Streetsblog

Here's a story about why we no longer fear artificial intelligence, and, indeed, hope it will someday be running the country.

Sadly, it's not that Gen Z doesn't want to drive cars, it's that Gen Z can't afford to. Plus, Popeye's can make drivers do wrong.

The Department of Transportation's first picks for a historic new grant program aimed at repairing neighborhoods torn apart by highways were met by applause from advocates — even as they cautioned that far more remains to be done.

Tampa, St. Paul, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and dozens of other cities where efforts are underway to remove urban freeways received federal planning grants.

Just one more lane, bro. One more lane, and traffic will be gone, I promise.

Pedestrian deaths are continuing to skyrocket as the pandemic drags on — and since 2019, analysts say the death rate for walkers has eclipsed the rate of population growth by a factor of at least nine. According to the latest fatality estimates from the Governor's Highway Safety Association, U.S. drivers killed 3,434 people on foot in the first six months of 2022, an increase of five percent over the same period the prior year — and a staggering 18 percent increase over the number of walkers who died in early 2019, the last year before the pandemic.  The group also pointed out that those numbers can't easily be explained by non-traffic-related factors, noting that since "2019, the last pre-pandemic year, pedestrian fatalities have surged 18 percent in just three years – nine times faster than U.S. population growth."

The kind of AI that helps figure out where sidewalks and crosswalks should go, that is. Not the kind that drives cars.

Most states spend little to nothing on transit, according to a new Transportation for America report. And even those that do don't spend enough, with a number of agencies facing a fiscal cliff.

So much for stealing your friend's dad's Ferrari and going to see a Cubs game. Kids these days aren't much interested in driving.