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NHTSA Chief David Strickland Gets Caught in the Revolving Door
When David Strickland announced last month that he was stepping down as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, he didn’t give any clues about where he might be going. The news came out this week: The nation’s top auto regulator is going to be a lobbyist at a law firm that deals with auto regulation, raising concerns that he’s going through the revolving door between the public and private sector, more to the benefit of industry than the public.
January 10, 2014
Sidewalk-Jumping Driver Claims Children He Hurt Were “Reckless”
This fall, 90-year-old Edward Nelson lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb, and pinned two six-year-old twins against a wall with his BMW SUV in Menlo Park, California.
January 9, 2014
Trucks and Cities Are Like Oil and Water. Is There a Solution?
About 350 pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are killed each year by large trucks in this country. Big freight trucks are incompatible with cities in many ways, bringing danger, pollution, noise, and traffic congestion. They park in bike lanes and have shockingly big blind spots, putting everyone around them at risk. And yet, most cities haven't found a way to reconcile the need to move goods with all their other priorities.
January 9, 2014
Streetsblog’s Suggested Edits to U.S. DOT’s Seven Priorities for 2014
Just before we went on holiday break, U.S. DOT’s Inspector General’s office released a document [PDF] detailing the department’s top challenges for the year ahead. The document calls them “management challenges” but by and large it’s just a list of seven things the Inspector General thinks DOT needs to do to meet its mission of providing a “safe and well-managed transportation system” to strengthen the U.S. economy and improve “the quality of life for the traveling public.”
January 8, 2014
Is This Anti-Speeding PSA Too Real for America?
Wow. This public safety spot from New Zealand really brings home how decisions we casually make while driving can have grave consequences.
January 7, 2014
How Windshield Perspective Shapes the Way We See the World
Via Shane Phillips at Planetizen: A new study published in the Transportation Research Record confirms that windshield perspective is all-too real. Observing the world from behind the wheel, it turns out, has a powerful influence on our judgments about places and even people.
January 7, 2014
Bike Signals Get the Green Light From Engineering Establishment
Think of it as a Christmas gift: On December 24, the gatekeepers who determine which street treatments should become standard tools for American engineers decided to add bike signals to Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, sometimes called "the bible of traffic engineering."
January 6, 2014
Leadership Shakeup at U.S. DOT: What Will It Mean for Transit and Biking?
Two of the Obama administration's top transportation officials are heading elsewhere, creating a leadership shake-up at U.S. DOT.
January 3, 2014
Level the Commuter Playing Field By Reducing the Tax Break for Parking
Happy New Year, transit riders! Congress has a special present: Some of you will be getting a tax increase this year.
January 2, 2014
Engineering Establishment Poised to Endorse Bike Boxes and Bike Signals
Bike boxes and bike traffic signals are becoming increasingly common in American cities. But as of yet, these tools are not fully recognized by one of the country's most important engineering guides.
December 20, 2013