Tuesday’s Headlines are Smiling for the Cameras
Congestion pricing is a make-or-break issue not just for traffic safety and the climate, but progressive politics as a whole, according to Henry Grabar.
By
Blake Aued
12:11 AM EST on January 7, 2025
- New York City’s “de”congestion pricing experiment could point a way forward for the Democratic Party not only on transportation, but housing, crime, taxes and other issues where solutions seem politically unpopular, but that voters will come around to once they see the benefits (New York Times).
- New rules approved by the Biden administration will offer billions of dollars to hydrogen fuel producers, but there are questions about just how clean such fuel really is. (Fast Company)
- The late President Jimmy Carter was an early advocate for fuel efficiency and traffic safety, even personally ordering a state trooper to pull over a speeding driver when he was governor of Georgia. (AJC)
- President Biden visited New Orleans on Monday in the wake of the Jan. 1 vehicular attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people. (NYT)
- Spending on transit grew faster than spending on highways in the U.S., 45% to 30%, between 2010 and 2021, then leapt another 16% in 2022, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (Smart Cities Dive)
- A Waymo passenger took a video of his driverless car aimlessly circling an airport parking lot. (CNN)
- NPR‘s “Morning Edition” highlighted the company behind the bus-mounted AI cameras many transit agencies are using to enforce parking laws.
- Two Massachusetts bills would legalize automated cameras issuing citations to drivers who park in bus lanes or fail to stop for students getting on or off school buses. (MassLive)
- San Diego still needs more investment in transit despite the failure of Measure G at the ballot box. (Union-Tribune)
- Could Portland’s new system of government throw up roadblocks in front of bike and pedestrian projects? (Bike Portland)
- NextSTL explores the tactics St. Louis residents are using to fight for safer streets.
- Oklahoma City residents have until Wednesday to comment on the final draft of a Vision Zero plan. (Oklahoman)
- Seattle had its first pedestrian death of the year on Saturday. (Times)
- “Loser’s Lane” is the Kobayashi Maru of video games, designed to illustrate the dangers of Doug Ford’s plan to rip out bike lanes in Ontario. (Velo)
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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