Thursday’s Headlines Are Catching Up
$66 billion is a lot of money, but it's only enough for Amtrak to fix what it has. Plus, equity for women on transit and African Americans near freeways.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on August 19, 2021
- Amtrak has been neglected for so long that its $66 billion in the infrastructure bill will mostly just bring intercity rail back up to speed, rather than build an Asian- or European-style system. (CNN)
- The fact that interstate highways tore through urban Black neighborhoods wasn’t an accident. That was the plan all along. (Washington Post)
- The majority of transit riders are women, yet transit systems throw up a variety of roadblocks, from sexual harassment to stroller bans to scheduling that doesn’t meet caregivers’ needs. (Ms. Magazine)
- Urban rail stations were once vibrant community centers, and they can be again. (Mass Transit Mag)
- The solo rush-hour commute might seem like a permanent fact of American life, but it is not. (Governing)
- Uber, Lyft and other gig-economy companies are taking their successful anti-labor Prop 22 campaign to states outside California. (Jacobin)
- Insurance is a rarely considered cost of owning a car, and it runs the average driver $1,800 a year. Detroit is by far the most expensive city to insure a car. (City Observatory)
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wants Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to referee a dispute among New Jersey, New York and Connecticut over COVID funding for transit. (Trains)
- A proposed Colorado DOT rule would require state and local governments to consider the impact on climate change when approving road projects. (Colorado Public Radio)
- The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that records from a private but state-owned railroad company related to the failed Durham-Orange light rail line aren’t subject to open records. (Raleigh News & Observer)
- Vancouver could beat New York to become the first North American city to try congestion pricing. (National Observer)
- Prague’s first cargo-bike depot has been so successful at reducing carbon emissions that the Czech city is opening a second one. (Eltis)
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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