Car Culture
Top Categories
Steven Chu Forced to Recant Belief in Higher Gas Prices
The
indignities are piling up for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate Secretary
of Energy whom environmentalists applauded as one of Obama's best
cabinet picks. His security detail won't let the lifelong cyclist bike to work. And on Earth Day, he fielded questions like this one (via Talking Points Memo)
during a House hearing on the proposed climate bill. Texas
representative Joe Barton asked Chu where oil comes from, and the
Energy Secretary delved into plate tectonics. Barton boasted afterward
that he had "baffled" Chu.
April 24, 2009
Eyes On The Street: Mayor Newsom Shames Earth Day
Mayor Gavin Newsom sure knows how to milk a press conference when it suits his needs and beefs up his image. My favorite has been all the press attention he got for announcing a proposal for the one of the world's smallest public-use bicycle share programs (right up there with Pinerolo, Italy, and Porsgrunn, Norway). Fifty bicycles to the tune of $1 million. Subsequent news reports about bike share programs in Seattle and Boston mentioned San Francisco in the same breath as Paris and Barcelona, despite the fact that San Francisco's proposal is laughable and arguably could doom a real public-use bike program from getting traction.
April 22, 2009
Gav For Guv Short On Transportation Essentials
So Gav made it official yesterday that he's running for Guv by tweeting it to his more than 283,000 followers, announcing it on Facebook, and even running a strange pseudo-article with a lot of donate hyperlinks in the Huffington Post, all of which made a splash among bloggers and traditional media icons. All the hullabaloo aside, I need convincing on Gav's record on the issues important to this blog.
April 22, 2009
Ad Nauseam: What Are You Implying, Chase?
Welcome to town Chase. I'm super impressed you have been reading Streetsblog San Francisco and made an ad that reflects some of the knowledge you've acquired here. This is obviously a shout out to the car-free community. Might the admen understand the incredible cost savings of ditching the car for a bike, which can save you more than $9,000 every year in direct vehicle costs, not to mention the health savings from an active lifestyle and the peace of mind of contributing fewer greenhouse gases to a dangerously warming planet?
April 15, 2009
California Cities Need A Predictable Fund For Transit Operations
When the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund was zeroed out to pass the budget a couple of months ago, the already dire situation for transit operators in California became much worse. In the Bay Area, AC Transit raised fares, the MTA has been considering budget cuts and fare hikes, and BART will likely do the same if its board can get to the discussion at the next meeting.
April 13, 2009
BART Board Will Consider Increased Parking Fees to Address Budget Woes
At its monthly board meeting today, BART staff will present a number of options for closing its budget deficit, including a proposal to extend parking fees to stations that don't already have them. BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger will present the board with a preliminary operating budget for FY 2010, which will have a $23 million deficit. BART staff anticipate a four-year operating deficit of nearly $250 million, though policies enacted this year could lower that number to $139 million.
April 9, 2009
What Effect Will World’s Smallest Car Have on Global Warming?
Environmentally-conscious citizens of India aren't alone in their concern about the rollout of the Tata Nano, the "world's cheapest car." But in an op-ed piece for Forbes, Projjal Dutta, the director of sustainability initiatives for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, writes that American critics should look to their own example if they expect developing nations to follow a more sustainable path.
April 8, 2009
GM and Segway Unveil La-Z-Boy on Wheels
I'd be laughing right now if I could just stop crying.
April 7, 2009
News From New York: The ABC’s of Trial Plazas and Complete Streets
When we wrote about the trial pedestrian plaza on 17th Street and Market Street that DPW expects to start this May, the story generated numerous doubts about how the city would create a successful public space out of a busy street abutting a gas station.
April 2, 2009
The Rise of an Evil Anti-Car Multinational Conglomerate
As soothsayers of the Sacred RAC priesthood like Rob Anderson will let you know time and again on his own blog, and sometimes on ours, all this talk of bike plans, Level-of-Service reform, parking restrictions in new development, and greening boulevards is nothing more than a thinly-veiled assault on our national right to drive freely and not pay for it.
March 27, 2009