Rails-to-Trails, Intermodal and Active Transportation in an Obama Presidency

Interesting article on the future of intermodal transportation as a part of a national transportation network under a new administration.

Got this from one of my subscribed sites that advocate the increase of bicycles and other intermodal transportation in the national transportation network.

Could this generate a better urban transportation plan and as a result, lessen the oil footprint in urban areas? Or could this also enhance the development of urban nodes in large metro areas that could be self sufficient in transport needs?

One thing that it is obvious, on the long term, it will have a beneficial impact on the health of Americans...

I guess that is the kind of thing you would tell Portland if you wanted her votes.

Bicycle advocates mob the hill every year. It's a highly visible grass-roots lobby during the week when they converge on our legislature so it's not surprising to me that Obama met with some of them.

I do believe when he 'refers to a greater prioritization of active transportation' but agree that 'we have to keep pushing'.

I visit DCSki very sporadicly, but whenever I do, you seem to be writing about this stuff. Thank you for your support of bicycle transportation in this forum and wherever else you are pushing for human-powered transportation. I think maybe your job is related to this? Is that something I read in the past or just my impression based on what I remember reading in your posts here?

I heard some guy talking about human-powered transportational corridors and such on the "KBOO bike show" podcast out of Portland. You can find it on Google or iTunes. You probably already know about it, but if not, you might find it interesting.

Actually, I am not in that line of business. I just care very deeply about quality of life issues as well as health. Seeing Americans having become the most obese people in the world as a result of our car dependency is bad news. And I'm also an exercise and health nut.

Since you brought it up, I was in Portland the last time I went up to Whistler and I'll say that it is a city with one of the most amazingly high quality of life in the Americas. And they owe that in great part, to making life difficult for the automobile and overwhelmingly easier for active transportation. In our area, only Arlington, in my opinion, is making the necessary inroads into this fray. DC is trying, however. The bicycle sharing racks now in experimental use in several parts of the city is a start. I'll be totally convinced, however, when the "15th Street Expressway" is dismantled and replaced by a residential-speed street.

Maybe you should send in a resume to DOT. They could use more people like you.

A humorous fact about DOT is that anyone with business there is allowed into the building except bike messengers. I never liked what that said about how bicycles are viewed as a method of transport by the Department of Transportation. Of course, after the anthrax murders, nothing can be delivered to any government agency without going through a receiving area and screening, but DOT's discriminatory policy was instituted long before that.

Correction; "non-motorized transportational corridors" was the phrase the KBOO Bike Show guest used, which he admitted was a mouthful, but he felt it better described what he was advocating than "bike path".

What if its actually a time-dependency not a physical space dependency?

The faster you go the less space you take up.