Today's Headlines

Wednesday’s Headlines Are the Best of the Best

What does it take to turn the tide against the dominance of cars? These cities are an example.

12:24 AM EDT on October 8, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Are the Best of the Best

Photo: Emmy Lee, WHYY

New York, Boston, Minneapolis and Portland are among the safest cities for cyclists, and it’s not by accident. They’ve all built protected bike networks, lowered speed limits and committed to changing the culture. (Momentum)
The high cost of car ownership in the U.S. would seem to favor a curbside rental model, but Americans are hellbent on car ownership, and nobody from cities to rental companies seems to want to try to facilitate something else. (Millennial Dream)
Technology to end drunk driving is now at hand, supposedly, like it was 10 years ago. (Government Technology)
Publicly-funded transit projects aren’t the only ones getting more expensive: The price tag for the privately funded Brightline rail connection between Los Angeles and Las Vegas just rose by $5.5 billion due to labor and construction costs (Railway Age). Maybe privatization isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Smart Cities Dive describes how Boston and Massachusetts fixed a transit system prone to lateness and derailments.
More than a decade after voters banned traffic cameras, Cleveland officials are considering bringing them back. (Plain Dealer)
Miami Beach is the latest city to bow to President Trump, allowing the Florida DOT to remove a rainbow crosswalk on Ocean Drive. (NBC Miami)
San Francisco data shows that cameras reduce speeding by 72 percent. (Examiner)
What should Des Moines do about crashes on University Avenue? (Axios)
The kids are alright, part infinity: Young Nebraskans are rebelling against cars. (Nebraska Public Media)
Chile has reduced greenhouse gas emissions in part by improving transit, but smog is still a problem. (The Guardian)
Leeds is proposing charging business owners that provide free parking for employees to pay for a tram system. (BBC)