Wednesday’s Headlines Are Watching You
Are cameras a great way to discourage blocking bike and bus lanes, or just another inequitable method of traffic enforcement?
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EST on January 12, 2022
- More and more cities are using cameras mounted on buses to ticket drivers who block dedicated bus lanes. (City Lab)
- Contrary to their race-neutral reputation, though, traffic camera enforcement falls disproportionately on Black and Latino communities, where many people still must drive to work and can’t afford to pay a ticket. (ProPublica)
- One of Tesla’s new self-driving features results in cars performing more illegal rolling stops. (Gizmodo)
- State governments are spending billions to attract electric vehicle manufactures and build EV infrastructure like charging stations. (The Hill)
- Cities should be free to make their Main Streets pedestrian friendly rather than let state DOTs engineer them for cars. (CNU Public Square)
- While often frustrating to riders because of maintenance issues, the D.C. Metro is the largest transit system created in the U.S. after the dawn of the automobile age. In contrast to, say, Atlanta, it worked because the city didn’t build so many freeways and the suburbs bought in. (Governing)
- Other cities and even the Biden administration are watching a California town’s experiment with an on-demand transit fleet made up of electric vehicles. (Los Angeles Times)
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget includes billions for high-speed rail, other transit projects and active transportation (The Source). But Streetsblog California is skeptical.
- Indiana Republicans are trying to block the Blue Line, Indianapolis’ planned third bus rapid transit line. (Star)
- A quarter of Detroit bus routes are being delayed or canceled as COVID-19 spreads among operators (News). In Pittsburgh, the Port Authority is now requiring transit workers to be vaccinated (Post-Gazette).
- Houston’s bike infrastructure is a joke, as evidenced by a trail bridge that was damaged by fire a year and a half ago and still hasn’t reopened. (Press)
- Connecticut has too much free parking. (Mirror)
- Chapel Hill celebrated 20 years of fare-free transit. (Chapelboro)
- A California inventor is working on a bike-lane sweeper that can be towed behind a bike. (BikePortland)
- Mashable reviewed all the e-bikes and e-scooters on display at the recent CES tech conference in Las Vegas.
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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