Freeway Fighters Digest (week of 4/18)

Lauren MayerWeekly News Digest

Hi all,

Here is what is being said about freeway fighting this week. If you come across any articles, feel free to share and please let me know if you have any questions.

We’re so excited for Tuesday’s (4/26) Freeway Fighters Network website launch! Check out the FFN launch media toolkit for language to promote the website. Please use the materials however you see fit but note that all content is embargoed until April 26.

We are also still accepting submissions to the Our Partners page on the FFN website. Please upload your logos and additional information to this Google form.

Please note this will be the last Freeway Fighters Digest in the current format. With the website launch we will be switching over to a Mailchimp mailer so please check your spam for next week’s edition if you do not receive it.

Freeway Fighters news

Why ‘Vision Zero’ Hit a Wall
Bloomberg CityLab April 2022
Los Angeles, a city famously built around the automobile, has long been a dangerous place to walk.

Newly formed ‘Just Crossing Alliance’ will push for greaner, leaner Interstate 5 crossing project
Bike Portland April 16, 2022
A new group calling itself the Just Crossing Alliance announced its formation today to push the Interstate Bridge Replacement project in a climate-centric direction and to ensure that the project centers environmental justice.

What’s Environmental Justice Mean? Look at North Denver | Earthjustice
Earthjustice April 16, 2022
A community movement in Denver puts longtime polluters on notice and wins new protections for residents.

Opinion: We have an opportunity to build differently – record-eagle.com
Record-eagle.com April 17, 2022
I was going to write “Let’s Start from Scratch” — but we can’t. The American landscape — towns, suburbs, highways, streets, buildings — all exist.

Caltrans seeks public input for bicycle and pedestrian improvements – Victorville Daily Press
Victorville Daily Press April 21, 2022
Caltrans District 8 is seeking public input on its draft Active Transportation Plan as the agency works to improve bicycle and pedestrian components on highways across the High Desert and the Inland Empire.

Riding in America Should Not Be This Dangerous
New York Times April 21, 2022
Bicyclists and pedestrians are dying at an alarming rate.

California seeks to curtail freeway expansion because it’s ‘racist’ and not green
Washington Examiner April 21, 2022
Car-centric California is on its way to outlawing the construction of new freeway lanes in most of the state, instead diverting billions of tax dollars toward green projects to achieve racial equality and climate goals.

Opponents deluge TxDOT officials with calls to rethink highway projects across state, including I-45
Houston Chronicle April 21, 2022
Opponents of highway projects in five of the state’s largest cities showed up en masse for the monthly Texas Transportation Commission meeting in Austin Wednesday, calling on officials to rethink, and perhaps narrow, designs for some of the state’s biggest freeway expansions.

Texas Says Quick Growth Demands Expansion of US Highway 380, but Prosper Doesn’t Want It
Dallas Observer April 22, 2022
The way Kari Willis sees it, people ditch big cities for good reason.

Portland teen climate activists protest Rose Quarter Freeway expansion – KOIN 6
KOIN 6 April 22, 2022
A group of youth climate activists gathered at Harriet Tubman Middle School following President Biden’s remarks in Portland, to protest one of the projects that will benefit from the president’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan — the I-5 freeway expansion at the Rose Quarter.