Wednesday’s Headlines
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- Before they’re street-ready, self-driving cars have to figure out how to navigate snow and ice. (Wired)
- Let’s hope they do. Almost 30 percent of Americans don’t wear a seatbelt in the back of rideshare vehicles, compared to 90 percent in their own cars, possibly contributing to an uptick in traffic deaths. (The Zebra)
- Yes, Washington, D.C. is waging a war on cars — and that’s a good thing. (Washington Post)
- Vision Zero roundup: MinnPost wonders whether Minneapolis can ever achieve zero traffic deaths. Montgomery County, Maryland, is spending $300 million, but WAMU points out that 2020 is off to a deadly start. San Diego is asking drivers to promise to ignore phones and other distractions, which doesn’t cost anything but is also literally the least they can do (Union-Tribune).
- Chicago’s four-month e-scooter pilot resulted in over 400,000 rides and saved 116 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, but also revealed racial disparities and safety concerns. (Smart Cities Dive)
- Bike and scooter use rose 58 percent during a pop-up bike lane experiment on 10th Street in Atlanta. (Curbed)
- Light rail doesn’t reduce congestion — but it keeps traffic from getting worse, City Lab’s Laura Bliss told Seattle radio station KIRO.
- The massive Hazelwood Green development in Pittsburgh includes the city’s first Complete Street. (NEXT Pittsburgh)
- Walking is probably the best way to get to the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade today. (KSHB)
- Strict ride-hailing regulations in Vancouver — which recently became the last major North American city to let in Uber and Lyft — could serve as an example for other cities. (Wired)
- Breaking news: People are lazy. New research shows most people won’t walk more than two or three blocks to a bike-share docking station, so cities need to build denser networks of stations and make sure they’re well stocked. (Cornell Chronicle)
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