Monday’s Headlines Shift Into Reverse
After the Biden administration briefly boosted funding for transit and rail, House Republicans are going back to their highway-centric ways.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on June 15, 2026
- The BUILD America 250 Act not only drastically cuts funding for transit and passenger rail compared to the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, it includes no guaranteed funding for new transit projects, according to Yonah Freemark. (Urban Institute)
- Gary Nelson unpacks the bill, arguing that it’s just another chapter in the century-long destruction of transit and passenger rail networks in favor of highways.
- Autonomous vehicles were originally envisioned in the 1960s as a type of public transit with the convenience of cars, but Silicon Valley has turned them into for-profit robotaxis siphoning riders from transit. (Popular Science)
- Uber now keeps more than half the fares paid by passengers in some cities. A decade ago, drivers received about 80 to 85 percent. (Business Insider)
- The Northeast Corridor has the only 49 miles of true high-speed tracks in the U.S., and Amtrak is running slow diesel trains on the them. (The Transit Guy)
- The New York Times asks whether parking should be free. The answer, as is usually the case when a headline poses a question, is no.
- A House committee approved $875 million funding for Olympics-related transit projects in Los Angeles. (L.A. Times)
- Light rail, not wider highways, is the answer to Austin’s traffic problems, an American-Statesman columnist writes.
- Sound Transit insists that the Ballard Link light rail project in Seattle is not dead. (The Urbanist)
- Charleston continues to pursue the mutually exclusive goals of safe streets and fast driving, despite being the 12th most dangerous city for pedestrians in the U.S. (City Paper)
- A new Arizona State app allows users to choose the shadiest, cooling walking route through Phoenix.
- The Maine group Portland Bike Party won a new bike lane sweeper in a contest. (News Center Maine)
- The Kansas City streetcar got high marks from World Cup visitors (KCTV). The Dutch team, of course, rented 17 e-bikes to get around town (Kansas City Star).
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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