Wednesday’s Headlines
Despite the mobility revolution that gives people more options than ever for getting around, Americans still prefer to sit in traffic by themselves, fund roads with ever-shrinking gas taxes and are willing to accept 40,000 deaths a year. (The Hill) Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was just the latest tech/transportation executive to bend over backwards for … Continued
By
Blake Aued
12:52 AM EST on November 13, 2019
- Despite the mobility revolution that gives people more options than ever for getting around, Americans still prefer to sit in traffic by themselves, fund roads with ever-shrinking gas taxes and are willing to accept 40,000 deaths a year. (The Hill)
- Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was just the latest tech/transportation executive to bend over backwards for Saudi Arabia when he called the state-sanctioned murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi a “mistake.” The Saudis’ massive sovereign wealth fund apparently trumps human rights. (The Verge)
- Almost half of metro Atlanta residents believe expanding transit is the best solution to the region’s traffic problems, compared to less than a third who want to widen roads. But outside of DeKalb County, less than half support raising taxes to pay for it — not good news for upcoming transit referendums in suburban Cobb and Gwinnett counties. (AJC)
- Houston Metro board members will decide how to spend $7.5 billion on transit over the next 20 years. But three of them rarely use transit themselves. (Chronicle)
- Pittsburgh is working on a plan to connect its piecemeal and dangerous bike network by adding 120 miles of bike lanes. (Tribune-Review)
- Albuquerque’s star-crossed bus rapid transit line will finally start service on Nov. 30. (Journal)
- Boston edge cities are building walkable downtowns near transit, but they feel nothing like the historic parts of Boston and aren’t well connected to the rest of the region. (Commonwealth)
- Ohio is the latest state that’s considering regulating e-scooters. (Toledo Blade)
- Madison, Wisc., is asking for public input on its first parking-protected bike lane. (Channel 3000)
- Tampa is hosting the 2019 Safe Routes to School National Conference today through Friday. (WFTS)
- After just one year, Lyft-owned bikeshare Nice Ride is replacing 2,000 dockless bikes with e-bikes in Minneapolis. They’re not dockless per se, but they do come with additional options for parking (Star Tribune). Meanwhile, the Star Tribune editorial board has gotten behind a proposal to increase the police presence on Metro Transit and crack down on turnstile-jumpers, which means we can probably look forward to more viral videos of cops arresting people for eating sandwiches on a train (NBC News).
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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