Wednesday’s Headlines Get Onboard Amtrak

  • Amtrak saw a 97 percent drop in ticket sales at the start of the pandemic, but ridership has almost fully recovered and some cases exceeds 2019. (Politico)
  • Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wants the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to do something about SUVs’ large blind zones that hide children in the street from drivers. (Transportation Today)
  • People have been calling for car-free streets for almost as long as cars have existed. (Planetizen)
  • The playbook for reviving big-city transit is becoming increasingly clear — at least in those big cities that already have robust, if outdated, systems. (Governing)
  • Common Edge interviews architect David Waggonner about the pessimism surrounding tearing down New Orleans’ crumbling Claiborne Expressway. The Syracuse Post-Standard examines what that city can learn from Rochester, which demolished its urban ring road. And more than 50 years after I-90 punched through Spokane, a new interchange is victimizing one neighborhood again (Crosscut).
  • Philadelphia could use federal infrastructure funds to dust off 1110-year-old plans for a Roosevelt Boulevard subway. (Inquirer, Streetsblog)
  • San Francisco has 45 traffic cops, but they only issue a total of 10 tickets per day. (SF Chronicle)
  • Denver’s new bus rapid transit network — still six years away — will be called the Lynx. (Denverite)
  • A driver hit a Colorado Springs pedestrian and broke several of the walker’s bones. Then police cited the victim for jaywalking. (Fox 21)
  • Fix the roads already! Singer Amy Grant suffered a concussion when she hit a pothole and fell off her bike (Billboard). And Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale suffered a season-ending wrist injury after his bike hit a rough patch and threw him off. (NBC Sports)
  • Only a magician would dare risk death by riding in a crappy American bike lane. (McSweeney’s)

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