The Hub 3/15/19: 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: Local man wins protections for Philly’s iconic cast-iron subway entrances – Philadelphia Historical Commission has awarded protection to 61 cast iron subway entrances, mostly along the Broad Street Line Subway. The whole process from application to protection took preservation advocate Nicholas Baker a decade, during which 10 additional cast iron entrances that were part of the original application were demolished or significantly altered.
Philly.com: An existential threat looms for SEPTA and state transit this summer, as lawsuit threatens funding – A lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s use of turnpike revenue to fund public transit has halted work on 37 of SEPTA’s projects. SEPTA’s budget relies heavily on this funding, especially for maintaining a state of good repair for equipment and infrastructure. While day to day service has not yet been effected, users will begin to notice a lack of maintenance before long.
Hidden City Philadelphia: Interior Of 30th Street Station To Be Considered For Historic Designation – The Beaux Arts interior of 30th Street Station will be considered for historic preservation. Only 3 other historic interiors have been designated by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Philadelphia City Passenger Railway Co.’s car house & stable at 4100 Chestnut Street is also under consideration for designation. 4100 Chestnut was the hub of the horse drawn streetcars that used to connect West Philadelphia to Center City.
Smart Cities Dive: Las Vegas selects Boring Company to build underground ‘people mover’ – Officials in Las Vegas are negotiating a contract with Elon Musk’s Boring Company for an underground “people mover” for the convention center. People would ride in autonomous electric vehicles at high speeds through tunnels. If completed, it would be the first Boring Company tunnel open to the public.
City Lab: The Hot New Thing in Dockless Electric Scooters: Docks – Swiftmile is a new start up that runs docking stations for dockless vehicles that will function as a safe place to park, a charging station, and an informational sign. They run on solar power and are compatible with most models of scooters on the market. Could a semi-dockless system be a less chaotic way forward in this realm of mobility which has had such a chaotic infancy?
Photo Credit: City Lab
