Friday’s Headlines Are Hanging Out Down the Street

The same old thing we did last week — until the neighbor wrote a letter to the editor.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on October 24, 2025

Playing road hockey in Vancouver.

|Pete/Flickr

Complaints about children playing in the street ignore the fact that cars took over streets from kids, not the other way around. "Grey spaces" offer young people variety and connections, and in turn they enliven the neighborhood. (The Conversation)
Repairing roads and bridges creates more jobs than spending the same amount of money on building new highways, according to a report by Good Jobs First. (State Smart Transportation Initiative)
The urban/rural divide is getting wider, as Ezra Klein discussed with author Suzanne Mettler. (New York Times)
Atlanta officials are confident a plan to cap the Downtown Connector will move forward despite federal cuts. (AJC; paywall)
San Jose is testing whether AI can detect potholes or malfunctioning traffic signals, rather than waiting on people to report them. (Smart Cities Dive)
An SUV driver repeatedly rammed a Portland cyclist who was participating in last Saturday's No Kings protest. (BikePortland)
Most of Tucson's sidewalks are inaccessible for people in wheelchairs. (KOLD)
The Kansas City streetcar extension officially opens today. (Star)
Milwaukee streetcar The Hop is seeing its highest ridership numbers since 2019, when it first started running. (Journal-Sentinel)
Travis County, Texas approved a feasibility study for a high-speed rail line between Austin and San Antonio. (CBS Austin)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's record $51 billion infrastructure package includes $33 billion for roads and just $17 billion for rail and transit. (NBC5 Chicago)
Elon Musk got permission from Tennessee Republicans to bypass the Nashville government and start work on a tunnel between downtown and the airport. (NPR)
Bikeshares are key to getting European city-dwellers out of their cars and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. (E&E News; paywall)
The Irish government is directing cities and towns to reduce speed limits to about 20 miles per hour. (The Journal)