Thursday’s Headlines Are Crosseyed and Painless

  • Wednesday held out hope that an infrastructure deal might materialize, but you can probably guess what happened next. (Politico)
  • Breaking news: Nature is better than concrete at preventing climate change. (Reuters)
  • Planning to vote in Virginia elections on Tuesday? Hampton Roads transit won’t be collecting fares Nov. 2. (13 News Now)
  • Houston is repainting its bus-only lanes to make them safer. (Mass Transit)
  • Huntsville is using a $12.5 million federal grant to build a new bus transfer station downtown. (WAAY)
  • Myrtle Beach settled a lawsuit filed by the NAACP alleging that it discriminated against Black Bike Week against majority white Harley Week. (WPDE)
  • New bike lane alert: There’s one in Denver (9 News), more in Bakersfield (Californian) and another is coming to Tempe (KTAR).
  • The Spanish government wants to establish low-emissions zones in 149 cities, subsidize electric vehicles and spend more on transit (Eltis).
  • London is expanding its low-emissions zone where polluting vehicles have to pay to drive. (CNBC)
  • A $6.4 billion Wellington transportation plan doesn’t add a single car lane (New Zealand Herald).
  • Austria introduced a cheap “climate ticket” to encourage tourists to take electric trains into the mountains (CNN Travel).
  • Pixar movies even “Cars” are actually lowkey urbanist. (Common Edge)

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Carlyle Group’s New Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership: Donuts

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As the federal deficit squeezes the Obama administration’s options for financing ambitious new infrastructure projects, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are gaining currency as a possible solution. And in an illustration of PPPs’ potential, the $86 billion private-equity firm Carlyle Group yesterday struck a deal with the state of Connecticut to run … 23 highway rest stops. […]