Thursday’s Headlines Lobby Congress
When the Biden administration's infrastructure act expires, it will pit cities versus states and roads versus transit.
By
Blake Aued
12:14 AM EDT on September 4, 2025
- Cities want the next federal transportation funding bill to send more money directly to them. But state DOTs are perfectly happy with the current setup where city-dwellers subsidize state highway projects. (Governing)
- In the same surface transportation reauthorization bill, which Congress will attempt to pass in 2026, the American Public Transit Association is asking for $138 billion for transit and $310 billion for passenger rail over five years. (Progressive Railroading)
- A former U.S. DOT official says the bill should prioritize projects that make trips shorter and safer. (Eno Center for Transportation)
- A hacker was able to recover data on a fatal crash involving Tesla Autopilot that the company claimed it didn’t have. (Washington Post)
- Transportation modes should be human-centered and place-sensitive. (Arch Daily)
- At least in California, it’s better to charge electric vehicles at the office during the day, when power is cheaper, than at home. (Los Angeles Times)
- Challenger Josh Kraft is trying to make bike and bus lanes a wedge issue in the Boston mayor’s race. (MassLive)
- By threatening to deny Democrats a quorum, Oregon Republicans managed to weaken transit funding in a transportation bill they’re unlikely to vote for anyway. (BikePortland)
- The Seattle DOT won’t dedicated a bus lane for the often-late Route 8. (The Urbanist)
- Santa Fe adopted a Vision Zero plan with a goal of no traffic deaths by 2040. (New Mexican)
- A new development in Portland, Maine has 263 apartments and no parking. (Mainebiz)
- Hawaii is distributing $8 million to Safe Routes to School projects. (Civil Beat)
- A rainbow crosswalk near Ohio State was vandalized. (WOWK)
- Denmark is using satellites to toll heavy freight trucks. (Citti Magazine)
- The Czech city of Brno has a unique easy-to-use night bus system where buses on all 22 routes set out from the main hub at the same time, carrying 10,000 to 20,000 riders a night. (Brno Daily)
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.
Read More:
More from Streetsblog USA
Why Cities Need More ‘Agile’ Streets
When projects are routed through a full capital-improvement workflow, solutions tend toward expensive, permanent interventions — not alternatives that might achieve 80 percent of the benefit at 10 percent of the cost.
March 26, 2026
Wednesday’s Headlines Feel Pain at the Pump
High gas prices are likely to persist, and people will be driving less in response.
March 25, 2026
D.C. Advocates Sue To Save Key Bike Lane From Trump Teardown
We previously reported that the Trump administration might soon move to dismantle key cycle tracks in the nation's capital. Unfortunately, we were right.
March 24, 2026
How a ‘Universal Basic Neighborhood’ Can Help Americans Live Longer
Want to increase your chances of living to 80? A new paper argues we need to start with our neighborhoods — and we need to do it for everybody.
March 24, 2026
Tuesday’s Headlines Keep Our Eyes on the Road
How much responsibility do tech companies bear for traffic deaths caused by distracted driving?
March 24, 2026
Comments Are Temporarily Disabled
Streetsblog is in the process of migrating our commenting system. During this transition, commenting is temporarily unavailable.
Once the migration is complete, you will be able to log back in and will have full access to your comment history. We appreciate your patience and look forward to having you back in the conversation soon.