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As school districts cut funding for student transportation, parents are increasingly turning to ride-hailing apps to get their kids to school, reports Jeff McMurray for the Associated Press. The Chicago Public School district, the fourth largest in the nation, now only offers bus service to disabled and homeless students, making only 17,000 of the district’s 325,000 students eligible for rides.

The change is concerning, as it is likely to put far more vehicles on roadways than using school buses. And while some parents can afford to arrange alternate transportation, others have had to pull their kids out of school. Now, new ridesharing services are catering to these parents, promising stricter background checks and requirements for drivers and offering rates lower than typical ride-hailing.

• School buses
• School Bus Drivers
• Children
• school funding
• Schools
• Mobility
• access to transit

Seattle’s Link light rail system broke ridership records for the third month running, reports Bryce Kolton for The Urbanist.

According to Kolton, “Spurred by the new Lynnwood Link expansion, subsequent multi-agency bus route reconfigurations, and the usual hustle and bustle of fall festivities, Link continues to show extremely strong growth.”

October 2024 was the first month in Sound Transit history that the system topped 3 million riders, as well as the first month when bus routes were fully restructured to align with the new Lynnwood Link line. “Nearly every station posted a record-setting boarding total in October. The most boarded stations were Westlake (368,936), Seatac/Airport (323,957), and Capitol Hill (297,004).”

However, the system is also suffering from its own success as the fourth most-ridden light rail system in the country. Sound Transit is planning work over the next several months to address reliability issues and infrastructure failures.

• Seattle
• Link Light Rail
• Sound Transit
• Public Transit
• Light Rail

The Biden administration’s plan to electrify the U.S. Postal Service truck fleet is behind schedule as the manufacturer lags in delivering vehicles, reports Jacob Bogage for The Washington Post.

“The Postal Service is slated to purchase 60,000 “Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,” or NGDVs — mostly electric — from defense contractor Oshkosh, which has a long history of producing military and heavy industrial vehicles, but not postal trucks,” Bogage explains. The government has, as of November, only received 93 trucks, far short of the 3,000 they expected to date.

According to sources, the company is struggling to calibrate air bags, and the vehicles suffered significant water leaks in testing. Oshkosh is only producing one truck per day. “The wide-ranging production problems have not been previously reported and were not mentioned in an inspector general audit published in October.”

To avoid losing funding for the project under the next administration, the Postal Service could switch to another contractor: USPS already uses over 1,000 Ford eTransit vans for deliveries.

• U.S. Postal Service
• USPS
• Electric Vehicles
• mail trucks
• Electrification
• EVs

A press release from Fannie Mae predicts that the “lock-in effect” in the housing market will continue into 2025, “with existing home sales forecast to move only slightly upward from recent multi-decade lows, according to the December 2024 commentary from the Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTCQB) Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group.”

Fannie Mae economists had five key predictions for the upcoming year: average mortgage rates will decline, but remain above 6 percent; existing home sales will remain low; new home sales will offer some options to prospective homebuyers — “where they can be built;” home price growth will slow; and multifamily housing “will remain in a holding pattern,” unwelcome news for households seeking smaller, more affordable housing types.

“While we think conditions on a national basis will remain challenging, we’re seeing meaningful regional differences in market conditions, and the homebuying experience — as the adage goes — will continue to be a local one,” said Mark Palim, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist.

• Housing Market
• Housing Supply
• Mortgage Rates
• Homebuyers
• Housing Crisis
• Multifamily Housing

The Chicago City Council passed a budget that includes funding for a ‘Plow the Sidewalks’ pilot project, reports Quinn Myers in Block Club Chicago.

The $500,000 allocated to the project is roughly half of what advocates were asking for. Alderperson Daniel La Spata, who has been a strong supporter of the program, said the pilot will launch in December 2025 “and that the city will seek grants and philanthropic funding to supplement the $500,000.” 

Earlier this month, disability rights advocates decried the mayor’s decision to omit the program from the proposed 2025 budget altogether. A May working group report recommended four test zones for the sidewalk-clearing program, which supporters say is essential to the mobility of residents with disabilities, people pushing strollers, and all pedestrians.

• Chicago
• Plow the Sidewalks
• Sidewalks
• Mobility
• Accessibility
• Pedestrian infrastructure

A proposed New Jersey state bill would require petrochemical companies to pay for ongoing cleanups of toxic waste, according to an Associated Press article republished in Fast Company.

The measure would create a ‘Climate Superfund’ at the state level that would collect funds from the polluting entities rather than passing on the cost of cleanup to taxpayers. The law would assess damages resulting from greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels dating back to 1995.

Industry representatives say the measure would raise the cost of gasoline and home heating oil for consumers. An official with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association called the bill “unconstitutionally vague in assessments of costs.” The proposal does not include specifics on the fees. 

• Pollution
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Fossil Fuels
• Air Pollution
• Air Quality
• Climate Change
• Public Health