Thursday’s Headlines Knock Down a Straw Man

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• Vehicles are so expensive — and dangerous — these days because automakers keep making them bigger and heavier. Republicans, though, are blaming escalating costs on safety technology like emergency braking that save thousands of lives, when the real culprit is loopholes in federal regulations that encourage selling trucks and SUVs over cars. (Wall Street Journal; Jalopnik)
• Dissent Magazine details how right-wing think tanks and the highway and oil lobbies have been pushing for bus rapid transit over rail since the 1960s.
• Leading a “walk audit” is a great way to start organizing your neighborhood to advocate for better pedestrian infrastructure. (Yale Climate Connections)
• Georgia is spending almost $5 billion to add toll lanes to congested Highway 400 north of Atlanta (Urbanize Atlanta). At least the project includes BRT lanes, but one wonders what extending and improving MARTA’s heavy rail service instead would have cost.
• Why does it take over a decade to build a BRT line in Seattle? (The Urbanist)
• Delayed by “bad soil,” Seattle’s Federal Way light rail extension opens on Saturday. (MyNorthwest)
• New Jersey became the first U.S. state to adopt a Vision Zero plan (NJ.com). Meanwhile, Indianapolis also adopted a plan to end traffic deaths by 2035, using a “safe systems” approach (WTHR)
• Kansas City residents will find out what it’s like to actually have good transit service during next summer’s World Cup. (KCUR)
• Instead of attempting to slow down drivers on Boulder Highway or give people a safe place to cross, Las Vegas spent millions of dollars putting up a fence to keep out pedestrians. (WILX)
• Salt Lake City suburbs are all about transit-oriented development. (KUER)
• Can town hall meetings be fun instead of a boring civic duty? Officials in Boulder think so. (NPR)
• Emily Sneddon designed a new font called Fran Sans inspired by retired Muni streetcars. (San Francisco Chronicle)