Over the last few years, Memphis has been rushing to add bike lanes. Now the city plans to take it to the next level. Image: Memphis Flyer

Led by Mayor A.C. Wharton, a few years ago Memphis embarked on an ambitious campaign to add 55 miles of bike infrastructure. Then the city inspired envy when last year it was one of six selected by the Green Lane Project to receive technical assistance toward building protected bikeways.

Now the Green Lane Project blog is reporting that Memphis is raising the bar again:

The bicycle-friendly mayor, who is credited with reversing Memphis’ reputation from worst city for bicycling to most improved, reaffirmed his reputation today, stating “We’re working hard to make sure we’re not just building quantity, but that we’re building quality bike lanes. We want all our citizens, young and old, to be able to make the choice to bicycle and feel safe and comfortable when doing so. Green lanes are how we’re going to take the next step to make Memphis the most bike-friendly city in Tennessee.”

To put Memphis’ plan for 15 miles of future green lanes into perspective, Memphis currently has zero green lanes, and between 1874 and 2011, only 62 such protected bike facilities were built nationwide. Memphis is playing an influential role in the exponential growth of protected bike lines nationwide; by the end of 2013, more than 200 green lanes will be on the ground. The Green Lane Project is supporting this growth.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Bike Portland reports that the Oregon Department of Transportation is taking additional measures to move away from a “highway-centric” approach. Milwaukee Rising explains that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is not only planning an unnecessary double-decker highway, but is planning to put it at eye level to neighboring homeowners. And Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space reports that a Washington-area firm is doing the kind of development that might be described as retrofitting the suburbs.

See the white pinpoints where central cities are? That's where the federal mortgage interest deduction is helping people the least. Meanwhile, residents of sprawling suburbs are raking in the subsidies. Image: Pew Center on the States

Despite the ruinous housing crisis just a few years ago, the federal government still keeps the suburban sprawl machine humming.

About 85 percent of federal subsidies for housing flow to single family homes, according to a recent report from Smart Growth America, though only about 65 percent of Americans are homeowners and the majority of renters live in multi-family housing. The ultimate sprawl subsidy just might be the mortgage interest deduction. Not only is this baby completely regressive — the vast majority of subsidies flow to households with incomes greater than $200,000 — as you can see in the above map, this money tends to flow to areas where everyone is dependent on a car.

Network blog West North writes:

See those donut holes? Inner-city areas with low rates of homeownership, low incomes (and thus fewer residents who itemize deductions), and relatively lower property values are receiving far less of America’s fattest housing subsidy — the mortgage-interest personal income tax deduction (see previous discussion) — than their better-off suburbs. The sprawl subsidies continue apace.

The bigger picture is that this is a subsidy that overwhelmingly benefits wealthy people who have expensive houses, and big mortgages to match — and thus benefits “coastal elites” more.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Human Transit reports that Google Maps is planning some big improvements to its transit directions feature. Mobilizing the Region reports that New Jersey is the newest state to consider reducing speed limits to 20 miles per hour in residential areas. And Better Institutions comments on an unorthodox new plan for a federal infrastructure bank.

Ronald Reagan on a bicycle, what could be more American? Image: Twin City Sidewalks

Somehow, though, cycling has become politicized, and it’s the party of personal responsibility, austerity, and small government that tends to carry the anti-bicycling banner.

That’s odd, writes Bill Lindeke at Network blog Twin City Sidewalks, because bicycling aligns so well with core conservative principles. Lindeke, in his latest blog post, lists seven reasons to love cycling from a conservative standpoint. We’ll share just a few:

Bicycle infrastructure is a great way for the government to save money. Conservatives are always talking about “wasteful government spending,” but for some reason don’t view freeway and road infrastructure as part of the problem. A single stoplight costs more than $3,000 per year to maintain and operate. (And huge projects like the unnecessary $600M+ bridge to rural Wisconsin being built right now in Michele Bachmann’s district should make fiscal conservatives cringe.) Bike lanes and trails are extremely cheap and last a long time, one of the best values for government spending you’ll find.

Another conservative mantra is the notion of personal responsibility…

Well, bicycling around the city is literally pulling yourself up with your bootstraps. (It’s actually pushing yourself forward with your feet, but its pretty much the same.) Find another form of transportation (other than walking) that contains more personal responsibility. When I’m riding a bike, nobody or nothing is going to get me to the top of that hill except for my own limbs. The bicycle takes the conservative metaphor of individualism and independence and literalizes it, makes it real.

