Thursday’s Headlines Are Ready to Roll
Amtrak needs to staff up, BRT improves property values, TODs reduce transportation costs and autonomous cars lead to more driving.
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EDT on April 7, 2022
- A watchdog report questions whether Amtrak has the capacity to effectively spend a massive $66 billion influx of funding from the federal infrastructure act. (Roll Call)
- The U.S. House passed a bill requiring and funding data collection about sexual assaults on transit and other modes. (The Hill)
- Bus rapid transit lines improve nearby property values, according to an Ohio State University study.
- Another study, from the University of Texas, found that people who are attracted to new technology like partially autonomous vehicles tend to drive less now, but when they acquire vehicles with those features will wind up traveling more by car. (State Smart Transportation Initiative)
- Electric vehicles still rely on carbon-intensive roads, so they’re not as green as they seem. (Toronto Star)
- California homeowners who live in transit-oriented developments pay 40 percent less in transportation costs. (Route Fifty)
- The Texas DOT isn’t listening to El Paso officials who say they want bike and pedestrians features incorporated into a downtown I-10 project. (El Paso Matters)
- Virginia had 850 traffic deaths last year, yet a Vision Zero bill failed to clear a committee in the state legislature. (WRIC)
- Seattle’s first camera that tickets drivers who block bike lanes and intersections has been activated. (My Northwest)
- In 20 years Pittsburgh has gone from just three bike lanes to 100 miles of bike infrastructure. (Pittsburgh Magazine)
- Writer and journalist Eric Boehlert died Monday when he was hit by a train while riding his bike near his New Jersey home. (New York Daily News)
- Streetsblog parent company Streetfilms produced a short documentary at the League of American Bicyclists’ 2022 bike summit in Washington, D.C., one of the country’s better biking cities. (YouTube)
- European cities are struggling with what to do about urban freeways just like the U.S. (Governing). Unlike the U.S., they’re also investing heavily in trains, particularly to replace shorter flights (New York Times).
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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