Tuesday’s Headlines
Why do e-bike batteries spontaneously combust? Lots of reasons, including damage, sabotage or cheap construction. (Bicycling) A $1 “safe rides fee” that Uber implemented in 2014 simply padded the company’s bottom line, according to a New York Times excerpt of an upcoming book on the ride-hail giant. Uber will recoup a bit of the $16 … Continued
By
Blake Aued
12:06 AM EDT on August 27, 2019
- Why do e-bike batteries spontaneously combust? Lots of reasons, including damage, sabotage or cheap construction. (Bicycling)
- A $1 “safe rides fee” that Uber implemented in 2014 simply padded the company’s bottom line, according to a New York Times excerpt of an upcoming book on the ride-hail giant.
- Uber will recoup a bit of the $16 billion it’s lost thanks to the state of Texas, which gave the company $36 million in incentives to open a new office in Dallas. (Jalopnik)
- Election Day is today, but more than 150,000 Phoenix residents have already voted on whether to continue expanding the city’s light-rail system. (Arizona Public Media)
- Caltrans is fighting a bill that would require the California transportation agency to consider installing bike lanes and crosswalks for every road project. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Seattle’s on-demand microtransit app, Via, is exceeding expectations with more than 70,000 rides since it launched in April. (Crosscut)
- Indianapolis has moved a bike lane to make way for the Red Line bus rapid transit service, which starts on Sept. 1. (Star)
- The CEO of the Las Vegas monorail denies that the transit line is in financial trouble. (Review-Journal)
- A Florida man was convicted of manslaughter for shooting and killing another man in a dispute over a parking spot. (USA Today)
- And, finally, Streetsblog itself was in the news this week, with Streetsblog USA legend Angie Schmitt telling the world what cities can do to help cyclists on NPR’s 1A show. And Streetsblog NYC Editor Gersh Kuntzman telling City & State why the mainstream media has started to “get it” about cyclist deaths.
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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