Recent Streetsblog LA posts about Streetsblog.net

When construction projects occupy sidewalks and bike lanes, many cities don’t do anything to compensate — forcing people to walk and bike in traffic or take long, unrealistic detours. But it’s not that hard to put up safe, convenient alternate routes. Yesterday, the Portland City Council voted to require better detours for pedestrians and cyclists at construction zones. […]

Here’s a great example of a “virtuous cycle” in action: Center City Philadelphia has seen the number of parking spaces decline recently as population and jobs continue to rise at a healthy clip. You might expect one result to be a downtown parking crunch, but that’s not the case at all, reports Jim Saksa at Plan Philly: If everyone drove to […]

Earlier this year Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said he wants to help repair the damage done to cities by highways. And this week U.S. DOT took some steps to make that happen, announcing the winners of its “Every Place Counts Design Challenge.” The four chosen cities (out of 33 applicants) will get technical assistance from U.S. DOT to tear down or cap highways, or […]

If a driver strikes you while you’re walking or biking in D.C., there’s a good chance you won’t be allowed to sue for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering under the law. That’s thanks to a legal standard known as “contributory negligence” in effect only in D.C. and a handful of states. Contributory negligence holds that if a […]

U.S. DOT announced the winner of its $50 million “Smart City” grant yesterday, and Columbus, Ohio, bested finalists San Francisco, Portland, Austin, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Denver for the prize. Many other cities had applied for this federal funding to demonstrate how new technologies can improve urban streets and transportation. In its application, Columbus focused on improving job access […]

It’s a beautiful thing to witness just how much neighborhood streets can change when you remove car traffic. As open streets events, modeled after Bogotá’s Ciclovia, have spread across the U.S. in the past several years, they’ve brought not just opportunities for physical activity, but a joyful new way to use streets as public spaces. In Milwaukee, this year’s Ciclovia overlapped […]