Monday’s Headlines Are Safer on a Train
Despite a few high-profile crimes, buses are twice as safe as cars, and trains are five times as safe.
By
Blake Aued
12:02 AM EDT on October 13, 2025
- According to the Trump administration, murders on transit are up 50 percent and assaults are up 80 percent over the past five years. But to put those numbers in perspective, transit averaged about nine homicides a year, while nearly 40,000 people died in car crashes in 2024. (Eno Center for Transportation)
- Cycling is revolutionizing transportation worldwide, and spinning up a new culture war. (The Economist; paywall)
- Smart Cities Dive has full coverage of last month’s American Public Transportation Association conference.
- Ford and GM have dropped plans to use leases to keep offering the expired federal tax credit for electric vehicles. (ACT News)
- Lyft is buying hundreds of robotaxis. (Engadget)
- Jarrett Walker says it’s not really too hot/cold/wet/whatever to walk in your city, but such attitudes prevent designs that would make it more bearable. (Human Transit)
- UCLA is honoring the late professor and parking expert Donald Shoup (Streetsblog LA), and a recent viral TikTok video reminded New Yorkers that there really is no such thing as free parking (NY Times).
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing denser housing near transit stations. (NBC Bay Area)
- The doomed D.C. streetcar will shut down in March, a year earlier than planned, with no clear replacement on the horizon. (Washington Post)
- Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell outlined plans to spend $100 million on road upgrades, sidewalks and traffic signals. (WKRN)
- A Milwaukee alderman wants to shut down The Hop streetcar rather than raise the city’s vehicle registration fee, or “wheel tax.” (WTMJ)
- Miami has the first all-electric express bus line in the country. (Herald)
- A judge told Pittsburgh businesses to put up a $40,000 bond to temporarily stop work on a bike lane project while their lawsuit against the city is considered. (CBS News)
- The 12th Street Bridge in Covington, Kentucky, just outside of Cincinnati, underwent a road diet (WLWT).
- San Francisco cyclists are unhappy that the city is removing bike lanes from the Richmond San Rafael Bridge. (KRON)
- A “quick build” bike project is coming to Richmond’s Southside. (WRIC)
- Austin has built hundreds of traffic safety projects in the 10 years since committing to Vision Zero. (KXAN)
- Bike Share Toronto set a record with 8.1 million trips this year. (Global News)
- Biking in Paris rose by 240 percent between 2018 and 2023, as the city built new bike infrastructure while also making driving less convenient. (Momentum)
- Buenos Aires turned a parking garage into a public park. (Wallpaper)
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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