Friday’s Headlines

  • Portland and Sidewalk Labs are using cellphone data to see how people move around the city, which could help planners make better decisions, but also raises privacy concerns. Next up: Testing the Replica software in Chicago and Kansas City. (GeekWire)
  • Los Angeles is also collected tons of data on e-scooter use. It has the largest fleet of any city in the country, with more than 30,000 provided by seven companies. (LAist)
  • Protected bike lanes make streets safer for not just cyclists, but drivers too, according to a University of Colorado Denver study. (Denverite, Streetsblog)
  • Elon Musk’s scaled-back cars-in-a-tunnel version of the hyperloop might work in Las Vegas, but don’t expect it to be the future of public transit. (City Lab)
  • An Alexandria, Va., panel of experts outlined the pros and cons of e-scooters. (Gazette)
  • In the wake of a federal ruling that Uber and Lyft drivers are contractors, not employees, a California bill would give them basic labor protections for the first time — at least in one state. (Vox)
  • Texas, which leads the nation in traffic fatalities, will adopt a Vision Zero strategy to cut road deaths in half by 2035 and eliminate them by 2050. (Houston Chronicle)
  • MARTA is fast-tracking two Atlanta bus rapid transit lines, but light rail to Emory University and along the Beltline won’t be completed until at least 2035. (AJC)
  • San Francisco wants to quadruple its number of dockless bikes to 11,000, but is getting pushback from Lyft. (Curbed)
  • The new CEO of the company building Maryland’s Purple Line isn’t happy about permitting holdups. (WaPo)
  • Montreal is building 26 kilometers — that’s 18 miles — of bike lanes over the next two years. (Gazette)
  • Forget Tide pods and pill parties. The latest phantom teen menace is gangs of roving youth on bikes assaulting the elderly. (Outside)