Tuesday’s Headlines Are Burning Up
Transit agencies need to build more shelters. It's hot enough as it is without having to stand outside in the sun waiting for a bus.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on July 11, 2023
- L.A.’s widely derided “La Sombrita” aside, transit agencies need to do more to shield waiting riders from the sun. Temperatures at bus stops in places like Phoenix can hit 130 degrees due to the urban heat island effect. (Vox)
- Range anxiety means EV batteries — and the vehicles themselves — keep getting heavier, even though most drivers will rarely use their full capacity. Only 5 percent of trips are more than 30 miles. (Washington Post)
- Households near “activity centers” where jobs and services are located drive less, saving money and polluting less than those who don’t — more evidence that sprawling development is also bad transportation policy. (Brookings Institute, Streetsblog USA)
- Ten thousand bridges in the U.S. are at risk of collapsing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. (Smart Cities Dive)
- New York State spent $1 billion building a solar panel factory for Tesla that was supposed to create 3,000 high-tech jobs. Instead, it has just the contractually required bare minimum of 1,700 employees, many of whom work analyzing Autopilot data. (Wall Street Journal; paywall)
- A group of San Francisco residents figured out that they can confuse and box in dangerous driverless cars with simple traffic cones. (Road & Track)
- Civic group the Midtown Alliance is pushing to make Atlanta’s iconic Peachtree Street safer for cyclists and pedestrians. (Urbanize Atlanta)
- Bike Cleveland is warning cyclists not to use a new bike lane on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge because it’s too dangerous. (19 News)
- Portland officials lobbied for federal grants to improve crash-heavy 82nd Avenue during Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s recent visit. (KATU)
- A Kansas City Star op-ed argues that it will take more than bike lanes to fix deadly Cleaver Boulevard.
- NBC Connecticut interviews a state senator about the Constitution State’s new Vision Zero law.
- Richmond’s bikeshare closed in May with no explanation, and users are worried it might never start up again. (Greater Greater Washington)
- Hartford is spending $5.6 million on safety upgrades at busy Bishop’s Corner. (Courant)
- Even in bike-friendly Amsterdam, drivers are pushing back against closing streets to motorized traffic. (The Guardian)
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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