Tuesday’s Headlines Want to Stop Driving
Cars are expensive to own, and driving is often no fun, but most Americans don't have much choice. Will rising gas prices change the conversation?
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EDT on March 15, 2022
- Owning a car is becoming increasingly expensive, and commuting more and more miserable. Most Americans don’t have a choice, however, because transit service is so poor. (The Guardian)
- Liberal environmental reforms meant to encourage citizen participation are now being used to stymie transit projects and affordable housing, writes Ezra Klein. (New York Times)
- An e-bike can travel 2,000 miles on the cost of one gallon of gas. (Electrek)
- Omaha is seeing record numbers of bike-share users and bus riders because gas prices are high. (KETV)
- Uber is tacking a fuel surcharge onto rides. (The Verge)
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she is likely to veto a bill suspending the state’s gas tax (Detroit News). But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin said a gas-tax cut is on the table at the federal level (Reuters), even though consumers wouldn’t notice much difference.
- California’s embattled high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco is emblematic of the U.S.’s inability to do big infrastructure projects anymore. (NYT)
- Ordinarily a $2 billion economic development project creating 7,500 jobs would be a huge win for Gov. Brian Kemp, but Rivian’s electric vehicle plant in rural Georgia has turned into a partisan political football. (NYT)
- Durham, N.C. officials want to know what happened to the $167 million they spent on a failed Research Triangle light rail line. (Raleigh News & Observer)
- Washington state Democrats have agreed to a $17 billion transportation bill. (The Olympian)
- Even though Teamsters support it, a gig-worker bill in the Washington legislature is a bad deal for Uber and Lyft drivers. (Jacobin)
- Florida legislators gave Miami-Dade $3 million to upgrade a trail along a the South Dade Transitway. (Florida Politics)
- Boulder has a new type of traffic-calming device called a “speed kidney” that functions as both a bump-out and a speed hump. (Boulder Beat)
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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