Tuesday’s Headlines
President Obama started the TIGER grant program to fund innovative mass transit projects, but the Trump administration is spending most of the money on roads instead. (City Lab, Streetsblog) Attention, reporters: Research shows that when the media refers to car “crashes” or “collisions,” rather than “accidents,” and assigns agency to drivers who crash their cars, … Continued
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EST on November 19, 2019
- President Obama started the TIGER grant program to fund innovative mass transit projects, but the Trump administration is spending most of the money on roads instead. (City Lab, Streetsblog)
- Attention, reporters: Research shows that when the media refers to car “crashes” or “collisions,” rather than “accidents,” and assigns agency to drivers who crash their cars, instead of pretending the cars crashed themselves, readers are less likely to blame victims. (Forbes, Streetsblog)
- E-scooters: threat or menace? Neither, says Outside magazine Bike Snob Eben Weiss.
- Much as we hate it, it’s just a reality that cars are a necessary evil in many parts of the country. But Ford and GM are abandoning drivers who want a small vehicle, and as a result many of them are trading up for SUVs. (Edmunds)
- Los Angeles has the worst congestion in the country, poor air quality and is facing the effects of climate change, yet transit ridership continues to fall, mainly because the region has been spotty about funding it. (Sierra Magazine)
- Michigan state lawmakers and metro Detroit officials are preparing another push for a regional transit system in 2020. A 2016 referendum failed, but this time, the regional system won’t include suburban Macomb County, where voters overwhelmingly opposed it, giving it a better shot at passing in Wayne, Oakland and Washtenaw. (Detroit News)
- A newly elected Cambridge councilman wants to give residents of the Massachusetts city free monthly passes for Boston’s regional transit system (Huffington Post). The news comes as an economic justice group protests a crackdown on fare-jumpers in Phoenix (Arizona Republic).
- Planners are designing a new development at an old Ford plant in St. Paul to encouraging walking, biking and using transit, with complete streets and bus service every 10 minutes. (Star Tribune)
- A proposed bus rapid transit system in Pittsburgh linking downtown and Oakland is moving into the final design stages. Construction is scheduled to start in 2022 and end the following year. (Post-Gazette)
- Vermont is using its share of the Volkswagen Dieselgate settlement to test out electric school buses. (Energy News Network)
- Last week’s cold front led to delays on Dallas transit, but DART says it will be ready next time. (Morning News)
- Self-driving garbage cans are in the works for Quayside, Google’s planned “smart neighborhood” in Toronto (Mobile Syrup). George Lucas thought of this over 40 years ago.
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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