Politicians love to cut ribbons on new infrastructure projects, but maintenance isn’t sexy. As the Baltimore bridge collapse showed, neglecting upkeep can have deadly consequences. (Governing) A Swiss company is testing hydrogen-powered trains in Colorado, and California has already bought 10 after finding they have better range than battery-electric models and are cheaper than electrifying lines. Others are more skeptical of the technology, though. (Government Technology) California offers up to $9,500 for an electric vehicle, e-bike or transit expenses if people trade in an old gas-guzzling ..read more

Across the country, cities and transit agencies are taking steps to address violence on their systems — particularly against the people who work to keep our buses and trains clean and safe for everyone. But what are the root causes of that violence — and are strategies like deploying armed police actually addressing them?  On today’s episode of The Brake podcast, we speak to Urban Institute Senior Research Associate Lindiwe Rennert about her research into how violence against transit workers correlates with larger problems like police brutality and income inequality — and what ..read more

This post is sponsored by Ride Illinois. In the last three days, there’s been an increased focus on the policy failures of CTA President Dorval Carter. And there’s been growing pressure on Mayor Brandon Johnson to improve the region’s largest transit provider by replacing Carter.  Specifically, under Carter’s leadership, the CTA has not explained why the Yellow Line was closed for 50 days after a collision last January. It hasn’t justified why a bus driver who passed out and died in her operator’s chair was not noticed for nearly an hour, even though her bus hadn’t moved and had miss ..read more

Car dependency is a massive driver of some of America’s most urgent challenges — even if we don’t always recognize it. And a big part of that has to do with the simple language we use to describe those crises without acknowledging the outsized role that automobility plays in creating them. Here are five common car culture euphemisms to look out for, inspired by Streetsblog readers — and what to say instead. 1. ‘Traffic accidents’ Let’s start with a phrase so problematic it’s inspired an entire movement to get Americans to drop it from their collective lexicon: the “traffic accident,” and its c ..read more

They’re making a federal case about scofflaw cops. The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded that the NYPD stop allowing its officers to park illegally around stationhouses because the resulting obstructions are a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act — and the feds told the NYPD that the Civil Rights Division will sue if the NYPD doesn’t clean up its act. “In the event we determine that we cannot secure compliance voluntarily to correct the deficiencies identified in this letter, the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit pursuant to the ADA,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern ..read more

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in Miami to support President Biden’s re-election. (Miami Herald) Roll Call interviewed Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), the outgoing head of the Congressional Bike Caucus, and the man you want to talk to if you’re running a head shop. Take it for what it’s worth, but Tesla says it still plans to build a big-rig charging corridor in the West despite the Biden administration rejecting its grant request. (TechCrunch) The death toll in Portland continues to mount. (Mercury) The county surrounding Asheville, North Carolina, isn’t interested in transit, so ..read more

Metro bus riders will soon see faster bus speeds when Metro and L.A. City get a new bus lane enforcement program underway this year. Metro is adding on-bus cameras that will automatically issue tickets to drivers parking in bus lanes or at bus stops. In the past half-decade, Metro has worked with cities, mostly L.A. City, to install eleven new bus-only lane projects. Since 2019, Metro added about 20 new miles of bus lanes (about 30 new lane-miles). Metro (working with underlying cities and L.A. County) has additional bus lanes planned plus even more that were recently awarded federal funding ..read more

Editor’s note: A version of this article originally appeared in Governing and is republished with permission. I am blind and have been since childhood. If I stepped off the curb into a crosswalk and was killed by a car tomorrow, no one in charge of roadway planning would know that a longer traffic light or a chirping bell might have prevented my death — and perhaps the one after that. No public agency at any level of government specifically tracks traffic fatalities and injuries involving disabled pedestrians. Police aren’t even required to note a disability on the accident report. That’s po ..read more

In Republicans’ latest effort to keep Americans burning fossil fuels with no alternative, attorneys general from 25 red states sued to block new Biden administration regulations requiring automakers to cut tailpipe emissions by 50 percent within the next eight years. (New York Post) The federal government has paid out $580 million worth of point-of-sale tax rebates on 100,000 electric vehicle purchases since Jan. 1. (Inside EVs) After a year of bankruptcies and mergers, it looks like the micromobility industry is back on track. (Cities Today) Scientific American lays out the case for making A ..read more

This week we’re joined by Gabe Klein, executive director of President Biden’s Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (and a former Streetsblog board member). We chat about the office’s recent white paper on best practices and solutions for electric vehicle charging. For those of you who prefer to read than listen, there’s a full transcript here, but if you want an excerpt, check out the conversation below the podcast player: Jeff Wood: Let’s talk about charging. It’s different from fueling in that 80 percent of it happens at home, but it also means that there are many folks that can be left ..read more