Thursday’s Headlines Keep Riding

• Cities that built protected bike lanes during the pandemic have found that people are still using them. (Associated Press, Bicycling)
• Common Edge interviews author Nicholas Dagen Bloom about the rise and fall of transit in the U.S.
• Because electric vehicles weigh more and accelerate faster, they also wear out tires more quickly than gas-powered vehicles, raising concerns about additional particle pollution. (PC Magazine)
• Los Angeles’ much-maligned “La Sombrita” bus shelters are a symptom of municipal bureaucracies that make everything impossible. (Vice)
• Fares only make up less than 2 percent of the L.A. Metro’s budget, but a low-income rider might spend a month’s wages on fares over a year. Why not get rid of them? (L.A. Times)
• Austin officials announced the final route for a new 10-mile light rail line. (Monitor)
• Private passenger rail company Brightline expects to finish its Miami-to-Orlando expansion this summer. (WFTV)
• Uber will begin operating driverless Waymo vehicles in metro Phoenix. (CNBC)
• Kansas city will ask voters to renew a sales tax for transit in November that’s expected to raise $350 million over 10 years. (KMBC)
• Seattle capitulated to concerns about lost parking from a new protected bike lane by adding more parking to surrounding streets. (The Urbanist)
• California regulators are forcing San Diego restaurants to replace any parking they converted into outdoor dining space. (PB Monthly)
• The replacement of overhead power lines has made Denver light rail virtually unusable this week. (Denverite)
• Richmond’s bikeshare abruptly shut down this week (Times-Dispatch), and some advocates believe it should be turned into a nonprofit rather than run by a private company (WTVR).
• France officially banned short-haul domestic flights that could be completed in less than two and a half hours by train. (CNN)

source https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/05/25/thursdays-headlines-keep-riding/