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Road Salt Is Imperiling Aquatic Ecosystems. It Doesn't Have To.

Anne N. Connor

March 11, 2021 |

Undark |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Lake George, New York

An experiment in upstate New York showed how town officials could maintain clean and safe roads during the winter season and protect the environment. By using a salt brine before winter storms, they were able to plow the roads more efficiently and, at the same time, reduce the amount of salt going into waterways that could impact freshwater ecosystems. The effort, launched by the nonprofit FUND for Lake George, required “a culture shift within the towns’ maintenance departments,” but the communities were able to cut their salt usage in half over two years.

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Does a Complete Streets policy really make a difference?

Cheryl Splain

March 06, 2021 |

Knox Pages |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Mount Vernon, Ohio

Complete Streets initiatives promote traffic and pedestrian safety In 400 communities across the United States. The goal of the program is to help residents live more active and healthy lifestyles while also making communities more attractive to potential residents. The initiative has resulted in higher property values, increased consumer spending, and better transportation options.

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Oonee Wants to Fix New York Bike Parking with Free, Secure Storage Pods

Ira Boudway

February 11, 2021 |

Bloomberg |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

An early-stage startup with big plans to change bicycling culture and commuting habits has notched one victory already, with its first secure-parking pods in New York City: Out of 60,000 times they've been used, the pods have only suffered one theft, at a time of rampant bike theft. Startup Oonee provides an alternative to locking up bikes and scooters on the street during work hours. Parking in an enclosed shelter is advertising-supported, so it's free to users. Ultimately, Oonee hopes to surround parking with a suite of services useful to two-wheeled commuters.

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Norway's Electric Car Triumph Started With an '80s Pop Star

Will Doig

February 08, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Norway

After Norwegian pop band A-ha made headlines for using an electric vehicle in 1989, the government began implementing incentives for people to drive the cars. These perks made electric vehicles so popular in the Scandinavian country that they had to start scaling some of them back. Still, by the end of 2020, nearly 90 percent of all cars sold were rechargeable.

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SC law enforcement agencies are supposed to report info on traffic stops, but most are not

Daniel J. Gross

January 28, 2021 |

The Greenville News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, South Carolina

After the South Carolina legislature in 2005 began requiring police to enforce a seat-belt law with traffic stops, it imposed on all police departments a duty to track and report traffic-stop data on drivers' race. The law was meant as a way to prevent biased policing, through public disclosure of disparities. But only about one-third of the state's law enforcement agencies have consistently complied with the law, and some never have. Some blame ignorance of how the system should work. But another explanation is the state has done little or nothing to enforce the law.

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In South Bend, Pete Buttigieg challenged a decades-old assumption that streets are for cars above all else

Ian Duncan

January 16, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, South Bend, Indiana

Reconfiguring streets to slow automobile traffic through its downtown business district and encourage pedestrians and bicycling enlivened South Bend's street life and proved a boon to its restaurants and other businesses. Then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg pushed for the $25 million plan to make the streets safer and encourage people to spend more time and money in the area. Drivers complained about increased travel time, as they have about other cities’ “complete streets” programs. But Buttigieg and his supporters hope to push the concept when he runs the federal Transportation Department.

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‘Slow Streets' Disrupted City Planning. What Comes Next?

Laura Bliss

January 06, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

When city planners rushed early in the pandemic to close streets to automobile traffic in order to give residents a safe space to roam outdoors, they ended up learning lessons entirely apart from their original goals rooted in public health and traffic safety. In Durham, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Oakland, community groups pushed back at the cities' initial failures to consider the opinions of communities of color whose neighborhoods were affected by the changes. The pushback led to collaborations and modified plans that redefined the problems at issue and the ways to address them.

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The U.S. Could Make New Cars a Lot Less Deadly

David Zipper

January 06, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

American cars made since the early 1980s have carried ratings from the federal New Car Assessment Program, showing how risky they are to human life in a crash. NCAP ratings motivated a host of safety enhancements by manufacturers. Since the 1990s, similar programs in the European Union, China, Australia, Korea, and Japan have also rated vehicles' risks to pedestrians and bicyclists, and their fatalities have dropped. Not so in the U.S., where industry resistance has stalled expansion of NCAP ratings. Advocates hope the Biden Transportation Department will finally expand the program.

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To Rethink the School Run, Get Rid of the Cars

John Surico

December 04, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, London

The United Kingdom is encouraging students and parents to ditch their cars for bikes, scooters, and walking with the adoption of “School Streets.” The initiative halts vehicular traffic from using roads in front of schools, creating a safe space open for walking and cycling. School-related traffic contributes to a quarter of vehicular congestion, contributing to increasingly poor air quality and the associated detrimental health effects.

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Stopped: Profiling the Police Town Hall

Nick Haines

November 19, 2020 |

KCPT |

Broadcast TV News |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

Missouri requires police to record the race of drivers from every traffic stop, a response meant to expose and ultimately reduce racial profiling in law enforcement. But, 20 years after that law took effect, Black drivers are 95% more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers, the biggest gap since the state started collecting the data. The policy was rendered meaningless because the data are collected inconsistently, high rates of noncompliance with the policy go unpunished, and individual officers' records go uncounted. As a result, there's no accountability for racist traffic enforcement.

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