Wednesday’s Headlines Are Blowing Up

Photo: People for Bikes
Photo: People for Bikes
  • Damaged or modified batteries, or ones not certified for safety, are to blame for a spike in e-bike explosions. But the safer batteries don’t last long enough for a typical delivery worker’s shift. (Slate)
  • Cities should be redesigned so that owning a car is a choice rather than a necessity, according to a new report from an engineering group. (Washington Post)
  • Ride-hailing apps helped suppress transit ridership in cities across America. Now, they’re looking to partner with them. (The Conversation)
  • A new autonomous bus-train hybrid runs on tires, but along a predetermined route like light rail. (CNBC)
  • Drivers crash into storefronts an estimated 100 times a day, forcing convenience stores to install bollards in their parking lots because, as cyclists well know, paint is not a barrier. (Smart Cities Dive)
  • Urban renewal isn’t something that happened in the 1960s. In 21st century Louisiana, some officials are still trying to demolish a Black Shreveport neighborhood to make way for a new freeway. (City Lab)
  • While seeking $1 billion for rural roads, Ohio state lawmakers are also considering barring cities from building center bus lanes or using traffic enforcement cameras. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
  • Nashville Mayor John Cooper is ordering police to declutter sidewalks by enforcing a new law banning vendors. (Tennessean)
  • St. Louis is spending $6 million to tackle a years-long backlog of sidewalk repair requests. (Post-Dispatch)
  • A San Antonio cyclist has mapped out all the city’s current and future bike routes for the first time. (My San Antonio)
  • Brussels (The Mayor) and Ghent (Sky News) are two European cities that reduced traffic by closing streets to cars, even though Ghent’s mayor faced death threats.

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