Streetsblog

Tuesday’s Headlines: to Fare-Free or Not Fare-Free?

Newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has a decision to make on fare-free transit, and The Atlantic argues it should be "no."

By Blake Aued

12:00 AM EST on December 13, 2022

Tuesday’s Headlines: to Fare-Free or Not Fare-Free?

As incoming Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass decides whether to make transit fare-free (L.A. Times), The Atlantic argues that transit agencies should keep charging for the bus until governments can deliver better services.
Shailen Bhatt won confirmation as administrator of the Federal Highway Administration by telling skeptical senators that he’s fine with road-widening projects. (Washington Post)
Autonomous vehicles are blocking traffic, driving on sidewalks and otherwise causing havoc in San Francisco, and California officials won’t do anything about it. (Slate)
Maintaining sidewalks should be a pretty basic function of municipal government, but outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti utterly failed at this task. (Curbed)
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is calling for more Safe Routes to School, zero-emissions delivery vehicles and more ambitious climate policies. (Seattle Bike Blog)
The opening of a Tacoma light rail line has been pushed back from spring to fall of 2023. (KING)
Maryland governor-elect Wes Moore pledged to revive the Red Line, a Baltimore light rail line his predecessor, Larry Hogan, spiked in 2015. (City Lab)
The head of Chicago’s transit system says it needs more public investment and can no longer rely so much on fares. (Smart Cities Dive)
Milwaukee is using strategically placed posts to extend curbs and slow down drivers. (Urban Milwaukee)
Short-story vending machines are among the many delights of riding transit in Philadelphia. (Billy Penn)
If a bus and a train had a baby, it would be Adelaide, Australia’s O-Bahn. (The Drive)