Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Today’s Headlines

Is this how federal transportation policy should be made? Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao took at least 10 meetings at the request of her husband Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, according to emails obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight through an Open Records Act request. Many are from Kentucky and friends of the […]

Why can’t Trump build anything? Because Republicans don’t really care about investing in public infrastructure, according to the Times’s Paul Krugman. What is going on in Colorado? A man is facing murder charges after allegedly intentionally hitting a pedestrian with his car. (The Denver Channel) Another man was shot and killed in a “long running […]

President Trump — who used to complain that China had faster trains than the U.S. — is now using passenger rail as a wedge issue. (CNN) The federal funding bill Trump recently signed does include $800 million for transit. (Florida Politics) It also removed a longstanding ban on light rail in Richmond, Va. (Chron) Is […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to drastically scale back plans for a Los Angeles-San Francisco bullet train is a gift to anti-transit Republicans. (Politico) He ensured Americans won’t get to experience modern rail travel for another generation. (Fortune) A new study says that bike- and scooter-shares are hurting bus ridership, but trains and subways benefit. […]

Eighty percent of Capital Bikeshare’s users are white, and 90 percent of its stations are in white neighborhoods. (DCist) With transportation equity (or the lack thereof) in the news a lot lately, maybe that’s why Lyft is offering free rides (up to $10) to African-American historical and cultural sites in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and L.A. […]

Only a month after taking office and a week after the Green New Deal highlighted the need for more passenger rail, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is drastically scaling back a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles high-speed rail line. (City Lab; more at Streetsblog CAL) The Washington Post editorial board buys into D.C. Metro officials’ argument that extending […]