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Cities increasingly are building protected lanes for bicyclists, finding that they bring economic as well as environmental benefits to communities. Last year, cities built 40 of the so-called green lanes, according to the Bikes Belong Foundation's Green Lane Project, an organization working with six cities — Austin; Chicago; Memphis; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco and Washington — to add them.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says a fast food chain’s opposition to gay marriage is none of “the government’s business.” Bloomberg said Friday that he strongly disagrees with the mayors of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco in that regard. Chick-fil-A’s (chihk-fih-LAYZ’) opposition to gay marriage has touched off a national furor. Gay rights groups have called for a boycott and the three mayors have said Chick-fil-A was not welcome in their cities.

Electric cars will become fairly commonplace in the not-too-distant future, especially in major cities that are equipped to charge these vehicles in parking lots and at home. About 3.2 million plug-in electric cars will be sold by 2015, with sales largely concentrated in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Chicago, according to auto industry analysts at Pike Research.