At the end of this post is a list of those communities in the Rust Belt that have been designated by the League of American Bicyclists as a “Bicycle Friendly Community” on its 2012 list. A total of 210 communities have received this honor nationwide, including 47 (22.4%) here in the Rust Belt.
Nine communities that are shown in italics were added to the list in the past year.  Another 11 communities in the Rust Belt where named honorable mentions. Please note the list does not include several communities in the Boston, New York …

This was a really phenomenal presentation, last Wednesday at Cleveland’s The City Club. Mark Gorton is the founder of Openplans, a New York City based nonprofit that has been instrumental in that city’s evolution toward being a leading in cycling and livable transportation.
If you didn’t have a chance to attend, but are curious, you can view the whole presentation here:
Video after the jump

(Fun fact: intro comes from Rust Wire founding editor Angie Schmitt, a Streetsblog employee.)
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Monday evening I had the honor to join approximately 100 fellow participants, planners, partners, and stakeholders from throughout Greater Lansing at a kick-off meeting for the Mid-Michigan Program for Greater Sustainability at East Lansing’s Hannah Community Center. Partners in the program include the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, Lansing Area Economic Partnership, Michigan State University Land Policy Institute, Michigan Energy Options, the Michigan Fitness Foundation, Greater Lansing Housing Coalition, the Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council, and CAM-TV.
The four-hour event showcased the nine sustainability projects that will be part of the three-year effort …

Good news, Clevelandphiles/cyclonerds.
Clevelandtown now has a green, two-way cycle track downtown. This lovely example of sustainable transportation infrastructure is to remain on display all week, educating the local populace about the latest in transportation innovation and helping build awareness of the city’s new complete streets policy.
Check out these beautiful pictures:

This project cost $35,000 to put together (grants) and was designed by the brilliant students at Kent State University’s Urban Design Center, a group that is behind approximately 50 percent of the cool things happening in Cleveland.
Yay, us!!
Also, I asked an …

Does Ohio’s transportation policy, which leaves just 1 percent of its transportation budget for non-highway modes like transit, rail and complete streets, violate the Americans with Disabilities Act?

This question needs to be asked with greater frequency and urgency as 9 percent of Ohio households are without cars. The Census says that number is growing as Ohio’s population ages and as the cost of driving rises. Yet more transportation tax dollars are used for roads that cause Ohio’s metropolitan populations to sprawl over ever larger geographic areas, making options to driving difficult and sentencing more Ohioans virtually to house arrest.

“Mike doesn’t understand how you can do it,” says my friend Ruth, of her fiancé. Our companions at the bar are a retired surgeon and his wife. The bartender admires my gumption or lack of pretension or both when I ask the piano player to play “Stairway to Heaven,” which he then does, reluctantly.

“Well, I’m a crazy person,” I tell her. “And trying to do this for the last five years has made me crazier.”

She orders a second glass of riesling. “Why don’t you just get a Smart Car?”

This is the moment in the script that I always dread. The moment where I have to explain that my foolhardy commitment to public transit in the Rust Belt has nothing to do with the environment, and has everything to do with my deep-seated resentment that we’ve arranged modern American life in such a way that all but forces you to own something you probably can’t afford.

WRCT-Pittsburgh (88.3 fm) is currently running a series exploring the future of transit in Pittsburgh as the city braces itself for cuts on the order of 35 percent.
This is a full-fledged transit crisis, “historic.” Forty-six routes are on the chopping block. The Port authority anticipates about 22,000 daily transit riders will lose service.
Pittsburgh has been relying on state funding in a mostly rural state.

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Yes. I do believe this to be an accurate statement over the long run. Frankly, any major American city that solely relies on streets and highways for its transportation network will fail to remain competitive and will falter economically over time. That includes cities with bus transit systems that rely on the same streets and highways.
By rail, I am including subways, commuter rail, or light rail (tram, trolley, and modern streetcar). I am not including BRT (bus rapid transit), because they use the same thoroughfares as traditional buses and automobiles. …

We write about transit on this blog a lot because we think it is essential to turning around our cities. The city of Detroit, more than others, has been undergoing a transit crisis. There are calls to finally develop a decent, sustainable system. We are hoping that they do.
In the meantime, here’s a taste of what Detroit’s transit dependent deal with on a day to day basis:

Faces of Transportation 11-30-11 from Project S.N.A.P. on Vimeo.
-A.S.

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My new best friend Joe Baur at Mildly Relevant sent me this fantastic video showing how Cleveland’s transit agency, RTA, continues to shape Cleveland for the better.
This video, made for Siemens’ Changing Your City for the Better Contest, focuses on Cleveland’s new $500 million bus-rapid-transit line, the Euclid Corridor, and the more than $4 billion worth of private investment that has followed.
 

Inspiring!
RTA, we here at Rust Wire salute you. We need more projects like the Euclid Corridor in this region and less like the Avon interchange.
-AS

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