Denver & Colorado
The Denver Post
Barnes-Gelt: Planning a livable city
By Susan Barnes-Gelt
Posted: 04/11/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
In 2003 when Mayor John Hickenlooper hired Milwaukee’s Peter Park to be Denver’s planning director, the two shared a big vision. It’s taken nearly seven years, including five years of public process, led by a hard-working group of diverse citizens, to realize that vision.
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The Denver Post
RTD officials puzzled by rash of fatal accidents
By Jeffrey Leib
Posted: 04/11/2010
As bus operator Pete Acosta prepared to take his intercity coach out of RTD’s storage area Friday for its skyRide run to DIA, street supervisor Tim Lucero climbed aboard to give a safety briefing.
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National
The Wall Street Journal blog
Which Cities Save Commuters the Most With Public Transport?
By Sara Murray, April 6, 2010
With gas prices going up again it might be worth it to consider public transportation instead. In some cities, it’s a better exchange than others, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s monthly transit savings report.
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BuilderOnline.com
Urban Core Growing Faster Than Outer ‘Burbs
By Jenny Sullivan, April 8, 2010
EPA study finds that permits in central cities and first-ring suburban neighborhoods are outpacing greenfield developments. Smart growth proponents have long predicted that the ever-greater expansion of suburbia would one day reach its limit, prompting a renewed interest in central city living.
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USA Today
By Larry Copeland, April 8, 2010
It’s official: Your driving costs are going up.
The average cost of owning and operating a sedan in the USA rose 4.8% this year to 56.6 cents per mile, or $8,487 per year, a study out today by auto club AAA finds.
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The Denver Post
A matter of balance
By Dave Wann, 04/11/2010
An “affordable” economy means cutting away the destructive, polluting practices of the past and embracing the “three P’s” of intelligent growth.
How can we expect to track how our economy is really doing when standard indicators such as the gross domestic product conceal viruses like pollution, preventable illness, traffic congestion, and poorly designed products?
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Streetblog.NYC
Making Streets for Walking: Dan Burden on Reforming Design Standards
by Noah Kazis on April 8, 2010
One of the foundational documents in our country’s history of car-centric street design is what’s known as the Green Book. These engineering guidelines, which have been published in various editions by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) since the 1930s, are only “green” if you’re looking at the cover.
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The City Fix
Up, Up and Away in a Cable Car
by Megan McConville on April 7, 2010
Cable cars, also known as ropeways or aerial tramways, don’t get much respect. These types of transportation systems, in which a cabin or other conveyance is suspended from a fixed cable and pulled by another cable, are often thought of as tourist-movers. But cable cars can have some practical applications in urban settings.
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Examimer.com
Privatized toll road goes bankrupt using taxpayer money
Terri Hall, April 6, 2010
San Diego’s South Bay Expressway foreign-owned toll road has become the new poster child for the failed policy of road privatization. Up until now, most “conservative” and libertarian think tanks have promoted PPPs (public private partnerships) as the “free market” solution to road building. I’ve said all along it’s no such thing. They’re government-sanctioned monopolies and the Editorial Board of a leading conservative national newspaper, the Washington Times, agrees.
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The Best New Urban Parks in the U.S.
Melissa Lafsky, April 8th, 2010
A few months ago, we brought you a list of the 10 best large urban parks in the world. But what about our more recent additions? In the last few years, major American cities have been hard at work designing and building spectacular urban parks, to the benefit of millions. Last week, New York City opened the first section of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre green space that will redefine the look of Brooklyn’s East River waterfront. It’s only the latest in what’s fast becoming a national trend.
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Bicycling.com
America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities(Boulder is rated 3rd).
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Daily Journal of Commerce
Climate bill stirs concern of double gas-tax hike
BY: Justin Carinci, April 8, 2010
An effort to pass a federal climate and energy bill has run into opposition from road builders and users who say it could hamper their efforts to pay for transportation projects.
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The Rest of the Planet
The New York Times
China Is Eager to Bring High-Speed Rail Expertise to the U.S.
By Keith Bradsher, April 7, 2010
BEIJING – Nearly 150 years after American railroads brought in thousands of Chinese laborers to build rail lines across the West, China is poised once again to play a role in American rail construction.
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Associated Press/Yahoo Finance
Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer,
April 9, 2010
China passenger car sales up 63 pct in Mar.
Weak sales in the United States and a surge in car purchases by newly affluent Chinese buyers helped to make this the world’s largest auto market last year, when total vehicle sales jumped 45 percent over 2008 to 13.6 million units.
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Association for the Study of Peak Oil
“A Nighttime Letter to the Grandchildren”
By admin · on March 29, 2010
When Stewart Lee Udall died on March 20th at age 90, we lost a giant of a gentleman and a passionate former public servant. The Arizona native was perhaps the most influential U.S. Secretary of the Interior ever.
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Things you need to know along the corridor.
Colorado State Representative, Max Tyler holds his regularly scheduled 3rd Saturday Town Hall,
April 17, 2010.
Golden City Halls Chambers
Golden, Colorado 80401
10:00am to 11:30am
West Corridor Construction closures, detours (compiled by the City Manager’s Office, City of Lakewood, Colorado, RTD, and Denver Transit Construction group).
The Back Fence Street Closures
For the best coverage of street closures along the entire West Corridor, please go to:
RTD-FasTracks Web Site for Street Closures
TheWestCorridor'sBackFence Blog 