Thursday’s Headlines

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In 2018, cities finally got serious about parking reform, with San Francisco and Minneapolis joining Buffalo, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., in striking down bans on car-free housing, according to Sightline. Please help Streetsblog lead the way by contributing to our annual December donation drive.

More headlines:

  • Data shows that reducing parking also reduces congestion — if managed correctly — because drivers spend less time looking for spots. (GCN)
  • An Über employee complained to higher-ups about autonomous vehicles’ near-misses during testing and backup drivers’ lack of training just days before a self-driving car hit and killed an Arizona woman while the driver was watching videos on a phone. (The Verge)
  • More people are walking and biking in Atlanta — and so drivers are killing more cyclists and pedestrians, because Atlanta’s streets were designed solely for cars. (Atlanta Magazine)
  • The Raleigh News & Observer delves into the street-closure issue that’s holding up the Durham-Orange light rail line.
  • Women in Washington, D.C., are paying a “pink tax,” often in the form of paying extra to hail a ride rather than face harassment on public transit. (Post)
  • Virginia Beach — where voters rejected a light rail expansion two years ago — was willing to build the project anyway if Amazon chose the region for its second headquarters. (Virginian-Pilot)
  • Traffic deaths in Austin, Tex., have fallen from a high of 102 in 2015 to 69 this year, but that’s a far cry from zero. (Monitor)
  • Former NYC traffic commissioner “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz is worried that driverless cars will double the amount of vehicle miles, rather than reduce private car ownership, because people will send their cars home alone while they’re at work. (Westfair)
  • Six out of seven Tampa mayoral candidates agree on making streets safer for people on foot and bikes. At a Walk Bike Tampa forum, only one sided with current Mayor Bob Buckhorn squashing a Complete Streets project. One even bragged that he hasn’t owned a car in nine years. (Tampa Bay Times)
  • The Birds have landed in Lafayette, La., but New Orleans officials say they don’t have the infrastructure, like bike lanes, to support e-scooters. (Times-Picayune)
  • Albuquerque, N.M., has a $400-million backlog of sidewalk- and curb-repair projects. (KRQE)