Day: January 25, 2010

Riding the 28-19th Avenue northbound towards the Richmond on a recent weekday afternoon, Pamela Moye has almost nothing but good things to say about Muni.

StreetUtopia is a new community organizing effort centered in North Beach. Launched by Hank Hyena and Phil Millenbah at an inaugural event in early January, they drew upwards of 150 people to an empty historic storefront at 1 Columbus Avenue, where they showed Streetfilms, had a small art exhibit, and conducted a survey of the folks who turned out. Hank Hyena explained his motivation in terms of European cities which are often greener, more bike-friendly, and with more pedestrian-centers than US cities. Along with several other parents of children at Yick Wo Public School, including co-instigator Phil Millenbah, a San Leandro city planner, they staged an inspiring evening of art, film, and conversation.

We'll tour Golden Gate Park using transportation history as our lens to examine how parks reflect the social patterns of a society. The park is where the first reinforced concrete bridge was built, the first drivers license issued (yes, in the whole world!) and other amazing twists of fate. We'll bicycle to the remains of bridges and railroads and see where bicycling became a West Coast craze.

Celebrate the route bicyclists generally use to avoid hills--The Wiggle! A natural history of the Wiggle with plenty of social history thrown in. Ride up toward the Panhandle stopping to view the distant past, then come back down the wiggle through the recent century of bicycle culture.

Celebrate the route bicyclists generally use to avoid hills--The Wiggle! A natural history of the Wiggle with plenty of social history thrown in. Ride up toward the Panhandle stopping to view the distant past, then come back down the wiggle through the recent century of bicycle culture.

This meeting replaces the canceled February 2 meeting.

With the civil rights imbroglio between BART and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) making news last week, a problem that could imperil $70 million in federal stimulus funds obligated to the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), advocates are calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to give the stimulus money to cash-strapped transit operators or face the possibility of losing it altogether. The FTA has given BART until March 5th to prepare an action plan to meet Civil Rights Act Title VI requirements to analyze the impacts the OAC fares will have on minority and low-income riders, something BART has so far failed to do.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a new "one-hour standard" aimed at limiting Americans' short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant created by cars, power plants, and other industrial sources.

The Transportation Enhancements program, which requires states to set aside 10 percent of their federal transport money for new bicycle and pedestrian facilities, among other projects, turns 19 years old this year. But you'd almost never know it after reading Saturday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in which the paper tallies -- with no shortage of alarm -- the federal money not being spent on new roads.