Wednesday’s Headlines
- Uber and Lyft released a joint analysis showing that they’re making traffic worse in major cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and especially San Francisco. Even worse, almost half the time, ride-hail vehicles are driving around without passengers. (City Lab)
- The Nation reports on the California bill that would grant Uber and Lyft drivers and other gig economy contractors labor protections.
- Under Gov. Jared Polis, the fast-growing state of Colorado’s DOT is shifting its emphasis from widening freeways to expanding transit. (Denver Post)
- The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Agency will use new sales tax revenue to restore cuts, expand bus service and plan new transit lines in spite of a legal challenge to the tax. (Florida Politics)
- Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican who led the failed effort to defeat California’s recent gas-tax hike, is running for Congress. (Politico)
- The Los Angeles DOT is using stencils to remind e-scooter riders to stay off the sidewalk (LAist). In Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett put an e-scooter pilot program on pause because riders aren’t following traffic laws (WTMJ)
- A San Francisco resident tried out Bird’s new monthly e-scooter subscription program and thinks bikes are better. (The Verge)
- The Scene takes a look at the history of public transportation in Nashville.
- A Texas college president says she was only kidding when she urged local officials to get Elon Musk involved in a light-rail project, but they took her seriously. (Rio Grande Guardian)
- Color us shocked, but Musk’s Las Vegas tunnel is running into problems. It could damage the city’s existing monorail’s support columns. (Jalopnik)
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