Streetsblog USA

In the United States, it's pretty much legal to drive into and kill a cyclist, as long as you're sober and stay at the scene. Writer Daniel Duane made that point last weekend in a New York Times op-ed titled, "Is it O.K. to Kill Cyclists?"

Law professor Frank H. Buckley seems to want to be the next Dororthy Rabinowitz. That is, he wants to gain notoriety by clinging to old and unsafe street designs while, simultaneously, shoring up the Wall Street Journal's reputation as a bastion of change-averse curmudgeons. Done and done.

Train maker Talgo is suing the state of Wisconsin for $65.9 million as a result of Governor Scott Walker's decision to cancel passenger rail plans connecting Madison to Milwaukee.

This week's mayoral elections yielded good news for transit and safe streets in both Houston and Minneapolis. In Boston, meanwhile, the results are less straightforward.

Mayoral elections broke both ways for livability in American cities yesterday: The results of some may slow progress on transit and street safety, while one-midsized city elected an executive who campaigned strongly on light rail expansion and bikeability.

Tony Dutzik is senior policy analyst with Frontier Group and co-author of a recent report on shifting transportation habits.

What's the best way describe the state of Rob Ford's mayoralty in Toronto? At this point, "train wreck" might be too kind.

Behold, Streetsblog's brand-new podcast! In what we aim to turn into a recurring feature, Reconnecting America's Jeff Wood and I recently chatted about the week's news in livable streets, urbanism, and sustainable transportation. The topics are drawn from Jeff's excellent daily compendium of transportation and planning links, The Direct Transfer, and from stories we're tracking at Streetsblog Capitol Hill. It's a treat for me to get back to producing audio -- I was a radio reporter before joining Streetsblog.

For two Sundays every summer, a three-mile loop between downtown Fargo, Minnesota, and nearby Moorhead is transformed. The open streets event StreetsAlive draws between 6,000 and 8,000 people -- on bikes, sneakers and rollerblades -- into the space that is normally occupied by cars.