Year: 2009

Listed under the MTA Board's agenda, on the agency's antiquated website, is a link titled "Know Your Rights Under the Sunshine Ordinance." "Government's duty is to serve the public," it says, "reaching its decision in full view of the public." It's an ironic juxtaposition given the MTA's recent lack of transparency about a worsening mid-year budget gap that could reach well over $45 million. Never mind next year's looming deficit.

Following a highly-publicized, intensely-followed trial, Christopher Thompson, the physician accused of using his car to seriously injure two cyclists in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, is behind bars.

Navigating the streets and sidewalks of the United States can be a challenge even for an able-bodied pedestrian or cyclist. For people who depend on wheelchairs to get around, the challenges are too often insurmountable -- nearly two decades since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

More headlines over at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

The MTA today announced the specific Muni service changes it will make on December 5 as part of its efforts to close a $129 million budget gap. Half of Muni's bus routes and one of its rail routes are affected, with changes including discontinued or shortened routes and altered service hours and frequencies. To soften the impact, several routes will get increased service. Six routes will be discontinued altogether: the 4-Sutter, 7-Haight, 20-Columbus, 26-Valencia, 53-Southern Heights, and 89-Laguna Honda.

The injunction that has hung like a pall over San Francisco's efforts to improve bicycle infrastructure for the city's growing number of bicyclists will remain for at least another ten days, and could continue in partial or full form until March 2010 or beyond. A judge today delayed decision on lifting the three-year-old bike injunction, instead ordering both the city and Mary Miles, attorney for Rob Anderson, who first sought the injunction, to submit additional materials by November 12. The judge could then lift the injunction completely, lift it partially for sharrows and bike racks but not bike lanes, or uphold it until a 2010 hearing on the city's environmental review of the bike plan.

A conversation with the Planning Directors of six of North America's most innovative cities, including San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and New York.

A San Francisco judge today delayed a decision on lifting the city's three-year-old bike injunction, and instead ordered both parties to submit briefs by November 12th on his authority to lift the injunction, and then reverse it, if he later determines at a separate hearing that the exhaustive 2,000 page document is not adequate, although that seems unlikely.

Partisanship is a fact of life in Washington, often slowing down progress on issues from health care to climate change. But when it comes to preventing the use of electronic devices behind the wheel, a congressional consensus is emerging in favor of federal action -- even as the extent of GOP support for a punitive approach remains decidedly unclear.