Monday’s Headlines To Start Your Week
Traffic deaths continue to rise, and no one seems to have any new ideas for stopping the bleeding.
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EDT on August 22, 2022
- More grim news on the street safety front, as traffic deaths hit their highest rate in 20 years over the first three months of 2022. Yet the carnage hasn’t seemed to spark any urgency among transportation leaders. (Route Fifty)
- Want to get people out of their cars? Some advocates say answer isn’t high tech— it’s just the good ol’ fashioned city bus. (Mass Transit)
- Regulations on biking and bike equipment result in the over-policing of Black and brown riders and discourage many from getting on a bike. (Next City)
- High rates of bike ownership don’t always mean people are actually riding those bikes, so a Netherlands-style worldwide push would have significant health and climate benefits. (Nature)
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit six cities — including Tampa, Tulsa and Minneapolis — this week to highlight RAISE grant projects. (USDOT)
- New York City is testing speed-limiting technology on some city-owned cars. If the pilot is successful, cities could use their fleets to slow traffic on streets nationwide. (CityLab, Streetsblog NYC)
- Traffic-related deaths and serious injuries have declined 40 percent since Madison, Wisc. lowered speed limits. (WGLR)
- Crashes on Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Boulevard dropped from 510 in 2019 to 360 in 2020, after speed cameras were installed. But drivers who are angry about fines are pushing back, and the program is set to expire. (ABC 6)
- Two new bridges on Houston’s White Oak Trail would allow cyclists to avoid a 1.6-mile detour. (Chronicle)
- Nashville Mayor John Cooper is reducing the length of time construction projects are allowed to block sidewalks and bike lanes. (Tennessean)
- Biking shot up 30 percent in Omaha during the pandemic, and now the city is deciding whether to make temporary bike lanes permanent. (The Reader)
- The New York Times ponders the meaning of NASCAR holding a race on Chicago’s public streets.
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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