Electric scooters in Portland by Ian Sane licensed under Creative Commons.

Cities need to adapt to the rise of scooters and e-bikes and other slower mobility options. Los Angeles might increase speed limits on neighborhood streets…so police can ticket speeders. Amazon gathered important information during its HQ2 search that could help it compete with other companies.

Adapting the city for slower mobility: As technology brings about a slower yet greater capacity for mobility to city streets, it's time to start thinking about designing and building lanes that cater to these options, both old and new. From bicycles to scooters and everything in between, we need something bigger than the traditional bike lane to separate slower traffic from larger more dangerous vehicles. (Gabe Klein | Forbes)

Los Angeles is increasing speed limits on neighborhood streets: California laws do not permit police to ticket speeding drivers on streets with speed limits lower than the “targeted design speed.” The current laws were supposed to protect people from speed traps, but now it's leading the city to consider increasing speed limits in neighborhoods that keep them low for safety so that police can ticket scofflaw drivers. (Laura Nelson | Los Angeles Times)

Amazon's search for HQ2 was reconnaissance: In the search for a second home, Amazon sought proposals from cities that would shower the company with potential tax breaks and new infrastructure. But Nick Tabor believes there was another reason for starting a bidding war: to gather as much intelligence about the state of infrastructure and more in major cities around the country as possible in order to outcompete other companies. (Nick Tabor | New York Magazine)

Design principals for living streets: Based on findings from its National Street Service program, Ford's Greenfield Labs and Gehl are releasing Design Principals for the Living Street of Tomorrow. The hope is to help design streets that help unite people rather than drive them apart by evolving streets alongside rapidly-changing technology. (Ryan Westrom | Greenfield Labs Medium)

An interview with NYC Planning Director on rezoning: In a wide-ranging interview about using zoning to get people living closer to jobs in the city, New York's Planning and Development Director Marisa Largo talks about building job centers outside of Manhattan Island. She also discusses waterfront development and resilience, as well as the Gateway tunnel project. (The Planning Report)

Quote of the Week

“The heart of the [CA Senate Bill 50] is really the same. We have a 3.5-million-home deficit in California. It’s undermining our economy. It’s undermining our climate goals. We have to be bold in solving this problem.”

CA State Senator Scott Wiener on his bill to upzone properties near transit and in high income neighborhoods. (Los Angeles Times)

This week on the Talking Headways Podcast we're joined by Virginia Tech professor Ralph Buehler to talk about Verkehrsverbund and the seamless connectivity of transport networks in German speaking countries.