Today’s Headlines

BART will raise parking fees at some stations by 50 cents in December (Napa Valley Register)
More about Santa Monica’s new bike-share system (see Streetsblog coverage here) (LA Times)
Super Bowl committee thinks its parade, or its party, or something, is more important than commuters—it wants to remove overhead wires that power electric buses on Market Street (Examiner)
Bay Bridge pier demolition scheduled for tomorrow (SF Gate)
Planning accreditation board considers weakening requirements for diversity in planning schools (Next City)
The story of a brand new, high-density, mixed-use transit oriented village near downtown Sacramento (Sacramento Magazine)
Report: Encouraging cycling could save cities tons of money (Outside Online)

More California headlines at Streetsblog LA and Streetsblog SF

Gezellig

Re: Sacramento it’s been fun watching the River District area start to spring up on my visits to Sac (the recently renovated main downtown Sac intermodal train station looks great, too). Lots of cool upcoming stuff:

http://www.riverdistrict.net/projects/current-projects.php

There’s some exciting bike-infra improvements coming to the area, too, such as a Dutch-style protected intersection:

http://n12street.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Protected-Intersection.jpg

In a lot of ways downtown/Midtown Sac remind me of Portland…but (usually) with more sun:

http://www.eastsiderailnow.org/sacramento_1b.jpg

http://media2.govtech.com/images/770*1000/Flickr-Sacramento-RT-light-rail-downtown.jpg

^ Sacramento-as-Portland-doppelgänger

Bike culture is alive and well, including with a lot of local businesses in Sac. And the innovative bike racks all around are not to be missed:

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52cd9585e4b04a5bb7697e49/t/5367f772e4b0bfbb0abc86c8/1399322488072/IMG_8157.JPG?format=1000w

http://blog.publicbikes.com/wp-content/uploads/600-duo-bikes-pizza.jpg

https://deltatourist.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/20150528_085600.jpg

http://sacpedart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/img_1857.jpg

Thankfully, Sac is also really starting to rethink how it approaches its currently fractured bikeways network:

http://www.sactownmag.com/December-January-2015/Changing-Gears/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc

My only concern with the River District plan is the attached image at the end of this post–still too much emphasis on Second-Class (aka “Class II”) on-road bike lanes. When building up a new area adjacent to downtown why not go the Austin route (image below also from a downtown-adjacent redeveloped area) and bake protected bikeways in?

http://peopleforbikes.org/page/-/uploads/GLP/mueller%20protected%20intersection%20600.png

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAQQjB1qFQoTCO7kxI7_kMkCFdRXiAodi0QOSg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fportal.cityofsacramento.org%2F~%2Fmedia%2FCorporate%2FFiles%2FCDD%2FPlanning%2FUrban-Design%2FCh3-RDDG_CouncilFinal1.pdf&bvm=bv.107467506,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNFgsWK0dnbQkrtuSQXx_dFqTMzStg&ust=1447627572060320