Streetsblog

Friday’s Headlines Will Meet You in the Middle

President Biden and Senate moderates agreed to the framework of an infrastructure deal during a drunken orgy of bipartisanship. Read all about it here.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on June 25, 2021

Politico has a tick-tock on how the bipartisan infrastructure deal announced Thursday came together — apparently it involved lots of wine. NPR breaks down the numbers. While it’s more than current levels of spending on transit (WaPost), it’s less than what President Biden originally proposed.
Not everyone is a fan. Esquire said the scaled-down proposal, which includes less than $600 billion in new spending, fails to rise to the challenge of climate change. And Lucy could still pull back the football: Some Republicans are mad that Democrats are planning to come back with a second infrastructure bill including “human infrastructure” like child care (Reuters). But the second bill is a prerequisite for support from Senate progressives (The Hill).
These NBC News graphics show where e-bike ridership and bike-share use in general rose during the pandemic.
Like so many transportation projects, Portland’s Rose Quarter mysteriously went from “nothing’s been decided” to “it’s too late to change.” (City Observatory)
Buffalo officials and transit advocates are debating whether streetcars are a romanticized waste of money or a way to lure people onto transit who are reluctant to ride the bus. (Governing)
The Texas DOT kept working on plans to widen I-45 through Houston despite being told to stop while the Biden administration looked at civil rights concerns. (Houston Public Media)
Decriminalization of fare evasion and unarmed enforcement were left out of a Minnesota transportation bill (MinnPost). But the $7.3 billion bill does including funding for Amtrak and two bus rapid transit lines (Pioneer Press).
The Washington Post says transit equity should be a priority for D.C.
Gov. Ned Lamont, other Connecticut officials and Amtrak are pushing a plan to speed up passenger rail service, both now and out to 2035. (Mirror)
Cleveland is backpedaling on plans for a two-way cycle track on Lorain Avenue. (Plain Dealer)
San Jose is using concrete barriers to separate painted bike lanes from roads. (KPIX)