Friday’s Headlines Go the Conventional Route
Political conventions give a boost to host cities' transit projects, like a Milwaukee streetcar and a new L station in Chicago.
By
Blake Aued
12:52 AM EDT on August 16, 2024
- It’s not quite the Olympics, but hosting a political convention like the DNC in Chicago next week gives cities an incentive to get transit projects built faster. (ABC News)
- Heat forces trains to slow down to avoid damaging the tracks, and as the climate gets hotter, this is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. The infrastructure can be fixed, but it will be incredibly expensive. (The Atlantic; paywall)
- “Battery passports” allow companies and regulators to digitally track where the materials to manufacture them came from, offering reassurances that child labor or environmentally damaging mining weren’t involved. (Politico)
- Firefighters are making streets less safe by demanding wider lanes for their huge fire trucks. (Jalopnik)
- The Washington Post has an interactive feature about Barcelona’s pedestrian-friendly superblocks.
- Boston’s transit system is underfunded and falling into disrepair, and it’s hurting the city’s economy. (City Lab)
- Opponents of widening I-5 in Portland filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Rose Quarter Project. (Willamette Week)
- Portland announced multi-year contracts with Lime and Lyft to expand their e-scooters fleets, and will make the micromobility program permanent. (Bike Portland)
- Minneapolis is considering changing parking rules in residential neighborhoods to encourage people to drive less. (MinnPost)
- Tech billionaires have pulled their plans, for now, to build a whole new city in Silicon Valley. (Fast Company)
- A San Francisco woman who was pinned to a wall during a jaywalking arrest has filed an excessive force complaint against the officer. (NBC Bay Area)
- Social media influencers in Atlanta are posting about their car-free lifestyles. (AJC)
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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