Tuesday’s Headlines

SB Donation NYC header 2Streetcar edition: Rock Region Metro is making Little Rock’s streetcar free in an effort to boost ridership (Democrat-Gazette). The feds turned down Milwaukee’s request for $20 million to expand its new streetcar, The Hop, for the second time (Journal Sentinel). And the Oklahoman explains how Oklahoma City’s new streetcar, which opens Friday, fits into the broader transit picture.

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  • GoTriangle’s proposal to close a downtown Durham, N.C. intersection to vehicles and pedestrians to make way for light rail is causing a lot of heartburn. A tunnel could be the answer. (WRAL)
  • The ATL, a new board that is supposed to coordinate metro Atlanta’s myriad transit agencies, met for the first time last week. (Marietta Daily Journal)
  • Arlington, Va., is asking the state for $7 million in I-66 toll money for several transportation projects, including a bus-only lane along Lee Highway. (ARLnow)
  • A Seattle prosecutor who’s in a wheelchair is fighting to make the city more ADA complaint. Her route to work is often blocked by homeless encampments that force her into traffic, as well as obstacles like tree roots. (KIRO)
  • Walk Bike Nashville is requesting $1.5 million to fix Dickerson Pike, the city’s most dangerous street. (WZTV)
  • A lawsuit filed by California Lyft drivers alleges that they’re only paid $8 an hour, well below the state’s $11 minimum wage. (Ars Technica)
  • As Streetsblog has reported, the Trump Administration is converting TIGER grants — started under President Obama to kickstart innovative transit and bike projects — into just another pot of road money. In Dallas, that means projects like the McKinney Avenue Trolley would have no chance today. (D Magazine)
  • London Mayor Sadiq Khan plans to spend 2.3 billion pounds tripling the number of protected cycleways in the city within the next five years. (Forbes)
  • The San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic calls a new Berkeley structure “a parking garage even car-haters can love.” Actually, we still hate it.
  • Stephen Simac

    The London plan sounds impressive, but the article reveals few details. There’s one photo of a separate bikepath that may represent their idealized cycleway. When I lived in London in 1980, the smog rivaled Los Angeles, with lots of lorries and double decker buses spewing diesel exhaust, and traffic was scary. I walked and took buses everywhere, but bicycling seemed suicidal, and this for someone who had filed his teeth cycling in 70’s south Florida, including commuting to community college on SR 84. *that was really suicidal and only luck prevented my becoming a casualty.