Today's Headlines

Wednesday’s Headlines Believe in Monsters

And so does the CEO of Ford. That's how he described some vehicles while calling for a shift to smaller EVs as pedestrian deaths remain high.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on July 3, 2024

Wednesday’s Headlines Believe in Monsters

The bottom of this Ford's windows are six feet off the ground. Steven Harrell

Increasingly heavy vehicles, lax traffic enforcement and dangerous driving are among the reasons pedestrian deaths remain high in Vision Zero communities (Smart Cities Dive). Even Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford — which famously stopped manufacturing ordinary passenger cars in recent years — now says that the U.S. needs “radical change” away from “monster vehicles.” (Electrek)
Freeways ripped through Black neighborhoods and destroyed city tax bases in service to suburban car commuters, but government officials remain mostly indifferent. (Governing)
The Washington Post delves into how conservatives on the Supreme Court have crippled presidential administrations’ ability to deal with climate change.
New York lawmakers are pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul to bring back congestion pricing with slightly lower toll. (New York Times)
A budget that includes a corporate tax hike generating $800 million a year for transit is headed to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk. (North Jersey)
A Seattle city council member is pushing to add to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s $1.7 billion transportation proposal. (The Urbanist)
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Raleigh to break ground on a high-speed rail line connecting it to Richmond. (NC Pulse)
Houston is now the largest U.S. city without bike-share, and it’s unclear when or if another one will take BCycle’s place. (Houston Public Media)
Miami is building the nation’s first all-electric bus depot, capable of storing and charging 100 electric buses. (ENR Southeast)
The disease is sprawl, and Phoenix is betting that transit-oriented development is the cure. (Architect Magazine)
Honolulu’s transportation director lent his support to the city transit agency’s CEO and explained the takeover of a nonprofit bikeshare in an interview with Hawaii Public Radio.
Milwaukee is telling drivers to slow down. Will they listen? (Fox 6)
A Minneapolis artist painted the sidewalk in front of his house. Is it art or graffiti? (MinnPost)

Blake Aued

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.

Today's Headlines

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

Where the Battles Against Harmful Highways and Hyper-Scale Data Centers Collide

Hyperscale AI data centers and highways are both harmful forms of fossil fuel infrastructure that get built without much community input — and it's time to fight back against both, one of our favorite podcasters argues.