Monday News Roundup

The best from last week:

Reversible Lanes Puzzle Drivers (Planetizen)
The 10-lane Kennedy Expressway in Chicago is forced to manage significantly more traffic than it was designed to handle. Traffic planners have installed a flexible lane that can increase the flow in one direction, but Chicagoans are baffled by them.

Abandoned Bikes Become Flowering Neon Art (Inhabitat)
A group of renegade bike warriors in Toronto have found a way to turn those forgotten bikes into green street art, and after an initial pushback from City Hall they’ve now got Toronto’s government on their side.

Would you pay a bike tax for more bike lanes? (Planetizen)
Blogger Chewie suggests a controversial idea - a tax on bicycle sales and repair to go to creating more bicycle infrastructure.

Typographic Transit Maps (Colossal)
Each train route is comprised of a long, repeated list of the station stops from that line. There are maps available for Chicago, New York, London, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington D.C.

Tests of a Well Designed Neighborhood (Sustainable Cities)
In a recent post on his firm’s excellent blog, PlacesShakers and NewsMakers, Scott Doyon reminds us of the “popsicle test” of a well-designed neighborhood:  if an 8-year-old kid can safely go somewhere to buy a popsicle, and get back home before it melts, chances are it’s a neighborhood that works.

5 Cities, 5 Congestion Solutions (Sustainable Cities)
Congestion problems are different in every city, as are the solutions. Here are five cities with five different congestion innovations, each of which has been featured on This Big City in the last two years.

Fair Food (Sustainable Cities)
Hesterman's guide to growing a healthy, sustainable food system for all