The Hub 7/13/18: 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: Near a Center City Wawa, humans protect a bike lane, to make a larger point – 25 cycling advocates lined up to protect a bike lane at 22nd and Lombard Streets and protest unlawful parking in the usually unprotected lane. The adjacent Wawa is a hot-bed of quick stopping, bike lane blocking shoppers. Clean Air Council staff observed a sign, put out by Wawa, calling for drivers to use the designated loading zone across the street instead of putting cyclists lives at risk.
Hidden City Philadelphia: Victorian-era Philly Bicycle Routes Now Available Online – University of Rutgers recently digitized the biking routes of 19th century cyclist Alphonse Estoclet. Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1897 and 1898, Estoclet detailed dozens of bike routes in and around the greater Philadelphia region, some reaching as far as Pittsburgh. Read transcriptions of his work here.
Mobility Lab: Grand Central was designed for luxury travel. That’s why commuters love it – Built in the golden age of luxury rail travel, Grand Central Station is one of the busiest commuter rail hubs in the United States. Careful restoration and commuter centered updates have preserved the grandeur of the station while affording transit users a taste of the gilded age. As cities across the world build new commuter rail hubs, they look to Grand Central for inspiration.
CityLab: Uber Just Laid Off Its Pittsburgh Autonomous Car Drivers – An all staff meeting at Uber’s Pittsburgh headquarters took an unexpected turn on Wednesday, when over 100 autonomous vehicle (AV) drivers were laid off. After an AV with a distracted driver hit and killed a woman in Tempe, AZ earlier this year, Uber halted all AV testing. The drivers have been on paid leave ever since. Uber is planning to resume testing in Pittsburgh soon, but on a much smaller scale than before.
Streets Blog: These Are the American Cities Where Transit Access to Jobs Is Getting Better – Better transit means better access to jobs for more people. The University of Minnesota used census data to rank cities’ transit access improvements. Kansas City, with a new fare-free street car line, tops the list.
