Thursday’s Headlines From Around the Nation
- Is Infrastructure Week finally here? President Trump is pushing a $2-trillion infrastructure deal to jump-start the economy. (The Hill)
- Dallas Mavericks owner and "Shark Tank" host Mark Cuban has a point, for once: If we’re going to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure, it can’t just be the usual roads and bridges. But how about investing in transit and Complete Streets instead of lanes for self-driving cars and pedestrian bridges? (Yahoo)
- The coronavirus crisis is illustrating the profound effect reducing traffic congestion can have on road safety and air quality. Cities should pursue congestion pricing now and reap the benefits when the crisis abates. (Eno Center for Transportation)
- Uber drivers — whose incomes are plummeting during the pandemic — are accusing the company of hindering their access to unemployment benefits. (Forbes)
- The U.S. needs passenger rail to connect its emerging mega-regions — and it doesn’t have to be high speed, just fast enough to compete with short flights. (City Metric)
- Coronavirus finally convinced New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to drop the city’s stupid and unnecessary crackdown on throttle e-bikes, which targets mainly immigrant delivery workers (Fast Company). State legislators finally legalized the bikes on Thursday (Streetsblog).
- Ann Arbor unveiled a $1-billion plan to become carbon neutral by 2030. Most of the money would go toward transit — including expanding service and electric buses — with the goal of cutting miles driven in half. (MLive)
- Atlanta suburbs on the north side of I-285 want space set aside for trails when the Georgia DOT starts adding lanes. (Curbed)
- Not everyone is happy about it, but Las Vegas has found a use for an empty parking lot: as an open-air shelter for the homeless, with markings to help them with social distancing. Coronavirus recently forced a 500-bed shelter to close. (The Guardian)
- A small Washington state transit agency is using its fleet of vans to deliver groceries — a creative way to keep trip numbers up and help the community. (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
- A Cincinnati urban planner unearthed plans to build a subway in 1927. At the time, the city had 16 bus routes and 39 streetcars carrying a total of 160 million riders a year. (City Beat)
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