News, Links, and Other Views

City of San Diego

  • At a public meeting about the Mid-Coast Trolley Extension residents of Clairemont expressed fear of what the trolley stations might lead to.
  • SANDAG has released a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement after the discovery of an endangered shrimp species along the Mid-Coast Trolley Extension.
  • Caltrans is planning to spend $4.4 million to “beautify” the median of S.R. 163 in Balboa Park.
  • A new parking structure at the San Diego International Airport will make it “a whole lot easier” for globetrotting visitors to get to the airport.
  • The Care About North Park community group continues its struggle against the controversial “remodel” of the North Park Jack in the Box.

San Diego Region

  • A look at how e-bikes in Encinitas are making it easier for regular people to get around by bike.
  • A new pocket park has opened in Escondido complete with a mural and bike racks.  Activists hope this is the first of many such parks along Escondido Creek.

Elsewhere

  • California Assemblyman Mike Gatto has proposed using the Amber Alert system to notify the public of hit-and-run motorists.
  • A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy was texting when he ran down and killed a cyclist in Calabasas, California.
  • An agreement between Los Angeles and the federal government will transform a 51 mile stretch of the L.A. River into a greenway including bike and pedestrian paths.
  • Plans for bike lanes on Figueroa in Los Angeles connecting the Highland Park and Eagle Rock neighborhoods have been put on hold by newly elected City Councilman Gil Cedillo.
  • A cyclist in Los Angeles looks at and responds to some of the arguments against the bike lanes on Figueroa.
  • A reserve police officer in Santa Paula, California has been placed on leave after posting a video mocking cyclists and laughing about running them over.
  • A cyclist in Marin County has observed that as cycling infrastructure has improved the number of people commuting by bike has increased.
  • Replacing Level of Service (LOS) with Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) when analyzing traffic under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) may soon make it easier to get approval for transit projects in California.
  • The new bike path to the county fairgrounds in Goshen, Indiana was put to good use when the Elkhart County Fair opened this Friday.
  • A temporary measure may keep the United State’s highway trust fund solvent through May 2015.
  • After his second knee surgery former United State’s President George W. Bush is looking forward to getting back on his mountain bike.
  • In Britain the House of Commons transport committee has called for spending at least £10 per person annually on safe bicycle infrastructure.
  • Cyclodeo, a website that claims to be “Google Street View for bike lanes” covers cities in Europe and the United States.
  • A funeral director in Copenhagen teamed up with a local bike shop to design a bicycle-powered hearse.
  • A look at innovative bike-only infrastructure from Copenhagen to Tokyo.