Tuesday’s Headlines Compete for Curbs

• Despite all the competition for curb space these days — from deliveries to outdoor dining to charging stations — cities mostly still use it for free parking. (CNN)
• California’s quick reversal on driverless cars shows that government regulators still aren’t quite sure what to do with them. (Washington Post)
• The average American drives 10,000 miles a year, and at that rate the costs to society far outweigh the benefits. Driving should be infrequent in urban and low-income areas, and practically nonexistent in city centers, according to a Planetizen analysis.
• E-scooters don’t really belong on sidewalks, but sometimes riders have no choice. (Forbes)
• Angie Schmitt wonders why police departments waste Pedestrian Safety Month by shaming victims instead of doing something helpful. (Streetsblog USA)
• The D.C. Metro has improved service and streamlined fares over the past year and a half, but all that progress could be lost as the agency faces a fiscal cliff. (Transit Center)
• A Jewish cyclist and her child were harassed by an antisemitic driver in Washington, D.C. who blocked a bike lane with his SUV and called them “the devil.” (New York Post)
• A Mississippi woman searching for her missing son finally discovered that police had run him over and buried him in a pauper’s grave six months earlier. (NBC News)
• BART officials are considering consolidating with some of the Bay Area’s many other transit agencies. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• It looked like Los Angeles was going to tear down the Marina Freeway and replace it with housing, but true to form, the city wound up caving to NIMBYs. (L.A. Times)
• Sactown Mag interviews Susan Handy, a University of California at Davis professor, director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation and author of “Shifting Gears: Toward a New Way of Thinking About Transportation.”
• Has bus rapid transit made Charlotte’s Red Line obsolete? The proposed light rail line would actually be slower than BRT. (WFAE)
• Portland’s “BRT lite” is working, and could be a model for a lot of other places where dedicated lanes aren’t an option. (Human Transit)
• San Antonio will break ground on the Green Line BRT next year. (Report)
• Denver is considering making transit permanently fare-free for riders 19 and under. (The Center Square)
• Today is the last day for Seattle residents to urge the city to improve its transportation plan. (The Urbanist)
• Sydney may let buses take control of traffic lights. (The Guardian)

source https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/10/31/tuesdays-headlines-compete-for-curbs