Good news July: Bike-share highs, fare cuts in Denver, swimming in the Seine
🚲 ☀️ 🌊
This July edition of good news brought to you by my sincere hope that you are enjoying better weather wherever you are than the cold rainy morass that is England. While much of the U.S. and Europe is being roasted alive by climate change, here in London we’ve been waiting out endless gray skies and soggy conditions. When will it stop raining and the summer improve, the BBC asks almost daily? Maybe late August, more likely September. Blame it on the jet stream.
P.S., have you seen Barbie? Do yourself a favor, and go see Barbie.
Micromobility
A new program from Boston mayor Michelle Wu offers free bike-riding lessons to children ages 4-13.
HumanForest launched parcel delivery in London.
U.S. bike-share systems are on pace for another record year, led by booming ridership in New York City.
The Boston metro area is expanding its BlueBikes cycle-hire with new stations, more ridership, and a dream of e-bikes.
Scotland is investing £1 million in shared cycling programs.
+E-bike rebates keep on rolling:
DC: $750-$1,500 back for income-qualified residents, plus smaller incentives for replacements batteries and bike locks
Vermont: $150,000 in funding for the year, available to income-qualified Vermonters on a first-come, first-serve basis
Colorado from 2024 will make e-bike rebates available to as many people as are interested, a dramatic expansion to the wildly popular and often oversubscribed programs. It’ll be funded with surplus state tax revenue and combinable with any other local incentive programs.
Columbus, Ohio: Rebates of $500-$1,200, backed by $250,000 in funding
Connecticut: Demand for the new rebate program ($500-$1,500) has been “overwhelming,” the state reported, despite the small number of bike shops authorized to accept the vouchers
Policy and regulation
Weekday train journeys of more than 30 km (19 miles) jumped by 27% in June from April, following the introduction of Germany’s €49 ($55) a month urban transport pass. There were about 100,000 fewer daily car journeys in June, on average, than in the same month in 2019. Give people car alternatives and they will take them.
New York governor Kathy Hochul is forging ahead with congestion pricing despite a new lawsuit attempting to block the policy—an “act of vehicular NIMBYism,” as Paul Krugman put it—from neighboring New Jersey.
Congestion pricing is set to be a windfall for the New York subway system, and could fund much-needed upgrades to signals, elevators, fare gates, and platform barriers.
Denver’s regional transport agency RTD is cutting fares for the first time in decades, and piloting a program to make it free for riders under age 19.
California won five federal grants, worth about $2.5 million total, to address “areas of persistent poverty.” Grant projects include building out local public transport and improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
Minnesota’s new transportation bill is brimming with sustainable transit initiatives, including a new sales tax in the Twin Cities specifically to fund transit operations, statewide e-bike rebates, an 18-month free transit pilot for seniors and disabled residents, and lots of dedicated funding for buses, rail, and cycle and pedestrian networks.
Belgian and French train operators are weighing a regular, affordable train route from Brussels to Paris.
Urban adventures
Community gardens in the Bronx are gaining recognition as a powerful and vital urban tool in combatting climate change.
Business improvement districts (BIDs) are a surprising new backer of people-friendly streets as they look to revitalize downtowns.
Paris will charge higher parking fees to SUV owners from January 2024.
After a historic €1.4 billion ($1.54 billion) clean-up effort, Paris is set to bring back swimming in the Seine.
Paris city council crowdsourced a map that helps people find cafes serving €1 espresso.
Brighton is trialing recycling collection by e-cargo bikes in the city center to lower carbon emissions.
London is moving ahead with its planned expansion of the ULEZ after the UK high court dismissed a legal challenge from five local boroughs.
New, more energy-efficient Piccadilly line trains, due to replace a fleet dating to 1975, are being track-tested in Germany.
Downtown Brooklyn will get a $40 million makeover with wider sidewalks, more trees, dedicated bus lanes, and protected bike lanes.
Delivery orders in New York won’t automatically come with forks anymore.
Other stuff
Swifties on their way to Eras tour concerts across the U.S. are riding shotgun with their hair undone in the front seat of… public transport, in what’s being dubbed the “Taylor Swift transit effect.”
London’s urban foxes aren’t just a Fleabag metaphor. See for yourself.
Boris Johnson’s swimming pool plans threatened by newts.
Adam Neumann still can’t sell his Gramercy triplex.
What’s in the subway water that drips on your head?
A defense of the ugliest building in Paris.
Ryan Gosling’s top Ken-sentials to help you find your Kenergy.