Year: 2009

Disney's Magic Highway USA is one of the more extraordinary examples of the myopic devotion to automobility and its infrastructure I've ever seen. It's probably also required viewing at the Reason Foundation and among Senator James Inhofe's staff in Washington DC.

Returning to Copenhagen after some years away is always a pleasant shock. Few cities in the world feel as properly scaled as this lovely old Danish capital. My mother was born and raised here, so I've been visiting off and on over the years. No doubt my own visions of what San Francisco could be, in terms of a bicycling city, have always been shaped by my experiences here in Copenhagen.

[admin] cats: Livable Streets Events

Lots of catching up to do after the holiday weekend. Here's a sampling of what's been coming in over the network:

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

A San Francisco judge issued an order [PDF] modifying the three-year-old bike injunction late Wednesday afternoon, refusing to dissolve it completely, but allowing the "most easily reversible" projects to go forward. It means 10 of the 21 first-year Bike Plan projects -- or about 3.7 miles of new bike lanes -- outlined by the MTA can begin, and when completed, will mark the most significant improvements bicyclists have seen on the streets of San Francisco since the injunction was first issued in June 2006.

Here's something to be thankful for over this holiday break: Kids on bicycles. A beautiful thing. We got so many submissions for this one, it was truly inspiring.

Though we're taking the rest of the week off for the holiday, we thought you'd be excited to see these photos, which represent the first pavement treatments for the new Calm the Safety Zone projects on Market Street, meant to improve pedestrian safety by re-enforcing the separations between motorists and pedestrians. As we reported two weeks ago, this treatment is the next phase after the stop bars were moved back from the crosswalks and fits into the larger rubric of the Better Market Street Initiative.  Thanks to Dennis Lee at the Great Streets Project, who snapped these photos at 4th Street and Market.