Friday’s Headlines as We Ease into the Weekend
The lead story: More and more states don't mind if drivers run over protesters. Plus all the other news.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on April 23, 2021
- In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, 34 states have introduced bills cracking down on protesters, including some that would bar the prosecution of drivers who run them over. (New York Times)
- President Biden’s climate change summit started Thursday, and he pledged to cut carbon emissions by over half within the next decade. (CNN)
- Sen. Joe Manchin doesn’t want to raise corporate taxes to the level the Biden administration wants in order to fund infrastructure. Now he’s against hiking the gas tax or user fees, too (Business Insider). So how do we pay for this stuff?
- University of Georgia researchers have come up with a new method for infrastructure maintenance that could save a lot of money. (Archinect)
- Mass Transit wonders just what, exactly, the White House wants to spend $621 billion on transportation funding on, and how many of those projects are on the books anyway.
- Seattle’s Sound Transit has an $11.5 billion hole to fill to complete expansion plans voters approved in 2016. (My Northwest)
- New Jersey’s turnpike authority is scheduled to vote next week on a proposal to transfer $2 billion to transit. (NJ.com)
- The Jacksonville city council is about to get its first crack at a proposal to raise gas taxes and fund a Skyway expansion. (News4Jax)
- After six years, it’s clear Washington, D.C.’s Vision Zero efforts have failed. (Greater Greater Washington)
- Transit-oriented development is a new concept in New Orleans (NOLA.com). Maybe they should talk to Charlotte about the pros and cons, where development around transit stops is going gangbusters (WCNC).
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave a prominent Republican lobbyist space to push for autonomous shuttles on the Beltline in lieu of the promised light rail.
- Gwinnett County, a major Atlanta suburb, is studying turning a defunct mall into a transit hub. (Atlanta Business Chronicle)
- As ridership and revenue fell during the pandemic, Denver’s transit agency preserved the routes serving the most vulnerable. (Denver Post)
- Dallas has 2,000 miles worth of sidewalk gaps. (D Magazine)
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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