looks like California will soon be "stair mogged" by NYC

This is enraging as a cyclist who depends on bike lanes for my family’s safety and the safety of everyone. More broadly, this is a worrying pattern: gaining trust with safe behavior and then becoming less safe over time.

There’s actually a good case for improved regional rail between Bay Area and Northern San Joaquin. Unfortunately political leaders in the area have been fixated on a particular type of train that connects to BART Blue Line via freeway median rather than servicing travel demand to Silicon Valley.

Appreciate this discussion of NFPA 130 here. The deferral to the fire service in each jurisdiction creates really bad incentives for cost control and risk.

Not looking good for single stair reform in California. YIMBY groups are checked out and firefighters are highly engaged.

It's been many years since a newspaper article brought me to tears of joy. bit.ly/4cEMnRk

I cannot describe how exhausting it is to spend a career talking about induced demand, to see it become mainstream among average people AND their governments, to see and feel things finally changing... and then a president comes in who take us back to the 1950s.

Want to share @alonlevy.bsky.social's good critique of this piece. bsky.app/profile/alon... I was a bit surprised that the brief doesn't even mention the idea of a civil service providing options to elected leaders who then decide and empower them, without appeals to direct democracy.

I've had this site flagged for a while as the likely site of Kaiser's required seismic replacement hospital; they've been slowly vacating it for decades. It would be an excellent location for an integrated Geary light metro station, before the line disappears into a short tunnel under Anza Hill.

Will Soltrans be the Bay Area transit agency running a pulse network?

Transit construction costs in the US keep rising, and projects keep taking longer and longer to build. One possible explanation? Ineffective, inefficient community engagement processes, we argue @urbaninstitute.bsky.social ⏬

BART is planning changes for platform assignments at Daly City that will balance headways and enable more cross platform transfers at Bay Fair and MacArthur. bart.legistar.com/LegislationD...

I firmly believe that we are in an overblown moral panic over AI and data centers and that much of the left is making themselves useful idiots by letting themselves be distracted from freeway expansions, defunding of transit/climate science, and attacks on renewable energy Come yell at me

best example of this in Australia is still Kelmscott www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbMb...

We are proud to announce our 2026 bill package to make our communities more walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented. Here’s what we’ve got going on in Sacramento this year:

We're at risk of losing a LOT of our AC Transit service. Learn more at oaklandside.org/2026/03/30/a... And help save it by collecting signatures with us to put a transit funding measure on the ballot. Events are here: luma.com/connectbayar...

I got totally punked by an SFMTA traffic officer today: "You want a hat? I've got a hat for you." (Hell, yeah!) *reaches into trunk of buggy* "Ok, you promise to wear it?" (Of course!) Then he pulled out a traffic cone.

Volunteers for the @connectbayarea.bsky.social regional transit measure campaign are ready for today's big signature gathering push at #nokings Oakland! Get involved with signature gathering here: luma.com/connectbayarea

Imagine if our costs to deliver transit projects weren't 5X peer jurisdictions? If we could apply Calif excellence in highway building to rail? Let's make sure Calif builds real state capacity, esp at Caltrans, so we can build the infrastructure we need 3/3

Imagine if we planned and funded projects based upon measurable outcomes and the public good? As a coordinated system? This is service-led planning. It's how much of Europe, Canada and East Asia do it. Let's make sure the next Gov and legislature adopt best practices 2/

Riding BART mid weekday is charming because sometimes you are just suddenly part of an elementary school class on a field trip

Thanks, Mayor Lurie. sfstandard.com/newsletters/...

Nick discusses in this video that the project has already been delayed 18 months by technically-baseless local objections. There is a state interest in building transit with high benefit/cost and quickly. This is another project where poor local decisionmaking makes clear that reform is needed.

"To deliver public goods, you have to first deliver public excellence."

City spent some $200m building the DC streetcar, which is slower than buses, gets stuck behind cars & comes infrequently. 10 years later, it’s shut down due to lack of interest. The lesson from this isn’t don’t invest in transit. It’s don’t invest in a project that’s not actually improving transit.

San Francisco BART: The worst-case scenarios are actually worse than you've heard. Good overview of why the Bay Area’s transit backbone is in such bad financial shape. A lot can be blamed on 1960s-70s decisions. Still, here we are. missionlocal.org/2026/03/bart...

