Tuesday’s Headlines Came Down With Congestion

• Vehicle miles driven nationwide have jumped 12 percent since the pandemic lockdowns temporarily cleared out streets. Traffic congestion now exceeds pre-COVID levels, and even more concerning, it’s rising faster than when shelter-at-home orders ended in 2021. (City Lab)
• U.S. cities that want to fight the trend can look to Europe, where cities are taking steps like limiting where people can drive and investing in bike infrastructure. (Time)
• Complete Streets do make a difference — if supporters can overcome entrenched interests and budgetary constraints to implement them. (Transportation for America)
• Mail carriers are big fans of the Postal Service’s new trucks, although they still get horrible gas mileage, and not enough of them are electric. (Jalopnik)
• Curbed interviewed Robert Caro, author of the definitive Robert Moses biography “The Power Broker.”
• A U.S. Department of Energy study found that investing in transit in Chicago would return the investment 13 times over. (Mass Transit)
• Uber and Waymo are bringing robotaxis to Austin and Atlanta next. (Clean Technica)
• Plans for a north-south bus rapid transit line in Milwaukee could stay on the shelf for another decade or more. (Urban Milwaukee)
• A WHYY podcast discusses reclaiming Philadelphia’s public streets for pedestrians.
• New Orleans transit is almost completely back to normal operations after Hurricane Francine. (WGNO)
• An Indianapolis police officer driving a patrol car hit a pedestrian, who was hospitalized in critical condition. (Star)
• If James Bond had an e-bike trailer, this would be it. (MSN)

source https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/09/17/tuesdays-headlines-came-down-with-congestion