Friday’s Headlines
| | 1 Comment- As Uber grows, fares are dropping, turning the gig from a lucrative side hustle into a full-time trap with little hope of a living wage. (The Ringer)
- Three California cities — San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles — top the list for worst streets in America, according to a study by TRIP, a D.C.-based transportation research group. Sounds like a good argument to vote against Prop 6. Find out where your city ranks here.
- CNBC may have set a new record for breathless hyperloop coverage. Are they smoking as much as Elon Musk?
- An architect envisions how gas stations can transition into charging stations as electric cars replace gas-powered ones. (Inverse) Maybe this will accelerate the process: Sweden is putting warning labels on gas pumps warning drivers of fossil fuel’s effect on climate. (Mobility Lab)
- The Memphis Area Transit Authority has formed a committee to look at ways to raise $30 million and add 200,000 hours of bus service a year. (Flyer)
- A Minnesota chamber of commerce leader argues that the state should spend more on mass transit, arguing that it will boost the economy and attract more millennial workers. (Echo Press)
- King County Metro in Seattle is experimenting with a ride-hailing app. Users can summon a shuttle to take them to a park-and-ride station, if they live within three miles. Rides will be free at first, then cost as much as a bus. (Curbed)
- An Akron road diet has gotten mixed reviews from residents. But it’s succeeded in slowing traffic — and wait until it connects to another trail that carries millions of riders, says one city official. (News 5 Cleveland)
- Think America doesn’t have an infrastructure problem? Watch this video of an Arkansas bridge buckling as a bus crosses it. Luckily, the bus made it across — this time. (WNEP)
- Formula 1 racing doesn’t just waste gas and glorify the automobile — it’s racist, too. (City Lab)
- Transportation 4 America is hosting a conference in Atlanta in December for state-level leaders to learn about expanding access to transportation options.
- This Chicago driver in a bike lane must be taking his cue from New York drivers. (NBC 5)
Talking Headways Podcast: Waiting for the Ghost Bus
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This week, we'll talk about OneBusAway, an open source platform for real time transit info.
Thursday’s Headlines
|- Not only are New Orleans streets unsafe for — and drivers hostile to — cyclists, but when a driver hits someone on a bike, police are often reluctant to investigate, even when presented with video footage. (Times-Pic)
- City Journal editor Brian Anderson describes seeing a driver hit and kill a woman in a Washington, D.C. crosswalk. It seems like streets are getting even more dangerous, but “it doesn’t have to be this way,” he writes.
- Five ways to make city streets friendlier to bikes and scooters: more roundabouts, forcing trucks to make deliveries at night, replacing car parking with scooter and bike parking and (duh) more bike and scooter lanes. (Bloomberg)
- Cincinnati police are in full victim-blaming mode as they crack down on speeding drivers and distracted pedestrians. (Local 12)
- A San Francisco study says Uber and Lyft are responsible for half the city’s increase in traffic since 2010. (Tech Crunch)
- In contrast to many cities, most users of new dockless bike-share programs in Minneapolis and St. Paul seem to be following the rules. (Minn Post)
- Dockless e-scooter company Bird is trying to get around municipal restrictions by delivering scooters directly to users’ doors. (WTVA)
- Renew Atlanta, a $250-million program to tackle a backlog of road projects, doesn’t have enough money to get to all the projects on the list. Some, like making Howell Mill Road a complete street, will be scaled back or reprioritized. (Saporta Report)
- Anti-transit gadfly Randal O’Toole thinks government investment in transit is wasteful, so we should just give people cars. He recently debated transportation consultant Jarrett Walker, who argued that cities need good transit because they can’t accommodate everyone driving. (City Lab)
- An excerpt from “Building the Bicycling City” describes how the Dutch created an accessible urban biking culture. In rapidly growing Eindhoven, it had more to do with appeasing frustrated motorists by separating slow and fast traffic than encouraging cycling, which remained a popular mode post-World War II. (Next City)
- The Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization is organizing a “walk of silence” Saturday in memory of the 200 people killed in car crashes in the area each year. (Tampa Bay Times)
Wednesday’s Headlines
|- Seattle’s University District has some of the busiest — and most dangerous — intersections in the city. With a light-rail station set to open in 2021, neighborhood stakeholders want to close some streets to vehicular traffic. (KUOW)
- The Baltimore City Council preliminarily approved Complete Streets legislation to require more bike lanes, sidewalks and public transit options. (Sun)
- Urban planner Jeff Speck offers tips for cities to become more walkable: Embrace mixed use, slow down traffic, invest in bike infrastructure, energize public spaces and create urban centers in the suburbs. (City Lab)
- Bird is addressing concerns about scooters blocking the sidewalk in Columbia, Mo., by requiring users to snap photos of their parked scooters. The company may also hire “Bird watchers” to investigate reports of scooter scofflaws. (KMIZ, Missourian)
- After a heated debate in which businesses accused the city of waging war on cars, Lincoln, Neb. sided with residents and will implement its first road diet. (Journal Star)
- Houston’s first light rail line contributed to a significant decline in greenhouse gas pollution, according to a Texas A&M study. (Government Technology)
- After Delaware transit users complained about the dismantling of a bus hub in Wilmington, DART is building a new one, and is also improving bus stops and shelters. (Business Now)
- Paris’s socialist mayor wants to say “au revoir” to gas- and diesel-powered vehicles. Will she get her way? (New York Magazine)
- Now that the weather’s cooling down, Bike Easy’s executive director gave Curbed eight suggestions for places to bike to in New Orleans this fall.
- Lyft drivers are really pulling their weight in Savannah, Ga. — the ride-hailing company has started a new pedicab service. (Morning News)
Bus Routes Helping Bridge Milwaukee’s Notorious Racial-Economic Divide
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New research shows two reverse-commute bus routes are providing a vital link for low-income neighborhoods. But the state may stop funding them.
