News, Links, and Other Views

City of San Diego

• An SDPD Lieutenant has made a statement concerning the pedestrian who was run over during San Diego Comic-Con. “Never ever can you use a deadly weapon to make a path across a crowd of people.” The Traffic Division is still investigating the incident.
• A driver hit and killed a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk in Grantville. According to police it was an “unfortunate accident” and the driver was not cited or arrested.
• A bicyclist was impaled on a wrought iron fence when she crashed on Bayside Walk in Mission Beach.
• City of San Diego Planning Director, Bill Fulton, has resigned and will take a position at Rice University.
• The first phase of a project to make Torrey Pines Road more pedestrian and bike friendly in La Jolla is scheduled to go out to bid this month.
• 35 more parking spaces are available in Hillcrest at the corner of Washington and Front Street.
• Starting this month RV owners will not be able to park large vehicles overnight on San Diego streets without a permit.
• The new president of Civic San Diego was announced in Encanto.

San Diego Region

• SANDAG will hold two workshops to get public input on the Regional Plan for transportation in San Diego County.
• A roundabout in Coronado at the intersection of Pomona and Adela Avenues and Seventh Street has been completed.
• The Third and Fourth Street Study is looking at bringing complete streets to Coronado.

Elsewhere

• AB 1193 which directs Caltrans to establish standards for protected bike lanes/cycle tracks in California, should go before the Senate this month.
• Giving people a choice in transportation would be good for both households and the state-wide economy in California.
• A look at the increasing number of bike tour companies in California that now offer e-bike rentals.
• The Tualatin Valley Scenic Bikeway in Oregon is proving to be a big draw for tourism, including praise from visitors from San Diego.
• A study of bike-share systems in Washington D.C. and Minnesota shows that bikes play an effective part in public transportation.
• Cyclists look forward to a two-way protected bike lane on Second Avenue in Seattle. This will be the first project as a result of Seattle’s participation in the Green Lanes Project.
• While taking his new bike out for a spin in Philadelphia a cyclist was particularly impressed by the new protected bike lane along the Delaware River.
• A study in Chicago finds that bike lanes with paint directing cyclists away from the door zone causes cyclists to not bike in the door zone.
• Chicago has begun construction of protected bike lanes on Harrison between Desplaines and Wabash.
• Without the plastic bollards installed to separate the bike lane from car traffic, motorists in Cincinnati are getting used to the new separated bike lanes on Central Parkway.
• The Minnesota Bicycle Coalition has been installing pop-up street designs to show people what bike friendly infrastructure looks like.
• Green Lanes Project participant Indianapolis is planning to install more protected bike lanes downtown.
• An advertisement for Amendment 7 in Missouri raises the question whether streets are made safer by widening them or by reducing the number of people driving on them.
• Charles Marohn an engineer and planner in Minnesota is founder of strongtowns.org and points out the ponzi scheme financing structure that drives suburban sprawl in the United States.
• The Federal Highway Administration has endorsed use of the NACTO Urban Street Design Guide in the United States.
• The Evanston City Council had various opinions about a plan to build protected bike lanes.
• After being hit by a car in Toronto a city councilor thinks her city can’t get protected bike lanes soon enough.