Streetsblog

Thursday’s Headlines to Drive You Over a Cliff

Click here for scathing indictments of Detroit automakers, Uber's self-driving cars, clueless planners, scooters on sidewalks and racist police.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on October 22, 2020

Detroit automakers are passing on a chance to be more vocal about climate change because they’re scared of offending red-state customers who buy their trucks (City Lab). Even the electric vehicles they do produce are environment-destroying killing machines like the new Hummer (Gizmodo).
Uber tuned the software on the autonomous car that didn’t detect an Arizona woman crossing the street and disabled the emergency braking system that could have stopped the car before it killed her. So Uber should be charged in her death. (Slate)
Transportation planners need to stop defining level of service by how fast vehicles flow and start thinking about how to improve congestion by making walking easier and transit more convenient. (City Monitor)
Scooter riders are injured more frequently than cyclists, and most of those injuries happen on the sidewalk, bolstering cities’ quandary about where e-scooters can be ridden most safely. (Smart Cities Dive)
Cargo bikes make more sense for urban deliveries than vans. (The Next Web)
Uber is threatening to raise fares by as much as 100 percent if California voters reject Prop 22 (Business Insider). Left unsaid is that the company is going to have to raise them anyway—it’s been using venture capital to keep prices artificially low for years.
A Newsday investigation found that Suffolk County, New York, police are far more likely to pull over and search minority drivers than white ones.
Conservatives are pushing Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to pull out of an interstate climate change compact that would cap greenhouse gas emissions. (Boston Herald)
Charlotte approved a car-free apartment building that the developer promised would lower the cost of housing. Parking construction runs about $30,000 a space; without it, half the units will be affordable for those making less than the median income. (Observer)
The Washington, D.C. city council approved new regulations requiring e-scooters and e-bikes to be locked to racks, setting speed limits and banning drunk riding. (DCist)
Transit agency Trinity Metro is asking Fort Worth for $86 million to extend TEXRail. (The Texan)
A Mexico City company saved 1,600 bikes from the scrap heap after Uber decided to get out of the bike-share business. (The Verge)
Best Mayor in the World Anne Hidalgo is removing half of the 140,000 parking spaces in Paris to make more room for bikes and pedestrians. (Forbes)