Friday’s Headlines (With No Mention of Last Night’s Debate)

  • No matter who wins the national election, the path to better transit will still run through progressive states and cities. (The Transport Politic)
  • Tesla is moving forward with fully self-driving cars even though the technology isn’t ready. And the company can do so, because autonomous vehicles are only lightly regulated. (Washington Post)
  • While Gen X and boomers tend to live in the suburbs and have the space to work from home, city-dwelling millennials still want to go into the office, as Metropolis reported…
  • …But working from home won’t cut emissions unless telecommuters don’t need their cars to make other kinds of trips, too. (GreenBiz)
  • City Lab asked an interesting question — with an obvious answer: No! Cities are not ready for the pandemic motorcycle boom. They should be passing restrictions on emissions and noise, not welcoming the two-wheeled mini-cars.
  • One reason pedestrian deaths are on the rise could be that car-less people are moving to dangerous, auto-centric Sun Belt cities and suburbs. (Planetizen)
  • A future Biden administration might try to force Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees, but it’s probably not high on the priority list. (Motley Fool)
  • Uber has $185 million to spend promoting Prop 22, but it’s pinching pennies on postage by claiming to be a nonprofit. (San Francisco Chronicle)
  • San Francisco is not on track to meet its goal of zero pedestrian deaths by 2024. Drivers have killed 19 people there so far this year. (Examiner)
  • The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in Georgia tweeted a photo of a driver about to hit a person in a crosswalk, and then blamed pedestrians for getting hit. StreetsblogNYC called for every employee at the office to be fired (which didn’t happen … but the tweet was deleted!).
  • Charlotte is trying to undo 50 years of autocentric planning that divided and destroyed Black neighborhoods. (Agenda)
  • A federal judge ruled that New York City crosswalks don’t protect pedestrians who are blind or have bad eyesight. (Associated Press)
  • Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants to raise the gas tax to help close a $1.2-billion budget shortfall. (NBC Chicago)
  • A minority of people — loud, but still a minority — oppose low-traffic neighborhoods in London. (The Guardian)

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