Tuesday’s Headlines
|- Charlotte is on pace for an increase in the number of people killed in car crashes for the fourth straight year. Just 3 percent of those crashes involve people on foot or bikes, but they make up half of those killed. (WCNC)
- The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is collecting data on where riders get off buses, which could lead to free rail-to-bus transfers. (Mobility Lab)
- Everything is bigger in Texas — including the parking lots. (Dallas Magazine)
- We’ve heard about how big cities are struggling to allocate curb space, but Uber and Lyft are creating traffic jams and parking problems even in small-town Michigan. (Hometown Life)
- A woman was hit by two drivers and killed on a Portland street where the city has installed cameras to catch speeders. Their value is muted, though, because state law prohibits police from ticketing drivers going less than 11 miles per hour over the limit. (KATU)
- Minneapolis’s Metro Transit is getting rid of stops on one popular but slowpoke bus route to speed it up. (Star Tribune)
- San Francisco fought the scooters, and the scooters won. (City Lab)
- From Streetsblog NYC: Citi Bike, the nation’s largest bike-share, is finally offering group rides. Too bad it’s hard to find multiple bikes in the same spot because of a maintenance crisis.
- Friend of Streetsblog Joel Epstein rode 518 miles on an e-bike and lived to tell the tale. (Medium)
- Sandy Springs, Ga. officials are floating gondolas as a substitute for light rail to save on right-of-way costs. (Reporter)
- Bike Snob declares war on aerobars. They’re antisocial, dangerous and just plain dorky. (Outside)
Jeff Speck: For a Walkable City, Remove Centerlines on Local Streets
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In an excerpt from his new book, Walkable City Rules, Jeff Speck says centerline stripes don't belong on residential streets.
Trump May Let Big Auto Hide Ped Safety Records
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A five-star safety rating for pedestrian crashes would publicize some of the hazards of SUVs. But automakers and the Trump Administration might block the Obama-era reform.
Monday’s Headlines
| | 2 Comments- Told ya so: Milwaukee’s Complete Streets policy and new transit like The Hop streetcar are spurring commercial development downtown because streets are more welcoming. (Journal-Sentinel)
- Metro Cincinnati received $35 million in federal grants for alternatives to driving, including new fuel-efficient buses, a new bike and pedestrian bridge, a riverside trail and an expansion of the city’s bike-share program. (WCPO)
- As transit ridership declines and more people use ride-hailing apps, walkability is becoming more important than transit access when developing transit-oriented developments. (Urban Land Institute)
- Huge new investments in metro Atlanta’s transportation infrastructure aren’t enough, so transportation remains an issue in the Georgia governor’s race. Democrat Stacey Abrams has proposed another $150 million for transit, while Republican Brian Kemp prefers public-private partnerships, a la President Trump’s failed infrastructure bill. (AJC)
- Indianapolis has a backlog of 1,600 sidewalk repair requests, and the broken pavement is landing people in the hospital. (WRTV)
- Oklahoma City’s new streetcar isn’t even running yet, and the city is already considering an expansion (NewsOK). Meanwhile, rising cost estimates for North Carolina’s Durham-Orange light rail are giving some local officials in the Research Triangle cold feet. (Daily Tarheel)
- A new poll shows that 86 percent of Americans support government funding for public transportation, including big majorities among all age groups and geographic regions. (R0ads & Bridges)
- The Stranger takes aim at Bicycling magazine’s ranking of Seattle as the best city for bikes, calling it “completely ridiculous.”
- South Florida police are ticketing cyclists for riding outside the bike lane — on a highway that doesn’t appear to have a bike lane. (Local 10)
- ICYMI: Fast Company joined the many outlets expressing concern that driverless cars have a downside. Ya think?
Experts: Feds Aren’t Fixing Pedestrian Safety Crisis
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Federal officials are failing to protect pedestrians — and, in fact, err on the side of drivers and even blame walkers for a pedestrian death toll has increased 50 percent in just eight years, advocates say.
Friday’s Headlines
|- Safe streets that encourage walking and biking are key to reducing the impact of climate change. But you knew that. (Curbed)
- With its weather, flat topography and horrible traffic, L.A. should be a great city for biking. Why are the cars winning? (Bicycling) Meanwhile, the number of bike commuters in Seattle is falling, but Bicycling still ranks it No. 1 (Post-Intelligencer).
- Dallas wants to build a multimodal center next to a planned high-speed rail station that would integrate the bullet train with Amtrak, other rail lines, the subway, buses, bikes and, um, flying taxis and a hyperloop. (D Magazine)
- The Orlando Sentinel looks longingly at Phoenix’s Valley Metro and wonders, where did it all go wrong? Phoenix has a useful light-rail system; Orlando rejected something similar and is now stuck with cumbersome, unpopular heavy rail.
- Baltimore will complete its downtown bike network in December — almost two years behind schedule. (Sun)
- D.C. Metro stations on the Red Line in car-centric suburban Maryland are dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. (Greater Greater Washington)
- Philadelphia has a seven-year plan to boost transit ridership, fix sidewalks and build 40 miles of bike lanes. (Curbed, Inquirer)
- An Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist frets that racial and geographical divides will doom the metro area’s nascent effort to expand the MARTA transit system.
- Even after a price cut, New Orleans’s bike-share is still more expensive than most cities’. (Times-Picayune)
- Pittsburgh is seeking public input on a planned expansion of bike lanes. (WPXI)
- No, Coronado, Calif. Mayor Richard Bailey, too much transit spending isn’t the reason you sit in traffic — not enough transit spending is. (Voice of San Diego)