For serious transportation policy wonks lately every day is like Christmas. Climate change, bailout, deteriorating infrastructure, reauthorization, aging baby boomers, bailout, stimulus, new administration, economic development, global competition, urban redevelopment, bailout, etc. One has all they can do to just keep up with all the relevant news and positioning say nothing of understanding it. In fact, I don’t understand it.
Humor
Friday Funny: Chicken Supports Chicken Ordinance
An unidentified person dressed in a chicken costume came out to a recent city council meeting in Durango, Colorado to support the city's recently-passed backyard hen ordinance.
Durango Herald
Spoooooky Roads
Celebrate Halloween with this slideshow of America's creepiest roads, accompanied by the scary tales that make them part of urban (or rural) legends.
Digital City
Friday Funny: Local Laws Gone Wild
In Huangping, China, schoolchildren are required to salute passing cars in an effort to reduce traffic accidents. This rule is just one of many bizarre local ordinances in China, where the power of local bureaucrats can sometimes get out of hand.
The New York Times
Changing Behavior With Fun
Some excellent video illustrations of how including an element of fun can change people's behavior, including the 'World's Deepest' Trashcan.
thefuntheory.com
Friday Funny: Suburban Fantasies
With names like Aspen Grove and Sunrise Park, you might mistake these suburb designs for the real thing. But something's not quite right in artist Ross Racine's birds-eye views of imaginary suburbs.
The Infrastructurist
Friday Funny: Honolulu Tackles B.O. on The Bus
The Honolulu City Council is considering a bill that will make it illegal to bring "odors that unreasonably disturb others" onto the bus.
Honolulu Advertiser
Friday Funny: DOT Advises Drivers to Solve Traffic By Honking
The Department of Transportation has released a new report urging drivers to combat traffic congestion by honking -- a method estimated to relieve 90% of traffic.
The Onion
Friday Funny: 3 Out Of 4 Words Mispelled on Highway Sign
A sign pointing southbound travelers onto Business Highway 51 in Rothschild and Schofield bears an incorrect spelling for every word except "exit."
Wausau Daily Herald
Friday Funny: Imposter Transit Official Arrested by FBI
A 20-year old Chicago man has been arrested by federal agents for imitating transit officials and repeatedly interfering with Chicago Transit Authority communications.
Chicago Breaking News Center
Friday Funny: Public Comment Gold
A sample of public comments from meetings in the eccentrically out-there city of Santa Cruz, California.
SoWat TV
Gridlock Game Great for Geeks, Short on Complete Streets
Fri, 07/24/2009 - 11:46
Move over XBox; step aside Playstation. The height of game-playing action is free and it's online. The new game in town is University of Minnesota, Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute's "Gridlock Buster". Test your mettle on the increasing levels of difficulty in processing vehicular traffic through a network of intersections.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu Entertains Daily Show's Jon Stewart
While the Comedy Show's Jon Stewart can't get too excited about "Cap & Trade", Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, does his best to explain the importance of the Waxman-Markey climate legislation to him.
The Daily Show
Free Gas To Stimulate Main Street
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 18:12
Everybody knows that most, if not all, of downtown businesses' customers arrive by car. So it's intuitive to try to come up with a way to encourage drivers - who normally wouldn't venture downtown - to hop into their rides and cruise on down to Main Street to shop for wares. If we could do this, just think of all the new business we'd be stimulating! In continuing with this logic, it's also a given that it's impossible for would-be customers to actually get to downtown without the essential attaché to driving, gasoline. So, isn't it therefore intuitive to suggest that if cities were to give away a little bit of gas to each customer – you know, to kind-of thank them for their generosity - then customers would find an overwhelming incentiv
A Frank Conversation With Ray LaHood
In this 'anything-goes' Q & A between the NYT Magazine with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, we learn about the derivation of his name, the car he drives, and more appropriate topics liks HSR, infrastructure, and George Will.
The New York Times - Magazine
Friday Funny: Detroit's Newest Slum Unveiled
The Onion reports on the "window-shattering ceremony" officially opening Detroit's newest slum, a neighborhood designed with the "latest in high-risk, hopelessly impoverished housing options."
The Onion
Quirky Bus Stops Across the World
This slide show includes pictures of unorthodox bus stops all over the world, including Yellowstone National Park, Estonia, Japan and Brazil.
Toxel.com
Pedestrian Sprawl Alert: Streets Gone Wild
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 10:19
Once upon a time public rights-of-way were simpler; they made sense. The mobile laws of society were black and white. Streets were for cars and sidewalks were for, well, walking on the side of the street. You know, out of the way? At some point recently though things have started to blur, and it's starting to get just a little bit out of control. It's hard to put one's finger on it, but lately there's been this funny notion that the street itself, long the gift to man-and-machine, is supposed to be shared with people who just can't seem to keep themselves on their side of the curb. Woe is me, in some instances there isn't even a curb anymore! What's worse, it seems apparent that our public officials, the very people we elect to represent us an
