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The latest streets and transportation news from Streetsblog USA.

Few op-eds that we’ve published over the years spurred more reader engagement than the Sam Schwartz-Kelly McGuinness-penned piece earlier this month about autonomous vehicles. Streetsblog NYC had commissioned the piece from the pair of experts after New York Gov. Hochul ended Waymo’s testing of AV taxis in New York City, mainly to ask the simple question, “What now?” Frankly, the piece was fairly anodyne — “What now?

Society should have a serious debate about the role of AVs so we don’t end up with what happened in the 1920s, when we failed to have a serious debate about cars” — but reader interest was exceptionally keen.

Fortunately, Schwartz and McGuinness were also leading a three-panel seminar last week, “The Future of Transportation,” at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. Because of our readers’ — and society’s — obvious interest in the top, we offer an excerpt from the Schwartz-led panel, “Autonomous Vehicles and the Hard Problems — Safety, Streets, and Tradeoffs.” Panelists were Peter Norton, author of “Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City“; Rachel Weinberger of Regional Plan Association; and journalist David Zipper.

Read the transcript — and more news from today — at the links below.

  • Friday Video: Inside the Global Far-Right Push To Rip Out Bike Lanes
    by Kea Wilson
    October 23, 2026
    Toronto might be in the center of the fight to resist bike lane teardown today. But if some far-right politicians have their way, this fight won’t be the last.
  • Friday’s Headlines Shoot Themselves in the Foot
    by Blake Aued
    October 23, 2026
    Gas taxes pay for transit, too, so what happens when politicians pander to voters, and the highway trust fund runs dry?
  • Talking Headways Podcast: A More Humanized Experience in Honolulu
    by Gersh Kuntzman
    October 22, 2026
    If we look transit just as a distance issue, but as a time issue, performance should be discussed as one big whole.
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