Can Monday’s Headlines Dodge DOGE?
Many cut. Very National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Much conflict of interest. So scare. Wow.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EST on February 24, 2025
- Elon Musk’s DOGE task force is cutting 10 percent of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration workforce, including employees in charge of safety grants, drunk driving research and regulating autonomous vehicles like the ones Tesla is trying to produce. (Washington Post)
- Street design is only part of the equation for safety, Greg Shill argues on his Substack Hot Blocks. For example, he says failure to protect school children does greater harm to marginalized communities than mailing tickets to drivers caught speeding on camera.
- U.S. traffic deaths rose 30 percent over the past decade. (The National Desk)
- Uber and Lyft users choose ride-hailing apps over transit primarily due to convenience, indicating that improving transit service could win some of them over, according to a University of Michigan study. (Smart Cities Dive)
- Progressives killed traditional neighborhoods in favor of the suburbs. So why do conservatives hate New Urbanism so much? (Urbanism Speakeasy)
- From Toronto to the Bay Area, backlash against bike lanes is growing. (Momentum)
- The New York Times profiles the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Janno Lieber, who is taking on President Trump as congestion pricing’s biggest cheerleader.
- An “Uber with guns” app launched in New York City and Los Angeles will send an armed driver to pick you up. (Jalopnik)
- Charlotte Area Rapid Transit did not consider ridership projections when proposing four options for expansion. (Ledger)
- Rural legislators are pushing back against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s request for more transit funding because most of it would go to cities. (Pittsburgh Union Progress)
- Minneapolis is bringing back red light cameras. (KSTP)
- An Oregon state senator withdrew a bill banning e-bikes from bike lanes. (BikePortland)
- Capital Bikeshare set a ridership record in Alexandria last year, up 26 percent over 2023, which was also a record. (ALXnow)
- As developing countries urbanize and cars become more prevalent, they should also be limiting parking and providing transit alternatives. (World Bank)
- A trip to Luxembourg led former Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett to reaffirm why creating The Hop streetcar was the right move. (CBS 58)
- A Minneapolis resident writes about commuting to work by running six miles. (streets.mn)
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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