Today’s Headlines

  • NY Times Looks at Disastrous Infrastructure Privatization Schemes Around the World
  • Senators From Both Parties Are Eager to Embrace Our Driverless Car Future (Hill)
  • Meanwhile, in Helsinki: Driverless Buses Will Go Into Scheduled Service This Year (Curbed)
  • Long Live Cheap American Gasoline (WaPo)
  • Philly Council President Calls for Vision Zero Implementation Plan, Which Already Exists (PlanPhilly)
  • Baltimore Bike Lane: Advocates Make Their Case (Sun) as Pugh Mouths Climate Change Platitudes (Systemic Failure)
  • GOP Legislator Proposes Per-Mile Truck Fees to Fund Highways (Wisconsin Public Radio)
  • Dallas Mayor Promises to “Dream No Small Dreams” on Bicycling and Transportation (Dallas News)
  • Meanwhile: Private Bike-Share Seeks to Eclipse Dallas’s Anemic Two-Station System (Dallas News, D Magazine)
  • Albany Unveils 38 Locations for Bike-Share Program to Launch This Summer (Times Union)
  • Michel S

    Philly’s Council President Darrell Clarke is a legislative dinosaur who, and I kid you not, is on the record saying most Philadelphians “drive to the corner store,” and thinks that we need to increase parking minimums to accommodate new development. He and other (usually elder) members of Council routinely deride bike lanes for eliminating on-street parking and travel lanes, and publicly scold the Philadelphia City Planning Commission at annual hearings for simply doing its job. The plans for improving JFK have been in place since 2011, long before the current Mayor’s Vision Zero plan was proposed, but there has been no action taken in that time because it is not a priority for Clarke and his ilk. The purpose of his hearings is not to implement the Mayor’s Vision Zero plan, but to solidify Council’s role in the decision making process; they want to continue to be able to veto and hold up infrastructure improvements to our streets that could save lives, all in the interests of preserving parking and automobile hegemony. Clarke and other district members of City Council are obstructionists who can’t comprehend the changes taking place in our city and aim to slow the transition; this obstruction costs lives.