Melanie Curry
Recent Posts
Caltrans Fills Sustainability Director Post: Congratulations Ellen Greenberg
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Many months after its Deputy Director for Sustainability, Steven Cliff, went back to work for the Air Resources Board, Caltrans has hired a replacement for this key post. New hire Ellen Greenberg comes with impeccable credentials, having worked as a planner in both public sector and private sector jobs. She worked most recently at Arup, […]
Some Bright Spots in California’s Election Returns
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Despite the outcome nationally, there are reasons to celebrate election results in California, especially around environmental issues. The big one, of course, was the statewide plastic bag ban, which voters approved resoundingly, while defeating a measure that tried to distract voters from the main question. There were other big wins as well, especially in the […]
Election? Oh, Right. We Also Voted on Transportation Taxes in California
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There is some good election news today, believe it or not. Some of the transportation sales tax measures we’ve been writing about ad nauseum look like they will pass, even with some mail-in ballots still to be counted. The vote counts listed below are from the local county election sites, most of which were updated […]
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE and Don’t Forget to Vote Today if You Haven’t Yet
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Here’s where to look up your polling place, in case you have somehow forgotten. Hopefully you’ve marked up your sample ballot, though, and will take it with you. If you haven’t made up your mind on your local measures, endorsement guides are available from Bike the Vote L.A., SPUR, The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, BikeEastBay, […]
Recap: California Transportation Sales Taxes on Today’s Ballot
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Among the many important issues to be decided in today’s election are a whole bunch of transportation funding measures. We have already covered many of them at Streetsblog, and there’s a quick summary of them at Streetsblog USA. All but one add 1/2 cents to local sales taxes for transportation purposes–but transportation is a wide […]
Transit Vote 2016: California’s Transportation Funding Ballot Initiatives
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We continue our overview of what’s at stake in the big transit ballot initiatives next week with a look at California. Previous installments in this series examined Indianapolis, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, and Raleigh. All three of Streetsblog’s west coast editors contributed to this article: Melanie Curry of Streetsblog CA, Roger Rudick of Streetsblog SF, and […]
Caltrans Asks for Local Bicycle/Pedestrian Count Data
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Caltrans’ Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Branch has been working with SafeTREC, UC Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center, on a couple of projects to increase safety. The researchers are asking for locally collected data on the number of pedestrians and bicycles using state highways and local arterials roads. The counts will be used to […]
Oakland Forging Ahead With New Ideas for Transportation
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It’s exciting times in Oakland, California. In the past six weeks, Oakland has passed a raft of policies that promise to have a lasting effect on the city’s future transportation and development. This is all being done as part of the city government’s reorganization, creating a new Department of Transportation to better strategize and coordinate […]
Caltrans Is Looking for a New Transportation Planning Division Chief
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Long-time Caltrans planning chief Katie Benouar is retiring, so there’s a job opening up at the top of the transportation planning division. Given Caltrans’ recent upper level shifts in focus from a “highway department” to one that focuses, or tries to focus, on all transportation users—even bikes—this is a key position. It needs someone who […]
ATP Funding Recommendations: Fewer and Larger Projects This Cycle
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California Transportation Commission staff released their recommendations for projects to be funded in the 2017 round of the Active Transportation Program (ATP) yesterday. These recommendations will go to the full Commission for official adoption at its December meeting in Riverside. The recommendations are for projects applying for money under the “Statewide” and “Small Urban and […]
Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Seeks Your Ideas, Thoughts
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Caltrans is making some progress on its first-ever statewide bicycle and pedestrian plan. The progress is happening at a Caltrans pace, but it is coming along. Two workshops were held this week to discuss what’s been done so far: the draft vision, goals, and objectives. An online survey seeks input on what needs to be […]
Tamika Butler Can’t Be Ignored
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Tamika Butler gave a devastating keynote speech at the NACTO conference in Seattle last month. If you missed it, or her similarly fearless speech at last year’s California Bike Summit in San Diego, be gladdened. Jeff Wood recorded it for The Overhead Wire, and NACTO just released a video of her talk on YouTube. Alyssa […]