This week we're going to run an article every day related to TARC, the Transportation Authority of River City. Today's theme is:

The Story So Far

• TARC is forced into significant route cuts, including the virtual elimination of their express bus service. Read TARC's Frequently Asked Questions on the cuts.
• Public meetings on the route cuts will run all this week, see ridetarc.org for details.
• Local transportation activist John Owen is stirring up people to not take the cuts lying down, and plans public meetings. Read his press release.
• Mayoral Candidate Jackie Green is doing a "media event" at 10:30 am at TARC on Tuesday.
• Join your fellow TARC riders on the bus@cartky.org mailing list.
• Click below the fold for the Bad TARC Joke of the Day...

Leadership Void Paralyses Louisville

All these new developments are from the last 7 days:

• Nashville's mayor spearheads $6.5 billion plan for expanded mass transit - Tennessean, WPLN
• Indianapolis' transportation plan could link region with light and commuter rail - Transport Politic, Indystar.com
• St Louis' referendum on transit spending is set for April, new system plan unveiled - Transport Politic
• Cincinnati's mayor vows to forge ahead on downtown streetcar despite challenges - Cincinnati.com

Lastly, its not exactly news, but Dayton continues its unbroken nation-leading streak: 120 years of continuous electric transit operation - Wikipedia

Meanwhile, Louisville has no serious plans for modernizing mass transit, and indeed is cutting back at a breathtaking rate.

Transit

• Trying to pick up the pieces after Doomsday, St Louis voters again consider a transit sales tax - Streetsblog
• First major politician calls for 220 mph high speed rail in the midwest - IL Gov Pat Quinn - video - Midwest HSR
• Everyone wants more TIGER grants in the jobs bill - is the Senate listening? - Streetsblog
• 2009 a terrible year for freight rail - Streetsblog
• Baltimore creates new, free transit with parking revenue - Streetsblog
• Louisville's Incredible Elevated Rapid Transit Trains - Broken Sidewalk
• "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs"? According to Congress, transit creates twice as many jobs per $ as highways - Streetsblog

Motoring

• Talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as driving drunk; texting is worse yet - BikeLeague blog
• Americans believe Congress is raising gas taxes constantly. We should be so lucky. - How We Drive
• Video - the high cost of free parking - Human Transit
• Urban Speed Zones in England cut traffic deaths 41.9% - How We Drive
• Americans junk more cars than they buy - Streetsblog
• Your WunderCar will not save the planet - Streetsblog

Walking

• Woman in wheelchair killed while using crosswalk by turning truck. Driver "just didn't see her" - WHAS
• Self Sufficency: the conservative case for bicycling and walking - Streetsblog

Biking

• Bicycling hits 1% of all trips! - BikeLeague blog
• Bejing reverses course, moves to promote bicycling - Streetsblog

• Louisville ranks 7th most dangerous for pedestrians - C-J
• On Foot, In Danger - C-J editorial
• Tell your Congressperson you support the Complete Streets Bill of 2009!
• Tree Planting for victims of Bardstown Road meets with success - new street design pending - C-J
• World is much closer to Peak Oil than official estimates admit, says IEA whistleblower; US suppresses data to quell high gas prices - Guardian via Louisville Peak Oil List
• Two Bridges Too Far - Bob Hill editorial at Louisville Magazine
• Conservatives and Mass Transit Book Review - Politics Daily
• Why is Smart Growth so expensive? Because there's more demand than supply, stupid - Streetsblog
• Kentucky's 'Zombie' I-66 down but not out - Streetsblog
  (Remember rule #2: Double Tap)
• Study: Hidden health costs of motoring: $56billion - Streetsblog

Quote of the Day

[M]any cities have taken space that was the domain of people, just people, and have pushed them out of it, unless they are in automobiles.…[M]uch of small town America has become simply highways with strip malls alongside. Most often, this was done without any consultation of the citizens -- for instance, Interstate 5 was laid out in North Portland, and all the residents who lived in the path of the freeway were simply told they had to move, no choice about it.

What this resulted in was an increasing suspicion, and finally a confident opinion in many places, that if you weren't in a car, you didn't belong outside of your house/apartment/yard. It became more and more difficult to move around outside of your own yard if you weren't in a car in many places. Because of this, many places in the U.S. have inherited cities populated with metal boxes instead of trees, grass, flowers, and most notably, people. Because of this, many places in the U.S. have inherited cities that are noisy, smelly and stressful. Because of this, many places in the U.S. have inherited cities in which their children must stay inside, cannot go anywhere on their own, where children and parents alike feel afraid to enter public space, and where, once you step out your front door, you must be on guard.

