Tuesday’s Headlines from Around the U.S.A.
The movement to make the suburbs better is afoot (regardless of what President Trump thinks). Plus other news.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on August 18, 2020
- Bloomberg predicts that the suburbs will become more like cities, with denser housing and better transit, to attract people fleeing increasingly expensive urban areas. Likewise, as Britons continue to work from home, London is seeing the rise of small towns over the city center (Guardian). Meanwhile, Streetsblog decoded President Trump’s racist dog-whistle in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
- With all the focus on climate change, don’t forget that the much older problem of air pollution is still with us. The benefit to air quality alone is worth the cost of shifting away from fossil fuels. (Vox)
- Good design can bring cities together and relieve the trauma inflicted on Black communities. (Reuters)
- Fast Company profiles BlackSpace, a coalition of architects, planners and others seeking to change the at best neglectful and at worst overtly racist ways cities have developed along socio-economic lines.
- Uber and Lyft’s fight with California over labor rights is just beginning. (Cap Radio)
- San Diego officials unveiled a $177-billion plan to radically transform transit in the region by 2050, with 350 miles of high-speed rail, transit hubs, autonomous shuttles and bus express lanes. Although some conservatives are pushing to widen freeways instead, a referendum on the plan could come as early as 2022. (Encinitas Advocate)
- D.C. Metro service returns to nearly normal this week, nearly doubling after drastic coronavirus cutbacks. (Washington Post)
- New policies in Salt Lake City will bring sidewalks, bike lanes and greenspace to streets that are solely for moving cars. (Salt Lake Tribune)
- Austin and its transit agency, Cap Metro, have formed a new organization to oversee the $7-billion Project Connect transit plan. (KUT)
- After rolling around empty since the pandemic started in March, the Cincinnati streetcar will once again start ferrying passengers Sept. 2. And it will be free to ride. (WLWT)
- Philadelphia is installing GPS on Indego bikes after 330 of 1,400 went missing so far this year. (Billy Penn)
- The Pensacola Bay Bridge has a new multi-use path, so cyclists and pedestrians can finally safely cross it. (News Journal)
- Seattle is seeking input on new bike lanes in Beacon Hill. (South Seattle Emerald)
- Aspen’s being overrun with RVs, and the only solution is … thousands of underground parking spaces? (Aspen Times)
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:
More from Streetsblog USA
The California DMV’s Culture of Obstruction
California’s DMV is responsible for managing some of the biggest risks on the state’s roads, but researchers say a culture of secrecy and obstruction makes it nearly impossible for the public to access basic information about dangerous drivers and disabled parking placard fraud.
November 6, 2026
Opinion: I (Almost) Killed a Pedestrian With My Car
Every driver has a story or two about a near-miss traffic crash, even when they were doing everything right. Can we get those numbers down with safer systems?
November 6, 2026
Talking Headways Podcast: The Value of Cities
Cities are valuable precisely because there are so many people in them.
November 5, 2026
What It Will Take To Turn the ‘Blue Wave’ Into a Watershed Moment for Transportation Reform
Democrats won big at the ballot box in the midterms. Will they fight for multimodal travelers when they're in office?
November 5, 2026
