The Hub 4/17/2020: Clean Air Council’s Weekly Round-Up of Transportation News

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up to date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

 

PlanPhilly: Philly should close streets to cars, open space for social distancing, advocates say – Walking, running, and biking are some of the only recreational activities individuals are allowed to leave their homes for, meaning many more people than usual on our sidewalks and trails. Clean Air Council, Feet First Philly, and other advocacy groups are calling for certain streets throughout the city to be closed to cars to allow for more effective social distancing while performing essential tasks or exercising outside.

 

Smart Cities Dive: A ‘different world’ awaits transit on the other side of coronavirus – Across the nation transit ridership is down 74%, but its role is as essential as ever. Transit agencies will face many challenges in the pandemic recovery, but they also have the opportunity to change the perception of public transit as a lifeline service moving forward.

 

CityLab: The Right Way to Pass Fellow Pedestrians, and Other Social Distancing Tips – We are all working to maintain proper social distancing, but what do we do when we have to pass another pedestrian on a 4 foot sidewalk? City Lab answers this question and more in this useful article.

 

Streets Blog: We Could Never Afford America’s Highways — Even Before COVID-19 – With non essential travel prohibited in vast swathes of the country, gas tax and toll revenue have plummeted. Many states were already spending more to maintain roads than the revenue they created before the global pandemic hit. Expensive car centric infrastructure and the inefficient land uses that go with it, mean that taxpayer money is diverted from areas like school taxes to pay for road maintenance. 

 

Image Source: City Lab