Today’s Headlines

  • Frustrating fact of the day: The stimulus bill’s edict that "disadvantaged" areas get priority is so poorly crafted that it includes all of Arizona and California (TNR’s The Avenue)
  • Safe Routes to School Partnership releases a new report profiling local successes in child pedestrian safety: Check it out in full (SRtS Press)
  • Mayors of some of the world’s biggest cities, including New York, urge "an ambitious and empowering" climate change agreement in Copenhagen (Bloomberg)
  • House-Senate transport spending deal includes a $200 million earmark for the Hudson River rail tunnel (Courier-Post)
  • A look at the challenges in ensuring transit access for seniors (JCOnline)
  • When will the era of the plug-in hybrid begin? Not for decades at the least, a new report says (NYT Blogs)
  • Republican gubernatorial hopefuls in Illinois are mostly pro-high speed rail … (AP)
  • … while in California, the estimated cost of a future bullet-train ride from San Francisco to L.A. just went up (Merc News)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Atlanta Beltline, Still in Its Infancy, Already Boosting Business

By Angie Schmitt |
It’s working. The Atlanta Beltline, still in its most formative stages, is already boosting business and promoting development, according to this report from a local news station. The Beltline — which will eventually consist of a rail and trail loop encircling Atlanta — recently marked the completion of a new park/trail segment on the city’s northeast side. […]

Passenger Rail Isn’t Just for “Rail Buffs”

By Sarah Goodyear |
I just returned from an overnight train trip on Amtrak a couple of days ago, riding the Crescent from Meridian, Mississippi, into Penn Station, after completing the southbound trip a week earlier. It’s a route I’ve traveled before, one of dozens of long-distance hauls I’ve made on Amtrak over the last 20 or so years. […]