Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Health

Auto Worship Still a Sign of the Times

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 When the Supreme Court held this week that the Environmental Protection Agency does, in fact, possess the latitude to protect the environment, the New York Times called it "a victory for a world whose environment seems increasingly threatened by climate change." "It is a vindication for states like California that chose not to wait for […]

Mexico City 2030?

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As New York City government employees rabidly defend the carte blanche parking privileges that enable their daily driving habit, the mayor of Mexico City has decreed that officials there bike or take transit to work once a month. According to the BBC, less than one percent of trips in Mexico City are taken by bike, […]

Pedestrian Safety: The National Picture

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Whose light is it, anyway? A recent story in USA Today talked about the growing national movement for pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The piece included a table that showed the number of pedestrians killed state by state in 2005 (Florida, with 3.24 deaths per 100,000 population, was the worst for pedestrians, while New Hampshire was […]

Congestion Relief: It’s About Your Health

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Yesterday’s New York Times editorial on transportation policy makes a strong case for linking concerns about traffic congestion to concerns about health. It’s worth looking at the full text of All Choked Up, the report from Environmental Defense that the paper references when arguing that in order to achieve his goal of a sustainable city, […]

Breaking News: Frieden Tapped as DOT Commish

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Please note: This was an April Fool’s Day post… Dr. Thomas Frieden accepting his new job as DOT commissioner this morning in Central Park. In a major restructuring of the Bloomberg Administration, outgoing Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall will be replaced by Public Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. Bloomberg’s surprise announcement came at a rare Sunday morning […]

Google Staff Get On Their Bikes

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The Guardian reports: Google is improving its green credentials by offering all of its employees a free bike to ride to work. The bikes, manufactured by Raleigh Europe, will be offered to around 2,000 permanent employees of the search engine giant in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. All of the bikes – plus free […]