Monday’s Headlines

By Blake Aued |
  • The Washington, D.C. suburb of Montgomery County, Md., enacted Vision  Zero in 2017, yet drivers have already killed more pedestrians this year than last year. (Bethesda Mag) In Nevada, traffic deaths are nearing another record, which a UNLV researcher attributes to roads designed for drivers and drivers alone. (NPR) Charlotte also looks like it could eclipse last year’s record number of pedestrian deaths. (Observer)
  • The Post and Courier opines that Charleston, S.C.’s focus on cars is putting people on foot and bikes at risk. O RLY?
  • Denver’s Swiss cheese sidewalk network is what happens when a city is planned and built for cars. (Denverite)
  • Remember that theory that Uber and Lyft would cut down on drunk driving? Yeah, well, it isn’t holding up in Kansas City. (KMBC)
  • One Tampa city councilman is thinking big about how to spend the $30 million a year a recently approved tax for transit will raise. (Tampa Bay Times)
  • Transit riders are fans of Cincinnati’s new bus-only lane. (Local 12)
  • Bike lane roundup: A protected bike lane is planned between the National Mall and Dupont Circle in D.C. (PopVille) Seattle’s 40th Street bike lane is on hold. (Post-Intelligencer) Fayetteville, Ark., has installed a temporary bike lane. (KNWA)
  • Our friends at Greater Greater Washington have a couple of cool job openings.
  • Four Youngstown, Ohio, men have been charged with stealing a sidewalk. Not stealing something left on a sidewalk, or stealing from a person walking on a sidewalk, but stealing a sidewalk. (WFMJ)

Friday’s Headlines

By Blake Aued |
  • Democratic governors-elect aren’t going to wait around for Washington to pass an infrastructure bill. They say they’ll do it themselves. (Bloomberg)
  • Just days after Waymo CEO said autonomous vehicles aren’t ready for prime-time, the Independent reports that the company could put self-driving taxis on the road by the end of the year.
  • The feds have agreed to fund half of the $2-billion Southwest Line, the biggest public-works project in Minneapolis history. (Star Tribune)
  • The D.C. Metro will have to improve if it wants to attract employees of Amazon’s new second (third?) headquarters in northern Virginia. (Mobility Lab)
  • Memphis police blame the victims for a spike in pedestrians deaths. (Fox 13) Three different drivers hit a pedestrian in Las Vegas, reports KDWN, which also made sure to point out that the victim was jaywalking. Also in Las Vegas, a driver confronted two men crossing on foot against the light, one of whom shot the driver. (Sun)
  • The Sun also advises Las Vegas officials to forget about elevated roadways and focus on light rail instead, calling it critical for the city’s economy and status as a tourist destination.
  • Durham, N.C. has approved a development with below-market-rate units for low- and middle-income families near a light-rail stop. (Raleigh News & Observer)
  • Republican former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has thrown his weight behind a gas-tax hike. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) A Forbes writer, though, says he doesn’t think there’s support for a national gas-tax hike.
  • Clearwater, Fla., is considering adopting Complete Streets. (Spectrum News) Kalamazoo, Mich., wants MDOT to turn over control of local streets so it can improve safety. (MLive)
  • A Texas charity that provides bikes for kids is the beneficiary of bike-shares pulling out of Dallas. (Star-Telegram)

Thursday’s Headlines

By Blake Aued |
  • Sacramento is retrofitting two neighborhoods near transit into neighborhoods oriented around transit. The redevelopment project aims to accommodate an influx of new residents, increase transit ridership and improve air quality. (Urban Land)
  • NPR gets in on the “Democrats and Republicans can unite on infrastructure” game. (Spoiler alert: probably not.) The American Spectator suggests Trump should go back to being a Chuck Schumer Democrat (again, fat chance). But the New Republic argues that Democrats should focus on long-term party-building over trying to pass legislation.
  • Just like people, autonomous cars won’t ever to be able to drive in bad weather, according to the CEO of driverless carmaker Waymo. (Cnet)
  • The CEO of Seattle’s Sound Transit is up for a contract extension to see through the agency’s multi-billion-dollar expansion —  and a nice raise. (Herald Net)
  • Atlanta is considering regulations covering where users can park dockless scooters and bikes. (11 Alive)
  • News flash: Public transit requires public subsidies — especially in the suburbs, which were built for cars. (San Francisco Chronicle)
  • New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has lost his epic struggle with the Trump Administration over roadside signs. (WABC)
  • Iowa cyclists offer tips for biking in the snow. (Daily Iowan)
  • The Asheville, N.C., council is set to approve a road diet. (WLOS) But another progressive Southern college town, Athens, Ga., has sided with drivers in a similar debate. (Flagpole)
  • And, finally, four Russians found an ingenious way around a ban on people crossing a bridge on foot. (Jalopnik)

