Thursday’s Headlines Have Allergies
We're feeling congested, much like this list of freeways. Too bad we don't live in a car-free development.
By
Blake Aued
12:00 AM EDT on March 16, 2023
- Four of the 15 most congested stretches of highway in the U.S. are in Atlanta, with three in Los Angeles, three in Chicago and two in Houston. (Jalopnik)
- People want car-free living even in car-centric cities like Charlotte and Phoenix. (City Lab)
- In rural areas where transit isn’t an option, it’s important to convince drivers who are largely unfamiliar with the technology to buy electric vehicles. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
- Traffic engineers should be looking at entire transportation networks holistically, instead of piece by piece. (Cities Today)
- The Los Angeles Times has a very sad story about rampant drug use on the L.A. Metro. While transit agencies shouldn’t be responsible for social services, and more policing isn’t the answer to homelessness or substance abuse, commuters, women and families also aren’t going to ride if that’s what they encounter.
- Wall Street is cheering a recent California court ruling denying ride-hailing drivers labor rights. (Reuters)
- Atlanta voters approved a plan to raise taxes to drastically expand transit in 2016. But now that many of those projects are being delayed or scaled back, it could discourage voters from ever doing that again. (Governing)
- The Charlotte Area Transit System has to repair all 42 of its light rail cars due to an axle bearing problem it kept under wraps. (Axios)
- Drivers killed 31 Portland pedestrians in 2022, compared to five in 2008. (Bike Portland)
- Milwaukee is focusing Vision Zero efforts on a stretch of Burleigh that’s particularly known for reckless driving. (Fox 6)
- Madison’s BCycle bikeshare is adding 110 new e-bikes at 20 new stations, thanks to a Wisconsin DOT grant. (WKOW)
- Milwaukee Avenue is Chicago’s most dangerous road for cyclists. (Chicago Magazine)
- St. Paul poets have a chance for their words to be immortalized in concrete as the city prepares to fix 10 miles of sidewalks this summer. (Pioneer Press)
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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