Friday’s Headlines
There’s safety in numbers. The flaw in Vision Zero is that it targets deaths alone, discounting close calls, instead of asking why more people don’t ride bikes. (Jalopnik) Having fallen into disuse and disrepair, some of America’s first parking garages are finding new life as mixed-use developments. But parking garages are hard to retrofit, so … Continued
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on August 23, 2019
- There’s safety in numbers. The flaw in Vision Zero is that it targets deaths alone, discounting close calls, instead of asking why more people don’t ride bikes. (Jalopnik)
- Having fallen into disuse and disrepair, some of America’s first parking garages are finding new life as mixed-use developments. But parking garages are hard to retrofit, so some architects are now designing them to be easier to turn into something else one day. (Governing)
- Waymo — Google parent company Alphabet’s self-driving car subsidiary — is opening up a treasure trove of data to researchers for free. (Road Show)
- E-scooter provider Bird is ending a program that helped cities pay for new bike lanes over concerns that they’re misusing the funds. (Smart Cities Dive)
- If he’s elected president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he’ll make it easier for “gig economy” workers like Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize. (Gizmodo)
- A massive, must-read Willamette Week project dubbed “Blindsided” shows that Portland’s Vision Zero program isn’t working.
- Volunteers in Washington, D.C. fanned out Wednesday and counted more than 300 vehicles illegally parked in bus-only lanes (Fox 5). Philadelphia has a similar problem, and Philly Mag published a column about drivers parking in bike lanes.
- Virginia’s two-year-old cross-state bus partnership with Megabus, known as Breeze, has exceeded initial ridership estimates by 200 percent. (Greater Greater Washington)
- In addition to a penny sales tax for transportation voters approved last year, Tampa-area officials are also mulling a 5-cent gas tax hike. (WTSP)
- IndyGo’s new CEO wants to make Indianapolis transit one of the most accessible systems in the country. (Star)
- The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority is looking for a new company to oversee passenger ferries. (The Advocate)
- Denver is installing corrals for dockless bikes and scooters in hopes of keeping sidewalks free of clutter. (KDVR)
- San Antonio will launch a “sidewalk squad” next year to patch up two miles of cracked pavement. (Rivard Report)
- How did this Toronto streetcar get in the middle of the woods? The internet wants to know! (Narcity)
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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