Recent Streetsblog LA posts about DC Streetsblog

Just before we went on holiday break, U.S. DOT’s Inspector General’s office released a document [PDF] detailing the department’s top challenges for the year ahead. The document calls them “management challenges” but by and large it’s just a list of seven things the Inspector General thinks DOT needs to do to meet its mission of […]

Via Shane Phillips at Planetizen: A new study published in the Transportation Research Record confirms that windshield perspective is all-too real. Observing the world from behind the wheel, it turns out, has a powerful influence on our judgments about places and even people. Researchers found that people driving a car tend to view unfamiliar, less-affluent neighborhoods more […]

Think of it as a Christmas gift: On December 24, the gatekeepers who determine which street treatments should become standard tools for American engineers decided to add bike signals to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, sometimes called “the bible of traffic engineering.” The decision should lead to more widespread use of bike signals, […]

This Nissan ad, in heavy rotation during the NFL playoffs, smacks of 21st century carmaker desperation. In “Commute,” a young motorist, stuck with colleagues in city traffic and watching cyclists pass her by, speeds onto a conveniently located ramp and launches her Nissan Rogue on top of a passing train. Now they can get where […]

Two of the Obama administration’s top transportation officials are heading elsewhere, creating a leadership shake-up at U.S. DOT. As you may have heard, U.S. DOT Under Secretary for Policy Polly Trottenberg was tapped by incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to head the city’s transportation department this week. Also on the way out is Deputy […]

Happy New Year, transit riders! Congress has a special present: Some of you will be getting a tax increase this year. Legislation that puts tax subsidies for transit commuters on equal footing with car commuters has been allowed to expire by Congress. That means people who drive to work can deduct up to $250 in […]