Streetsblog

Friday’s Headlines Look to the Past

Interstates started out as bike paths, cars used to be viewed as a menace, and hoodlums have been chucking bikes into rivers for 100 years. But one thing stays the same: Amtrak is slow.

By Blake Aued

12:00 AM EDT on July 29, 2022

Image: Hulton-Deutsch Collection, Corbis, via Nat Geo, CC

Two stories show how the auto industry manipulated the public into our current car-centric predicament: Governing writes about how late 19th century cyclists were the first Americans to advocate for better roads — a movement that was hijacked by drivers and became the basis for the interstate highway system. Meanwhile, the MIT Press Reader illuminates how business leaders reversed popular opinion that, in the automobile’s early days, viewed the machines as dangerous threats.
Speaking of which, there’s a long history of bikes winding up in bodies of water (The Guardian). Maybe that’s where all of Portland’s missing Biketown bikes have disappeared to (Bike Portland).
As the right-leaning City Journal notes, weaning ourselves off fossil fuels also means more mining for minerals to make batteries, which progressives also oppose because it damages the environment.
Rail is not helping itself in the argument against EVs. By 2035, Amtrak hopes to reinstate several lines — and make them slower than they were in the 1940s and ’50s. That’s right, they’ll be slower than they were more than 70 years ago. (Vice)
Texas is skirting federal environmental laws by breaking its freeway projects up into chunks that are small enough not to be subject to intensive environmental review. (The Grist)
Denver’s new bus network will pull back from the suburbs to focus more on downtown. (Colorado Public Radio)
Portland is considering becoming the first U.S. city to phase out diesel trucks. (Willamette Week)
Cyclists rallied in Washington, D.C. to urge Mayor Muriel Bowser to do something about traffic deaths. (WJLA)
A Los Angeles transportation official who’s been an advocate for walking and biking is Seattle Mayor Brett Harrell’s pick to lead SDOT. (The Urbanist)
The Boston Globe wants to hear from readers whether they think the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority should be merged with MassDOT.
Cedar Rapids is reinstating bus fares for many riders but lowering them from the pre-pandemic rate of $1.50 to $1. (The Gazette)
Japanese triathlete Tsudoi Miyakazi was killed by a driver while training on her bike in France. (New York Post)
Uber passengers apparently can’t figure out how to open a Tesla’s door. (Axios)

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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