Wednesday’s Headlines From Around the Nation
The news of the day is still COVID, COVID, COVID — but it's all here, curated for you in one place.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on May 27, 2020
- The federal DOT is giving permission to airlines to stop serving about 60 small and mid-sized cities (New York Times). So how about some rail lines to connect those cities to their bigger neighbors, then?
- Cars aren’t going away, so let’s make them smaller, slower, cleaner and safer. (Crikey)
- Self-driving and remote-controlled scooters now being tested could end sidewalk clutter. (Forbes)
- Uber and Lyft’s $100 million effort to overturn a California law classifying drivers as employees rather than independent contractors is officially on the November ballot. (San Francisco Examiner)
- Jump bikes are back in Denver after Lime bought the company, and they’ll start each day in food deserts, with sanitized handlebars. (Denverite)
- A Washington, D.C. reopening task force’s recommendations don’t include enough about opening up streets for social distancing, some city officials believe. (WAMU)
- San Antonio is closing two residential streets to through traffic as part of a pilot program on making room for biking and walking. (Rivard Report)
- Pittsburgh transit has lost three-quarters of its ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Public Source)
- Albuquerque is painting its bus-only lanes red in an effort to alert pedestrians that they should look both ways — a bus could be coming from either direction. (Journal)
- The city of Austin and its transit agency are hashing out a deal to turn the city-owned B-Cycle bike-share over to Capital Metro. If it happens, people could buy a one-day pass on their phone to use both transit and the bike-share. (Community Impact)
- King County Metro in Seattle is considering a late-night reservation system so that riders aren’t passed up by buses that have reached their COVID-19 capacity. (Seattle Transit Blog)
- Service won’t start for three more years, but the Southwest Line’s first train cars have arrived in Minneapolis. (Star Tribune)
- The Tennessean has a list of kid-friendly bike routes in Nashville.
Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
More from Streetsblog USA
Friday Video: Dude, Where Are My Trains?
We know exactly why passenger rail in America sucks. The question is whether we'll fix it.
June 5, 2026
Friday’s Headlines Are Getting Dim
Brightline looked like it might be the future of intercity rail. It hasn't quite worked out that way.
June 5, 2026
Talking Headways Podcast: Evolution, God and Transportation
Let's consider the totality of the human experience on this planet. Yes, it connects to livable streets, we promise. It's a very special episode of Talking Headways!
June 4, 2026
A Rolling Protest Helped Win Some of the Best Provisions in Congress’ New Infrastructure Bill
...and the advocates behind the ride are doing it again soon.
June 4, 2026
Thursday’s Headlines Are Tired of Tires
Yale has found more evidence that tires cause air pollution as they wear.
June 4, 2026