Tuesday’s Headlines Open Their Wallets
State and local governments shouldn't have to scrounge around for transit funding, according to Transportation for America.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on August 19, 2025
- Transportation for America wants the federal government to start funding local transit operations again, as it did in the 1970s. $20 billion annual would increase transit service by 40 percent.
- Congressional Republicans are trying to rescind $3 billion in funding for new electric postal vehicles to replace aging gas-powered mail trucks. (Associated Press)
- Range anxiety is overblown electric vehicle owners only use 13 percent of their battery capacity a day, on average. (Inside EVs)
- Rising highway construction costs are only partially due to pandemic inflation, according to the Eno Center for Transportation.
- SEPTA is sending out ambassadors to help Philadelphia transit riders navigate massive upcoming service cuts (NBC 10). The top Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate called the cuts “a manufactured crisis” because Democrats and SEPTA did not accept a temporary GOP fix involving taking $1.2 billion from a trust fund for capital projects (Pittsburgh Tribune-News). The service cuts will add an estimated 275,000 cars to Philadelphia area roads (WHYY).
- A last-minute deal spares the Kansas City transit authority from service cuts, but resumes charging fares for most riders. (KCUR)
- Charlotte’s halfway completed Gateway Station, a multimodal hub near Bank of America Stadium, hit another setback. (Axios)
- Honolulu broke ground on the next phase of the Skyway elevated rail system. (Aloha State Daily)
- The “crash gap” between the U.S. and Canada is growing, because Canada more strictly enforces DUI laws and has been more open to using automated cameras. (CityLab)
- More than half of Britons support Vision Zero, with just 13 percent opposed, and 87 percent say they’d accept driving delays if it meant safer roads. (IPPR)
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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