Year: 2009
Top Categories
California Cities Lead Nation in Reducing Emissions from Streetlights
Streetlights are an enormous part of any city's energy consumption and cities that wish to cut down on their emissions and their energy bills are getting in line to convert their older street lamps to LED technology. According to Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and Department of Energy (DOE) data, street lighting costs are one of the biggest components of a city’s utility bill, accounting for 10 percent to 38 percent of the total. With nearly 35 million street lights in the United States, about 1 percent of all electricity is used by street lighting systems.
October 15, 2009
Make Smart Growth Affordable by Building More of It
Today on the Streetsblog Network, we're looking at a post from Kaid Benfield on NRDC Switchboard
about smart growth and how to make it more affordable. The answer, in a
nutshell, is to build more of it -- and the market tells us the demand
is there.
October 15, 2009
Today’s Headlines
Santa Monica to “Embrace Bold Experiment” with Parking Meters (LAT) Chuck Nevius: “SF a Dangerous City for Careless Pedestrians” (SF Gate) Maria Shriver Apologizes for Breaking California’s Cell Phone Law (ABC7, Sac Bee) More on Potential Toll Increases for Bay Area Bridges (SF Gate, Oakland Tribune, KCBS) Caltrans to Try to Slow Drivers Down on … Continued
October 15, 2009
Hit-and-Run Driver Who Killed Bicyclist Claims No Knowledge of Crash
Note: We've posted an update and a profile of Mary Yonkers.
October 14, 2009
Google Bike Routes — Almost Here?
The folks at Google Maps "Bike There"
-- the blog dedicated to getting the world's foremost information
cruncher to include bike directions in its trip planning tools -- noticed an encouraging development yesterday. On Google's LatLong blog, embedded in a post about a new layer of base data in Google Maps, we now have a pretty direct acknowledgment straight from the source: Bike directions are coming.
October 14, 2009
MTA Must Act Quickly to Convince Merchants of Parking Plan’s Benefits
The recommendations in the MTA's new parking study, which Streetsblog reported on yesterday, are designed to make it easier for customers to find a place to park when they visit businesses on evenings and Sundays. The study comprehensively examines the demand for parking in all of the city's major commercial districts, aiming to extend meter hours only when and where demand overwhelms the number of available spots. If the MTA doesn't act quickly and strategically to sell the changes to businesses, however, the study's great promise could be overwhelmed by protests from merchants who don't yet see how the plan will benefit them.
October 14, 2009
Unite Bike San Francisco Group Photo
"Unite Bike is about promoting and supporting a community of individual people who make the choice everyday to participate in an activity that is good for their health, good for the environment, and helps create a better society at large, even if only for the brief moment of time it takes to create a photograph."
October 14, 2009
SPUR Offers a Bold Bike Path Proposal for the Embarcadero
It would someday rank among the world's most beautiful bike paths. Imagine a separated, 2.5-mile bicycle path between the northbound traffic lanes of the Embarcadero and the pedestrian promenade from AT&T Park to Fisherman's Wharf. Not only would it provide a safe and dignified passage for cyclists, it would cut down on bike and pedestrian conflicts that occur on the shared sidewalk. Sound like a fantasy? Not so, according to a study sponsored by SPUR, which suggests that not only would the path serve an important transportation function, it would attract tourists and locals alike.
October 14, 2009
SFBC Treehouse Talk: Driven to Excess
"Josh Hart, former Program Director of the SFBC, is back in San Francisco after three years in the UK. Josh will speak about the research, his adventures getting to and from the UK without flying, and the campaigning work he did while in Bristol and London."
October 14, 2009