Beyond Chicagoland

Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook and a major contributor to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, has spent $49,000 of his personal fortune to propel a ballot initiative that seeks to enshrine free parking as city policy, according to the SF Chronicle. Parker gave $100,000 to Lee's mayoral campaign in 2011.

Can parking spaces get a second life? A student project in Atlanta helps demonstrate the possibilities in every stall.

The Illinois Department of Transportation, whose secretary resigned last week after accusations about patronage hiring, distributed $545 million in gas tax revenue to fix streets in almost 3,000 jurisdictions last year. While this sounds like a lot of money, poor road and bridge conditions across the state can attest to the fact that these funds might not be going to the places that need them most. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the region's federally designated metropolitan planning organization, has recently written about different methods that IDOT could use to more fairly distribute these revenues across the state's cities and counties.

Why does it matter if state departments of transportation get less money?

"Recovering architect" and street design expert Ben Hamilton-Baillie launched a broadside against the rules of traffic engineering during a plenary speech to the Congress for the New Urbanism's recent annual meeting in Buffalo. Baillie urges widespread adoption of "shared space" -- a design concept popularized by Hans Monderman over the past generation in the Netherlands that has only just begun to make headway in the United States.

Chicago’s loss is Seattle’s gain. This afternoon, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray named former Chicago Department of Transportation deputy commissioner Scott Kubly the new director of the Seattle DOT. The appointment will require City Council confirmation.

A new graduated driver licensing law takes effect in Illinois tomorrow. Illinois's GDL law sets restrictions on young drivers, including when and with whom they can drive. After "graduating" through several time periods and getting more on-road experience, new drivers can eventually obtain a full driver's license. Secretary of State Jesse White said in a press release [PDF] today that the state's GDL has led to a 60 percent drop in "teen driving fatalities" since its 2008 introduction. The new law followed from a years-long editorial campaign from the Chicago Tribune about the high number of teenagers who are killed or injured in car crashes.

The nation's intercity passenger rail service just got a lot bike-friendlier.

At a talk Wednesday at City Lit Books, transit advocate Ben Ross, author of the new book “Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism,” discussed the battle for a new light rail line in the D.C. suburbs. This well-run campaign offers lessons for Chicagoans pushing for sensible transportation and development policy, whether the issue is bus rapid transit on Ashland Avenue, or high-density housing near ‘L’ stations.