Streetsblog:
No American city has the guts to commit to what Paris did and I'm going to be frank as to why.
The number one obstacle to any safety improvements is local merchants. Business owners and the merchant class believe that any customers they get are drivers. They are unswayed by research consistently showing that increased foot traffic and alternative travel to commercial areas increase their profit. Part of this is because merchants are just as car-brained as the general population. But the other half is that merchants disproportionately listen to their patrons who drive and complain about parking. Transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians don't advertise to merchants that they didn't arrive by car.
Though small in number, the elected interests of most local cities give disproportionate attention to business interests and their pro-driving beliefs. Even in progressive Berkeley, home of many climate scientists from the university, transportation decisions are dictated by science illiterates and business interests, not the city's intellectuals. When Berkeley proposed building a bike lane in my neighborhood, which has no protected bike lanes near a prominent middle school, many locals went uncharacteristically nuts. Plastered on neighborhood businesses were conspiracy theories about a United Nations agenda to force people into plastic cities where they won't be allowed to own cars. Every other lawn has signs proclaiming economic ruin if drivers are forced to park a whopping 30 seconds away on side streets rather than directly in front of businesses. [...]
Sadly, history is repeating itself in San Francisco. Business interests in the West Portal neighborhood where the family was wiped out by a car are already organizing to stop any improvements to the street. This is a major transit hub in S.F., developed before cars were even in mass use, yet the jurisdiction of drivers knows no bounds. If there can't be a car-free commercial strip in West Portal, there can't be one anywhere in America. Some business groups see the death of that family as merely an unavoidable consequence, a price paid to ensure drivers don't have to walk an additional 30 seconds from parking on a side street to reach their shops.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
Javi:
A recent scientific expedition to the Gulf of Mexico seafloor shows just how little things have improved near the broken well.
Cops can force suspect to unlock phone with thumbprint, US court rules:
