Wednesday’s Headlines Are About Elon-ed Out

While President Trump tries to pump up Tesla stock prices, Elon Musk wants to privatize Amtrak.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on March 12, 2025

A human drives a car. Credit: kquedquest/Flickr

Elon Musk spent approximately $300 million to elect Donald Trump president, and now Trump — despite his overall antipathy toward electric vehicles — is using his office to promote Tesla. During a news conference, the president went so far as to declare boycotting the DOGE cutter-in-chief's company illegal and threaten to charge anyone who protests Tesla as a domestic terrorist. So, to recap: Vandalize the U.S. Capitol and get a pardon, but vandalize a Tesla and go straight to Gitmo. (Jalopnik)
In other news, add Amtrak to the long list of things Musk knows nothing about. (Streetsblog USA)
Oh, and guess what? And by the way? The Trump administration's tariffs will hurt the bus manufacturing industry. (Mass Transit)
As car payments frequently top $1,000, almost 7 percent of low- and middle-income subprime borrowers are now two months behind on their loans. (Retail Wire)
Cities like Denver are using data and technology to manage curb space that's becoming increasingly valuable (Government Technology). But on-street parking remains the focus for too many cities (Transport Matters).
In a municipal election year in Boston, bike lanes have become a proxy for a whole lot of other urban political battles. (Boston Magazine)
A new San Francisco bike plan aims to put every resident within a quarter-mile of a protected path by 2045. (Examiner)
PubliCola accuses King County's top executive of angling for his own Sound Transit appointees to hire him to run the Seattle transit agency.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pressuring Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to make roads and transit safer as the Trump administration attempts to force federal workers back into the office. (Transportation Today)
A Republican candidate for New Jersey governor wants to retaliate against New York for congestion pricing by charging commuters to drive the other way. (CBS News)
Seattle cut pedestrian deaths in half and recorded no cyclist deaths in 2024, according to preliminary data. But for some reason drivers and car passengers died at a higher clip. (Seattle Bike Blog)
Albuquerque recently opened new bike lanes on Central Avenue. (KOAT)
The High Speed blog paid a visit to Pullman, the Illinois city that was home to the famous sleeper cars.