Stimulus to Nowhere?
Link (Congress For The New Urbanism)

“In case anyone is paying attention, it was just six months ago that skyrocketing gasoline prices were exposing basic flaws in the prevailing transportation and development models that leave more and more Americans with no choice but to use cars to get everywhere. Given the auto-dependent infrastructure America is building for them, and the spread-out communities that result, too many families have no choice but to take food off their tables or clothes off their backs in order to put gas in their tanks.

President Obama understands this problem. His campaign policy paper stated rather eloquently that the amount of fuel we use is “directly related to our land-use decisions and development patterns, much of which have been organized around the principle of cheap gasoline.” He called for moving beyond “our simple fixation of investing so many of our transportation dollars in serving drivers” and instead making it easier for us to walk, bicycle and access transportation alternatives.”"

Columbus aims to be ‘best bicycling city in the country’
Link (Columbus Local News)

“Columbus City Council has laid the foundation for the future of city sidewalks and bikeways.

Legislation passed last month resolves conflicts within the Columbus codes, brings the city into compliance with 2006 changes to Ohio law, and sets the legal framework for behavior by drivers and bicyclists, said Public Service Director Mark Kelsey.

Since 1993, Columbus City Council has adopted a number of ordinances that have to do with sidewalks and bikeways. It voted to express support for Complete Streets in July and adopt the Bicentennial Bikeways Plan in June.

The most recent ordinance incorporates those ordinances into city law so the city can begin to implement Complete Streets, a set of principals that aim to allow pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and bus riders of all ages and physical abilities to use streets and sidewalks safely and efficiently.

The changes to city codes will allow the city to develop policy rules and regulations pertaining to sidewalks and bikeways, said Mary Carran Webster, spokeswoman for the public service department. It establishes a requirement for bikeways when private land is developed and codifies a requirement for developers to provide sidewalks, she said.”

Cincinnati Bicycle Transportation Program
Link (City of Cincinnati)

“The City of Cincinnati works to improve conditions for bicycling commuting. 63 miles of bike/hike trails are planned. 55 miles of streets are designated bike routes, with 24 miles already signed. Over 200 bicycle racks are in place at stores, schools, restaurants, and swimming pools. Stormwater inlets are being upgraded every day and 231 miles of streets have the bicycle friendly design. Six sets of bicycle lanes have been installed over the past few years, to give bicyclists a little more elbow room.”

Zero bike fatalities in 2008: A Q & A with Greg Raisman
Link (BikePortland.org)

“In 2008, there were no fatal bike crashes in the City of Portland. After a tumultuous 2007, when we had six fatal bike crashes (two of them very high-profile), this was welcome news by many in the community.

To gain more perspective on this statistic, I asked Greg Raisman, the chief traffic safety guru in the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) a few questions. Raisman thinks that it’s not just people on bikes that are safer, but that as bike traffic grows, all road users have a lower risk of being involved in a fatal crash.”

Beyond Bike Lanes: True Urban Design
Link (WalkBikeCT)

“Ask most people how you can improve cycling in a city and they will unfailingly call for more bike lanes. The benefit of bike lanes, however, is a myth that often gets in the way of serious planning.

The reason cycling as transportation is not too popular in this country is that, as a policy, roads are optimized for recklessly fast automobile travel. Ask most people why they don’t bicycle on the roads and they’ll cite safety concerns – mainly due to motorists driving at wildly excessive speeds and feeling so entitled to do so that they’ll often hurl obscenities at cyclists who dare to use their road.

As you might guess, bike lanes, i.e. paint stripes and a bicycle symbol on the side of the road, are not going to help this situation much. A few people might feel safer and venture into the road, but at the end of the day you still have cars traveling fast enough to easily and instantly kill a human being.

Designing towns optimized for pedestrian travel, where cars proceed slow enough that they can safely share the road with pedestrians and cyclists – that’s a solution you can believe in”

Malls, the Future of Housing?
Link (HousingWire.com)

“The mall as we know it today is a mistake.

The lonely box of concrete plopped in the suburban diaspora, outdated and, in many cases, dying, isn’t quite what Victor Gruen, the Austrian-born Holocaust survivor largely credited with inventing it, envisioned. Instead, the regional enclosed shopping mall was supposed to be a community center—a little bit of downtown and a car-free haven that would include day care facilities, offices, and, perhaps most importantly, residential living components a stone’s throw from the building; the mall was always supposed to have housing nearby.”

Waterfront Park nears completion of its green revival after 10 years
Downtown Louisville’s decade-long effort at green revival nears completion
Link (Courier-Journal)

“A decade after the first phase of Louisville’s Waterfront Park was dedicated, the end of the $100 million project is in sight.

And in the intervening 10 years, what was once a string of scrap yards and salt piles littering the riverfront has become a swath of green, recognized as one of America’s great urban parks and an economic engine for downtown.

“The park helped kick-start downtown redevelopment,” including lofts, multimillion dollar condos and even Slugger Field, said Mayor Jerry Abramson.

David Karem, executive director of the Waterfront Development Corp., which oversees the park and must approve the design of development near it, said that 20 years ago the Ohio River waterfront “was about the worst that someone could imagine for a front door of the city. … (it was) beyond unsightly.”

“There were three separate scrap yards, two asphalt terminals, several abandoned warehouses, salt, sand and gravel storage piles, and a concrete plant,” he said. “The river was almost totally inaccessible.”

The state, city and county jointly created the Waterfront Development agency in 1986.”