Wednesday’s Headlines

By Blake Aued |
  • Women spend more money than men on transportation each month, according to a new study, primarily because they don’t feel safe on public transit. (Wired)
  • As the number of women who walk or bike to work declines, according to Census data, Crosscut advocates for a #MeToo-style approach to street safety in Seattle.
  • Houston is having a semantics debate over whether its dangerous streets are a public health threat or a public safety threat. The verdict: Public health is a broader category than many people might think. (Chronicle)
  • Smart Cities Dive has a series on how freight-hauling affects congestion in New York, L.A., Atlanta and Chicago.
  • Estonian ride-hailing company Taxify is worth $1 billion and has 500,000 drivers — and it’s coming for Uber. (CNBC)
  • Uber has a new system for reporting sexual misconduct by drivers, from staring to rape. (ABC News)
  • After fending off a “guerrilla launch,” Arlington, Va. is set to start a pilot program with two e-scooter companies. (WTOP) A pedal-assist bike share is now available in Philadelphia. (Next City)
  • Baltimore will issue refunds to members of the city-run bike-share it ended in August. It’s just not clear when. (Sun)
  • Two Utah residents are biking from Alaska to Argentina. They’ve contended with mountains, headwinds and bears, but asked about the worst part of the journey, one said, “Entering any urban area when you’re on the outskirts and there’s the four-lane with the turn lane with no bike lanes or shoulders.” (Deseret News)
  • Streetsblog International: A driver plowed through a group of cyclists in Trinidad and Tobago, killing two and injuring at least 10 more. (Daily Express) In Bogota, Columbia, streets and highways are closed to cars every Sunday for people on bikes to use. (CGTN)
  • And, finally, if you want to know everything you can about Amazon’s sweetheart deal with New York, our friends at StreetsblogNYC have the ultimate curated list of coverage.

Tuesday’s Headlines

By Blake Aued | | 1 Comment
  • The National Review blames Democrats, with their unions and environmental regulations, for slowing down infrastructure construction, as opposed to those free-market conservatives in Europe and China.
  • Forget those tax returns: Another conservative publication, The Weekly Standard, says Democrats can find common ground on infrastructure with President Trump — basically, by taking it easy on Trump.
  • Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker is the latest Democratic governor-elect to float a gas-tax hike. (WIFR) Even Alabama’s GOP-dominated government might be forced to grapple with the issue of infrastructure funding. (Birmingham News) And in Texas, Sen. John Cornyn is calling for an overhaul in the way governments fund roads. (Dallas News)
  • More than 16,000 people rode Milwaukee’s new streetcar, The Hop, on its first weekend in operation. (CBS 58) Little Rock’s streetcar isn’t new, but Rock Region Metro is offering half-price fares for riders who download its new app. (KARK)
  • The Washington Post has caught on to the cool kids’ e-scooter craze.
  • Studies suggest that women may be paid less than men, on average, because after they have kids, they’re less willing to commute as far for work. Of course, that doesn’t explain why society pressures women to make such choices and not men. (Quartz)
  • Bikelash remains rampant, even in liberal San Francisco. (Examiner)
  • ICYMI: Buses still beat Uber and Lyft as the most efficient way to move people around cities. (The Atlantic) TechCrunch riffs off author Jared Walker’s article and gets a bit deeper in the weeds.
  • Charging for parking and strictly enforcing parking regs is generally a good thing, but a UK Starbucks is taking things to a whole new level. (The Guardian)
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