Friday’s Headlines
Navigation apps like Waze promise to help users avoid traffic, but ironically, because they make users more confident they can avoid traffic, they drive more, so way-finding apps make traffic worse for everyone. [City Lab] And another from City Lab: Apps that let people pay for all types of mobility aren’t going to get people … Continued
By
Blake Aued
8:11 AM EST on November 15, 2019
- Navigation apps like Waze promise to help users avoid traffic, but ironically, because they make users more confident they can avoid traffic, they drive more, so way-finding apps make traffic worse for everyone. [City Lab]
- And another from City Lab: Apps that let people pay for all types of mobility aren’t going to get people out of their cars, because it doesn’t matter how easy it is to pay if the bus only comes once an hour.
- An op-ed argues what we’ve long known: Charging New Yorkers to park on the curb could easily raise enough money to make buses and subways free. (Daily News)
- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot accused Uber of paying off black ministers to oppose her rideshare tax plan. (CBS Chicago)
- Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and other Massachusetts mayors are backing a 15-cent gas tax hike to pay for roads and transit (Dorcester Reporter). And the Herald urges Boston to devote more resources to pedestrian safety.
- The future of transit in San Antonio depends on whether voters approve a sales tax shift next year, says Mayor Ron Nirenberg. (News-Express)
- Although his plan to fund Memphis transit by taxing people who own more than two cars went down in flames, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is still pushing for more funding. (Fox 13)
- The Raleigh News & Observer calls the failed Durham-Orange light rail line “a train wreck without a train” and urges GoTriangle to develop a new transit plan.
- University of Minnesota students are lobbying state lawmakers to make more light rail stops free for students, citing a need to access housing and grocery stores. (Minnesota Daily)
- The State in Columbia was Jack’s complete lack of surprise when it learned the Federal Highway Administration rated South Carolina’s roads the worst in the nation.
- Scooter rental companies in Washington, D.C. are offering discounts to low-income individuals, including college students who receive Pell Grants. (GW Hatchet)
- Jacksonville has a years-long backlog of sidewalk repairs. (Action News Jax)
- Charges have been dropped against a Baton Rouge police officer who was driving 94 miles per hour when he caused a crash in 2017 that killed a baby and injured several other people. (The Advocate)
- The U.S. Department of Transportation is giving a Philadelphia transit agency $12.6 million to cover half the cost of reopening the “ghost station” at Franklin Square, which has been closed since 1979. (Inquirer)
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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