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Hey, Amtrak Joe — it's time to live up to your nickname.

Appropriations Committees' Suspense Ends

Public transportation is an affordable mobility option for residents of communities nationwide, but it’s too frequently underfunded. This results in low-quality service and low ridership. It also forces people with low incomes to buy cars and encourages increased carbon emissions.

This week we’re joined by Todd Litman, executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute. Litman discusses his book "New Mobilities: Smart Planning for Emerging Transportation Technologies." We reframe the transportation investments we make, talk about sharing information, and discuss why air taxis might not be the future.

The massive reconciliation bill under consideration in Congress would fall short of achieving our greenhouse gas reduction target — and the climate wins it does achieve would come disproportionately from consumer incentives for electric vehicles, rather than by shifting drivers out of cars. 

Last week, we put out our initial call for nominations in our quest to find America's most aggressive, violent, and all-around toxic car commercials. We're still looking for your worst — but we thought some Streetsblog readers could use a little inspiration first. 

The legislation requires IDOT to conduct a traffic study following "the occurrence of any [crash] involving a pedestrian fatality that occurs at an intersection of a state highway."

The latest from Sacramento

The Biden administration should pour billions of dollars into a variety of bike projects because the investment will generate thousands of jobs while also obviously greening the way Americans get around, advocates said this week, citing a new report on the economic benefits of cycling investments.