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 … Continued
By
Blake Aued
1:04 AM EDT on August 7, 2019
- 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)
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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