Friday’s Headlines Don’t Get the Credit
With just a third of the money out the door and few shovels in the ground, voters aren't seeing the impact of the Biden/Harris infrastructure act yet.
By
Blake Aued
12:37 AM EDT on August 9, 2024
- The Biden/Harris administration passed a bipartisan infrastructure spending bill in 2021, but that doesn’t seem to register in the polls. That’s because the flow of money is slow, and construction is even slower, so voters don’t see the impact. (Governing)
- Gig economy apps like Uber and Lyft are on a winning streak in courthouses, which does not bode well for the labor rights and wages of their drivers. (CNBC)
- Dedicated bus lanes not only make transit service more reliable, but they make streets safer overall by limiting excessive speeding among car drivers. (State Smart Transportation Initiative)
- A D.C. Metro safety audit found that train operators are allowed or forced to work after nights of heavy drinking and on too little sleep. (WTOP)
- The Salt Lake City council gave a preliminary OK to bury train tracks underneath downtown and extend rail service to the historic Rio Grande Depot. (Tribune)
- L.A.’s Sepulveda Corridor could be the first truly world-class rail transit line in the U.S. (The Urban Condition)
- Muni riders now skew more toward people using the Bay Area transit service for dining or entertainment than going to work, according to a recent survey, which also shows those riders are more satisfied than commuters. (San Francisco Standard)
- Austin’s plan to bury I-35 underneath a park could learn a lot from a similar project in Dallas. (KUT)
- Dallas has had 16,000 crashes already this year, with 115 deaths. The Observer lists the most dangerous roads in Dallas.
- A new Twin Cities Metro report details how the Blue Line extension can avoid displacement and environmental harm. (Streets.mn)
- A surprising unanimous vote on the Mobile city council cleared the way for Amtrak service to return the Gulf Coast. (AL.com)
- RIP to James A. Genther, who cofounded the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. (Sun)
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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