Wednesday’s Headlines Get Onboard Amtrak
The national rail service is well on its way to recovery. Plus, how to revive big-city transit and undo damage from urban freeways.
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EDT on August 10, 2022
- Amtrak saw a 97 percent drop in ticket sales at the start of the pandemic, but ridership has almost fully recovered and some cases exceeds 2019. (Politico)
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wants the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to do something about SUVs’ large blind zones that hide children in the street from drivers. (Transportation Today)
- People have been calling for car-free streets for almost as long as cars have existed. (Planetizen)
- The playbook for reviving big-city transit is becoming increasingly clear — at least in those big cities that already have robust, if outdated, systems. (Governing)
- Common Edge interviews architect David Waggonner about the pessimism surrounding tearing down New Orleans’ crumbling Claiborne Expressway. The Syracuse Post-Standard examines what that city can learn from Rochester, which demolished its urban ring road. And more than 50 years after I-90 punched through Spokane, a new interchange is victimizing one neighborhood again (Crosscut).
- Philadelphia could use federal infrastructure funds to dust off 1110-year-old plans for a Roosevelt Boulevard subway. (Inquirer, Streetsblog)
- San Francisco has 45 traffic cops, but they only issue a total of 10 tickets per day. (SF Chronicle)
- Denver’s new bus rapid transit network — still six years away — will be called the Lynx. (Denverite)
- A driver hit a Colorado Springs pedestrian and broke several of the walker’s bones. Then police cited the victim for jaywalking. (Fox 21)
- Fix the roads already! Singer Amy Grant suffered a concussion when she hit a pothole and fell off her bike (Billboard). And Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale suffered a season-ending wrist injury after his bike hit a rough patch and threw him off. (NBC Sports)
- Only a magician would dare risk death by riding in a crappy American bike lane. (McSweeney’s)
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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