Thursday’s Headlines From Around the Nation

  • Sixty percent of Americans agree that climate change is a major threat, according to a new Pew survey, and while there’s a broad divide between Democrats and Republicans on whether it exists and whether it’s manmade, bipartisan majorities favor measures like higher fuel efficiency standards for cars to curb it. (Washington Post)
  • Vice’s Motherboard has the inside scoop on how Uber’s unrelenting pursuit of scale at all costs caused major problems for JUMP, the idealistic bike-share company it acquired, culminating in Uber dumping JUMP onto rival Lime and Lime dumping thousands of JUMP bikes onto scrap heaps.
  • Enticing workers back onboard transit may be a key to economic recovery. (Bloomberg)
  • Two-thirds of 1,100 municipalities surveyed by the National League of Cities expect to cancel or delay infrastructure projects as a result of the coronavirus recession. (Route Fifty)
  • Self-driving taxies will do nothing to reduce disparities in transportation access, according to a new study. In fact, they’ll actually be more expensive to operate on a per-mile basis than privately owned automobiles. (The Truth About Cars)
  • A Black woman who was assaulted by a white supremacist on a Portland train in 2017 called out the “racist system” at her attacker’s sentencing hearing. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
  • Bay Area Rapid Transit is shifting $2 million from police and fare collectors to unarmed “ambassadors” who will patrol trains making riders feel more comfortable. (Mass Transit Mag)
  • The Obama administration gave Columbus, Ohio $40 million and four years to become a “smart city.”. A year before the deadline, Columbus has made some progress, but many programs are behind schedule. (Governing)
  • City officials are disputing the San Antonio transit agency’s claims that it’s facing a massive shortfall and say it should be able to weather the pandemic without service cuts. (Rivard Report)
  • The Boston Globe calls on the Massachusetts legislature to raise the gas tax, which it was poised to do before the pandemic hit, lawmakers scattered and the economy collapsed.
  • After seeing little effect on pedestrian safety over three years, Montgomery County, Maryland is going to back to the drawing board on its Vision Zero plan. (Bethesda Magazine)
  • Stop us if you think that you’ve heard this one before, but bike sales are booming in Italy since the government ended the coronavirus lockdown. (Reuters)

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