Wednesday’s Headlines Are Bigger and Beautiful-er

There's a lot of bad news in the Big Beautiful Bill — but it also may have helped kill a major highway expansion in Oregon.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on July 9, 2025

Shane West

The passage of the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" and the Oregon legislature's failure to pass a transportation funding package have effectively killed the I-5 widening project in Portland's Rose Quarter. (City Observatory)
Stephen Miller went on a Fox News rant about how immigrants are causing traffic jams. (The Daily Beast)
A couple of little-noticed provisions in Republicans' massive reconciliation bill are bad news for sustainable transportation: Bike commuters are losing an already-meager tax benefit (Politico Pro), and car buyers will be able to write off of to $10,000 in interest on their auto loans (Kiplinger's).
Urban planners need to figure out a way to deal with speedy e-bikes. (The Architect's Newspaper)
David Zipper likes a lot of Zohran Mamdani's ideals, but fare-free buses isn't one of them. He argues that it wouldn't cut into driving, and that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs the revenue. (Slate)
A Queens neighborhood has a plan to turn a COVID-era open street into a permanent park that Fast Company says cities everywhere should study.
The Oregonian editorial board urges lawmakers to go back to Salem and pass that transportation bill.
California Democrats are capitulating on climate policy. (Politico)
A Washington, D.C. pilot project will provide app-based delivery drivers with low-cost e-bikes and stations for charging and batter-swapping. (WUSA 9)
Atlanta's Midtown Alliance is developing a plan for bike and pedestrian infrastructure on 3rd Street. (Rough Draft Atlanta)
Building Salt Lake has the inside scoop on a new Utah law taking away the city's control over its own streets, including a paper by two professors that appears to be AI-generated.
Duvall County's 2025 traffic death toll hit 83 as a Jacksonville task force is set to release a Vision Zero report later this month. (First Coast News)
An analysis by The San Francisco Standard found little correlation between traffic deaths and traffic enforcement.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit is proposing eliminating nine bus routes, longer headways on light rail and raising fares for paratransit riders due to a five percent budget cut. (KERA)
On the Saturday of Pride weekend, Seattle set a one-day record for scooter and bikeshare rides with more than 44,000. (Fox 13)
UK mayors outside London are planning to create a 3,500-mile national network of safe routes to school. (The Guardian)