Transportation

Dallas Streetcar Launches New Expansion
The expanded Dallas Streetcar began service the Bishop Arts District this week, an expansion of three-quarters-of-a-mile beyond the original route.

Green Spaces Are Making a Comeback in New Orleans
Some good news from a state that has seen far too much bad news this year: local officials report that the trees of New Orleans are making a surprisingly strong comeback after devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

D.C. Metro to Test Free WiFi at Six Subway Stations
The beleaguered D.C.-area transit agency finally had something to talk about besides repair schedules, delays, and debt.

Toronto Commuters Like Their Open Gangway Subway Trains
The New York Times transit reporter, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, reports from Toronto to see what riders think about their 'open gangway' subway cars. By 2020, New York will receive 750 of these cars that have no doors separating the cars.

The Big Challenge for Driverless Cars: Convincing People to Give Up Control
The latest episode of TransitTrends, a serial YouTube show by moovel, examines the question of whether or not we're ready for autonomous vehicles.

Dallas Mixes Residential Development With a Road Diet, Gets Controversy
The Dallas City Council approved a road diet for Knox Street in Dallas, where 1,000 residential units are under construction on an already thriving commercial corridor.

Taxi Drivers, Your Job Has an Expiration Date
Autonomous vehicles are already in production and big city taxi drivers could be out of a job in 10 years, including those for Uber and Lyft.
Traffic Deaths Take a Big Jump in 2016
A 9 percent increase in fatalities on the nation's highways compared to the same period in 2015 does not appear to be a result of increased driving, which jumped 3.3 percent during that period, but rather an increase in the rate of fatal crashes.
Amtrak Receives $2.45 Billion Federally Secured Loan for New Acela Trains
Amtrak will replace, rather than overhaul, aging Acela trains with new, 186-mph trains from French manufacturer, Alstom, though they won't exceed 160 mph. The agreement was announced Friday by VP Joe Biden at Biden Station, Wilmington, Del.

Peak Car Revisited
U.S. vehicle travel increased 3.2% (8.6 billion vehicle miles) in total and 2.0% per capita between Junes 2015 and 2016. That is a new peak in total VMT, but a 2.75% reduction in per capita VMT. Will these growth rates continue into the future?
Ride Hailing to Replace Former Bus Route
A small public transit company serving the East Bay will be the first in California to conduct a pilot project to use transportation network companies and taxis to service low density areas of Dublin in Alameda County.

Sacramento Rising: Mayor-Elect Darrell Steinberg's Vision for Sustainable Communities
Mayor-Elect Steinberg enters City Hall as a leader with a unique opportunity to enact sustainable infill policies he championed in the California Legislature.

Boston Sets a Citywide Default Speed Limit of 25 MPH
Finally by the state of Massachusetts to set its own speed limits, Boston moved quickly to reduce to reduce its default speed limit to 25 mph.

The Heritage Trail, a 60-Mile Dream, Becoming a Reality on the Delaware River
The Heritage Trail would loop around either side of the Delaware River, from Trenton, New Jersey, down to Philadelphia and back, exploring historic sites and a variety of neighborhoods and parks all along the way.

On Isolated Transit Systems
In cities like New York where multiple transit operators serve the same travelers, nothing compels those operators to work together. This isolation can result in embarrassing inefficiencies.

Los Angeles' Neighborhood Integrity Initiative Presents Demands to City Leaders
Last week, leaders of the initiative to curb development in L.A. surprisingly presented Mayor Eric Garcetti with an ultimatum: Agree to their list of demands by August 24, or they will take the issue to the March 2017 ballot.

East Los Angeles Community Groups Prove that Community Planning Matters
The landscape of community development in Los Angeles today differs vastly from even a few years ago. Two groups in East L.A. are developing solutions to accelerating gentrification and displacement and a compounding affordable housing crisis.

Americans Continue to Drive More, Reports Federal Highway Administration
New driving totals are out for June and and the first six months of 2016, and the news is not good for those who want to see a reduction in what is now the greatest source of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.

Bad Roads and Bridges Costing California Motorists as Much as $2,800 Annually
The transportation research group, TRIP, tallied costs from additional crashes, higher operating costs, and congestion that result from insufficient investment in California's roads and bridges. A new effort was launched to increase state funding.

Dallas Planning Light Rail (Which Could Become a Subway) and a Streetcar
Downtown Dallas could have an embarrassment of riches on its hands, if it figures out how to make plans for a Downtown streetcar coordinate well with a new Downtown light rail route.
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