Monday’s Headlines: Our Annual Pledge Drive Begins

As you can see from icon on the left of this story, Streetsblog has begun its annual December donation drive. Don’t be intimidated! Whether you’re emptying out your bank account, your wallet or just your couch cushions, we appreciate any gift. So click on the icon, which you will see on every story this month, to lend us a hand so we can keep doing what we do.

And here’s today’s non-donation-related news:

• After making overly optimistic promises to voters in 2015, Seattle is scaling back plans for a $930-million transportation tax levy, including cutting the number of bike-lane projects in half. (Seattle Times)
• Yes, your vote counts: By just 541 votes, San Mateo County, Calif., approved a $2.4-billion package of road improvements and funding for Caltrain, bus services and bike and pedestrian projects. (Mercury News)
• Lyft has finalized its purchase of Motivate, which runs Portland’s bike share, Divvy in Chicago, Capital Bike Share in DC and, of course, Citi Bike in New York, making it the largest bike-share provider in the country. (Oregonian)
• A new study says L.A. could drastically reduce congestion by eliminating minimum parking requirements and repurposing surface lots. The catch? Just as it took decades to redesign the city around cars, it will take decades to reverse those mistakes, says architect James Sanders. (Smart Cities Dive) And the SF Chronicle endorses the idea of ending minimums.
• Maybe you don’t know Larry Penner, but New Yorkers know him as the man who writes dozens of letters to the editors of local newspapers every day. Well, he just landed a pro-gas-tax letter in the Chicago Sun-Times. Proud of you, Larry.
• Emails obtained by the Washington Post suggest the D.C. Metro was willing to provide accommodations for white supremacist protesters who gathered in the city in August.
• A major Boston thoroughfare, Massachusetts Avenue, is getting separated bike lanes, a bus-only lane and other upgrades. (Globe)
• Detroit residents have used the public bike share MoGo 237,000 times since it launched last year, and the recent introduction of dockless scooters hasn’t cut into those numbers. (Free Press)
• Autonomous vehicles will affect cities in many ways. One you might not have thought about is loss of revenue from traffic tickets. (Next City)
• A policy expert for Bird blames drivers and poor infrastructure for e-scooters scofflaws and injuries. (Governing)
• Sidewalk Labs, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has revealed initial plans for a “smart neighborhood” in Toronto. (Engadget)