Of course, Lindeke says, the real reasons we so often see politicians from the right side of the aisle taking stands against cycling has less to do with ideology, and more to do with appealing to particular political constituencies.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Mobilizing the Region reports that transit riders Connecticut and Long Island appear to be at elevated risk of getting hurt while walking. Flat Iron Bike notes the opposition to micro-apartments in Seattle. And Delaware Bikes explains how the state catapulted from lowly number 31 to ninth place in the Bike League’s bike-friendly state rankings.

Photo: Christian Science Monitor

Meanwhile, Amtrak has said that the route connecting New York and Boston will be closed for several days while the investigation continues, and Metro-North says commuter rail service on the eastern end of the New Haven line will also be out of commission for much of this week. Alternate tracks are undergoing repairs, and that means the tens of thousands of people that rely on this rail line are in a tough position.

Bloggers around the Streetsblog Network today said this incident exposes how fragile the Northeast Corridor, a system that serves hundreds of thousands of commuter trips every day and 12 million intercity Amtrak trips each year, really is. Cap’n Transit says “we can’t depend on the Northeast Corridor.”

The lack of alternative service is just pathetic. “If all the trains use the same tracks, it doesn’t really seem like there are many alternatives for getting into the city,” New Haven resident Robert Li told the Stamford Advocate. “Especially if you don’t have a car.” There were bus bridges to get people home last night, but there are no buses, let alone trains, all weekend. This evening Eric Gershon of Yale News tweeted, “830 pm Peter Pan bus NYC to New Haven packed due to Fri MetroN #train #derailment. Long lines, short tempers at Port Authority.”

Meanwhile, Benjamin Kabak at Second Avenue Sagas says it’s telling that a single incident like this could completely immobilize a significant part of the system:

The MTA and Connecticut’s Department of Transportation have put in place a plan for the 30,000 customers impacted by the 31-mile outage near the east end of the New Haven Line. On Monday morning, a shuttle train will run between New Haven and Bridgeport with express buses providing service to Stamford where trains to the city will be running. Local buses will operate to and from Bridgeport, Fairfield Metro, Fairfield and Westport, but no buses will serve Southport or Greens Farms. All in all, 120 buses from CT Transit, MTA Bus and other local companies will provide service. It won’t be enough.

Considering how many people are dependent upon this route for work, for life, for anything, this response is an indictment of the way we as a society view transit even in the most transit-accessible parts of the country.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Biking Toronto reports that plans are underway in the city for a 69-story tower with no car parking. The Political Environment wonders why the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is pushing a $123 million widening of a rural road while insisting that the state’s finances necessitate a $10 million reduction in transit funding. And Cycle Main Street shares a short video explaining how America became “car country.”

The League of American Bicyclists reports today that the cities seeing the biggest jump in bike commuting are, by and large, also the cities that have been recognized by the League as “bike-friendly” for their efforts to make biking safer and more convenient.

Image: LAB

The Bike League’s Carolyn Szczepanski writes:

From 2000 to 2011, the bicycle commuting rate has risen 80% in the largest Bicycle Friendly Communities — far above the average growth of 47% nationwide and more than double the rate of 32% in the cities not designated as bicycle-friendly.

In some Bicycle Friendly Communities, bicycle commuting rates have skyrocketed by more than 400% since 1990, including cities as diverse as Portland, Ore., and Lexington, Ky. Meanwhile, cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Denver have more than doubled their bike commuter share since 2000.

Take it from League President, Andy Clarke: “I see the dramatic increase in ridership on my own daily bike commute, and it’s definitely more pronounced in those communities — like Arlington County and the District of Columbia — that are proactively improving conditions for bicycling and following the Bicycle Friendly Community blueprint.”

Elsewhere on the Network today: People for Bikes files a dispatch from a gathering in Austin, Texas, exploring how bike infrastructure can benefit city residents equitably.

Milwaukee is a city that lost 0.4 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010. Over that time, the larger five-county region it anchors grew 3.5 percent, or at about a third the rate of the national average.

Wisconsin's proposal for a double-decker freeway. Image: Milwaukee Rising

And yet, bizarrely enough, WisDOT wants to stack highways on top of highways, reports Gretchen Schuldt of Milwaukee Rising:

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is expected to pursue an I-94 east-west freeway expansion project that would cost up to $1.2 billion and include six additional lanes of concrete in many places; double-decking through west side cemeteries; additional elevated, overlapping lanes east and west of the double-decked section; and absolutely no transit.

The double-deck proposal will raise freeway lanes 40 to 45 feet in the air through cemeteries just west of Miller Park. Estimated project costs are $950 million to $1.2 billion, the elected officials said; proposals for less expensive projects that would replace the freeway in its current configuration or include spot improvements are not favored by WisDOT.