Portlandize, via Streetsblog

• Notoriously car-centric Miami responds with Miami 21, which the Congress for New Urbanism calls "the most ambitious contemporary zoning code reform yet undertaken by a major U.S. city - Streetsblog
• Hybrid bus builders pave the way for other vehicle improvements, also keep otherwise-unemployed domestic auto workers employed. - Streetsblog
  
• Climate Bill may include more substantial support for transit, bicycling, walking - Transportation for America
• "creative jaywalking is an environmental positive, because it makes traveling on foot easier" - Pedestrianist
• BikeCommuter questions the massive subsidies to driving - Pedalaround

• How the FRA is Regulating Passenger Rail Out of Existence - East Bay Bicycle Coalition
• They Dallas Cowboys built a new arena, and forgot to upgrade their transit. Now it costs $50-$75 to park on game day - oops! - Streetsblog
• Breaking down the myth that Low-Carbon Europeans tolerate inconveniences in their life for their vastly smaller carbon footprint - Streetsblog
• And breaking down the myth that urban planners are "trying to force people out of their cars and their suburbs", we take a deep breath and look at the host of policies forcing people into their cars and into the suburbs - Urbanophile
• Two way streets - a safety win for peds? - Pedestrianist
• Working in Transit suxx, because the public only calls you when they're grumpy - Human Transit
• People at the top have more free time than ever before, so why do they think they're so busy that they're willing to commit murder/suicide by texting on their blackberries while driving? - How We Drive

Graphic via Infrastructurist
 

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Things have been busy!

Prominent local advocate Kirk Kandle has sold his volvo and gone cold-turkey car free. His many blog entries detail the various tactics he's using to maintain mobility.

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3

Meanwhile, Louisvillian ex-pat Karen V. profiles car-free CART members

• Tom Owen
• Katie McBride

And lastly I just have to link to this suburb-retrofit article at Infrastructurist. Money quote: "America’s senior citizens" are the "New Urbanist vanguard". The Lexington Streetsweeper also weighs in.

Bridges to Nowhere

• Jerry is shocked - shocked! - that River Fields would sue over the Ohio River Bridges - WFPL
• Driving a freeway through your urban core causes 18% of the population to leave - Yglesias

Reminder: Ohio River Bridges would demolish large fractions of Butchertown. Will those displaced people move to an equivalent, low-energy place to live, or move further out where they'll clog up more roads and pollute more air? 

Bike/Ped

• Walking, Biking, and Motoring in Indy surprisingly different from Louisville - Barry's Bike Blog
• Find a buddy, ride to work: KIPDA launches bike pooling commuter software - Bike Louisville
• "Guaranteed ride home" private insurance launches for cyclists, carpoolers, transit riders in CA - $25/year - Streetsblog
• Sidewalk "pavement picasso" coming to Louisville - WFPL
• New York's bike fashion craze - NYT
• Bike couriers nationwide feel the pinch as even lawyers are catching on to this new-fangled 'email' thing - WaPo
• Bicyclist Lane Position - "As far Right as Practicable" is in the eye of the beholder - Road Rights

Climate Chaos

• Climate effects of boring building codes equal those of 100 new nuke plants - if it survives Congress - Grist
• How vulnerable are we to rising oil prices? Kentucky and Indiana are among the most vulnerable - Watchdog Earth
• Cash for Clunkers didn't work out so well - Streetsblog

• 'Veer' moving screening in Clifton a big success - thanks, Freewheel Bike Collective!
• Metro Bike Plan now online - BikeLouisville
• Let Zipcar know you want car sharing in Louisville - Consuming Louisville
• Roundabout Training Seminar 9/9/09 - KYTC
• Burgerville reverses course, encourages bicyclists at drive-thrus - OregonLive
• Decent bike parking would get Americans biking to work - Slate
• 20mph in the downtown is the key to safe, livable city - UrbanCincy
• NYC Mayor using schoolbuses mid day as senior Transit - NYTimes

["Transfers" is the name of our new link-blogging series]

• INDOT restores service along five interstate bus lines - C-J
• Passenger rail between Louisville and Lexington? R. J. Corman is thinking about doing it on his tracks - Lexington Herald Leader
• A town in England has a novel approach to getting drivers to slow down - put statues of kids playing near the roadway - How We Drive
• Dutch road design techniques could cut traffic casualties by 50% in US - Infrastructurist
• Study shows that living in dense neighborhoods (e.g. downtown Louisville) saves a household 395 gallons of gasoline per year - that's $1000 per year at today's prices - Streetsblog Capitol Hill
• As long as the economy depends on cheap oil, don't hold your breath for a recovery - Infrastructurist
• Transportation reform is health reform - Streetsblog Capitol Hill
• Cash for Clunkers: What's a sustainable transportation geek supposed to think? - Portland Transport