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Today's Headlines

Wednesday’s Headlines Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Real

A new transportation secretary, successful transit referenda, and more in today's headlines.

  • A former star of MTV's "The Real World" has been picked to work in an office with strangers and have his life taped as Donald Trump's transportation secretary. Post-reality TV, Sean Duffy went on to become a Wisconsin congressman, lobbyist and Fox Business anchor. (Politico, Vanity Fair, Streetsblog USA)
  • Bloomberg has another roundup of mostly positive transit referendum results from across the country.
  • Did fare evasion and the presence of homeless people on trains push urban voters toward Trump? (Slate)
  • President Biden wants to finalize a tax credit for cleaner fuel before he leaves office. (Reuters)
  • A Notre Dame study found that Black men face more hostility on transit, whether they're employees or passengers.
  • Shanghai emits more greenhouse gases than any other city of the world, but the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the most polluting site globally. (South China Morning Post)
  • Philadelphia transit agency SEPTA announced it's postponing a bus network redesign as it faces a budget crisis. (Billy Penn)
  • San Francisco's Muni is facing "catastrophic" service cuts unless voters agree to raise property and sales taxes. (Standard)
  • Crippling debt is eating up the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's operating budget. (Commonwealth Beacon)
  • A Twin Cities pilot program is paying unhoused people to pick up litter around Metro Transit stations. (Star Tribune)
  • CNU Public Square highlights a new town center development with bike and rail access in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, D.C.
  • Houston is using its "walkable places" ordinance to allow more density at a 70-acre mixed use development. (Houston Public Media)
  • Downtown Pittsburgh officials backed away from plans to ban cars from Market Square, but are still banning parking to make the area friendlier to pedestrians. (Post-Gazette)
  • The Florida DOT is looking to put a six-lane stroad in Atlantic Beach on a diet. (First Coast News)
  • Indianapolis cut the ribbon on a Morris Street complete streets project. (Recorder)
  • Spokane has plans to build a 27-mile walking and biking network within the next three years. (Range Media)
  • The Seattle city council voted to keep the South Lake Union streetcar open, but is opposed to the long-dormant Cultural Center Connector project. (The Urbanist)
  • Another day, another silly argument against bike lanes on social media. (The Cool Down)

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