Friday’s Headlines Are Down on Highways
Two outlets recently featured articles on the harmful effects of ongoing freeway projects.
By
Blake Aued
12:27 AM EDT on April 26, 2024
- Interstate highway construction is not slowing down despite its harmful effects on health and displacement of communities of color. (Transportation for America)
- Since we now know that widening highways doesn’t help congestion and creates noise, pollution and health problems for nearby residents, why are states still seizing property and knocking down homes to add new lanes? (Frontier Group)
- Transit systems are mostly built for peak-hour commuters, and that will have to change for ridership to recover in the post-COVID world where more people work from home. (The New Urban Order)
- Fast Company interviewed Lyft CEO David Risher about his plans to make the ride-hailing app profitable, which includes fighting a minimum wage for Minneapolis drivers.
- Raising speed limits on interstates also increases crash hot spots on nearby side streets, new research shows. (Streetsblog USA)
- Greater Greater Washington has a three-part series on how the D.C. Metro can avoid a fiscal cliff.
- Ridership on San Francisco’s iconic streetcar is still down more than 40 percent from pre-pandemic levels. (Axios)
- The L.A. Metro is using AI-powered cameras to ticket drivers parked in bus-only lanes. (LAist)
- Brightline’s planned bullet train to the Los Angeles area is already sparking investment in transit-oriented development in Las Vegas. (The Real Deal)
- The Teamsters union is jumping into the fight for minimum wages for Massachusetts Uber and Lyft drivers. (WBUR)
- Salt Lake City has a plan to stitch back together the east and west sides of town that are divided by a freeway and train tracks. (Salt Lake Tribune)
- Facing a $26 million funding gap and the loss of federal COVID funds next year, Kansas City’s transit agency could reinstate fares for riders who don’t meet as-yet-undefined criteria. (KCUR)
- Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law raising penalties for drivers who fail to stop for school buses. (WMAZ)
- The first part of a South Carolina DOT safety initiative will include protected bike lanes in Greenville, South Carolina. (Post and Courier)
- A Chicago artist’s whimsical sidewalk chalk drawings are going viral. (ABC 7)
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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