Free Republic

I was doing some research into finding ideas to passively heat sidewalks, to help keep them free of snow and ice and reducing the amount of work to do it. I came across an article from MIT, that I can't find at the moment, but they took an aluminum mat and sprayed it thoroughly with the blackest paint they could buy and they found that everything under it heats up three times faster under it. So, I was thinking that you could probably do the same thing with your cement steps. Clean them thoroughly and then spray them down with...

When I first got to Northwestern, I wondered why walking around on campus could be so frustrating. Even when sidewalks were relatively empty, I would often have to walk way around people to pass without bumping into them. At first, I chalked it up to the geographic diversity of the school; maybe the people that came to this school were used to different ways of moving through a public place. But after talking to my Black friends about my experience, they echoed it: people at this predominantly White school would not move out of our way on the sidewalk. This...

The Orlando area continues to lock down its rank as the most dangerous place in the nation for pedestrians. “Still number one,” said Rayla Bellis, primary author of the 2021 Dangerous By Design report that analyzes the nation’s pedestrian deaths and compares statistics of metro areas and states. Orlando and a few other cities had slightly better numbers in the new report than in one two years ago. “These places were so dangerous to begin with that even seeing these improvements, they are still rising to the top,” Bellis said. The report by the pedestrian-safety advocacy groups Smart Growth America...

WASHINGTON — Efforts to alleviate traffic for tens of thousands of D.C.-area commuters were approved Wednesday, but not before Maryland attempted to eliminate a provision pushing for uniform tolling practices across the region’s express lanes. The resolution adopted by the region’s Transportation Planning Board is the first concrete action toward new goals developed over the last two years to reduce traffic jams and get people from home to work or other activities faster and with more efficiency. “The first step, a concrete effort, toward the projects, programs and policies this region [will] fund and implement in the coming years,” said...

Stockholm’s “gender-equal” snow-clearing policy is not to blame for the traffic chaos which has engulfed the Swedish capital, the architect of the policy has claimed. “Gender-equal snow cleaning is not to blame here,” Daniel Helldén, the city’s Green Party transport head told the Expressen newspaper, stressing that the policy, which prioritizes cleaning pavements and cycle lanes over roads, did not even appear to have even been followed. […] Stockholm’s municipal government, a coalition of the Social Democrats and the Green Party, brought in gender equal snow cleaning last year, pledging to make moving around the city on icy winter days...

(CNSNews.com) - Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told a crowd in North Carolina Tuesday that “only 49% of low-income neighborhoods have sidewalks” while more affluent areas have near 90%. In order to have a society where “everyone has a shot at the American Dream, than it’s imperative that we acknowledge these challenges.” Foxx made the comments to the Charlotte Rotary Club where he discussed the ways that infrastructure should connect people to opportunity. During his speech, Foxx referenced a map of Atlanta that showed areas of pedestrian and bicycle accidents. “The grey areas represent communities of concentrated poverty. This is representative...

Tennessee's rule factory is cranking at full tilt, and Nashville lawmakers want to tell Memphians how to pay for bike lanes, what monuments we can move, and whether or not we can own skunks (seriously). No gas tax for bike lanes A new bill would prohibit spending any gas tax revenues on bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, and "other non-vehicular facilities." Portions of the state gas tax are required to go to cities and counties. Those governments sometimes use the gas tax funds for matching dollars to get federal money for bike and pedestrian projects. The new bill says all of...

Bundick says the rainbow is what the area’s all about. “It’s the most recognizable way that people can identify and say, ‘This is a safe community. This is an accepting community,'” he said. The Austin City Council gave the project initial approval. Now the details are getting worked out with the city’s Art Commission. Funding for the project will come partially from city money for public artwork. The Austin PRIDE Foundation is also donating money.

First time hearing those words? The little bumps under your feet are picking the city's pocket. Truncated domes - also known as "tactile warning strips" - are those bumps the size of elevator call buttons that blister the surface of recently installed ramps at street corners, by order of the feds. The cost to the city - meaning you, the taxpayer - is astronomical. The outlay is required by changing federal regulations, according to Terry Gillen, director of federal affairs for the city of Philadelphia. She is, in effect, the liaison to President Obama from Mayor Nutter, who has been...

Following on the heels of Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on certain sugary drinks in New York City restaurants, a wave of absurd regulations has seemingly begun emanating outwards. In neighboring New Jersey, drivers can be fined up to $1000 for driving with “unrestrained” animals in the car, and the Mayor of Berkeley, California is looking to ban sitting on sidewalks. According to CBS in Philadelphia, police and animal control officers will be authorized to ticket New Jersey drivers between $250 and $1,000 if they have “unrestrained” animals in the front seat of their car, on the driver’s lap, partially out the...

Veronica Deignan’s family has lived in her Monitor Street home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn since 1945. But the city just informed her that part of her front yard belongs to someone else. When asked if the city had ever approach her family in the previous 66 years to say it owned the property, Deignan said, “No, this was our property.” The City Department of Design and Construction sent the Deignan’s and all their neighbors on Monitor Street letters to inform them their ages-old wrought iron fences and front stoops are on city-owned property. Residents must remove them or the city will...

BOYNTON, OK -- Residents of a small town in rural Muskogee County say they've discovered a big problem -- tax dollars being wasted on useless construction. But what some see as waste, others say is necessity. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is spending $13 million in stimulus funding to build sidewalks in dozens of rural Oklahoma communities in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. ODOT said the program saves the towns the expense of doing the work themselves, and paves the way for other improvements down the road. Under U.S. law, the state can't use federal dollars to make...

From recycling electronics to shredding sensitive documents, now recycling old tires can become easily maintained sidewalks. Sixty-five cities are reducing the number of old tires dumped in landfills. Companies shred them, bake the fine particles and the use the material for sidewalks. These interlocking panels have cracks between them to allow water and air to reach tree roots, which delays the upward thrust of the roots. When the roots do rise, the panels will not break, making repair easier. The cost of the rubber sidewalks is three times more than concrete, but in the long run it is less expensive...

For reasons of safety and ease of maintenance, Washington and dozens of other communities are installing rubber sidewalks made of ground-up tires. The rubber squares are up to three times more expensive than concrete slabs but last longer, because tree roots and freezing weather won't crack them. That, in turn, could reduce the number of slip-and-fall lawsuits filed over uneven pavement. And the rubber sidewalks are considered more environmentally friendly: They offer a way to recycle some of the estimated 290 million tires thrown out each year in the United States, and they do not constrict tree roots the way...

Which one is the real guy here? On the right?...or on the left?