[flickr]photo:4596089597[/flickr]
We’re following Bike Portland’s lead with this post. Leave a comment with a link to a story about sustainable transportation you read this week. That’s all!
Photo of a Chicago Transit Authority train by Clark Maxwell.
The Congress for New Urbanism recently released a wonderful document about balanced streets networks that deserves a wide audience. The title is boring, but the language is simple, and the graphics beautiful.
http://www.cnu.org/cnu-news/2012/01/cnus-sustainable-street-network-principles
“For too long, guidance for street design has emphasized free-flowing mobility for the automobile over the needs of the pedestrian, the cyclist, and other modes of transportation. ”
Since I’ve been alive, for sure.
All of the graphics in that document show a gridded street network. I saw this map an acquaintance from Temecula, California, made to show the Bike Train route to school. If they had gridded street, the distance to school would be reduced for many of the households.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35951369@N03/6790889749/
The Center for Neighborhood Technology posted an article/press release about the Transit Ridership Improvement Program (TRIP) and how Toni Preckwinkle is encouraging employers to offer employees pre-tax transit benefits. I’ve had employers in the past who offered a similar transportation benefit, but most don’t offer any kind of deal for cyclists. I feel that some companies would be open to working out some kind of pre-tax dollar amount deal for year round bicycle commuters, but it’s definitely going to be something that would have to be employee driven (no pun intended).
http://www.lesstaxingcommute.com/
There is a federal tax credit for people who cycle to work “most work days out of the month”. It’s called the Bicycle Commuter Act and the League of American Bicyclists has the rundown: http://www.bikeleague.org/news/100708faq.php
I was looking into future hosts of the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament and through serendipity found out that Morroco (hosting ACoN in ’15) has a brand new tram system in Rabat, one that may have just opened in Casablanca, and another to open in 2013 in Marrakesh. Story and video below.
http://riadzany.blogspot.com/2011/05/rabat-sale-tramway-now-open.html
http://youtu.be/Ogp_CYtRDDY
I love a sleek new tram line.