Archives for November 2016

A recent Momentum Mag article provides an in-depth analysis of bicycle equity. In predominantly white, upper-income regions of many cities, residents enjoy car-free plazas and protected bike; in the very same cities’ poorer regions where the majority of residents are people of color, many streets don’t even have sidewalks or crosswalks, let alone a bike lane. This imbalance has devastating social consequences. A safe, strong, biking and walking community can produce significant social gains: reducing health disparities, significantly lowering household transportation expenses, creating jobs and providing access to employment, lowering air and noise pollution, reducing mental health problems, and reducing violence by improving social cohesion. When people are excluded from being stakeholders in policy-making and infrastructure planning, they end up with less access to safe cycling, and are in turn denied its social gains. https://bit.ly/2gTFBsQ

The US DOT Fast Lane blog reports NHTSA’s new sound requirement for all newly-manufactured hybrid and electric vehicles (http://bit.ly/2gHuNiY) will help pedestrians, especially those who are blind or who have low vision, detect the presence, direction and location of these vehicles when these vehicles are traveling at low speeds. US DOT estimates the sound requirement will prevent 2,400 pedestrian injuries each year once all hybrids in the fleet are properly equipped. http://bit.ly/2frxEO1