National links: Why we should think of transit agencies as climate agencies

Transit agencies are a core player in reducing emissions. A Los Angeles judge blocks Beverly Hills from approving any permits other than those that would construct new housing. A potentially transformative federal transit operations funding bill is introduced in Congress.

Transit agencies are climate agencies: Around the country, many state departments of transportation are continuing the business-as-usual approach to transportation that, to them, means expanding roads. But these approaches fly in the face of some of their own departments’ climate policies that are intended to reduce emissions in transportation. By funding transit expansion and maintenance, states can expect to reduce emissions. While some states like Colorado and Minnesota are moving in that direction, more need to follow to tackle the climate issue. (This article may be behind a paywall). (Emily Pontecorvo | HeatMap)

No permits without affordable housing: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has told the City of Beverly Hills that it can not issue any permits for any construction except new housing. That is the punishment for not planning and building enough affordable homes to conform to a 50-year-old state law. While California’s population has grown to almost 40 million people, Beverly Hills has lost 1,000 people since 1970. (Chris Michael | The Guardian)

$80 billion for transit operations: Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia introduced a bill that would provide up to $80 billion in federal funding over four years for transit operations at agencies around the country. With a fiscal cliff coming for many agencies that are in a deficit because of inflation and slow ridership rebound after the pandemic, the funds would be a lifeline to preserve and even expand service. The program is also meant to support more transit services in rural areas and communities with higher levels of poverty. (Disclosure: The DC Transportation Equity Network, which GGWash coordinates, supported this bill’s introduction). (Dan Zukowski | Smart Cities Dive)

The introvert economy: The pandemic profoundly changed American life and in many ways sped up existing trends in socializing and nightlife experiences. Allison Schrager says the larger reliance on home delivery and staying in instead of going out has created a new “Introvert Economy.” Younger people were already trending in this direction before the pandemic, but the experiences during that period probably accelerated the trends of reduced drinking, dating, and socializing. (This article may be behind a paywall). (Allison Schrager | Bloomberg)

The housing shortage is reorganizing environmentalism: After the City of Minneapolis made some regulatory changes to its zoning and development codes to allow for more missing middle housing, opposition groups came out to sue the city to stop the changes, citing Minnesota’s environmental laws. The ensuing debate over the Minneapolis 2040 plan has broken open generational and ideological divides on what environmentalism means. (This story is behind a paywall). (Jerusalem Demsas | The Atlantic)

Lessons from TfL on Open Loops: Transport for London has long been considered a leader in open loop payment systems that allow for contactless and pay-as-you-go transactions. The agency handles three million contactless transactions per day from cards and phones. But one of the major issues keeping all agencies from adopting these types of systems is that not everyone has a card or phone that works on the system, so a closed loop card is still needed. A solution, according to Cubic’s Aaron White, could be account-based ticketing. (Aaron White | Railway Technology)

Quote of the Week

“‘For paint and dye manufacturers, arsenic was a cheap commodity that increased the brilliance and durability of pigments, especially when applied to wallpapers. The public loved the bright colors of the new wallpapers and even when they learned the dyes contained arsenic, they did not consider the wallpapers dangerous — as long as you did not lick them.’ What the public didn’t realize was that, in damp conditions, the arsenic released a lethal gas.”

Lucinda Hawksley in CNN discussing the deadly effects of arsenic in Victorian Era wallpaper.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by John King, Urban Design Critic at the SF Chronicle, to talk about his book, Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities.