The Collector – February 23, 2018

NIMBY, YIMBY, NIABY, YIEBY
CRTP lays out how a couple of common land use phenomena apply to transportation – and proposes a few acronyms of our own.

Bay Trail Fundraising Going Strong, EIR Available for Review
$240,000 is in the bank for maintenance of the trail – now it just needs to be completed. The EIR for the final portion of the trail is now available for public review and comment.

New Universal Fast-Charging Stations Coming to the Humboldt
According to the Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s North Coast Plug-in Electric Vehicle Project February newsletter, there will soon be six more universal “Level 3” fast-charging stations for electric vehicles installed throughout Humboldt County from Redway to Orick.

Arcata City Council Votes to Remove Statue & Plaque
Why is this transportation news? Because CRTP has been actively involved in efforts to reimagine the Arcata Plaza as a place designed for people rather than cars, and has endorsed the removal of the McKinley statue & Jacoby Storehouse plaque as part of Plaza revitalization.

Are Bike Helmets the Problem?
A new paper in the journal Applied Mobilities points out that the US has higher rates of bike helmet usage but also higher rates of bike fatalities and injuries than most other countries – and lower rates of biking. The author argues that the focus on helmets in America distracts from the real problems, discourages people from getting out of their cars and onto bikes, and may make bicyclists less safe.

San Jose Handing Over Transit-Oriented Development to Google
Well of course. It’s Silicon Valley. But can the tech giant “retrofit the city that was built for automobiles into a city built for people,” as the city’s mayor hopes?

The Dutch Show That More Bike Infrastructure Leads to… More Biking
It’s important to remember that Europe is not an inevitable bike paradise. As this article points out, European cities built themselves around the automobile after World War II just as US cities did. But now they are showing how to turn that around, with huge environmental, economic and health benefits.

State & Federal Action on Regulating (or Not) Self-Driving Cars
The California legislature is struggling with all the potential changes that would accompany widespread deployment of autonomous vehicles – which the industry says is coming sooner than we think. Meanwhile, if a bill passed by the US House makes its way through the Senate, the industry will largely be left to regulate itself, with states and local governments prohibited from taking any real action.

Should Taxpayers Pay for Trucking Companies to Clean Up Their Act?
The LA Times Editorial Board says no.

Richard Branson Proposes Hyperloop in India…
…and hyperloops everywhere else too!