Monday’s Headlines Ring In the New Year

The national headlines are taking another short holiday break and will return Thursday.

• Momentum Magazine‘s Top 10 cycling stories include pieces on the uselessness of sharrows and how to prevent bike thefts.
• Mass Transit also named its Top 10 stories in the categories of buses and safety and security (registration required).
• And, check out Streetsblog’s own year in review and year-end Streetsies awards.
• CalBike named its best and worst transportation stories of 2024, including a nod to Streetsblog’s California, Los Angeles and San Francisco sites. Thanks!
• Transit agencies offering free far on New Year’s Eve include: the Los Angeles Metro (KTLA), Denver’s RTD (Gazette), the South Bay’s Valley Transportation Authority (NBC Bay Area), Valley Metro in Phoenix (Arizona Republic) and Portland’s TriMet (KGW).
• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul finally signed a bill requiring major polluters to pay $75 billion for the damage they cause. (Splinter)
• With Donald Trump about to return to office, it’s unclear whether the Twin Cities will receive more than $1 billion in federal funds for the Green Line. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• Austin defeated a lawsuit seeking to halt sales collections for light rail construction. (Bloomberg)
• The founder of the Pedal Ahead bikeshare in San Diego is no longer running the organization amid multiple probes into its spending of public dollars. (Union-Tribune)
• With a grant expiring, Tampa could cut service and/or reinstate fares on its popular streetcar. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Two more Washington cities — Bellingham and Shoreline — abolished parking minimums to encourage more housing construction. (KNKX)
• Seattle will add priority buses along Aurora Avenue during Interstate 5 construction. (The Urbanist)
• An Alabama bill would tack a $5 fee onto vehicle registrations to raise $26 million a year for transit. The state’s transit trust fund has remained unfunded since it was created in 2018. (Reflector)
• A Colorado program that provided safe places for unhoused people to sleep in their cars has shuttered. (CBS News)
• A hit-and-run driver killed a Washington, D.C. man who was standing on a sidewalk on Christmas Eve. He was the 51st person and 19th pedestrian to die on D.C. streets this year. (Washington Post)
• A driver killed a woman walking across San Francisco’s Great Highway, which will be closed to cars next year, setting a local record for traffic deaths in a year. (Standard)
• The Chicago sidewalk rat hole is the internet lore of the year, according to Utah State University‘s Digital Lore Project.

From the editors: Streetsblog provides high-quality journalism and analysis for free — which is something to be celebrated in an era of paywalls. But the work Streetsblog does is not free; we rely on the generosity of our readers to help support our reporters and editors as they advance the movement to end car dependency in our communities.

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If you aren’t a supporter yet, please join us and help us push for a more livable, walkable, bikeable, equitable and enjoyable country for all. And happy holidays from the Streetsblog team!