Angie Schmitt

Even though the Democratic Party's strongholds are in cities, we probably won't hear much about urban transportation and development policy at the Democratic National Convention this week. City issues seldom get much play when political parties are focused on scooping up swing votes in the suburbs.

When Portland launched its bike-share system last week, it became the biggest American city to go live with a "smart bike" model. The system allows users to drop off bikes anywhere within the service area, as opposed to the more prevalent "smart dock" model, where users pick up and return bikes only at fixed stations.

Earlier this week tech entrepreneur Elon Musk released his updated "master plan" for Tesla, including some thoughts on how autonomous mini-buses will supplant today's transit and "take people all the way to their destination." Like every Musk pronouncement, this one got a lot of buzz -- but it also drew some healthy skepticism.

What makes a terrible bus stop? The absence of sidewalks, a place to sit, and shelter -- that's all part of the recipe. What else can DOTs and transit agencies throw into the mix?

When a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, shot and killed Philando Castile earlier this month, the encounter began with a traffic stop. The stop fit a pattern: Castile had been pulled over many times before -- 46 times in 13 years -- but few of those citations were for dangerous driving. More prevalent were stops for minor issues like vehicle defects or misplaced license plates -- the type of justifications that police are more likely to use when stopping black and Latino drivers throughout the country.

In the past few years, Congressional Republicans tried and failed to turn the federal transportation program into a highways-only affair. Still, the GOP isn't giving up on eliminating federal funds for transit, walking, and biking.

To see how little respect bus riders get from public officials, just take a look at the sorry condition of America's bus stops. To make riding the bus a comfortable and dignified experience, we need to do better.

Tuesday was a very exciting day in Portland, as the city celebrated the launch of its long-awaited bike-share system, Biketown. The network makes 1,000 bikes available in an eight-square mile area of the city.

The more people bike on the streets, the safer the streets are for everyone who bikes. This phenomenon, originally identified by researcher Peter Jacobsen, is known as "safety in numbers." And that's exactly what American cities are seeing as they add bike infrastructure -- more cyclists and safer cycling -- according to a new report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials [PDF].

Oh, the terrible places you'll go to catch a bus. So far this week in our hunt for the Sorriest Bus Stop in America, a bus stop in Boston knocked off a real catastrophe in Nassau County to advance to the second round. Meanwhile, voting remains open until midnight in a tight contest between Maryland and Delaware.