Streetsblog

Tuesday’s Headlines are Going to the Mall

We all love to hate malls as the poster child of urban sprawl, but there's a reason why people flocked there to walk and do sick bomb drops.

By Blake Aued

12:00 AM EDT on June 7, 2022

Mall.

Malls are often derided by urban planners, but people flocked to them for a reason: From seniors who wanted to take a walk to people in wheelchairs to skateboarding teenagers, their well-maintained infrastructure made people feel safe. (City Lab)
If we really want to reach carbon zero, let’s focus more on biking than electric vehicles. (Streetsblog USA)
Car tires are killing us, reports the Guardian (though an expert kinda debunked the paper’s scariest claims).
Climate change is forcing East Coast schools to send kids home early because they have no air conditioning and no money to install it. (Washington Post)
Dezeen thinks the pandemic will usher in a “magical” golden age of cycling in cities.
California regulators have approved allowing robot taxies on San Francisco streets. (NPR)
Rising construction costs may force Austin to take a hard look at its $7 billion Project Connect transit plan, so here’s another look at some of the major proposed projects. (Chronicle)
The Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority spends more than half its sales-tax collections on operating costs, which leads critics to wonder if there will be enough left over to fund expansion plans. (AJC)
Alexandria’s fare-free transit experiment has been a big success. (Governing)
Orange County, North Carolina, officials are finally getting a reckoning on how area governments spent $157 million on a light rail line that never made it past the planning stage. They also threw cold water on any attempt to try light rail again. (Raleigh News & Observer)
The definition of “curb” in Pennsylvania is threatening the construction of new protected bike lanes in Philadelphia. (Inquirer)
Los Angeles bus and train rides are free today to help boost voter turnout. (L.A. Times)

Blake Aued

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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