Take Thursday’s Headlines Home, Country Roads
The Trump administration wants to build roads through pristine public lands.
12:01 AM EDT on August 20, 2026
- The Trump administration is repealing a ban on roads in millions of acres of public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Allowing greater access by motor vehicles could disrupt numerous environmentally sensitive habitats. (Field and Stream)
- Traffic engineers could take advantage of aviation technology to detect and deter conflicts at intersections. (ITS International)
- The CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority blames increasing regulation for slow progress on the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line, 20 years in the works. (Fresno Bee)
- As the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority electrifies its trains, should it go with tried-and-true overhead wires or cutting-edge battery technology? (Commonwealth Beacon)
- A spike in serious crime on Charlotte Area Rapid Transit last year coincided with a drop in ridership (WCNC). Meanwhile, North Carolina’s state auditor is calling for gates or turnstiles at every light rail station to improve security and fare collection (Queen City News).
- Atlanta transit riders want the same impeccable service MARTA offered during the World Cup to continue on. (Appen Media)
- Amtrak’s Mardi Gras line along the Gulf Coast has served 150,000 passengers in its first year, twice the initial projection. (Transportation for America)
- Seattle shattered a record for bike and scooter trips across the Fremont Bridge in July, a sign that the pandemic dip is over. (Seattle Bike Blog)
- Stephanie Nahkleh argues that a car-centric zoning code, not greedy developers, is to blame for Santa Fe’s ugly sprawl. (We Can Have Nice Things)
- Smart Growth America highlights a quick-build road diet in Winchester, Kentucky.
- Lloyd Alter says he expected a Canadian appeals court to overturn a ruling calling Doug Ford’s anti-bike lane policy unconstitutional, but he didn’t expect the judge to sound like such a car-brained jerk. (Carbon Upfront!)
- A Dutch town built a chain-driven ferry for cyclists and pedestrians to pull themselves across a river. (Core 77)
- In Tokyo, visitors can ride on one of the few streetcars that survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima. (Japan Today)
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