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 … Continued
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on May 31, 2019
- 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)
Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.
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