- Carbon emissions rose faster than expected in 2021, outpacing the economic recovery from the pandemic. People are driving again, and utilities burned more coal for electricity because natural gas prices are high. That will make it harder to hit President Biden's overall climate goals. (CNN)
- Biden is facing an increasingly narrow path to pass the Build Back Better bill, which contains $555 billion to curb climate change (New York Times). The bill remains in limbo, with talks with pivotal vote Sen. Joe Manchin stalled out and Biden pivoting to voting rights (E&E News).
- Some good news: Even as they age into their 30s and 40s, millennials are still driving less than Gen Xers and younger Baby Boomers. (Quartz)
- Governing interviewed a University of Michigan sociologist about how government and foundation funding for things like transit often benefit neighborhoods that already have money over communities with greater need where investment is seen as riskier.
- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's goal of zero traffic deaths by 2025 increasingly looks out of reach, with drivers killing 20 percent more people last year than 2020 or 2019. (L.A. Times)
- Washington, D.C. also followed the national trend, with traffic deaths rising to their highest point since 2007. (DCist)
- Like many cities, Atlanta is hoping to use $1 billion set aside in the infrastructure bill to dismantle or bury urban freeways that slice through Black neighborhoods. (AJC)
- The Texas DOT's latest plan for widening I-35 through Austin calls for putting the freeway below grade, allowing for more pedestrian crossings, and lowering speed limits on frontage roads. But the project will still add lanes. (KUT)
- Dallas Area Rapid Transit will be offering free rides for a week when it launches its revamped bus network Jan. 24. Why not go fare-free permanently? (D Magazine)
- Portland is eyeing a $12.5 billion bridge replacement fund in the federal infrastructure package to expand the city's bike network. (Bike Portland)
- Predictably, Elon Musk's tunnel for Teslas and a self-driving car demo both flopped in Las Vegas last weekend. (Curbed)
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog USA
Talking Headways Podcast: Emotional Consumption in China
High-speed rail has completely transformed the country. Think about that sentence: "High-speed rail has completely transformed the country." When was the last time something positive like that happened here?
November 20, 2025
Cutting Federal Transit Funding Won’t Close Budget Gaps — But Will Make Transportation Less Affordable
The Trump administration's proposal to eliminate the mass transit account of the Highway Trust Fund would be short-sighted, ineffective, and ruinous, a new analysis finds.
November 20, 2025
Op-Ed: Is There Really More ‘Freedom’ in a City That Depends on Cars?
Or is that question a false dichotomy?
November 20, 2025
Thursday’s Headlines Get Schooled
It's still hard to find people willing to drive the ol' cheese wagon. And since so many places aren't walkable, guess what parents are doing?
Blake Aued
November 20, 2025
Paying With Their Time: Increasing Traffic Congestion Erodes Benefits of Boston’s Fare-Free Buses
Mayor Wu's press office avoided several inquiries from StreetsblogMASS to discuss the worsening delays in MBTA bus service over the course of her first term.
The Most Expensive Bikeshare in the U.S. Is…
The price of a yearly Citi Bike membership has grown by 77 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars since the bike-share program launched 2013, the Independent Budget Office said.
