Friday’s Headlines
- Next-day shipping and food delivery services are choking cities with congestion and pollution. The World Economic Forum predicts that if nothing is done, greenhouse gas emissions from delivery vehicles will rise 32% over the next decade. (Scientific American)
- Leaders in Detroit and three out of four metro counties — Wayne, Washtenaw and Oakland — will try again to pass a regional transit plan, and the fourth, Macomb, could join in later. (WDIV)
- Amtrak is considering a new line between Nashville and Atlanta, with a stop in Chattanooga, which hasn't had passenger rail service since 1971. (Times Free Press)
- Virginia is considering banning open containers and holding a cellphone while driving, legalizing speed cameras and letting local governments lower speed limits under 25 miles per hour — changes Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration estimates could save 150 lives per year. (WTOP)
- Lyft is adding 250 e-bikes and five stations to Columbus, Ohio’s bikeshare, and integrating the service into the Lyft app. (Dispatch)
- San Diego is waiving its $2,000 permit fee in an effort to get owners of 81,000 properties to fix their sidewalks. (Union-Tribune)
- Midtown Atlanta will see $47 million worth of protected bike lanes and other bike and pedestrian infrastructure in 2020. (Curbed) New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy blames his predecessor, Chris Christie, for gutting transit, but Murphy’s also been using funds for capital improvements to cover operating costs. (northjersey.com)
- The struggling Virginia mill town of Danville has found a formula for sustainable transit: low fares, customer service and smart use of state and federal dollars. (Greater Greater Washington)
- Only 1,700 of central Indiana’s 5,500 miles of roads have sidewalks. (Indianapolis Star)
- City Journal calls on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s holiday closure of Rockefeller Center to vehicles permanent.
- Tooting our own horn: Clean Technica features a Streetfilms video about L.A. bus-only lanes, and Archinect quotes Streetsblog senior editor Kea Wilson in a piece about Pete Buttigieg’s infrastructure plan.
- Londonist has a look at the eco-friendly Low Line walking path, the British capital’s answer to Manhattan’s High Line.
- Walk Bike Nashville will hold a memorial Saturday for the record 32 people killed there while walking last year.
- Stop calling Elon Musk’s tunnels “public transit.” His latest silly underground road uses Teslas to carry people the easily walkable distance of 0.83 miles. (Curbed)
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