Category Archives: Transportation

Citizens can video police in Atlanta

Ride your bicycle, have to show a drivers’ license, get your camera stolen by police? Not in Atlanta any longer!

Bill Rankin writes some good news in the AJC, APD won’t hinder citizens who videotape cops,

Faced with complaints from a citizen watchdog group, Atlanta police will stop interfering with people who videotape officers performing their duties in public, an agreement reached with the city Thursday says.

The settlement, which also calls for the city to pay $40,000 in damages, requires city council approval.

The agreement resolves a complaint filed by Marlon Kautz and Copwatch of East Atlanta, a group that films police activity with cell phones and hand-held cameras. The group has volunteers who go out on patrols and begin videotaping police activity when they come across it.

That’s Copwatch of East Atlanta; here’s their press release, including video of the incident. Continue reading →

VLMPO Planning Meeting

A local planning organization that studies advertises frequent meetings for input and studies facebook usage data to see what people care about? That’s the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO), which holds frequent and repeated hearings on major projects. Next week it’s having its regular Policy Committee Meeting 1:30PM to 4:30 PM, Tuesday 11 Jan 2010, at the SGRC office at 327 West Savannah Ave., Valdosta. You can see what they’re up to about traffic congestion, busses, trains, bicycles, Moody access, conservation, or other issues, and voice your concerns. Continue reading →

Real High Speed Rail: in China

Here in the U.S., we’re still thinking about maybe doing some high speed rail lines. None in Georgia. And even the slow-speed passenger proposed rail network bypasses Valdosta and Lowndes County.

Meanwhile, in China:


(Click on the detail map for the full map from johomaps 2010.)

Continue reading →

Bike sharing in Nashville, Tennessee

WTVF Channel 5 Nashville says that Nashville’s Bike Sharing Program Kicks Off Friday:
Nashville’s newest program to help residents stay healthy got underway Friday. “Bike Share Nashville” allows anyone, ages 18 and up, to borrow a bike and ride it around town for free. The only catch is you have to bring it back.
And they’re going to expand it next year, from two locations in Nashville to ten locations throughout Davidson County.

Sure, Nashville is bigger than Valdosta, but bike-sharing in town is getting easier all the time, and if Nashville can get grant money to do it, Valdosta could apply, too.

Meanwhile, at Vanderbilt University: Continue reading →

Bike-sharing in town

A truly friendly city can also bike-share. Paris, Montreal, and DC do it. London does it. How they do it can be applied stateside.

Georgia Tech is spinning off a startup to make it even easier to implement bike-on-demand networks.

Here’s the mayor of London on a bike-share bicycle:

Let’s see a video of the mayor of Valdosta on a bike-share bicycle. Riding with the president of VSU.

-jsq

Bike-sharing on campus

I keep hearing VSU students say “I don’t have a bike here”. There’s a solution for that, as Didi Tang writes in USA Today, Bike-sharing programs spin across U.S. campuses:
Shelenhamer, 20, is one of a number of students across the USA taking advantage of free or low-cost bike sharing programs, which have become increasingly popular. Drury students agreed to pay a $20-a-year sustainability fee, which funds the bike program. The Springfield, Mo., school purchased 40 new bikes for use by students in time for the fall semester.

“It’s helped me so much,” Shelenhamer said. “It’s been fun.”

That was at Drury University. Similar programs are available elsewhere. Continue reading →

Critical Mass this Friday

Critical Mass is riding again this Friday, September 24, starting from the Bleu Pub downtown.
The gathering starts at 6pm, followed by a 30 minute ride at 6:30pm.

Help raise awareness for the need of bike lanes and improved bicycler safety in Valdosta. Come and experience Valdosta in a new way- on a bike ride through the city with a few dozen friends!

All level-riders welcome and encouraged to participate.

Coming from VSU? Meet us at the Student Union at 5:50pm, a group will leave from the Student Union at 6pm and head to the Bleu Pub starting point downtown.

It has been happening in Valdosta since July 2009:

-jsq

Communities, not Cul de sacs

Update: Trees make streets safer and Fixing a perfect storm of bad planning and design.

Eric M. Weiss writes in the Washington Post on 22 March 2009 about In Va., Vision of Suburbia at a Crossroads: Targeting Cul-de-Sacs, Rules Now Require Through Streets in New Subdivisions

The state has decided that all new subdivisions must have through streets linking them with neighboring subdivisions, schools and shopping areas. State officials say the new regulations will improve safety and accessibility and save money: No more single entrances and exits onto clogged secondary roads. Quicker responses by emergency vehicles. Lower road maintenance costs for governments.
Banning cul-de-sacs was one of the New York Times Magazine’s 9th Annual Year in Ideas, because it’s safer and less expensive: Continue reading →

Nix on biomass plant in Traverse City, Michigan

Looking farther afield in Cadillac, Michigan than schools and realtors, there are some people who aren’t completely pleased with the local biomass plant:
Complaints are more frequent along Mary Street, a short stretch a few hundred yards south of the plant. Residents there deal with more intense noise and odors.

Craig Walworth’s home is among the closest to the plant. He walked up to his Jeep — a vehicle he cleaned the day before — and dragged his finger through a layer of film on the hood.

“Every morning, you have that to look forward to,” he said. “I clean my screens three times a year during the summer because they clog up.”

Nonetheless he didn’t say it affected his property values. However, that’s not the only issue.

Meanwhile, about an hour north on the edge of Lake Michigan, in Traverse City local activism caused cancellation of a proposed biomass plant: Continue reading →