Thursday’s Headlines Are Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Should Amtrak focus on the routes with the most potential riders, or try to keep senators happy by serving far-flung rural areas?

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on July 27, 2023

Amtrak is caught between the conflicting goals of serving the areas that have the most riders and spreading coverage around the country geographically. (Human Transit)
Investment in transit pays off for the private sector, with every $1 spent generating $5 in economic returns. (CNBC)
Smaller cars with smaller batteries, and other ways to make electric vehicles greener. (Frontier Group)
Cities should extend their traffic cycles to give an increasingly aging population more time to cross the street. (The Guardian)
Baltimore transit advocates want light rail for the revived Red Line, not bus rapid transit. And they don't want to go through the public input process again. (The Daily Record)
Arizona Republicans and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs are still working on a deal to hold a referendum on renewing Phoenix's transportation tax. (Daily Independent)
Denver's transit agency is lowering fares across the board, offering discounts to low-income riders and on bulk purchases, and allowing teens to ride for free. (KDVR)
Gwinnett County, Georgia is getting a new transit center next to a shuttered suburban Atlanta mall that's being redeveloped. (Daily Post)
Portland bike advocates refiled a lawsuit alleging that the city has failed to comply with a state law that requires adding bike and pedestrian infrastructure whenever a road is rebuilt. (BikePortland)
Drivers have hit San Antonio pedestrians 4,000 times over the past five years, with almost half of those crashes taking place on 1 percent of roads. (Fox 29)
Minneapolis is considering a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers. (KARE)
Paul Krugman calls drivers opposed to Manhattan congestion pricing "vehicular NIMBYs." (New York Times)
Asphalt art is a low-cost, creative way to make drivers aware of people walking and biking. (Route Fifty)