Thursday’s Headlines Will Never Mislead You
The U.S. DOT's statistics downplay the role of dangerous street designs in traffic deaths, says a top federal safety official.
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EST on January 20, 2022
- The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, accused the Biden administration of continuing to share a pervasive and misleading statistic that attributes almost all crashes to driver error, rather than bad road design and policy. (Associated Press)
- Amtrak is temporarily cutting service due to employees coming down with Omicron. (New York Times)
- Police have an incentive to hand out speeding tickets because most states use the revenue to fund criminal justice, creating a hardship for drivers who can’t afford to pay. (Route Fifty)
- Equity conversations around transportation often leave out people who can’t drive or can’t afford a car. (City Observatory)
- Two self-driving shuttle companies went bankrupt last week, but the technology still holds long-term promise even if it’s not profitable yet. (Forbes)
- The Philadelphia Inquirer calls on Pennsylvania lawmakers to upgrade public transit.
- The growing popularity of drive-throughs during the pandemic is crimping Charlotte’s plans to become more walkable. (Axios)
- Pinellas County, Florida officials want to cut pedestrian and cyclist deaths, which nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021. (St. Pete Catalyst)
- Drivers have already killed two Hartford pedestrians this year, which matches the total for all of 2017. (Courant)
- Cincinnati is updating its bike plan for the first time in 12 years. (WVXU)
- Uncleared sidewalks are forcing Cleveland pedestrians to walk in the street. (News 5)
- The Georgia DOT was going to install bike lanes on a busy Athens street, then removed them from its plans. (Flagpole)
- D.C. Metro General Manager and CEO Paul Wiedefeld is retiring. (DCist)
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan is floating a plan to charge motorists across the entire city based on time of journey, distance traveled and destination. He said the city needs to cut car trips by a quarter to meet 2030 emissions targets. (The Guardian)
- Prague is offering free shared bike rides to residents who have a transit pass. (Expat)
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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