Tuesday’s Headlines
- Looks the ol' swamp still needs some draining: Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao intervened on behalf of allies of her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to get grants approved in their home state of Kentucky. (Politico)
- Cities with the highest rents also tend to be the cities with the worst traffic problems. The most egalitarian solution — congestion pricing sends the message that city centers aren't for the poor — is to build more housing near transit and jobs, writes a Bloomberg columnist.
- Lyft-Owned Motivate is suing San Francisco over whether the city can let in bike-share competitors. But the dispute is bigger than that, according to Wired — it’s another front in the Uber vs. Lyft war, and whether private monopolies can limit access to what should be a public good. Meanwhile, a retired professor is suing Uber and Lyft, claiming they’re infringing on his patent for GPS and cellphone billing technology (Daily Report).
- The Federal Rail Administration announced a $33 million grant to help restore Amtrak service along the Gulf Coast. (Fox 10)
- Honolulu leaders hand-delivered a revised light-rail plan to the Federal Transit Administration in hopes that the personal touch would lead the FTA to finally release $744 million in federal funds. (Civil Beat)
- The Colorado DOT is considering widening or double-decking I-25 through Denver, but seems to be leaning toward transit and incentives like congestion pricing instead (Denverite). But as Streetsblog Denver points out, the agency's already eliminated the most progressive option: tearing down the freeway and replacing it with an urban boulevard.
- Cincinnati city council members want to raise parking fines and use digital ad revenue to plug a $1.2 million hole in the streetcar’s projected operating budget. (WCPO)
- A new stretch of Atlanta’s PATH400 trail linking the Lindbergh and Buckhead neighborhoods opens this fall (AJC). Curbed also has a photo essay on the underutilized trail system.
- The arrival of e-bikes in Portland is being pushed back to 2020. (Willamette Week)
- Why are D.C. Metro subways so windy? (City Lab)
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