[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/4140910 w=620&h=357] Now that Fairfax and Sausalito are cracking down on cyclists violating stop-signs, perhaps it's important to ask whether current law is the best law. A bicycle, after all, is absolutely not a car - it can stop faster, gives a better field of view, and is much more efficient when moving than when stopped. Idaho allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, to great effect. California ought to pass the same.
Marin County
- Marin and Sonoma both dropped state parks from their park taxes after $54 million was found in the state parks department's coffers. While Sonoma's plan is dead, Marin's tax plan would go to county open space instead. (Planetizen, IJ, Press Democrat)
- Larkspur and Tiburon are both pondering library expansions, though residents in both communities wonder if the proposed buildings will be too large for the demand. (IJ)
- HOV lanes in Novato are now open to the driving public, ensuring easy driving for a little bit until traffic catches up with capacity. (IJ)
- A permanent farmer's market, a roundabout, and other improvements will come to the Civic Center under a plan recently approved by the Board. Unfortunately, it's at odds with the SMART Station Area Plan for the Christmas Tree Lot just south of the station, which calls for 4-5 story residential and retail. Planning and design for the improvements will cost about $2 million. (IJ)
- And...: Construction has begun on SMART's railcars. Delivery is expected in about a year. (Patch) ... Novato will convert a city-owned building into art studios for around $100,000. (IJ) ... A West Marin ecotopia could be shut down for running afoul building regulations, but its builders pledge to carry on. (IJ)
The Greater Marin
- Projections of growth are so often wrong, but they always inform whether we build new freeway lanes or rail lines or whatever. There must be a better way. (Strong Towns)
- Activists accuse Veolia Transportation, which operates Sonoma County Transit, of human rights violations and want the county to investigate. Veolia's parent company operates bus service between Israel and West Bank settlements. (Press Democrat)
- MTC will study a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax on Bay Area drivers to raise money for roads and transit. The tax hasn't gone anywhere in other jurisdictions, but boosters are optimistic a VMT would be an answer to the Bay Area's financial woes. (Mercury News)
- Some Chicago designers want you to help create the perfect transit app. Not only would it tell you how to get where you're going with the schedule, it would give you real-time arrival information, allow stopovers for coffee or errands, interface with your calendar, remind you to bring an umbrella, and more. (Co.Design)
The Toll
- You'll notice I have this new section for the death and injury toll on the roads in Marin and Sonoma as reported by local news outlets. Why? Because in the first three months of this year, 7,280 people were killed on the road in the US, doing nothing more than living their lives. It's the least we can do to report on the human cost of our road-centered policies in this little corner of the country. (Atlantic Cities)
- A Tiburon man drove onto a sidewalk to hit a pedestrian whose plaid jacket he didn't like. The suspected driver, Eugene Thomas Anderson, has been arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. (IJ)
- Three cyclists were struck by drivers in Santa Rosa this week, though one driver claims to have lost control of her vehicle. None suffered more than moderate injuries. Separately, a driver suffered moderate injuries after running his car off the road. (Press Democrat)
- In Marin, two people were slightly injured in a bizarre two-crash incident in Novato. Another driver drove off the road in San Rafael, giving herself minor injuries. A driver couldn't negotiate a turn and so rolled his van about 150 feet down a West Marin hill, resulting in minor injuries to himself and one of his four passengers. Lastly, a driver lost control of his truck in Larkspur, crashing it into a nearby townhouse. The driver and passenger sufferend moderate injuries. (IJ, Twin Cities Times)
