Tuesday’s Headlines Want Congress to Get It Together
Everybody needs infrastructure funding. Just don't use it to widen freeways in states where teens in pickups are gunning for cyclists.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on September 28, 2021
- From California to Virginia and Alaska to Louisiana, states have pinned their hopes on federal funding for long-needed transit and other infrastructure projects. (New York Times)
- Transportation for America is worried that the coming showdown involving the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the reconciliation bill and the debt ceiling could wind up gutting transit funding.
- Parents want their children to avoid crowded school buses during the pandemic, which makes protecting students who walk or bike to school all the more important. (Washington Post)
- Washington, D.C.’s auditor is investigating why the city’s Vision Zero program isn’t working. (WTOP)
- New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s failed Vision Zero initiative is coming back to bite him in his final year in office. (Politico)
- The Texas DOT’s plan for I-35 through Austin is likely to induce demand and increase emissions. (KUT)
- There is plenty of space for bike lanes in Denver, it’s just that the DOT would rather give it cars. (9 News)
- A Philadelphia alternative to Amazon offers next-day delivery by bike. (Inquirer)
- The Hampton Roads, Virginia, transit agency plans to expand a light rail line. (13 New Now)
- Peoria tried pop-up bike and bus lanes downtown last weekend. (Central Illinois Proud)
- A Phoenix museum’s exhibit shows how streetcars helped the city grow and prosper, then were abandoned in favor of cars. (AZ Central)
- A new West Seattle program is aimed at helping non-drivers navigate a bridge closure. (Post-Intelligencer)
- The Philadelphia Parking Authority is now patrolling bike lanes for illegally parked cars. (WHYY)
- In Texas, a teenage pickup truck driver who was harassing cyclists by rolling coal — intentionally bellowing huge clouds of black smoke out of a modified exhaust system —wound up sending six of them to the hospital. No word on any charges he might face. (Jalopnik)
- Unlike so many drivers, the driver of a Boston light rail train who rear-ended another train is facing charges. (ABC News)
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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