Tuesday’s Headlines

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EST on February 18, 2020

The number of annual trips made on foot or by bike in the U.S. didn’t change between 2001 and 2017. That’s because our streets continue to be unsafe for everyone. Yes, more adults are taking the risk, but they’re increasingly less likely to let their children walk or ride a bike, contributing to an obesity epidemic. (Huffington Post)
Speaking of, does owning a car really hurt your health? Yes, it does. (Globe and Mail)
The amount of money drivers owe on their cars has risen 75 percent in the past decade. Most of that figure is made up of people who are dependent on having a car, thanks to sprawl and lack of investment in transit, but have low credit scores and are thus vulnerable to predatory loans. (Frontier Group)
On a related note, mobility companies cater to city-dwellers with disposable incomes, but don’t address the needs of younger urbanites or the working suburbanites that need them most. (Smart Cities Dive)
Will DeKalb Avenue — one of Atlanta’s most dangerous streets, with high speeds, cracked pavement and a notorious reversible “suicide lane” — get a Complete Streets makeover? (Curbed)
A Hawaii bill creates a framework for regulating e-scooters, which could help ease Honolulu’s traffic woes. (Civil Beat)
Stolen Indego rental bikes are back on the streets after a police sweep. (Billy Penn)
The Federal Transit Administration is looking favorably on bus rapid transit projects in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. But as Durham-Orange light rail shows, that’s no guarantee they’ll get built. (Raleigh News & Observer)
The Pittsburgh Port Authority is $27 million shy of the $225 million needed for its BRT project. (Post-Gazette)
Apparently the feds’ issue with plans for the Twin Cities’ Gold Line is lack of parking at stations (RiverTowns). Let’s hope they don’t notice the D.C. Metro is cutting back on parking (WTOP).
A Boston city council member’s idea to reduce parking fines for low-income drivers sounds good, but in seeking to extend it to everyone, the Boston Herald doesn’t seem to understand why parking fines exist in the first place.
Part of the reason is because, when people park illegally, it occasionally leads to someone getting sucker punched, as recently happened in San Jose. (Mercury News)

Blake Aued

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