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Thursday’s Headlines From Around the Nation

12:01 AM EDT on July 9, 2020

    • In 2009, the U.S. spent $28 billion on roads and bridges and just $8 billion on high-speed rail — a drop in the bucket — as part of the Obama stimulus package. Sure, infrastructure projects create jobs, but will politicians learn their lesson this time and stop building so many highways? (New York Times)
    • U.S. highways were often intentionally built through communities of color (NPR). Related: U.S. PIRG remembers highway boondoggles of the past, like the Massachusetts Turnpike, which plowed through Boston neighborhoods in the 1960s.
    • Building a self-driving car has turned out to be harder than tech startups expected, so they’re teaming up with deep-pocketed automakers like Ford and Hyundai (Wired). Meanwhile, Lyft is resuming test-driving its autonomous cars in California after a three-month pandemic pause (Fortune).
    • A new platform is collecting ideas from cities and transportation groups on how to improve mobility during the pandemic. (Eltis)
    • Parking guru Donald Shoup writes in City Lab that congestion pricing could help Los Angeles avoid the coming carpocalypse once people start working again and get back on the road. A pilot program is set for 2021.
    • Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is asking voters to approve a sales-tax fund of up to $30 million to help the city’s transit system recover from the pandemic (KOMO). Meanwhile, King County might paper over some of transit’s losses by canceling workers’ raises (Seattle Times).
    • E-bikes are back in Washington, D.C. after Capital Bikeshare pulled them last year over concerns about braking. (WTOP)
    • A new study by Uber and several metro Cincinnati governments lays out a path to improve public transit. (Medium)
    • San Diego (Pacific) and Tulsa (KTUL) are the latest cities to let restaurants set up tables and chairs on sidewalks and in parking lots.
    • Road diets are planned for six Milwaukee streets. (Urban Milwaukee)

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