"Welcome to Toll Free New Albany."

Yes, our official civic slogan has been written for us by the likes of Kerry Stemler, who spent Wednesday in a state of multi-orgasmic stupor, cuddling a souvenir facsimile of Reardon Metal from the Church of Ayn Rand, slobbering atop reams of falsified CDM Smith tolling statistics, and singing hymns of praise to Mitt Romney in a raspy, capitalism-ravaged voice.

New Albany's strategy now becomes so incredibly simple that Bob Caesar will never grasp it for as long as he lives: Begin a ceaseless comprehensive complete streets program now to avert the detrimental aspect of a toll-free Sherman Minton (i.e., oblivious pass-through traffic damaging our neighborhoods) and educate the masses as to the "come to NA" benefits of the very same toll-free bridge.

It isn't a question of money. Do we have the civic intelligence and political courage to put the hammer down on bad traffic, and skim the benefits of good traffic? Let the debate begin, and Bob, just for once, perhaps you can read up on it -- wait, not so fast ... put that IRS code book down ...

Feds OK tolling for bridges project, by Braden Lammers (The "Bama Pensioners Luv Chick-fil-A Journal)

LOUISVILLE — The Federal Highway Administration has approved tolling as part of the financing plan for the Ohio River Bridges Project.

The $2.6 billion plan to construct an east-end bridge, a new downtown bridge and to reconstruct Spaghetti Junction has long awaited word from the federal government on tolling the new infrastructure in order to pay for the project.

Tolls will appear on “only on the new east-end crossing and the downtown crossing, which includes a new I-65 bridge for northbound traffic only and a revamped Kennedy Bridge for southbound traffic only,” according to a press release.

"What we know about bike infrastructure: people want it."

Thanks to HBG for the link to this posting at Fastlane, the official blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation's chieftain, Ray LaHood. It includes a link to a National Public Radio piece on the same topic.

I'd like to add only this: Now more than ever, with more people of (shall we gently say) diverse socio-economic and educational backgrounds on bicycles, we need to remember that just like drivers of autos, cyclists need to be taught how to do it correctly. It can be chaotic out there, especially in enforcement-challenged New Albany, not to mention the fact that few bikes come equipped with ashtrays.

What we know about bike infrastructure: people want it

We know that 90 percent of the people are not going to be cycling to work or around town. But that opportunity and that kind of alternative is something people have said they want.