Brad Aaron
Recent Posts
When We Treat Driving as a Fundamental Right, People Lose Their Lives
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Officials and the media are questioning how Dorothy Bruns, who posed such an obvious and significant threat to public safety, was allowed to drive.
Yesterday’s Times Square Toll Was Terrible — But So Is a Typical Day of Traffic Violence
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Given the high-profile location, the number of victims, and recent instances of people using vehicles to kill for ideology, it's understandable that yesterday's crash drew so much attention. But it's important to recognize that as terrible as the Times Square carnage was for a single incident, the same human toll occurs on a daily basis on NYC streets -- it's just dispersed across the city.
What Mister Rogers Can Teach Us About Cities and NIMBYism
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If you spend much time at community meetings, or you’re a Leslie Knope fan, you know that public forums are often where open-mindedness goes to die. Bill Lindeke of Twin City Sidewalks has been thinking about the contrast between urban NIMBYism and the ideals espoused by Fred Rogers, host of the legendary Pittsburgh-based public television […]
Attention Cities: To Encourage Walking, Don’t Overlook the Basics
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When it comes to making it easier and safer for people to get around on foot, is your city covering the basics? If you live in the U.S., odds are the answer is “Not by a long shot.” Tim Kovach writes that his hometown, Cleveland, is getting good press for a zoning update intended to […]
Straight Talk From Portland PD on the Importance of Speed Enforcement
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There’s nothing all that special about this traffic safety video from the Portland Police Bureau. It’s just a short talk from retired officer Ron Hoesly, formerly of the department’s traffic division, on the importance of enforcing speed limits. What’s so good about it is Hoesly doesn’t patronize with happy talk about everyone doing their part […]
Seniors Are Not to Blame for NYC’s Failure to Make Streets Safer
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In response to motorists fatally striking seniors in the Brooklyn South command, NYPD admonished seniors to be more careful when going outside. A recent fatality in the 70th Precinct is a prime example of how focusing on the behavior of victims is a wrongheaded and ineffective approach to street safety. One of the victims cited […]
Times Square Coalition: Keep the Plazas, Regulate Naked People
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The Times Square Alliance and a coalition of electeds has a plan to address complaints about Times Square without destroying the hugely successful pedestrian plazas. The centerpiece of the proposal is to legally redefine the Broadway plazas as a public space with three regulated zones: “civic” zones for public seating areas and programmed events; “flow” […]
Portland’s Bike-Share System Will Be an Interesting One to Watch
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Next week, leaders in Portland will decide whether to move forward with a long-awaited bike-share system. Assuming it proceeds, Portland’s bike-share is going to be an unusual one. Michael Andersen of BikePortland has everything you need to know in a series of posts on the proposed system (check them all out here). He reports that […]
Suburban Atlanta Pol: Why Fund Transit When We Can Wait for Robo-Cars?
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Gwinnett County is outpacing the Atlanta region in population growth. People who live there need transit to get to work, so much so that a recent poll found that 63 percent of likely voters were in favor of expanding MARTA service into the county. Gwinnett’s transportation director has asked for funds to restore bus service […]
The Public Funds Sports Teams, But Teams Won’t Fund Transit to Games
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Professional sports stadiums put a strain on transportation networks. While good transit service to games can lessen the traffic burden and help everyone get to sports venues more easily, this often imposes additional costs on transit agencies. Despite all the public subsidies pro sports teams receive, they rarely help pay for this service. It doesn’t […]
Raise Your Kids in the Car, Says Stupefyingly Awful Web Site
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Want to talk to your kids? Stick them in the car. That’s the word-for-word headline atop a recent post on Driving, a Canadian web site that also believes lowering speed limits in cities — you know, those places where kids and parents walk — is “an exercise in futility,” because drivers. Both columns were penned […]
Safe Streets Pioneer Deb Hubsmith Has Died
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Today the Streetsblog Network is mourning Deb Hubsmith, who died this week at age 45. Deb founded the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, a nationwide program that is saving the lives of children endangered by reckless drivers. If you’ve advocated for or cared about safer streets in the last 10 to 15 years, chances […]