Top recent posts by Active Transportation Advocates on Bluesky

Cars in cities have a geometry problem that can't be fixed by changing the fuel source.

another tweet that aged really well Matt Stoller… man

Why expensive road and highway widening ALWAYS fails to reduce traffic congestion. Traffic never gets better for very long, & it commonly ends up worse. And yet “fixing congestion” is ALWAYS the stated reason for spending all that public money on widenings. #InducedDemand ggwash.org/view/97803/w...

I think environmental protection laws should actually protect the environment instead of encouraging habitat-destroying urban sprawl.

please

I reiterate this take. it really pisses me off that the left/unions/podcasters and everyone that forced Platner down our throats couldn’t find a single candidate better than this weirdo

Prior to being elected prime minister, Carney dubbed climate change “an existential threat.” Yet last week, he called the plan to fight climate change “unsustainable over the long term” & “too expensive.” @chrishatch.bsky.social on the new Carney doctrine. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/07/06/o...

thinking about this today

"An advanced city is not one where the poor can get around by car, but one where even the rich use public transportation." -Enrique Peñalosa

New "3,000 feet to pass a cyclist" law just dropped.

Yet another societal benefit of congestion pricing: Better emergency care New paper credits NYC's congestion pricing program for a 5-6 percent reduction in emergency response travel time. www.nber.org/system/files...

Up to Seattle to defend concacaf honor

“Shame on you! When money calls the shots, the #WorldCup loses all credibility. Adapting the rules to please Trump, trying to cheat to win—what a deplorable image for FIFA, for the soccer World Cup, and for the United States. Rules must be respected by everyone, in sports as in life.” #Belgium

Utrecht becoming the world’s best cycling city isn’t an accident of geography or nationality. It’s a product of vision and investment. Therefore the blueprint isn’t just Dutch. It can be applied anywhere. Culture doesn't create infrastructure. Infrastructure creates culture. youtu.be/MHFUBzE_EjQ

Knicks game 3, now this… the Trump curse is clearly real

Cuba continues to be strangled by its neighbour and no one seems to care.

"Effects emerged quickly and show little evidence of displacement to adjacent areas.... These findings suggest that cost-benefit analyses of congestion pricing systematically understate net social benefits by omitting emergency response improvements."

the most frustrating thing about all of this is that it could have been avoided entirely if the ref didn’t give balogun a nonsensical red card for an innocent challenge with an awkward landing that did not even injure anyone

Pavement color differentiation matters in urban design. Grey asphalt for everything is sterilizing and looks like car infrastructure. Segmented, color specific pavements define conflict zones and say who belongs where.

Stephen King has a chance to do the funniest thing.

It’s genuinely fascinating how literally every single platform is full of people telling platner to drop out except… instagram?? generally, I feel like it’s been underreported how insta comments are usually a slopulist mess

Just arrived at city hall for today's discussion of a proposed transit tax renewal that would expand King County Metro bus service in Seattle. My coverage from Friday: publicola.com/2026/07/03/c...

✅ "Get a car, loser!" ✅ "EVs will fix the problem of cars." ✅ "Bike lanes cause traffic." ✅ "Public Transit should pay for itself." Motorists hate to see other motorists, but don't want to support anything that will result in fewer motorists.

Investing in some new cold weather clothing for the summer, as one does in San Francisco.

“One of the concerns about congestion pricing was that it would encourage ‘park-and-ride’ behavior, making it more difficult to park in certain New York City neighborhoods. After the largest parking data collection DOT has ever undertaken, we didn’t see that happen.”

He was always obviously lying about the tattoo.

really says a lot when the odds of your party winning the senate skyrocket after a horrific story about you comes out

Business owners on Montreal’s Saint-Denis Street in the Latin Quarter are worried about losing business — — with their street no longer pedestrianized due to nearby construction. “After two seasons with cars driving just two inches from the patios, are we going to lose customers?”

Organizers are urging Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson to turn off police surveillance cameras as soon after the final World Cup game in Seattle today. Wilson, who opposed the cameras during her campaign, said the city had identified a "credible threat" that justified turning them on.

We cite this study in our book, LIFE AFTER CARS. "According to the study, bicyclists were in compliance with traffic laws 88% of the time during the day... The observed compliance rate for drivers who interacted with participants was slightly lower, at 85% during the day.

I was at the corner of (former) 2nd & Thomas yesterday and the lack of direct vehicular access has clearly devastated the area.

This is exactly right. Another example to ponder: how many drivers are operating their vehicles on suspended license? How would one measure that just by looking at traffic?

"Trump and Infantino have surely achieved the impossible. When the USA lines up against Belgium on Monday night, most fans from across the world will now be united in their support… for Belgium." #WorldCup #Belgium #USA

They punch you. You punch back. “How DARE you punch me?”, they scream.

When you’re thoroughly corrupt (and narcissistic), there’s nothing you won’t be corrupt (and narcissistic) about. #WorldCup

THIS TO THE FUCKING MOON

It would be cool if we could dismantle the left-right-center metaphor somehow. There's no political center. Positions don't exist on a spectrum. There's an organizing principle (historically for the people/for the monarchy), there's values, and there's "multiple things can be true."

The 'capitalism vs socialism' war is a waste of human effort and a perversion of human aspirations. Both capitalism and socialism are *tools* that have uses in a successful society, but almost nobody wants to live at the extreme of either one. Don't make tools into gods!

Bok bok

Am I the only person who sees capitalism and socialism as tools, each useful for different things, rather than as competing gods to be either worshiped or overthrown?

My outing today confirmed that the men who wanted to light off fireworks over the weekend were not men who were committed to cleaning up their exploded trash afterwards.

I don’t know how I feel about the commercialization of my heritage.

I am sure a lot of otherwise capable people don't contemplate running for office because they have some sort of normal fuck-ups in their past like most of us and/or are not white men so their minor fuck-ups will be blown up and scrutinized. So, we get all the charismatic sociopaths.

Is a trike as agile as a two wheeled bike? No, but I'm really enjoying riding it. Hauling nothing but air today as I ran a quick errand, not unlike nearly every motorist on the streets of our cities.

All corruption, all the time.

Ireland: better than Britain.

"can AI practice medicine?" this is the kind of absurd question only an AI-pilled dingbat could ask. the word-prediction machine cannot check your vitals or tell you if your meds need to be adjusted. www.seattletimes.com/business/is-...

Clearly…

You forget how far north Newcastle is. We're at least three weeks into this train journey. Spitsbergen is but a distant memory; the guard has stopped checking our tickets and is now handing out rifles and ammunition with a stern warning about polar bears

Trump “helping” the US team may turn out about as well as him “helping” the Knicks. Or was he helping the Spurs? #WorldCup

There will be no nostalgia for slop. It won't even make a dent because it's all a slurry of other things.

When you're in the back of an ambulance, every second makes a difference — and a single minute could mean the difference between life and death. New research shows that congestion pricing sped up EMS travel times by more than a minute.

I see we getting our daily dose of "believe women the first time and we wouldn't be in this situation". Think we'll learn the lesson this time?

I did a podcast and a story about this three days before the Seattle Times got around to it. no disrespect to the reporter who covered this for them, but PubliCola is nimble and can spend more time reporting stories that matter to readers than lumbering mainstream newspapers publicola.com/support

Pretty sure nothing will top Cabo Verde v Argentina for pure heart, but this game has absolutely bonkers energy and unpredictability, it's riveting 😳

Carney is set to make us pay for another oil pipeline. It could wipe out endangered whales (and more!). Good summary from @rachelgilmore.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/rachelgi...

Harry Kane has been possessed by Grover. #WorldCup

Sound Transit's Bespoke Wayfinding System Is Unnecessarily Baffling International visitors have likely never seen anything quite like it.

It's not just the person on a bike that has to lose when being hit by a motorist.

Mike’s Chili Parlor complains that new parking meters will hurt business.

Street capacity is a public resource to be allocated in the public interest.

Ireland: Britain but better.

Spokane County voters have an opportunity to fund transit service with a 0.2% sales tax renewal on their August 4th ballot. Here's how you can help put the measure over the top. Op-ed by Holden Ringer: www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-spokan...

Went to sleep super mad because I thought I'd read a little on my Kindle, that I rarely use. (working on full extraction from Amazon ecosystem). Found out Amazon discontinued support and I can't download books I already paid for to a perfectly functional device, or download and transfer.

The Seattle Center Armory packed with Mexico fans (and a handful of England ones).

Here. Find another oyster guy. www.visitfreeport.com/themaineoyst...

It really would be remarkable how much benefit la would see from just running buses like Toronto

"Protected lanes may vex drivers, but a little delay or the loss of a parking space is not equivalent to the killing of a bicyclist." This is somthing I know well!

Do you think the Belgium team feels even more motivated to win today’s game? #WorldCup

They'll both be guest hosting @railnatter.uk next.

Despite the enactment of the 2021 infrastructure law, total US spending on rail transit/railway construction was lower in 2022–24 than in the previous years, when adjusted for actual construction costs. And while highway spending increased briefly, it's come down again. www.urban.org/research/pub...

London's Walking & Cycling Commissioner announces they've reached 1.5 million bike trips per day. Here in New York City, we're lagging behind at 620,000. Our goal: one million daily bike trips by 2030.

have you tuned into our @nondriverpodcast.bsky.social yet? catch us on Youtube or wherever you listen www.youtube.com/@nondriver

True San Francisco locals know that this zoning arbitrage Capital One Café is the play for coffee.

A little FYI for folks who may be re/discovering a love of team sports. Turn on the Tour and listen to the commentators. This type of cycling is a team sport - riders have different roles and there is a lot of strategy. It isn't just a random free for all of each person trying to reach the finish.

Does any other actor have the real life nice guy/evil character quotient of Javier Bardem?

"Europe brings in over 44 billion euros a year in bicycle tourism. Brooklyn? Virtually none."

Aside from being generally dangerous and ruining the plastic field, burning batteries release all kinds of toxic gases you don’t want to breathe.

“The initial Xbox layoffs are part of 4,800 job cuts that Microsoft announced on Monday, a total that accounts for roughly 2 percent of the company’s work force.” 😬

I love that people say “Montreal-style” to explain and advocate pedestrian streets in Canada (in this case, extending Vancouver’s World Cup pedestrian street to the whole season).

In trail running, they say "humidity is poor man's altitude training" - so what if you've got both? Conditions at la azteca must be nuts 🥵

I'm gonna be honest, I wouldn't want to be in that stadium right now, no matter who I was rooting for.

yup. what I find infuriating is that there are plenty of empty buildings that are better candidates to redevelop from a city as ecosystem perspective, but the little shacks and warehouses that are critical community venues and delightful human-scale structures are cheaper acquisition targets.

Americans lose their shit in Tokyo because the density supports 6-story shops and 6-seat bars.

🚨 New DOT parking study: "The highest-level takeaway of this new report is that the preponderance of free parking across New York City is, by far, the prime driver of limited parking availability and drives the endless battle for curb space."

It's Belgium v Berhalter. At least someone didn't give up.

hey, maybe they could get the beer guy back.

Congrats to Harry Kane for competing at the highest level of his sport with a full set of sideburns.

Carmel opened up a new section of the Monon Boulevard development recently. There's still plenty of landscaping and other construction going on, but this place for people is coming together nicely.

Just saying... Could Congestion Pricing Unlock a Better Toronto? via @uoftcities.bsky.social @jamaps.bsky.social We might need to revisit this plan of action. Cc: @progresstoronto.bsky.social schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/could-conges...

Looking for an empty parking spot? Without a parking meter, you won't find one — at free spaces, occupancy is close to 100%. You'll have a lot better luck if the space is metered!

This article from last year is such a bummer because they found a backer who could have kept it open. $1.33 million seems like small change in this city. Some unknown developer bought it. AFAIK, no plans have been filed. So it will just sit empty forever. missionlocal.org/2025/08/sf-p...

It shouldn't be so slow and difficult to redesign a street for safety or bus priority, or to issue an outdoor dining permit. The Commission on Government Efficiency needs to hear from you! Testify in person: - Wednesday in Manhattan - Next Monday in Queens Info here: www.nyc.gov/site/charter...

"A part of the overall concept is to try to capture that essence of summertime in Toronto." Kaede Ashizawa talks to filmmaker Perry Walker about his project to talk to people who spend time on their front porches and balconies looking out on the street. spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

He *could* have done the funniest thing. Instead, it's the most disappointing and predictable thing.

trump should not be allowed to have anything to do with any sporting event, that was clear after Game 3 at MSG

Can't use this gif enough ❤️ @mbonsma.bsky.social

Patrick Dempsey might have some free time. He could get Medicare for All through.

#ICYMI "A cyclist has been rushed to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries after they were struck by a driver in Toronto’s Moss Park neighbourhood on Monday morning." www.cp24.com/local/toront... #BikeTO

I'm tired of reading and writing, and you know what that means: it's time to code 😎😎