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Today's Headlines

Wednesday’s Headlines Go Carless

A Washington state advocacy group for the disabled is challenging everyone to give up driving for the week of Oct. 2 to find out how hard it is to get around in most parts of the U.S.

12:01 AM EDT on September 20, 2023

Kgbo
  • It's a testament to America's car-centric infrastructure that asking people to hang up their car keys for a week sounds like asking a lot, but that's exactly what one disability rights group wants people to do so they can see how hard it is to get around without being able to drive. (City Lab)
  • Two MIT researchers regret their research predicting — wrongly, it turned out — that Uber and Lyft would reduce congestion, and they don't want anyone to make the same mistake with driverless cars. (San Francisco Chronicle)
  • Lessons learned from cities' efforts to allocate increasingly scarce curb space. (Smart Cities Dive)
  • A judge striking down the Minneapolis 2040 plan has led to fears that all over the country environmental laws can be weaponized against land-use reform. (Streetsblog USA)
  • Charlotte and surrounding cities and counties are considering forming a regional transit authority. (WFAE)
  • Contrary to previous reports, suburban Gwinnett County is putting a transit tax on the ballot but is not considering joining the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority system. (AP)
  • The Colorado DOT is ditching the 85th percentile rule that encourages fast driving, and is re-evaluating speed limits on many roads. (Colorado Public Radio)
  • Cincinnati is extending a ban on new downtown surface parking lots. (City Beat)
  • Sacramento is prioritizing people and housing over cars. (Comstock's Magazine)
  • Detroit bikeshare MoGo says its e-bikes are ridden three times as much as pedal-only bikes. (Axios)
  • Portland's transportation director wants to remove a protected bike lane from Broadway downtown that's in a high-crash corridor and took 14 years to build. (Bike Portland)
  • Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante is defying angry motorists by closing a busy highway to cars and turning it over to cyclists and pedestrians. (New York Times)
  • Several German cities are offering people free passes for public transit — if they give up their driver's license. (Euronews)

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