All this is taking place, keep in mind, as WisDOT faces a civil rights lawsuit stemming from claims that the agency is starving all other modes of transportation to pursue outlandishly expensive highway projects, Schuldt reports:

WisDOT’s expansion options will come on the heels of a federal judge’s ruling that the Zoo Interchange reconstruction plans probably discriminates against minorities because they do not include transit improvements. Ald. Robert Bauman said WisDOT should immediately suspend the I-94 environmental review process and cancel next week’s public meetings so that the impact of Judge Lynn Adelman’s decision can be fully assessed.

Gov. Scott Walker is seeking delays in some of the Zoo Interchange work because of a lack of available funding.

Elsewhere on the Network today: The Green Lane Project explains the importance of Walk Score’s city and neighborhood bikeability rankings. I Bike TO shares a new study that finds helmet laws can actually reduce public safety. And the Metropolitan Planning Council gives an overview of DC’s performance parking policies on its Connector blog.

Voters in Missouri will decide whether to allow state transportation funds to support transit, biking, and walking. Image: Ohioans for Workplace Freedom

But there is some progress as well, even in political environments that might seem especially hostile to transportation reform. Last month Colorado finally overturned its ban on spending gas tax revenue on sustainable transportation. Now a major milestone in Missouri: The state may, for the first time, allow transportation money to be used to support walking, biking, and transit.

Brent Hugh at the Missouri Bicycle Federation has this report:

Today bicycling, walking, and transit took another step towards being officially recognized in the Missouri Constitution and funded by Missouri transportation dollars. The Missouri House passed SJR 16 by a vote of 100-57.

This was the final major hurdle the bill faced.  The Senate must still ratify a few technical changes made in the House resolution, which (we are hearing) could happen as soon as later today.

That means the Missouri Transportation Funding proposal will come before Missouri voters in August or November 2014.

If approved by Missouri voters, in either August or November 2014, the measure will, for the first time, completely integrate bicycling, walking, and transit funding into the Missouri state transportation system. Previously, transit and passenger rail has received a small amount of general tax funding, an amount that is debated and hard-fought every year in the Missouri General Assembly. Bicycle and pedestrian facilities, by law, receive no funding whatsoever from the Missouri state road fund.

So SJR 16, if approved by voters, will represent a fundamental change in how MoDOT does business, how Missouri transportation projects are designed, and in funding for bicycle, pedestrian, and transit projects and operations. The proposal allows, but does not require, MoDOT to spend dollars on transit, biking, and walking.  So it remains to be seen how thoroughgoing the change within MoDOT will be.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Half-Mile Circles looks at the expansion of rail and bus rapid transit lines in U.S. cities. The Get Around Blog wonders why we’re investing so much energy examining the misdeeds of bicyclists, when so many motoring sins go unexamined. And, in honor of Bike to Work Day, Bike Pedantic explains how bike commuting has changed his perspective.

There is a double standard when cyclists are expected to "earn" their right to the road, while motorist misbehavior is accepted as the norm. Image: Likecool.com

A version of this axiom was repeated yesterday by Sarah Goodyear at Atlantic Cities, in an article titled “Cyclists Aren’t ‘Special,’ and They Shouldn’t Play by Their Own Rules.” Goodyear argues that cyclists need to clean up their behavior in order to legitimize themselves in the eyes of others. A crackdown on rule breakers is needed, she says, to advance the cause of cycling.

Blogger David C. at Greater Greater Washington says that’s baloney:

Goodyear is asking cyclists to become footdroppers and thinks that more enforcement of cycling laws is what is needed for cycling to “get to the next level.” I disagree which is easy to do since Goodyear offers no evidence, no data and no defense of her position. It appears to be 100% emotion-based opinion.

When I look at great cycling cities in Europe it doesn’t appear to me that there is some point where increased enforcement is needed to keep growth going. Growth is fueled by better designed streets, laws that protect cyclists, and increasing the costs of driving. If anything, what I’ve read about Amsterdam and Copenhagen is that they don’t tolerate the kinds of bad driving that are considered normal here. I don’t read about ticketing blitzes.

She makes the point that many cyclists are rude or ride dangerously and that she’d like to see such behavior ticketed. I have no problem with ticketing dangerous behavior — though if we’re really going to focus on the MOST dangerous behavior, that will rarely mean ticketing cyclists. And if law enforcement were to blitz cyclists, it would likely not be for their most dangerous behavior (riding at night without lights or too fast on the sidewalk or against traffic) but rather not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign during a charity ride or at some out-of-the way intersection.

