Never Mind the Bollards, Here Come Thursday’s Headlines
Despite the constraints they place on public spaces, the barriers are necessary to protect people from weaponized vehicles.
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EDT on September 3, 2026
- Cities first started installing bollards after 9/11. Since then, they’ve been used to stop drivers from using their vehicles to ram into pedestrians on the sidewalk. The New York Times calls them a sign of the militarization of cities that have become just another part of urban life.
- Architecture and urban planning have a role to play in keeping people moving and healthy, rather than just telling everyone to get more exercise (Arch Daily). This has a lot to do with cars, because they take up much more space in limited public right-of-ways than people do (Princeton University Press). Plus, climate change won’t be solved by individual choices, but only by public policy and collective action, according to author Leah C. Stokes (MIT Press Reader).
- Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron has some practical tips for going car-free.
- More U.S. cities, including Seattle and St. Louis, are putting up gates at light rail stations to increase their farebox revenue. (Mass Transit)
- Richmond leaders want the state of Virginia to drop the legal limit for DUI from a 0.08 blood alcohol level to 0.05. Drinking was a factor in 37 percent of the city’s crashes. (Axios)
- The Minneapolis Blue Line is still short $224 million. (Minnesota Public Radio)
- U.S. DOT officials spent two days in Atlanta looking into transit agency MARTA’s safety and security. (AJC)
- Nashville is developing a tool to measure how new development affects traffic. (Fox 17)
- After a recent court ruling in its favor, Doug Ford’s Ontario government is already starting to rip out Toronto bike lanes. (CBC)
- A new report frames high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec City as essential for Canada’s economic development. (The Whig)
- A German company invented a tire that’s made out of 43 percent recycled materials and allows electric vehicles to get more out of their batteries. (Auto Next)
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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