Friday’s Headlines Are Coming From Inside the House

  • Remember when Agenda 21 was a secret UN plot to take away our golfs? Well, the 15-minute city isn’t a global climate lockdown conspiracy, either. (USA Today)
  • If you think parking adds to housing costs now, wait until developers have to start making spaces bigger to accommodate increasingly ginormous SUVs and trucks that won’t fit in a typical space. (Vice)
  • A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House would create a bank for investment in state and local infrastructure projects. (Smart Cities Dive)
  • A new U.S. DOT tool can tell you exactly how dangerous your community’s streets are. (Streetsblog)
  • Missouri and Montana are the last two states without a distracted driver law, but that could change this year. (Route Fifty)
  • A California county settled a lawsuit for $4.5 million that was filed by the family of a Black man who died after being tased by police who spotted him jaywalking. (New York Times)
  • Upzoning around transit stops could result in a million new housing units in Seattle. (Next City)
  • Dallas Area Rapid Transit is handing out $234 million worth of excess sales taxes to member communities, and Dallas plans to spend its share on greenways, sidewalks and handicapped accessibility. (D Magazine)
  • Upstate New York transit agencies want a dedicated source of funding outside of what’s allocated to New York City. (Spectrum News)
  • An investigation launched by the board of Hillsborough County, Florida, transit agency into the CEO’s fiscal practices has yielded little after two months. (Tampa Bay Times)
  • Philadelphia teachers are leaving over parking complaints, and the city says it can’t do anything (Inquirer). How about making it so teachers don’t have to drive to work?
  • Europe, India and China are electrifying rail, so why not the U.S.? (Clean Technica)
  • Transit project setbacks aren’t confined to the U.S., though. Spain recently spent $258 million on trains that are too big to fit through its tunnels. (MSN)
  • An underwater tunnel connecting Denmark and Germany will be the world’s longest that includes both road and rail. (The Mayor)
  • A new fleet of pink buses caters to women in Karachi, Pakistan, a country where sexual harassment on crowded transit is rampant. (The Guardian)
  • Dubai is building an air-conditioned bike path that apparently won’t be as bad for the climate as that sounds. (Momentum)

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Grist’s Dave Roberts provides some more background on Rep. Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican Congressman who ridiculed bicycling as a "19th century solution" during debate over the "Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007." The House bill, which passed on Aug. 4, included a $20/month tax break for bike commuters: That was […]

Today’s Headlines

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You may have seen the disturbing Guatemala City sinkhole — but how did it happen? A look at the street engineering behind the scare (ABC) Lawmakers offer bills providing subsidies, incentives for electric car expansion (Det. News) Vermont becomes latest state to criminalize texting and cell phone use by drivers (AP) Caterpillar boosts its rail […]

Agenda 21 Alert: Glenn Beck’s Words to Watch

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Sure, we know the movement for “sustainable” transportation and development is a front for Agenda 21, a.k.a. The UN Plot to End Private Property in the United States. But what to do? As with any battle, the first step is identifying the enemy. Fortunately (and none too soon), Glenn Beck has published a “comprehensive list […]

Today’s Headlines

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When it comes to consuming fewer resources to save the environment, Energy Secretary Steven Chu says Americans are a lot like teenagers: they "aren’t acting in a way they should act." (WSJ) Are states that outlaw texting while driving encouraging rule-breaking by posting traffic updates on Twitter? (AP) What’s in Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s wallet? […]

Where Walkability and Affordability Overlap in the D.C. Region

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Neighborhoods that are walkable, affordable for lower-income households, and provide access to jobs for people without a car are far too rare. Tracy Hadden Loh, a data scientist at George Washington University, recently completed a study sorting out which places meet this criteria in the D.C. region. She writes at Greater Greater Washington that some walkable areas do remain affordable: In the plot, the economic index is […]

NRDC Poll: Americans Support New Transit Twice as Much as New Roads

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When asked what would solve traffic problems in their community, 42 percent of Americans say more transit. Only 20 percent say more roads. And 21 percent would like to see communities developed that don’t require so much driving. Two-thirds support local planning that guides new development into existing cities and near public transportation. That’s the […]