Friday’s Headlines
- American cities should follow European cities’ lead by making streets multimodal, implementing congestion pricing, establishing car-free zones, eliminating on-street parking and boosting transit. (Curbed)
- Yonah Freemark highlights 20 North American transit projects set to open in 2020, including rail lines in Denver, Miami, Honolulu, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, and bus rapid transit in Houston, Omaha and Albany. (Transport Politic)
- Transportation for America likes House Democrats’ infrastructure bill because it focuses on repairs over new construction and puts funding into passenger rail. Streetsblog also weighed in with mostly praise for the plan.
- The Federal Transit Administration is offering $130 million in grants for low- and no-emissions buses. (Transportation Today)
- Lyft is laying off 90 employees in an effort to become profitable. (Tech Crunch)
- Carmel, Indiana has found the secret to keeping drivers from killing people: roundabouts. The city has installed 120 since 1996, and the traffic death rate has fallen to one-sixth the national average. (Smart Cities Dive)
- A San Antonio plan to shift sales tax revenue from aquifer protection to transit won’t require a water rate hike, Mayor Ron Nirenberg says (KSAT). According to one poll, 65% of voters support the measure (Rivard Report).
- Florida’s Brightline has killed 40 people in its first two years of operation, making it the nation’s deadliest railroad. (NPR)
- Wake County, North Carolina is spending $114 million to improve transit, including a bus rapid transit line in Raleigh and new transfer stations. (News & Observer)
- St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson wants a bi-state agency to reconsider its decision not to restart the Loop Trolley because the city could owe the feds $25 million if it remains shut down. (Post-Dispatch)
- Nearby residents are opposed to a plan to build toll lanes on I-285 in Atlanta, saying it will create more noise and traffic, and require the Georgia DOT to acquire private property. The state should be investing in transit instead, some told the AJC.
- A new study out of Australia confirms what you probably already knew: Cities with strong transit and short blocks with low speeds are the safest. (Futurity)
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