Placing the blame; Russell Crowe; Green Impact Zone; lawfully running reds; Google’s next big thing; carfree campus; competing one-way streets
Here’s the last week in news, rounded up after the long weekend.
– The electric car money is landing; Swiss battery company ReVolt is planning to open its North American headquarters in Portland. Here’s an in-depth look at the electric car stimulus program from Seattle, which is also a test city. And Time Magazine discusses the future of “zero emissions” cars.
– If you kill someone with your car while texting in Utah, you can now get up to 15 years in prison. In Wales, a gory video warns teens of the dangers of intextication.
– Depending on your perspective, one of the most and least attractive aspects of urban light rail is the way it boosts property values. A case study outlines some of the discussions and dilemmas around affordable housing as Atlanta, Georgia plans for a new train system.
– NPR has a story on the need for multimodal connections at either end of a long-distance train trip.
– Four blocks of N Denver St in Portland’s Kenton neighborhood are set to become the city’s first full-fledged “green street,” including wider sidewalks and bike lanes, calmed traffic, benches, greenery, and — the main point of the project — improved stormwater management.
– Kansas City, Missouri is creating a “green impact zone” in its central city, featuring a variety of initiatives from bike infrastructure to home weatherization.
– Also in Missouri, a new state law allows people on bicycles and motorcycles to proceed through a red light after stopping if their vehicle doesn’t set off the trigger that changes the light.
– Chris Smith thinks Portland is entering its “second age of bicycle infrastructure.”
– CTV has an interesting roundup of bicycle infrastructure initiatives in Canadian cities.
– Quick update on the newly carfree Times Square — people dress strangely and sit around in lounge chairs, while the rest of midtown traffic flows better.
– Who’s legally at fault in bike-car crashes? In response to a well-publicized Toronto study said that 90% are caused by the person driving the car, Joe Rose at the O ran the local numbers and found it’s probably about 50/50 in Portland.
– Zipcar is starting to put bike racks on some vehicles in its Portland fleet.
– McGill University in Canada is planning to make much of its campus carfree by next year.
– Russell Crowe was ridiculed by a reporter for smoking cigarettes and drinking soda while on a bike ride; in response he challenged her to a race through Sydney, which he won handily and followed up with another smoke.
– Google is working out a scheme to feed real-time, crowdsourced traffic maps to your mobile device.
– Bikes are a popular tool for direct action and protests — here’s why.
– Finally, this tale of competing one way streets is priceless.