Streetsblog

Thursday’s Headlines from All Over the Place

Joe Biden and a muscle car. Oy, where do we begin. That, plus all the headlines.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on August 5, 2020

Self-driving cars are nothing new — they’ve been a dream of automakers for 100 years. Today, they’re still a novelty, but a sea change is coming in the next few decades (One Zero). Former Obama advisor Peter Orszag disagrees that the technology isn’t ready, though. He thinks it’s lack of federal policy that’s holding them back (Bloomberg).
A study in the upcoming Journal of Urban Health directly ties lack of investment in transportation to health disparities in low-income communities of color. (Doc Wire News)
Jalopnik holds out some slim hope that former Toyota executive and new Ford CEO Jim Hackett will go back to making smaller, safer and more fuel-efficient cars.
Joe Biden put out an auto erotic campaign ad that looked more like an Onion parody (Twitter), but at least Biden isn’t proposing making it harder for people to divest from fossil fuel stocks as President Trump’s Labor Department is doing, The New Yorker reported yesterday.
Under pressure from NIMBYs, sprawling Plano repealed its forward-looking 2015 comp plan, and the racially tinged campaign against it could provide a blueprint for other efforts to preserve 1980s suburbia in Texas. (D Magazine)
The Las Vegas Sun is in favor of the Convention and Visitors Association’s plan to buy and extend the monorail along the Strip, and dubious of Elon Musk’s tunnel plan.
Los Angeles County approved a Vision Zero plan to eliminate pedestrian deaths outside city limits by 2035. (L.A. Daily News)
A Minnesota audit found that the state is not doing enough to regulate for-hire vehicles like limos, airport shuttles and party buses. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority is looking to cut a deal to maintain pre-COVID levels of bus service in Cincinnati in exchange for city transit revenue and assets like bus depots. (Cincinnati Public Radio)
Streetsblog Chicago and Windy City advocacy groups succeeded in convincing the Illinois DOT to walk back a decision to eliminate bus-only lanes from Lakeshore Drive.
The Philadelphia Inquirer wants to make wide Washington Avenue safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
With new rental e-bikes set to hit Portland streets, what should the city do with it’s 1,000 pedal-only Biketown bikes from 2016? (Bike Portland)
Fast, furious and fined: Bystanders at Atlanta street races, which have become more common during the pandemic, will have to pay $1,000 or spend up to six months in jail. (AJC)
China is investing $68 billion in intercity passenger rail in the Hong Kong region. (International Railway Journal)

Blake Aued

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.

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