Evan Lehmann, E&E reporter Schoolchildren are being reintroduced to an old concept. It is called “active transportation.” Students in a handful of cities involved in this experiment probably don’t think much about the carbon emissions they are preventing as they navigate their bicycles toward beeping devices that count their rides to school. Nor do they… read more
Advocacy
RIDOT to Discuss $20 Million Local Roads Program
RIDOT is holding a public meeting at 10am on May 7th at the Providence Marriott, One Orms Street, Providence. The workshop will discuss RI-LEAP, being funded by RIDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), was designed to improve the local infrastructure, provide additional economic stimulus at the local level and create jobs, by offering funding… read more
Washington Bridge Open to Bikes, Finally!
Bike-to-Brown and a RIDOT new post are reporting that the Washington Bridge Pedestrian/Bicycle Way is finally open again. After closing in October 2007, it’s certainly been closed for long enough! RIDOT is stating that The path will eventually be closed again when the Department is ready to begin construction on a project to convert the… read more
News Bulletin: USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood is not a tool.
For many of us, I think, it’s always a nice surprise to find a high-ranking government appointee that isn’t a tool. Check out his bike-related Earth Day blog post here. This administration is putting its our money where its mouth is by mandating that a certain percentage of ARRA (economic stimulus) funds must go to… read more
Idaho Stop Law
As some of you might already know, multiple states have been considering the implementation of an “Idaho Stop Law“. Orgeon’s current attempt was pronounced dead in the last few days. I’ve also heard that California, Montana, and DC have considered such laws. Would such a law legalize what is already common behavior or would it… read more
Bike Sharing redux
Nice article in the ProJo about the bike sharing projects at RISD and Brown. How much success will these projects have? How many of these bikes will end up in the Providence River? Regardless, it will be interesting to see where this goes.
RIDOT awards Sakonnet River Bridge project
From RIDOT: The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced today it has formally awarded a $163.7 million contract to Cardi Corporation for the construction of a new Sakonnet River Bridge. Construction will begin shortly and a groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled for April 24. RIDOT anticipates the new bridge will be open to traffic… read more
Can the U.S. hitch a ride on the German transit path?
Note that kids are actually taught proper cycling in school, culminating with a police-supervised test! From today’s (04/17/2009) ClimateWire Saqib Rahim, E&E reporter In Freiburg, Germany, clever city planning places 2 out of every 3 residents within 500 meters of the light rail system. Bicycle paths stretch throughout the city. It’s the kind of setup… read more
… and this person probably still has their license
I happened upon this YouTube video that I’m still shocked by: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j3w1QfV35I From what I could gather, this person was upset over getting pulled over for speeding. The police officer is doing his best to be polite and suggest that the person can take up their concerns with either the chief of police or a… read more
Is there a bike path in your future?
DOT hunts for ideas in Scandinavia (4/15/09) Phil Taylor, Energy&Environment reporter The U.S. Department of Transportation is sending a team of engineers and scientists to Europe next month to observe what Scandinavian countries are doing to keep bicyclists safe and welcome on the open road. A spokesman for the department said the two-week scoping trip… read more
A HOV Lane for Providence
In my opinion, RIDOT completely dropped the ball during the I-way project by not putting in HOV lanes during the multi-million (billion?) dollar 195/95 interchange reworking. This would have been a perfect opportunity to give a big boost to public transportation and those who do the right thing by carpooling. Yet, nobody appears to have… read more
H5074 – House Judiciary Hearing
Aside from feeling a bit like a fish out of water at times, I think the hearing at the House Judiciary went fairly well yesterday. We had six people testify at the hearing in favor of legislation. The bill needs some additional crafting from lawyers, but we definitely managed to get their attention. Once we’ve… read more