators
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Photo: hanneorla California transit operators are poised to receive a temporary infusion of $400 million in cash from the state for operating funds, a move that could defray immediate shortfalls and set up a steady stream of state money for the foreseeable future. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ratified last night the laws (ABX8 6 and ABX8 […]
CA Transit Operators Hopeful State Diesel Tax Will Create Stable Funding
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Photo: Richard Masoner When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating the sales tax on gasoline in his new budget, transit operators and advocates saw the announcement as a move to subvert a California Supreme Court ruling that required the state to stop raiding transit funds. Rather than comply with the court’s ruling, they argued, the Governor […]
Why Are Cyclists Included in Distracted Driving Bill?
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Photo: markofphotography A bill introduced last month by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), who has been a steady advocate for reducing the dangers of distracted driving, would increase first-time and repeat fines for drivers who text while driving or who don’t use hands-free devices, and would extend the prohibition of cell phone use to […]
Facebook Refuses to Remove Group Promoting Anti-Cyclist Violence
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Screenshot from the Facebook group promoting dooring, among other acts that injure cyclists. A number of Streetsblog readers have noticed a particularly loathsome group that has sprouted up on Facebook and has a legion of fans. As of this writing, more than 32,000 people are fans of "There’s a perfectly good bike path right next […]
How Google and Portland’s TriMet Set the Standard for Open Transit Data
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Photo: Steve Rhodes With national data transparency efforts like President Obama’s Open Data Initiative and municipal projects like New York City’s Big Apps or San Francisco’s Data SF, government agencies across the country have been opening their raw data sets, some more reluctantly than others. With the debut of City-Go-Round and media coverage generated about […]
Troubling Silence on Transit in Gov’s State of the State Address
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Photo: Justin Short, Office of the Governor Despite continued cash flow crunches facing nearly every transit operator in the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said absolutely nothing about transportation or fixing transit’s woes in his State of the State address today. Transit operators are still bracing for the expected budget proposal this Friday that would thwart […]
Another Court Decision Goes in Favor of State Transit Agencies
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Photo: Thomas Hawk In another rebuff to California’s practice of moving spillover funding from the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund to fill the hole in the state’s General Fund, a Superior Court ruled on Monday that the state had to pay back the approximately $1.2 billion it diverted from transit operators in the 2007-2008 budget […]
“The Highway to Play a Vital Role in the Progress of Civilization”
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Disney’s Magic Highway USA is one of the more extraordinary examples of the myopic devotion to automobility and its infrastructure I’ve ever seen. It’s probably also required viewing at the Reason Foundation and among Senator James Inhofe’s staff in Washington DC. "As in the past, the highway will continue to play a vital role in […]
In San Francisco: Judge Partially Lifts Ban on Bike Injunction
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Under the judge’s order, the MTA can only install 3.7 of the 14 miles of bike lanes it had hoped to paint in the first year. Flickr photo: Doubletee (Editor’s note: Because the LADOT uses the lawsuit barring bicycle projects in San Francisco as reason to "go slow" on bike projects, I thought checking in […]