Streetsblog

Wednesday’s Headlines Want Safe Streets Now

Particularly frightening about the 16-year high in traffic deaths: The spike in pedestrians killed, seniors killed and deaths caused by large truck drivers.

By Blake Aued

12:00 AM EDT on May 18, 2022

Wednesday’s Headlines Want Safe Streets Now

Road deaths were up 10 percent in 2021.

Traffic deaths rose to their highest level since 2005 last year, the biggest percentage increase since the Federal Highway Safety Administration started keeping track in 1975. (Washington Post)
As part of the 2021 infrastructure act, U.S. DOT is making $5 billion in grants available to cities for safe-streets projects across five years… (Associated Press)
…but the Biden administration also said it’s already released $110 billion in funding from the same bill this year alone, much of which will go to autocentric projects. (Reuters)
The $1 billion for urban freeway removal is giving minority communities in California hope, but they also worry that officials will repeat the mistakes of the past with the influx of infrastructure funding. (The American Prospect)
The Colorado DOT is taking a plan to widen I-25 through Denver off the table, for now. (Colorado Sun)
USDOT is seeking nominees for an advisory committee on transportation equity. (Transport Topics)
Soon it will be impossible to pick out an autonomous vehicle from one with a human driver. (MIT Technology Review)
Uber Eats is launching two robot delivery pilot programs in Los Angeles. (Engadget)
The railyard where a gunman killed six Santa Clara Valley Authority transit workers in San Jose last year is being torn down. (Trains)
Arkansas planners are looking to bike and pedestrian projects to reduce congestion, but still haven’t given up on the false idea that widening roads will help, either. (Democrat-Gazette)
St. Paul has Lime e-scooters but still no bike-share. (Pioneer Press)
Even Berkeley isn’t immune to bikelash. (CBS News)
This German suspension railway is a relic of the future from the past. (CNN Travel)