Aug 18 2007
Traffic Tidbits: 18 August 2007
- Five Cities awarded Close to $900M: Five american cities have been awarded funds as a part of the US federal government’s Urban Partnership Program. New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami have been awarded varying amounts of funds.
- Minneapolis is Respecting the Disaster Site: The site of the I-35W bridge collapse is being restricted from view as much as possible, in respect for the dead.
- Traffic Light of Death!: Any blog entry that pops into my feedreader with this title gets a look-see. The topic may not be wholly fascinating, but the prose that accompanies it definitely is.
- US DOT Not Committed to Bicycles: Malcomxpark reports that Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters does not feel that bicycles are transportation. He links to another blog with transcripts of interviews with secretary Peters. You won’t find me being the administration’s defender all that frequently, however Mary Peters seems to be a levelheaded middle-of-the-road Transportation Secretary. The policies being criticized are rampant throughout the country, not only with this administration. Americans love their cars and trucks and have not been culturally raised to respect the bicycle. This attitude is reflected at every level of the transportation infrastructure process, from policy to planning to construction, including funding, which is the linchpin that everything turns on. To have a bicycle-friendly nation, we need to work with everyone, not just rail at the administration.
- German Prognostication: German Autobahn traffic experts want to predict traffic jams a day in advance. Sounds cool, I hope they manage it.
Actually, the Melbourne traffic light o’ death kind of makes sense to me now that I’ve read how it’s supposed to operate.
But, would a driver unfamiliar with this particular roadway have a clue? Probably not.