Today’s Headlines
Basics
Tuesday’s Headlines
Lyft says ride-hailing apps are replacing personal car ownership, but the evidence is mixed at best. (The Street) City Lab and the Arizona Mirror delve into the effort — guided by both corporate dark money and the misguided notion that road diets hurt small business — to halt light-rail expansion in Phoenix. Streetsblog covered last … Continued
August 13, 2019
Monday’s Headlines
Cities everywhere are embracing life in the slow lane. Lowering speed limits not only makes streets safer, but also contributes to a sense of place. (City Lab) Uber and Lyft both posted massive losses in the second quarter, and executives acknowledge they’ll have to raise prices soon to become profitable (Wired). The companies are hiking … Continued
August 12, 2019
Friday’s Headlines
Ride-hailing is at least partly responsible for decline in transit systems’ ridership and revenue, but could also be their salvation. (Forbes) Cities can create jobs and reap environmental benefits by rolling out fleets of electric buses (Governing). Sadly, Governing, which has provided many a headline for Streetsblog, will no longer be publishing as of this … Continued
August 9, 2019
Thursday’s Headlines
Cities can reduce transportation costs for schools by offering students free bus passes. (Education Dive) Uber wants to be a one-stop shop for car, bike, scooter, bus and train trips, and Denver is the guinea pig. (New York Times) Phoenix is the latest city where the Koch brothers are bankrolling a dark-money campaign to halt … Continued
August 8, 2019
Wednesday’s Headlines
Uber and Lyft released a joint analysis showing that they’re making traffic worse in major cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and especially San Francisco. Even worse, almost half the time, ride-hail vehicles are driving around without passengers. (City Lab) The Nation reports on the California bill that would grant Uber and … Continued
August 7, 2019
Tuesday’s Headlines
Riffing off last weekend’s notorious New York Times article, Treehugger says that when self-driving vehicles arrive, cities will be forced to choose between banning cars and penning up pedestrians. Here’s an innovative idea for funding transportation: Tax corporate stock buybacks (Inside EVs). Or, if you want to keep the gas tax, at least index it to … Continued
August 6, 2019
Monday’s Headlines
The auto industry frets that, if self-driving cars never run people over, fearless jaywalkers will grind traffic to a halt (New York Times). And the problem is? (Actually, in case you missed it, Streetsblog explored that question.) Democratic presidential candidates didn’t talk much about cities or infrastructure during last week’s debates. (Crain’s Detroit Business) With … Continued
August 5, 2019
Friday’s Headlines
Cities built way too many roads, and now they can’t afford to maintain them. (Strong Towns) A bipartisan transportation bill breezed through a Senate committee (Politico). Transportation for America praised aspects of the bill but said it doesn’t go far enough, while some conservatives are resisting raising the gas tax. Children should be included in … Continued
August 2, 2019
Thursday’s Headlines
Washington’s failure to produce an infrastructure package might not be a bad thing, because an auto-centric bill is worse than nothing. Instead, Congress should be focusing on intercity rail and other measures to get people out of their cars. (American Prospect) The YIMBY movement for denser housing is gaining traction among Democrats (The Atlantic). But … Continued
August 1, 2019
Wednesday’s Headlines
Drivers who spend hours sitting in traffic should spend 17 seconds watching this video on the benefits of bus rapid transit. (Fast Company) Uber, which lost $1 billion in the first quarter, laid off a third of its marketing department to cut costs. But don’t worry, it still has 800 marketing people left (Tech Crunch). … Continued
July 31, 2019