Welcome back to TheCityFix Picks, our series highlighting the newsy and noteworthy of the past week. Each Friday, we’ll run down the headlines falling under TheCityFix’s five themes: integrated transport, urban development and accessibility, air quality and climate change, health and road safety, and communications and marketing.

Integrated Transport

The state of Illinois was awarded $186 million for high speed rail expansions by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).

Students in Vitoria, Brazil protested a public transit fare increase by attacking and burning city buses.

There are only two weeks until Transforming Transportation, the annual sustainable transportation conference organized by EMBARQ, the producer of this blog. The two-day conference will be held on January 26 and 27 in Washington, D.C. Registration is now open for the event, here.

Urban Development + Accessibility

The Kickstand bicycle coaching and training program is set to launch in North America this spring. The program is produced by Mobycon and Copenhagenize, and centers on best practices of bicycle program implementation and marketing.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and MassDOT launched a contest for developers to create a transit app for the city of Boston.

A new report published in the December issue of Journal of Urban Affairs reaches the finding that the creation of transit stations may actually lead to decreases in crime.

Air Quality + Climate Change

A new study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that the larger body of research concerning biofuels contains significant gaps, both in region and topic specific coverage.

Recently appointed President of Volvo Cars, U.S., John Maloney, announced that Volvo will concentrate on downsized-engines and hybrid models for its U.S. market.

India’s luxury car market has swelled to roughly $1 billion and is growing by 40 percent annually, industry analysts claim.

An international team of researchers released a study identifying 14 measures aimed at reducing methane and black carbon emissions to the extent of decreasing projected global mean warming by roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius (about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit).

Health + Road Safety

Mercedes-Benz USA unveiled the “mbrace2,” an in-dashboard service featuring capabilities for Facebook, Yelp, and Google.

Portland State University received a $3.5 million USDOT grant for its transport research center. Among the center’s forthcoming research topics are health and road safety, and increasing the efficiency and understanding of cycling, walking and transit.

Communications + Marketing

New prototypes of the redesigned iconic, double-decker, routemaster London bus were unveiled.

Public participation in the OpenIDEO Vibrant Cities Challenge closes in three days. The challenge seeks to assess how to restore vibrancy in cities facing economic decline.