Thursday’s Headlines

Register now before we sell out! Act against climate change and create universal mobility at the 2020 National Shared Mobility Summit, March 17-19 in Chicago. Meet leaders from the public and private sectors and learn the latest policies and practices. Form partnerships and make new modes work for communities of all sizes

• Sidewalks, bus shelters and a grid rather than hub-and-spoke routes are the keys to resurrecting city bus systems, according to author Steven Higashide. (Kinder Institute)
• Cities need both carrots (like subsidies for micro-mobility services) and sticks (like banning cars in city centers) to solve the last-mile problem. (Horizon)
• Curb-to-curb microtransit that’s somewhere between a bus and an Uber is the latest trend among transit agencies, including Sacramento, Seattle and Los Angeles. (Government Technology)
• A rather meandering New York Times article talks about how cities are hopeful that data collected from e-scooters can help them plan infrastructure and reduce congestion.
• Bloomberg has a long feature on Brightline, the startup that runs a high-speed passenger rail line in South Florida, with plans to go from California to Las Vegas, and to link up other cities that are too far apart to drive and too close to fly as well.
• California Assembly Member David Chiu thinks more people would ride transit if the Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies were unified. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Portland’s TriMet unveiled plans for the Southwest Corridor light rail line (KATU). And Madison officials have recommended routes for downtown and westside bus rapid transit (Wisconsin State Journal).
• So many people lost, stole or forgot to return e-bikes in Philadelphia that the city is temporarily pulling what’s left of the fleet. (Inquirer)
• Speaking of which, people are stealing Toronto’s speed cameras even before they can start giving out tickets. (Narcity)
• A Georgia bill would tax ride-hailing, limousine and taxi rides to pay for transit in rural areas. (AJC)
• Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is floating gondolas — the cable cars, not the boats — as a key to modernizing the city’s transit system. (Post-Gazette)
• Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants to transform the City of Light so people can find everything they need within 15 minutes — without getting into a car. Her plan includes a bike path on every street by 2024 and removing three-quarters of the city’s on-street parking spaces. (Eltis)
• Obeying parking rules is for the little people, according to Jeff Bezos. (The Verge)