The Price Is Right for Thursday’s Headlines
A transportation expert lays out how paying more to drive would benefit motorists and transit users alike. Plus, the spiraling cost of car ownership in the U.S.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EST on February 15, 2024
- Properly pricing driving — through higher fuel taxes, tolls and parking fees — would reduce congestion, pollution and crashes. In other words, motorists want driving to be cheap and traffic-free, but they can’t have both. (Planetizen)
- Americans drove almost 3.3 trillion miles last year, more than in 2019 but still below the pre-COVID peak on a per-person basis. (Eno Center for Transportation)
- Thanks to corporate greed and climate change, the cost of buying and owning both new and used cars has risen drastically in the U.S., yet many people have no choice other than to drive. (The Guardian)
- An advocate for the blind writes that floating bus stops located between bike and car lanes pose a risk to pedestrians, especially the blind. (Times Colonist)
- After an initial transit referendum failed in 1968, Atlanta won support from Black residents by establishing “maid routes” to take domestic workers by bus from the inner city to their wealthy suburban employers. (AJC)
- Arizona Republicans are holding transportation funding hostage in an effort to kill a Tucson-to-Phoenix rail line, as well as to stop the state DOT from implementing road diets or making plans to reduce carbon emissions. (Daily Star)
- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed budget includes of hundreds of millions in new funding for Boston and regional transit. (MassLive)
- Transit advocates are ramping up pressure on Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to complete the Red Line as light rail. (Baltimore Fishbowl)
- Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is set to announce any day now whether he’ll put a transit referendum on the November ballot. (Axios)
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced $106 million in funding for 383 transit projects statewide. (Spectrum News)
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expressed support for replacing the 107-year-old Interstate Bridge in a visit to the Oregon-Washington border. (KGW)
- Seattle’s Sound Transit put in an order for 33 electric double-decker buses for its Stride bus rapid transit line. (Smart Cities World)
- The U.S. DOT approved a $417 million loan for North Carolina to extend the Triangle Expressway. (Transportation Today)
- Anchorage decriminalized jaywalking in October and now could ban right turns on red. (Must Read Alaska)
- Charleston’s bikeshare had a 50 percent bump in ridership between 2022 and 2023. (Count On 2)
- San Francisco residents showed what they thought of driverless taxis when they lit an (unoccupied) Waymo on fire. (CNBC)
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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