Thursday’s Headlines Are Free for Everyone

  • From Boston to Olympia, mayors are embracing fare-free transit as a way to address inequality. (Politico)
  • Safe-driving ad campaigns mostly don’t work, and the money could be better spent on other strategies, like speed-limiting technology or designing safer roads. (Slate)
  • The Biden administration is now taking a serious look at a gas-tax holiday (The Hill), which is a bad policy that doesn’t help drivers much, doesn’t encourage alternative modes and siphons money from transportation.
  • Remember the time a self-driving Uber killed a woman who was crossing the street in Arizona? (Clean Technica)
  • The Massachusetts Supreme Court blocked a Prop 22-style gig worker referendum that’s backed by Uber and Lyft. (CNN)
  • The latest plan for Austin’s Project Connect calls for closing “The Drag,” a popular strip near the University of Texas campus, to cars. (American-Statesman)
  • San Francisco museums want voters to allow cars on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park again. (Examiner)
  • Nashville Mayor John Cooper wants to ban sidewalk vendors in some parts of the city, saying they get in the way of pedestrians. (Tennessean)
  • Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has approved bike lanes on 11th Street, along with reducing vehicle lanes, pedestrian refuges, and more. (Houston Public Media)
  • Milwaukee County is overhauling its transit system in an effort to lure riders back and avoid a budget shortfall. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
  • The Pittsburgh Port Authority is now Pittsburgh Regional Transit, a name meant to better reflect its mission as, you guessed it, a regional transit agency. (Post-Gazette)
  • Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants to transform the city’s ring road into a green belt. (Eltis)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG