D.C. Metro Drivers Keep 'Zoning Out'; Massachusetts Tick Bites Prove Costly
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Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: Albuquerque bus rapid transit meets resistance; Scottsdale braces for development boom; and Cabela's might leave Nebraska.
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
SAFETY | A recent spate of Metro red signal overruns—three in 22 days—has dredged up an old report on reducing driver distractions. Hired in 2014, Atticus Consulting Group, studied human attention to identify why Metro drivers zone out and offered 18 recommendations. Not all of those recommendations have been implemented. The first of the three violations nearly led to two trains colliding, and 67 such overruns have happened since 2012. “There is a past practice with WMATA where they hire consultants to come in and do needed work, we get the recommendations, and there is no follow up,” said Leif Dormsjo, a board member who runs the District Department of Transportation. [WAMU]
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
TICKS | The Massachusetts legislature passed a bill requiring health insurers to cover long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease, but Gov. Charlie Baker, a former health insurance executive, would buck mainstream medicine in favor of patient activists by signing it. “[L]ong-term antibiotic therapy is not clinically recognized as an appropriate form of treatment,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers expressing his reservations. The state saw the third-highest incidence of the tick-borne disease in 2014 with 5,600 confirmed and suspected cases. A fraction of patients experience prolonged symptoms like fatigue, muscle aches, joint pains, numbness, and impaired thinking even after the typical two to four weeks of antibiotic treatment—known as chronic Lyme disease—which can cost $50,000 to $60,000 to address without insurance. [The Boston Globe]
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO
TRANSIT | Opponents of a bus rapid transit project here are trying to convince a federal judge to stop the construction of it from getting started. Work could begin next month on the $119 million, nine-mile network of bus-only lanes and stations. The plaintiffs in the case include residents and owners of businesses and property along the route. “I think it’s going to be a disaster,” said one restaurateur. The opponents contend that the Federal Transit Administration failed to require the city to do a proper environmental analysis, and that the city misled the FTA about the project. To win a preliminary injunction, they’ll have to show that allowing construction to get underway on the bus line will cause them irreparable harm. [Albuquerque Journal]
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
DEVELOPMENT | Concerns are simmering over the possibility that thousands of acres of Sonoran Desert in north Scottsdale could be reshaped by development. Located northeast of Phoenix, the area is known for pricey real estate. Developers are advancing plans for at least eight construction projects that would cover more than 1,000 acres. And the Scottsdale City Council earlier this month approved denser zoning for about 4,000 acres of state trust land. "They come in and jam as many houses as they can on a lot. It's totally destroying the look and feel of this place," said one area resident. [The Arizona Republic]
OMAHA, NEBRASKA
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | State economic officials are hoping to keep the headquarters of outdoors store Cabela’s in the Cornhusker State as worries about the future of the company linger. An activist investor took a big stake in the company, based in Sidney, and rumors simmer about a possible sale to a competitor, Bass Pro Shop and Goldman Sachs, which could mean future job losses in the state. “We are committed to assisting them with available programs or resources at our disposal,” said the director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. But there’s not much the state can do in the near-term until the company makes its next move. [Omaha World-Herald]
NEXT STORY: Colorado DOT Targets a ‘Killer Habit’