Bike lawyer Brendan Kevenides wrote in Urban Velo last year that “the way you ride is probably a crime,” saying that in many cases cyclists have logical reasons for breaking the rules, often for their own safety. He wrote that lawmaking bodies across the country are starting to recognize ways in which cyclists behave differently from motorists, and are making appropriate accommodations. In other words, lawmaking bodies are recognizing that cyclists are special, in that they are not the same as cars, and that they should have their own rules.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Kansas City’s gudthoughts blog considers whether crowd-funding is a viable way to improve that region’s transit infrastructure. Systemic Failure says Amtrak’s strict “no pets” policy is unnecessary and puts the quasi-public transportation provider at a competitive disadvantage with other modes. And People for Bikes asks cyclists to send pro-bike letters to their local newspapers in honor of Bike to Work Week.

Are top state officials in Wisconsin intent on undermining their largest city? Image: Daily Kos

Why are state lawmakers so intent on smothering a project decades in the making? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is wondering as well. In a weekend story the paper asked, “Is the GOP-run state Legislature at war with Milwaukee?“

James Rowen at Network blog the Political Environment says it’s clear that Republican lawmakers have an ax to grind, but it’s less clear how that advances state goals:

Walker and his GOP legislative allies continue to politically batter and budgetarily squeeze Milwaukee with right-wing policies and full-on partisan retribution for Mayor Barrett’s two gubernatorial challenges and big anti-Walker votes in city wards.

An anti-Milwaukee agenda weakens Wisconsin statewide, but plays well in the GOP’s suburban and out-state strongholds — so [it] helps keep gerrymandered Republicans embedded in their safe seats.

[This leaves] Walker and anti-urban legislators free to interfere in the Milwaukee economy and local landscape through city worker residency rule manipulations, a strangled bus system, derailed local, commuter and regional train initiatives along with their lost development potential, local spending limits made worse by drastically-cut public school budgets.

It’s a coordinated attack on Milwaukee and local control with elections, partisan payback and punishment in mind – - gleefully predicted by righty WISN-AM talker Mark Belling on November 3rd, 2010, a day after Walker was elected Governor and the GOP took control of the Legislature.

The evidence that Walker and his allies are politically and personally jamming city taxpayers in ways that ultimately hurt a state that needs a successful, big city is on full display.

We’ve seen anti-urban politics at play again and again with respect to transit — see Ohio Governor John Kasich and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who are trying to derail streetcar projects in Cincinnati and Charlotte, respectively. Ironic that sometimes a city’s biggest obstacle to progress is its own state government, which would seem to have every incentive to ensure that urban areas perform well.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Boston Biker reports that the city’s Hubway bike sharing system is approaching its one-millionth ride. I Bike TO shares a harrowing video illustrating what it’s like for a cyclist to be passed at a close distance. And Seattle Transit Blog explains why transit should be given priority at traffic chokepoints.

In a few hours at a single crosswalk, Montgomery County police cited 72 drivers for failure to yield to pedestrians. Image: Mymcpnews.com

But police in Montgomery County, Maryland, recently did pedestrian safety enforcement the right way: rather than target the victims of traffic violence, they targeted the only party capable of inflicting injury and death — drivers. Ben Ross at Greater Greater Washington reports that law enforcement officials were surprised by the number of infractions they saw:

So many drivers don’t yield to pedestrians that catching them is “like shooting fish in a barrel,” a surprised Montgomery County police officer remarked Wednesday. The police ticketed 72 violators in 2½ hours—one every two minutes—at a single crosswalk on Veirs Mill Road.

Capt. Thomas Didone, head of the police traffic enforcement division, explained the reasoning behind the “sting” to the Patch. “Officers would typically attempt to enforce that kind of law by driving around a high-traffic area and looking for drivers not following the rules,” he said. “That’s not very efficient.”

Ross points out that this campaign had another important benefit — it got police officers out of squad cars and on their feet:

Police who drive all day don’t understand the reality of walking on the county’s roadways. When you get out of the squad car and join the thousands who cross Veirs Mill every day (it’s among the county’s busiest bus corridors), you suddenly learn that “it’s kind of scary.”

Foot patrols succeeded in calming downtown Silver Spring after a series of brawls in 2010. But they ended once the brawls went away. Street fighting is hardly Montgomery County’s biggest law enforcement problem. Driver violations of pedestrian rights are ubiquitous, and they do far more harm. There are as many pedestrian deaths per year in the county as homicides.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Urban Milwaukee explains how Wisconsin Republicans have successfully torpedoed rail projects for decades. Human Transit delves into the topic of using development fees to fund transit investment. And Bike Portland reports that local Walgreens stores are, for some reason, refusing drive-thru service to cyclists.