Friday’s Headlines to Ring in the Year of the Ox
Wow, lots of news yesterday, including a study that found that only 5 percent of cyclists break traffic laws, compared to 66 percent of motorists. Also, the Lunar New Year starts today.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EST on February 12, 2021
- Transit ridership projections are looking bleaker as more companies announce that employees will be working from home indefinitely. But the end of rush hour could be a blessing in disguise, because peak service is expensive to provide. (Slate)
- The Biden administration should let cities and regions take the lead on infrastructure projects and prioritize transit over roads, according to a new Rice Kinder Institute report.
- Anticipating a boom in e-scooter commuting when the pandemic is over, Lime is partnering with an employer benefits company to subsidize rides for 10 million workers. (City Lab)
- Behind all those breezy traffic reports on the radio are thousands of deaths caused by roads designed to be dangerous. (Strong Towns)
- Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants a Denver-to-Longmont light rail line built sooner than the Regional Transportation District’s target date of 2042. (Denver Post)
- Transit ridership fell by half in Utah last year, but federal COVID-19 funding far exceeded farebox losses for the Utah Transit Authority. (Salt Lake Tribune)
- A $180-billion transportation plan is just one of several potentially transformative projects under consideration in the San Diego region. (Union-Tribune)
- Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said he had an “encouraging” meeting with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about a $2-billion plan to knit neighborhoods back together that were displaced by I-81. (Post-Standard)
- Consultant Jarrett Walker, who runs the Human Transit blog, will be helping the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority redesign its bus routes. (ThreadATL)
- The latest chapter in Savannah’s transit saga has former CEO Bacarra Mauldin suing Chatham Area Transit, alleging she was fired for whistleblowing about contract irregularities. (WTOC)
- The Charlotte Area Transit System is testing a new fleet of streetcars. (WBTV)
- Austin is making improvements to three popular biking and walking trails. (KVUE)
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to spend $15 billion on public transportation over the next eight years, with $6 billion earmarked for short-term projects and the rest going into creating a permanent fund of $3 billion per year. (CBC)
- Drivers love to complain about bike scofflaws, but a Danish study found that only 5 percent of cyclists break traffic laws, compared to 66 percent of motorists. (Forbes)
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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