Tuesday’s Headlines

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• State and local governments are wasting $25 billion on nine bad freeway projects in Portland, Raleigh, Houston, California, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (City Lab). Also see StreetsblogUSA‘s ongoing “Highway Boondoggle” series breaking down the list, project by project.
• Uber and Lyft — both swimming in red ink — will be forced to jack up fares to satisfy Wall Street’s thirst for profits now that they’ve gone public. (Yahoo Finance)
• Virgin Trains, the privately owned passenger rail company formerly known as Brightline, has broken ground on the second phase of its Miami-to-Orlando line, expected to be completed in 2022. The route, which now runs between Miami and West Palm Beach, is planned to extend to Tampa. (Click Orlando)
• L.A. Metro wants transit users to rent out their parked cars to reduce congestion. The service is supposed to replace ride-hailing, but how putting parked cars on the road will reduce congestion remains unclear. (Government Technology)
• A new Boston casino development — and the traffic it will bring — presents opportunities to improve public transit. (MassLive)
• Some want more freeway lanes, of course, but a surprising number of Atlanta Journal-Constitution readers have sensible ideas for easing the region’s notorious traffic — such as bus-only lanes and congestion pricing.
• Traffic deaths have risen in Las Vegas over the past few years, but engineers now seem to understand that making streets safer for pedestrians makes them safer for everyone. (Review-Journal)
• Osceola County sheriff’s deputies will be stationed at three dangerous Orlando intersections Wednesday to ticket drivers who fail to yield for pedestrians. (Orlando Weekly)
• The Albuquerque Journal says the city’s Complete Streets ordinance needs to be strengthened.
• Construction has started on a protected bus lane and bus islands on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. (WTOP)
• A Portland city commissioner thinks distracted walking is to blame for pedestrian deaths. Did they get run over by their own cellphones? (Bike Portland)