Oregon Candidates On Active Transportation Issues

by JayinPortland

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance has released candidate responses to their four question survey on active transportation issues in Oregon.

The questions asked of candidates for Governor (guess who didn't respond!), US Senate, US House and numerous state and local races were -

1. What programs and other public policy initiatives do you support for making Oregon communities more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists?

2. What programs and other public policy initiatives do you support for improving the safety of road users, particularly vulnerable users (e.g., better education for road users, increased penalties for unsafe vehicle operation, other statutory modifications)?

3. What programs or other public policy initiatives do you support to ENCOURAGE the use of bicycles for transportation?

4. Please list the active transportation projects, if any, in your district for which you have provided assistance or support?

Let's take a look at some of the more interesting (and fun!) responses...

continued at Daily Kos....

Village Green: the Crumbling of the DC Metro

by Kaid at NRDC

The many workers and administrators who make our public transportation systems work as well as they do for so much of the time deserve our praise and support.  Held back by tight and shrinking budgets, frequently placed in poor and dangerous working conditions, and forced by the nature of their business to work with aged and faulty systems at the same time that those systems are heavily used, these good people are asked to do the impossible and to take the heat when expectations are not met.  This certainly goes for the nation’s second-busiest system, in Washington, DC where I live.  But:

continued at Daily Kos...

Railroad ReModelers Club: Introduction

by Stranded Wind

The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, a direct result of our oil addiction coupled with the drive-by drilling practices of pusher British Petroleum and their criminally negligent associates, has been consuming the attention of DailyKos.   The wreck list lingers over a blow by blow of the oil gusher, but as horrific as it is this is just a symptom, a symptom of our oil addition, our media's mishandling of important issues, and the inability of the stateless, egalitarian blogosphere to self organize and deal with pushing policy changes.  I've been talking about the need for change in our methods for a couple of years. I've been working on just that since we founded the Blog Workers Industrial Union. We've worked on political races and issues advocacy before, but this is the first campaign we've developed from scratch. I'm very curious to hear your opinions on both the solution and the methods.

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The Nuclear Option

by Stranded Wind

British Petroleum's well capping antics are looking more and more like just that – public relations stunts with very low probabilities of success.     The relief well solution has always been the thing most likely to work, but our media is getting this wrong, too. Relief wells have a 60% - 70% chance of success, which is why two or more are required. British Petroleum was drilling two, but now have cut back to just one. You, dear taxpayer, should be holding on to your wallet very tightly, because it is we and our President who are being set up to take the fall for this mess.   I have been following this story closely and today I took a little time to look into the nuclear option …

continued at Daily Kos....