Today’s Headlines

  • Note to conservatives: You should be fans of passenger rail! (Am. Thinker)
  • Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s transportation record becomes fodder for his foes (Politico)
  • Are federal stimulus dollars working for minority contractors in Illinois? (CPR)
  • D.C.’s real-time government data-sharing wins a Harvard award … (WaPo)
  • … but does Harvard know about the city’s grim record on transit data-sharing? (EFF)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

A Promising Start for Minneapolis Bike-Sharing

By Angie Schmitt |
The early data is in on one of the country’s pioneering bike-sharing systems, and it brings some encouraging news. Minneapolis’s Nice Ride, which launched this summer, topped 100,000 trips in its first five months. Crash rates and vandalism were very low. Perhaps most interesting was the effect on driving, reports The Bike-Sharing Blog. Nice Ride […]

Harvard Researcher Calls for Better Police Reporting of Bike Crashes

By Angie Schmitt |
Police departments need to improve the way they investigate, document, and convey information about crashes involving cyclists, according to a new study by Harvard public health researcher Anne Luskin in the Journal of Injury Prevention. While police reports are standardized to record relatively detailed information about car collisions, the same is not true of collisions involving bikes. Better police […]

Trains, Buses, Bikes, and Sandwiches… There Should Be an App For That

By Ben Goldman |
Earlier today we brought you a story about a new and potentially dangerous technological innovation – Facebook in cars. To help end the week on a higher note, here’s some far more encouraging news on the transportation tech front. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in issuing a […]

DUI Arrests Dropped in Philly After Ride-Share Companies Came to Town

By Angie Schmitt |
There’s a big political battle in Pittsburgh over the introduction of ride-sharing businesses like Uber and Lyft. Pittsburgh’s progressive new mayor, Bill Peduto, has been a strong proponent of the services, which allow users to buy rides from drivers using a cell phone app. But the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission, the agency responsible for regulating taxis, […]

California Poised to Allow Personal Vehicle Sharing Services

By Matthew Roth |
(Photo: Car sharing is a growth industry, as pioneer City CarShare would tell you, and it has beneficial environmental and economic impacts. Studies of car sharing services like Zipcar and City CarShare show that for every car that is shared, up to 15 private vehicles are taken off the road. Owning and operating a personal […]

Senators Seek to Shield Motor Vehicle Crash Data From Public View

By Tanya Snyder |
A new bill introduced by Senators John Hoeven (R-ND) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would further entrench rules that make it difficult for crash investigators to access black box data from cars. Nearly all light passenger vehicles have event data recorders (EDRs) installed in them, which record everything from speed to seat belt use, though the data is […]