Wednesdays Headlines Go Fast

• As Streetsblog and City Observatory have shown, Matthew Yglesias, writing in the Washington Post, is overstating things when he calls the I-95 collapse in Philadelphia “an obvious disaster for the nation’s transportation system.” But he’s right that the quick repairs show the U.S. can still get things done when there’s less red tape to cut.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics is backing Vision Zero policies in response to the alarming 11 percent increase in children killed by drivers over the past decade. (ABC News)
• As other Bay Area transit agencies struggle to bring back riders and/or find new sources of revenue, Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit now exceeds pre-pandemic ridership and is in good shape financially, probably because it’s always relied on sales taxes instead of fares. (North Bay Business Journal)
• Reading started to day when the railroad made famous by Monopoly went bankrupt in 1971. Now the Pennsylvania city hopes federal funding for electric vehicle chargers can help revitalize downtown. (CNN)
• An EV-sharing collective has started up in California’s Central Valley, a region with high poverty and little access to transit. (New York Times)
• If one Mesa lawmaker thinks light rail is a “moving urinal,” it’s no wonder Arizona Republicans are trying to kill expansion plans. (Your Valley)
• Minnesota’s transportation bill not only includes funding boosts for transit and intercity rail, but a Minneapolis greenway, e-bike rebates, a multimodal hub and more goodies. (MinnPost)
• The Los Angeles Regional Connector is just two miles of subway with three stops, but it’s a gamechanger in terms of helping people get across downtown faster. (Human Transit)
• The Chicago Sun-Times thinks local transit has more pressing needs than a new $6.5 billion transit hub.
• An Albuquerque mural memorializes pedestrians killed by drivers. (KOAT)
• Honolulu’s new light rail line, dubbed Skyline, starts running June 30. (Trains)
• The Cincinnati Inquirer interviews the new head of the Connector streetcar, who rides it to work every day.
• We don’t know why this Huntsville chicken was crossing the road, but we do know it was cited for jaywalking. (Rocket City Now)

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source https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/06/21/wednesdays-headlines-go-fast