Midweek Roundup: fancy new trains

Contractors have pulled up tracks on the I-90 bridge (taken 6/18), does this mean more 2 Line delays?Local Transit News:

• Did you attend the FIFA Club World Cup games in Seattle in June? Sound Transit wants to hear from you (Sound Transit)
• New Bus Only Lanes coming as part of Route 40 Project (King County Metro). Additional coverage by The Urbanist.
• Fancy new Amtrak trains are coming to the PNW (OregonLive.com)
• Yesterday, the gas tax in WA increased for the first time since 2012. WA's tax ($0.554/gallon) is now #3 behind PA (57.6 cents) and CA (61.2 cents). (The Seattle Times, $)
• Kitsap Transit is kicking off public process for a new Fast Ferry Terminal on the Seattle waterfront (Kitsap Transit)
• On Thursday, the Sound Transit Board will consider a motion to direct the CEO to allow dogs on leashes on transit vehicles (Sound Transit). Coverage last month by The Urbanist.
• SDOT has launched public facing dashboards to show crash data, road segment counts, and intersection counts (SDOT).

Other Transportation:

• The FTA and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center estimate there is a $140B maintenance backlog across transit systems in the USA (Pew Research). The PSRC recently estimated the backlog for transit in the Puget Sound region is $22B.
• Why Bus Service Cuts Should Be the Last Resort for Transit Agencies (Metro Magazine)
• SEPTA board approves budget that will slash nearly half its transit service (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• NYC's Upset Election Was Drawn Along An Odd Line: Car Ownership (Jalopnik)
• Toronto is considering lowering transit fares and increasing parking costs during special events to encourage transit use (BlogTO)
• A challenger to the Tram arrives - Bi-Articulated Trolleybuses offer True Competition to Street Railways (Reece Martin (RMTransit) on Next Metro blog)

Land Use & Housing:

• Seattle councilmember Rinck proposes Roots to Roofs" to allow density boosts to a limited number of housing projects if 25% of the units are affordable (The Urbanist)
• California rolls back environmental review law for housing (New York Times, $)
• Residents really like living in Culdesac", a car-free community in Arizona (New York Times, gift link)
• Baltimore, the birthplace of redlining", tries to recover, but still has a lot of stubborn neglected vacant buildings. (New York Times, $)

Commentary & Miscellaneous:

• A series of articles Rethinking the Interstates" considers how the Interstate Highway System might be newly understood and creatively adapted" for the 21st century (Places)
• Introducing Routle, The Standard's new - and highly addictive - daily transit game (The San Francisco Standard)
• Op-ed: Urban planners fueled the isolation and fragmentation that eroded American democracy (Next City)

This is an Open Thread.