Monday’s Headlines Were Born in a Small Town
When it comes to federal transit funding, small cities get more bang for the buck than big ones.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on August 24, 2026
- Federal funding has a greater impact on transit systems in smaller communities than big cities, according to a new study. That doesn’t mean big cities don’t need federal funding, but each dollar spent on cities with populations under 200,000 generates three times the ridership growth. (Futurism)
- Technology is making cars even more expensive as they continue to turn into iPads on wheels. (The Atlantic; paywall)
- The U.S. DOT finally released Sean Duffy’s road trip reality show. (The Guardian)
- A Tennessee driver apparently didn’t even try to stop before plowing through a college cycling team, killing two people and hospitalizing seven others. (Jalopnik)
- A study found that Oakland drivers slowed down substantially after the city installed automated traffic enforcement cameras on dangerous roads. (San Francisco Chronicle; paywall)
- Nebraska is building more roundabouts because they’ve cut crashes by three-quarters. (Nebraska Public Media)
- About two-thirds of pedestrian deaths in Nevada happen in places where there are no crosswalks, according to a UNLV study. (Fox 5)
- Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson personally helped paint a new bus-only lane on Denny Way (The Urbanist). She also issued an executive order to speed up Vision Zero projects (Capitol Hill)
- Massive cuts to TriMet bus service took effect on Sunday. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
- Phoenix’s Valley Metro is moving forward again with a stalled Westside light rail extension. (Axios)
- A prominent Atlanta developer wants to bring back the Peachtree Street streetcar. (Urbanize Atlanta)
- The family of Iryna Zarutska, who was killed aboard a Charlotte train, has sued the city. (Spectrum News)
- UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham plans to revive the HS2 passenger rail line between Birmingham and Manchester in Northern England. (Coventry Live)
- Dutch regulators fined Uber almost $1 billion for automatically deleting drivers’ accounts without informing them. (Reuters)
- Canada is building a lot of transit-oriented housing. (The Transit Brief)
- Children’s lungs grew faster after London established its Ultra Low Emissions Zone in 2019. (Yale e360)
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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