Wacked planning (judges, etc.)

A man on a bicycle holds a flag protesting against off-road cars, in front of the parliament building in Bern August 25, 2008. Citizens are due to vote on an initiative that plans to ban the sale or purchase of vehicles with large engines, high petrol consumption and high emission of Co2 in Switzerland.REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth (SWITZERLAND)

1. Streetsblog reports that today on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," that an activist who has delayed the implementation of the San Francisco Bicycle Master Plan because an environmental impact study wasn't done. His "opponent" is the deputy director of NYC's Transportation Alternatives, one of a group of great NYC local advocacy groups working to build a better city. See "Budnick v. Anderson on “Talk of the Nation” This Afternoon."

The story will be up after 6pm today here.

How can reducing the number of cars on the streets by providing more mobility options, and offering incentives for environmentally-optimal mobility be a bad thing?

2. Today's Baltimore Sun editorializes about a similar stupidity in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, where local officials are saying that the environmental impact of a bicycle route parallel to the now under construction toll road, the Inter County Connector, is too great. See "Bikes should roll." So that they propose a 2.4 mile gap in the 18.8 mile length.

How is it possible that a big highway is environmentally acceptable, and a bicycle path is not?

3. Goodspeed Update has an entry on the value of public participation to better land use and transportation planning, "Report Finds Public Participation Improves Policy." However, we have to agree that this is bounded, that obstreperous people don't ever intend to make things work.

An Egyptian bread vender rides his bicycle in a Cairo street, Egypt, Monday, Aug. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)