Tuesday’s Headlines Refuse to Turn Right on Red
The U.S. is one of the few places to allow right turns on red in a misguided effort to save gas, but many cities are now reconsidering the deadly policy.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EST on November 7, 2023
- Allowing right turns on red is a relic of the 1970s gas crisis, and many U.S. cities are considering re-banning them in the wake of a spike in cyclist and pedestrian deaths. (Associated Press)
- G.M.’s driverless car subsidiary Cruise prioritized speed over safety in an effort to beat competitor Waymo to the market, according to a New York Times investigation.
- Communities are increasingly turning to on-demand microtransit to fill in service gaps, but it’s also inefficient and will never move as many people as traditional buses or rail. (Governing)
- Policies like congestion pricing, zero-emissions zones and off-peak delivery hours can help cities decarbonize delivery services. (Smart Cities Dive)
- Construction has started on the Gateway Project, a new tunnel under the Hudson River that will unclog East Coast rail traffice (Bloomberg), with the help of another $3.8 billion grant from the Biden administration (Reuters), itself part of a broader $16 billion package for the entire Northeast Corridor (Streetsblog MASS)
- Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Metro Transit’s general manager about stepped-up fare enforcement in the Twin Cities.
- The Bay Area is getting 2,000 new shared e-bikes and 55 additional docking stations. (CBS News)
- The Midtown Alliance, an Atlanta civic group, has come up with a plan to make six-lane 17th Street more appealing to cyclists, pedestrians and transit users. (Urbanize Atlanta)
- About 30 percent of Charlotte workers are still working from home, double the national average, which has made commutes shorter for others. (WFAE)
- A bill in the Florida legislature would give Pinellas County more control over the St. Petersburg transit system. (Tampa Bay Times)
- Momentum Mag offers tips to cyclists on not getting doored.
- A Jalopnik writer took a ride in the Las Vegas Tesla tunnel, and it’s just as useless as it sounds.
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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