Streetsblog

Wednesday’s Headlines Are Already Over the Hump

Traffic deaths are up again, transit agencies continue to squeeze blood from a stone, and more headlines.

By Blake Aued

12:01 PM EDT on September 7, 2021

Traffic deaths rose 10 percent in the first three months of 2021 even as driving fell by 15 billion miles, according to preliminary estimates by the U.S. DOT, as drivers continue to speed, drive under the influence and not wear seat belts. (Green Car Congress)
Transit agencies are doing a good job of improving service with limited funds through bus route redesigns, but with budgets shrinking the process sometimes seems like a managed decline. (Pedestrian Observations)
No one really knows whether the environmental damage caused by mining the minerals needed to make batteries offsets gains from electric vehicles. (NPR)
Money spent on urban highways should go toward chronically underfunded rural transit instead. (Commonwealth)
Opponents of the Transportation Climate Initiative, an interstate compact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are seeking to put an initiative on the Massachusetts ballot banning gas taxes, which would jeopardize funding for transit and roads. (Public News Service)
Transit passes are included with rent in the Twin Cities under a new Metro Transit pilot program. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is investing $25 million in Milwaukee and Madison transit to at least partially offset $32 million Republican legislators cut from the state budget. (Independent)
Transportation officials in Gwinnett County, outside Atlanta, are seeking funding for five new bus routes and microtransit. (Daily Post)
For D.C. residents who are venturing out again for the first time, the Washington Post has an update on things like new bike lanes and Metro changes.
Memphis is seeking feedback on four proposed road diets. (Flyer)
Charlotte residents are pushing for a comprehensive sidewalk plan. (WCCB)
An express bus could soon be running along I-66 in Virginia. (Reston Now)
Ann Arbor replaced car lanes with bike lanes on Main Street. (MLive)
Phoenix is so hot that one resident spends his afternoons passing out bottled water to people walking and waiting on buses (AZ Central). Meanwhile, a billionaire former Walmart executive wants to build a brand new city, population 5 million, in the middle of the desert that will somehow be “sustainable.” (CNN)

Blake Aued

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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