Oakland bus ads: the same little rectangle on every bus; "countertop warehouse" San Francisco bus ads: full interior and exterior wraps for three competing companies that make "AI to monitor your AI"

Here’s the “parallel” bikeway proposal Oakland will study this year between 23rd & 42nd Aves. Converting car parking or the center turn lane on Foothill Blvd to enable a bikeway there was deemed infeasible, despite it being a high injury corridor in need of significant design fixes.

The cruel and illegal police chase that ultimately killed pedestrian Lolo Soakai in 2022 began as sideshow enforcement. Bodycam footage from his family's lawsuit reveals police narrowly missing another pedestrian, remarking "I’ll run your stupid ass over." Police are not making streets safe.

we ate this methinks

Thank you! And if you ever want to join the fun of signature gathering, we've got a LOT of volunteer opportunities coming up: luma.com/connectbayar...

It's a small thing, but the way that @bart.gov provides wayfinding to special events really makes it clear that it sees itself as a community utility

BART riders have the best signs at the Alysa Liu Celebration!

Look at that beautiful red carpet.

Good blog post. The cited 2018 ACT Line 51 report is really instructive. Without quantified service goals, Oakland and Berkeley traffic engineers, business owners and planners effectively vetoed incremental and cumulative service benefits for Line 51 riders and no policymaker was held to account.

It's great that we passed a new regional transit priority policy, but it's unfortunate that it mainly focuses on requiring cities to get transit agency approval for road diets. There are serious holdups getting all cities along a road to OK transit priority projects, which will need further reform.

Help gather signatures for Connect Bay Area, the 5-county regional funding measure to save transit. Join us at one or several of the 60+ events happening this month. Check out all upcoming events at: luma.com/connectbayarea

extremely recommend orinda to berkeley via de la vega and east west trails hikingbytransit.com/hikes/siesta...

Some updated slides from the Geary-19th subway project town hall today. 4 rail technology options for the project retained, "regional rail" is scrutinized due to capacity concerns, and plugging into BART via the current Market St Subway and Transbay Tube is off the table due to construction impacts.

The things I would do with a network empowered to distribute road safety PSAs on even awkwardly-unrelated government platforms...

Signature gathering for the regional transit funding measure is in full swing! There are 16 events across the Bay Area this weekend; you can find events in your area by using the Luma map and the tags on the event calendar: luma.com/connectbayarea

There is an emerging and worrying trend I've witnessed recently in YIMBY spaces where people are starting to show a willingness to embrace greenfield sprawl as a solution to our housing and affordability crises. As a reminder: sprawl is a distraction and a ponzi scheme. Nothing more.

VTA's 9am Friday board workshop will discuss how to program ~$260M/year in new, unobligated funding it will gain if the Connect Bay Area transit funding measure passes this November. The 51-page staff presentation makes a killer case for transit service and operation improvement as good government.

Underrated value of (e)bikes: because short trips are really fast and convenient, they tip the scales for shopping local.

I rode my bike on SPA for the fjrst time last Saturday and it was legit scary so i got off ASAP. Unfortunately because a one term councilmember blocked bike lanes there, Berkeley lost out for a generation.

How can we create a connected transit network with faster, more reliable service and get projects that improve transit done quicker and at a lower cost? Come to our upcoming event to learn how we can make progress on all these goals at once with a proven approach: "Service-led planning."

Asm. Alex Lee, who passed California's single-stair study bill in 2024, has a spot (placeholder) bill, AB 2252, to enact the reform. The state fire marshal was supposed to release their single-stair report almost two months ago, but has not. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNa...

The immaturity of California’s homeowners and politicians is astounding. How many ways do they need to be told that wood-frame houses in the mountains are not insurable and no amount of politico-financial engineering can change that? The insurers are the only adults left in the room. Gift link:

San Pablo Ave is one of the most dangerous streets in the East Bay AND one of the most important for connecting to homes, jobs, retail. We need to make it safer by slowing down cars significantly. We need fewer and narrower car lanes, bus only lanes, protected bike lanes & improved intersections.

Yes it's gold medalist Alysa Liu promoting Muni's L-Taraval relaunch in 2024 ❤️ ❤️ 🚋 ⛸️ ❤️ ❤️