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)
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.
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
More from Streetsblog USA
New E-Mobility Study Actually Reveals Need For Safer Streets, Not E-Bike Crackdowns
A new look into emergency room data at one Manhattan hospital shows a need for more infrastructure, despite what you might have read elsewhere.
April 24, 2026
Friday’s Headlines Thrive With Women in Charge
Mayors like Barcelona's Ada Colau, Montreal's Valerie Plante and Anne Hidalgo in Paris transformed their cities.
April 24, 2026
Talking Headways Podcast: The Urban Truth Collective
Tom Flood, Grant Ennis and Brent Toderian of the Urban Truth Collective discuss pushing back on falsehoods and conspiracies through positive messaging around cities.
April 23, 2026
Thursday’s Headlines Shout, Shout, Let It All Out
A public input process that engages all stakeholders early on but doesn't drag out is the key to holding down costs for transit projects, according to the Urban Institute.
April 23, 2026
Judge Blocks Trump Admin’s Attempt to Demolish D.C. Bike Lane
But advocates across America aren't letting their guard down about the future of sustainable infrastructure in their own communities.
April 23, 2026