Thursday’s Headlines Peek at What’s After Pete

• “Infrastructure Week” was a running joke during the first Trump administration, but not under President Biden, which got 66,000 projects rolling. Pete Buttigieg reflects on the administration’s accomplishments and the work to come in an interview with Fast Company.
• The robots are coming for rideshare drivers’ jobs (Business Insider) as Lyft’s new deals will bring autonomous minivans to Atlanta (Autoblog).
• DOGE — Donald Trump’s quasi-official Department Of Government Efficiency, named after Elon Musk’s brand of cryptocurrency that’s named after an internet meme — wants federal employees to return to the office five days a week. That could lead to an exodus, which may be the point, and put more cars on the road, but also bolster the D.C. Metro. (CNN)
• Washingtonian profiled Randy Clarke, the D.C. Metro CEO who’s become a rock star in the transit world for engineering a comeback when many agencies are still struggling post-COVID.
• Milwaukee is a case study on how all levels of government can collaborate on urban highway removal. (Planetizen)
• Amtrak’s Andy Byford is still optimistic about high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston. (Smart Cities Dive)
• Alabama is spending $5 billion in entirely federal dollars to build a new freeway north of Birmingham that will do nothing except destroy forests and open up millions of acres of land for sprawling development. (Inside Climate News)
• Austin’s Cap Metro is mothballing 46 electric buses due to manufacturer Proterra’s bankruptcy and a lack of chargers. (KUT)
• Virginia lawmakers are considering restricting the use of automated license plate readers that help enforce traffic laws. (Mercury)
• Maryland’s ambitious plans for bike infrastructure could fall victim to a budget crunch. (Greater Greater Washington)
• Massachusetts could follow the lead of New York and other states in legalizing jaywalking. (WGBH)
• A new Minnesota law led trans people to believe that the state would be a safe haven for them, yet two trans women from Iowa were beaten at a Minneapolis light rail station. (Advocate)
• The narrow failure of Measure G, a half-penny sales tax for transit in San Diego, shows that transit advocates have a lot of work to do in the suburbs. (KPBS)
• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pledged to continue fighting for transit funding despite a loss at the hands of state Senate Republicans. (Capital-Star)
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis released an expansive plan to get cars off the road by expanding transit and making biking and walking easier. (Colorado Public Radio)
• An Arizona Daily Star columnist argues that the economic benefits of Tucson’s fare-free streetcar more than outweigh the benefits.
• By limiting through traffic in the city center, Brussels slashed crashes, road deaths and pollution, and increased economic activity. Yet the changes remain unpopular and are in danger of repeal. (Politico)
• In Wales, a 20 miles-per-hour speed limit is saving lives and saving drivers money on insurance premiums, yet still remains a culture war battlefield. (The Guardian)
• Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s crusade against bike lanes is backed by a handful of wealthy business owners. (Trillium)
• If bike lanes are unpopular in Ontario — which is disputable at best (The Guardian) — maybe one of the reasons is media outlets like blogTO framing a story about dedicating two lanes of traffic to buses, bikes and emergency vehicles as motorists “will lose two lanes of car traffic permanently.”

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