Streetsblog New York City

If you're in need of a little comic relief today, try this seemingly subversive pro-jaywalking message from the Muppets.

This past weekend, Livable Streets Education teamed up with educators at the New York Transit Museum to teach families about the past, present, and future of New York City’s streets. With help from their parents, kids designed their own "livable streets" to improve conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders. 

The kids also made some pretty fantastic buses out of recycled materials, complete with riders, drivers, wheels, windows, and decorations that would look stunning on the genuine article. We even saw a few double-deckers and articulated buses.

If you missed out this weekend, there are more chances to join in coming up in the summer. Look for us leading similar workshops at the arts room of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan on Sunday, July 19.

After the jump: an articulated, double-decker butterfly bus.

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If you held out any hope that billions in taxpayer bailout money and Barack Obama's dismissal of Rick Wagoner would mark the end of General Motors' bad plans, today was a wake-up call.

GM's solution for the future of transportation is -- hold your breath -- a Segway built for two.  I don't know about you, but I want my money back. 

GM and Segway announced the prototype, which they dubbed "Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility," or PUMA, today in New York City, where the old single-occupancy stand-up Segways are already illegal.  The wheeled chair, which GM claims will address congestion, safety, affordability, parking, and energy concerns in urban areas, gets 35 miles per charge and does 35 miles per hour, a blistering speed that makes them just slow enough to get run down by the automobile company's more traditional vehicles. 

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With events in Albany still unfolding, it remains to be seen whether this Bill Bramhall 'toon -- slide four of the Daily News illustrator's gallery -- will become reality.

On the other hand, with drivers still guaranteed a free ride over East and Harlem River bridges, the argument could be made that it already has.

Transit gallows humor from Daily News cartoonist Bill Bramhall. The whole toon is a fitting accompaniment to the paper's editorial stance on the MTA rescue saga. You can find it on the fourth slide in this gallery.

The UK Department for Transport's no-holds-barred THINK! road safety campaign isn't just for adults. This creepy toon, one in a series designed to influence how kids interact with auto traffic (here's another), encourages bright colored clothing in favor of "trendy" darker tones when walking at night.

These spots bring to mind a number of questions. Is it possible to preach pedestrian safety to pedestrians without, even by implication, downplaying the responsibility of drivers? And when it comes to kids, is it possible -- or responsible -- to teach anything other than "Fear the car"? 

Hat tip to David Alpert for this Tom Toles toon, which nails the disconnect between the brave green world we're supposedly entering and the dramatic cutbacks plaguing transit systems across the country. Click through for the punchline (I kind of gave it away already).

Toles' transit system, the DC Metro, is on the verge of cutting service a few weeks after handling record ridership during the Presidential inauguration. Meanwhile, the stimulus package enters conference committee without provision for operating assistance -- and the green jobs it would sustain -- in either the House or Senate version of the bill.

This word of warning from cartoonist Mike Luckovich to Republicans in Congress feels all the more timely on the heels of today's action in the Senate. Click through for the punchline.

I'm guessing the speeding metaphor in this cartoon from Gary Varvel of the Indianapolis Star (click through for Pelosi's quote) is not intended to critique spending stimulus dollars on highway expansion. But if you stick House Appropriations Chair David Obey in the driver's seat, it makes for a rather pointed comment on the reckless approach to transportation policy exhibited by some Congressional leaders.