Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Friday’s Headlines

• Redesigning roads to be safer is a long and arduous process, but there’s one thing the U.S. government could do right now to protect pedestrians and cyclists — rate how safe vehicles are for the people they hit, not just the people inside. (Vox)
• A digital sleuth who set up a website to track stolen bikes traced a bunch of West Coast thefts back to one guy in Mexico. (Wired)
• The owner of intercity coach company Megabus has filed for bankruptcy, saying it never recovered from the pandemic. (Bus and Motor Coach)
• About 150,000 electric vehicles have been sold in the U.S. so far this year, with the Biden administration’s EV tax credit saving consumers a total of $1 billion, according to the Treasury Department. (The Hill)
• Hydrogen-powered bikes are even more environmentally friendly than ordinary e-bikes because they don’t require mineral-heavy batteries or, in the case of bikeshares, a van to go around swapping out the batteries. (Electrek)
• Jalopnik and Not Just Bikes delve into the psychology behind those absurd 15-minute city conspiracy theories.
• Authorities finalized the biggest federal grant ever for the $16 billion Hudson River Gateway project to unsnarl passenger rail traffic up and down the East Coast. (New York Times)
• Republicans in both Oregon and Washington state are questioning bike lanes along a new I-5 bridge spanning the Columbia River, with some wanting to toll cyclists and some wanting to deny them access at all. (Bike Portland)
• The San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency is considering removing a controversial Valencia Street bike lane despite no evidence that it’s actually harming businesses. (SFist)
• Michigan Democrats are fast-tracking a bill that would funnel corporate income taxes to housing and transit. (Detroit Free Press)
• Denver safety inspectors found more problems on light rail that have been slowing trains to a crawl, but declined to say exactly what they are. (Denver Post)
• The Utah Transit Authority is planning mixed-use developments around three transit stations. (Salt Lake City Weekly)
• Philadelphia is looking to add speed cameras to dangerous Broad Street. (Axios)
• In 1912 Jacksonville had a 42-mile streetcar system that served 14 million annual riders. By 1936 it had been completely torn up. (The Jaxson)

source https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/06/14/mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-fridays-headlines