In The News

Newsroom > In The News > Issues and Insights Print

Issues and Insights

This page provides links to recent articles, reports and announcements relating to transportation policy, legislation and research. The entries are drawn from a wide range of sources, including national newspapers, magazines and websites. If you come across interesting transportation reading that might deserve posting here, let us know at [email protected]

Displaying results 1-10 (of 75)
 |<  < 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8  >  >| 
Amtrak’s ridership touching record highs The Economist, March 14, 2024 - Amtrak is recovering well from the pandemic. In the latter half of last year, ridership was just 3% below its levels in 2019 — previously the firm’s best-ever year. And through his infrastructure law of 2021 President Joe Biden, an Amtrak superuser as a senator, has put aside $66bn for investment in passenger-rail infrastructure. Is a new golden age of train travel down the tracks?
Is Massachusetts Ready for Congestion Pricing? StreetsBlog Massachusetts, March 13, 2024 - Massachusetts drivers already pay an extremely high price for the congestion they create. INRIX, a transportation data company, estimates that the average driver in the Boston region wastes 134 unpaid hours every year stuck in traffic.
It’s nearly impossible to understand how our tax dollars are spent on transportation Transportation For America, March 13, 2024 - In negotiations over the 2021 infrastructure law, the Senate discarded most of the ambitious policy improvements in the House’s INVEST in America Act, instead opting to create scores of new good but small discretionary grant programs for lowering emissions or investing in transportation options while increasing funding overall for the same flexible pots of money that states can spend with few restrictions. 
Los Angeles awarded $900M for transit improvements ahead of 2028 Olympics KTLA.com, March 12, 2024 - The Biden Administration has awarded the Los Angeles region nearly $900 million for public transportation and infrastructure improvements ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics. Of that batch of federal dollars, more than $860 million is earmarked for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, aka LA Metro.
Bike lanes are good for business Business Insider, March 7, 2024 - In many cases, only certain kinds of businesses benefited from bike lanes and street improvements. And just slapping a bike lane on a hectic thoroughfare didn’t do anyone any good. But overall, retail areas benefited from better streets. Sometimes nothing changed, but more often the areas near bike lanes wound up with more employees and more revenue.
Why Bicycle Deaths in New York City Are at a 23-Year High The New York Times, March 6, 2024 - Last year was the deadliest year for cyclists in New York City since 1999, according to new data from the city’s Department of Transportation. Most of the 30 cyclists who died in 2023 were riding electric bikes, which have proliferated on city streets in recent years. A total of 23 people died riding e-bikes, which is more than double the previous record for e-bike fatalities.
Voters in car-centric L.A. approve Measure HLA to make room on streets for bikes, buses L.A. Times, March 5, 2024 - Measure HLA requires Los Angeles to re-engineer some of the region’s most storied boulevards, reducing traffic lanes, building more space for bicyclists and buses, and providing better protections for pedestrians. It calls for 238 miles of protected bike lanes, hundreds more unprotected lanes and 300 miles of improvements for buses, including designated lanes and signal prioritization for public transit.
What E-Bike Rebates Can (and Can’t) Do CityLab Perspective, Feb. 28, 2024 - New research answers key questions about whether voucher programs that subsidize electric bike purchases are good for the planet — and the cities that pay for them.
London Bike Boom Risks Becoming a Victim of Its Own Success CityLab Perspective, Feb. 23, 2024 - London’s recent cycling growth is rapid: An estimated 1.26 million biking trips are now made every day in the capital — a 6.2% increase on 2022 and up 20% since 2019 — and unlike the rest of England, the pandemic-fueled boom has kept on growing.
American drivers are now even more distracted by their phones. Pedestrian deaths are soaring. Vox.com, Feb. 22, 2024 - Until relatively recently, good data on the problem of distracted driving has been hard to find. The government estimates that 3,522 people died because of it in 2021, but experts say the official number probably majorly undercounts the number of deaths, in part because police are rarely able to definitively prove that a driver was distracted right before a crash.
Displaying results 1-10 (of 75)
 |<  < 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8  >  >|