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Thursday’s Headlines Burn Rubber

The rate at which electric vehicles run through tires might be good for the tire business, but most of the world already has too much particle pollution.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on March 21, 2024

Paul Carmona

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Because electric vehicles are heavier than gas-powered ones and accelerate more quickly, tires for EVs cost more and wear out faster (CNBC). That’s great news for the tire industry, but not so much for the people who have to breathe all that tire dust. Already, the vast majority of countries don’t meet World Health Organization standards for fine particulates, which causes millions of deaths worldwide annually (New York Times).
Oil company Shell is selling off 1,000 gas stations to refocus on EV charging (Autoblog). Meanwhile, San Francisco is developing a plan for curbside EV chargers that will cut down on wires from apartment buildings that trip up people on sidewalks (SF Gate). Could this be an opportunity for municipal utilities to raise funding for transit?
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to convince a judge to scuttle bond funding for Austin’s Project Connect transit expansion. (American-Statesman)
Speed cameras on Philadelphia’s notoriously dangerous Roosevelt Boulevard have been shown to reduce crashes, encouraging the city to try them on other streets, but design changes are still needed. (WHYY)
Milwaukee is quadrupling its spending on street safety projects. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
Pittsburgh is combining several transit projects into one $150 million behemoth to streamline construction and reduce service interruptions. (CBS News)
A Tennessean columnist makes the case that Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit plan will result in a more free and prosperous city.
A quarter of Seattle’s neighborhoods lack sidewalks, and at the current pace it would take 400 years to build them all. (KOMO)
Harrisburg is ticketing drivers who park on sidewalks at a rate of $30 per hour. (The Burg)
Missoula is reshaping its downtown to make it friendlier to buses, cyclists and pedestrians. (Current)
London has quadruped its bike network since 2016 (Intelligent Transport). That doesn’t sit well with the UK’s pro-driver government, which is seeking to stymie local efforts to reduce traffic (The Guardian), even as one of its own advisers urges Tories to encourage walking and biking (also The Guardian).
Scotland transportation advocates are seeking to halt all new road projects. (BBC)

Blake Aued

Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.

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