Thursday’s Headlines Don’t Fit the Profile

Prevalent images of biking in the media focus on biking as a leisure activity and not a form of transportation, according to Forbes.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on October 17, 2024

Is this what riding a bike usually looks like when you’re using it for transportation in a city?

|Skitterphoto

Carlton Reid writes about a UK nonprofit's analysis showing that images of people on bikes predominately feature slim, able-bodied white riders and heterosexual nuclear families cycling in idyllic environments with no motor traffic, buildings or pedestrians, which can discourage those who don't conform to that stereotype from taking up biking. (Forbes)
Transit agencies are having difficulties transitioning to zero-emissions buses. (Smart Cities Dive)
Washington state's groundbreaking carbon emissions law is in danger of being repealed by voters this November. (Associated Press)
Barring a stop-gap measure, state funding for transit in Pennsylvania appears dead because it somehow got tangled up with gambling legislation. (Spotlight PA)
Milwaukee is cracking down on parking violations, and the revenue generated will benefit The Hop streetcar. (Fox 6)
Dallas leaders voted to fully fund the metro area's regional transit system, but some suburbs still don't feel like they're getting enough bang for their buck. (KERA)
A report on the Memphis Area Transit Authority commissioned by Mayor Paul Young found numerous financial problems, such as spending over $1 million on furniture and $6 million on a trolley with little to show for it. (WREG)
Miami transit advocates are complaining that the Miami-Dade government spends too much on fare-free trolleys that few people use. (CBS News)
Cincinnati abandoned a half-built subway in the 1920s, and maybe it's time to consider picking it back up again. (Enquirer)
Pittsburgh Regional Transit's proposal to redesign bus routes would make the Oakland neighborhood a hub. (Pitt News)
Blind people held a rally in San Francisco saying that Uber and Lyft discriminate against them. (NBC Bay Area)
E-bikes are at the forefront of record-breaking growth for Washington, D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare. (ARLnow)
Calgary and the Alberta government have agreed to move forward on a portion of the Green Line light rail project. (CBC)
New Zealand has found that heavier electric and double-decker buses are damaging roads. (RNZ)