✨ introducing… ✨ 🌇 Transportation for the Abundant Society 🚅 "Abundance" says our problem is artificial scarcity—especially housing. But you can’t build your way out if transportation policy still treats traffic flow as sacred. Transportation is the binding constraint. ssrn.com/abstract=538...

Michael Hobbes is back on a tear dunking on people with bad arguments about Intelligent Speed Assistance, and you love to see it! The technology exists to save tens of thousands of lives per year, and there is no good reason not to implement it.

coming up with a new idea called "driving like shit olympics". no more bland, unprovable statements like "california drivers are the WORST" allowed. whichever state wins every 4 years gets a moonshot-sized public transit investment to get those fuckers off the road

An example of how impacts of interventions can differ at individual and population levels, and are conditional on other events. Given a car hits you, the helmet helps. But mandating helmets could lower the # of bikes on the road & thus might increase the chance of getting hit in the first place.

“Many Puget Sound transit advocates have urged the legislature to go much further and grant Sound Transit its own permitting authority, a move that would significantly diminish the role local governments play in enabling transit projects.”

FY26 US govt spending bill that Congress just agreed to mostly funds agencies as in FY25, though it: —Reinforced DOGE’s 24% cut to HUD staff —Reduced resources for rail substantially, including recissions of $950m for high-speed rail grants —Reduced spending for transit, increased it for highways

For some additional context, FAIR plan liability is about 3x as much as the state’s unfunded pension liability.

For people with tech background concerned about the Clipper 2 upgrade/migration, check out the Cubic slides being presented today at Clipper Executive Board. Many of the problems are failures of basic scaling and QA missing predictable corner cases. mtc.legistar.com/LegislationD...

This is terrible… AND we’re so lucky to have AC Transit directors like @therealjeanwalsh.bsky.social and @sarahsyed.bsky.social who regularly ride buses, are directly aware of problems riders face, and seek to address them. All transit board members should ride transit!

While signature gathering to save transit throughout the Bay a person asked me why I was doing it. I explained the looming cuts and the importance of transit They said "yeah I get that, but shouldn't the government just raise taxes to fund transit? Why do you have to gather signatures?"

San Diego Unified School District has quietly embarked on a massive program to build educator housing. The focus has been on maximizing the number of units affordable to staff, not on deepest means-tested affordability. voiceofsandiego.org/2026/01/29/w...

So thrilled about this. We all fought so hard last year to make this happen. Amazing to have it finally come through

I haven’t seen any gubernatorial candidate come out strong for housing reform policies or plans to support transit which is a vital service and key to city economies which are where so much public revenue are generated. Field is bleak

The attacks on everyday people in the streets of Minneapolis betray the values of safe, thriving communities. These aren't isolated tragedies: they're the result of a system that treats public space as a battleground and our neighbors as expendable. Full statement at bikeeastbay.org/minneapolis-...

i always like doing this when i'm taking off from a city! metro vancouver's clusters of highrises trace the path of the skytrain (zoom in a little to see it clearly). a part of the reason more people ride transit in this region is a concerted effort to allow more people to live near it.

One thing that really strikes me about people who shallowly argue for trams in N-America is how little they realize that the way we manage traffic here will seldom produce the level of ease of access they experience in European trams and long for Example: accessibility of stops, Paris vs Toronto

What’s A Transportation Reformer’s Role In the Fight Against ICE Violence? - usa.streetsblog.org/2026/01/27/w...

This is how many sources of funding over about ten years to finance a 240 unit building of Affordable housing. We need to make it easier to finance and build all types of homes

I don't think we've discussed "hybrid mass timber" construction - metal-framed walls with mass timber decks. This new technique could replace wood-framed and concrete alike for residential projects between 4 and 11+ stories, with big climate and cost advantages.

Here's a video of the impossible. The UP Express has high platforms and level boarding for passengers. That is supposed make it impossible for mainline North American freight trains to pass. And yet, as this shows, CN freight trains roll past the high platform at Weston multiple times per week.

This weekend we took a big step in the right direction for getting posters up in communities across the Bay Area to help support the effort to save & improve transit. Help get posters up in more communities across the region. Download the poster file here www.savebayareatransit.com/home

The pro-transit, pro-housing lane in the race is up for grabs

This was a good time! We put up posters at bus & BART stops getting the word out and seeking volunteers for the Bay Area's regional transit measure. Signature gathering starts January 23rd! Sign up for volunteering opportunities: tinyurl.com/savebayareatransit

i will never get over this rebecca tiffany quote: the goal of yimbyism is a world where "every trans eighteen-year-old who is stuck living with unsupportive family [is] able to afford an apartment in a vibrant urban space with transit on a minimum wage job." www.liberalcurrents.com/feminism-wit...

Exciting that CAYIMBY is getting involved in transit project delivery state capacity and reform!

Want to help out in the lead up to the big launch? Join us tomorrow in Oakland and San Jose to put up posters about the regional measure and help get the word out to transit riders luma.com/savetransit?...

🚨 Save the date to save Bay Area transit: January 23rd! This is our all hands on deck moment: we’re kicking off signature gathering for the regional measure with a day of action across all five counties on the 23rd. luma.com/le1g7slf?tk=...

Rockridge BART Winter Sunset View Corridor Preservation Alliance

/r/bayarea noticed that @bart.gov is no longer "running trains at slower speeds due to wet weather!" I had been taking for granted that trains have been running well in the rain this season.

You see this again and again. JPA management, limited staff capacity, patchwork grant programs -> budget overruns, longer timelines descoping, less service for riders in rapidly-growing areas. This time for Valley Rail in the Central Valley. Will 2026 be the year we take action?

“UPRR indicated that there could be no further concessions and would not agree to further reducing capital improvement requirements.”

In February, we helped organize a protest in defense of California High-Speed Rail that shouted down Trump DOT head Sean Duffy as he trashed HSR in the heart of Los Angeles. 3/https://bsky.app/profile/calelectricrail.org/post/3limr5r27622m

One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.

One of these that’s been well studied is International Blvd. Fatal crashes went up a lot after an unprotected bus lane was installed. But things drastically improved almost immediately after a simple safety project was implemented. bsky.app/profile/oakl...

Not noted in the KTVU piece, but fatal traffic crashes in Oakland have also dropped year over year since 2022, not correlated with any increase in police enforcement activity. Oakland finished 2025 w the lowest fatal crashes since pre-pandemic (though still far too many).

First!

A crank opinion I have is that yearly stat thingies should be done on Dec 31 or Jan 1, not Dec 1

I agree strongly with the idea of a lower monthly fare multiplier (and correspondingly higher single ride fare). Tourists and occasional riders who nevertheless rely on the system pay more; taking additional transit trips is free. However, I don't agree with the opposition to monthly fare capping.

There’s a lot of divergences between land use and transit reform but a consistency is that the practitioners (developers/transit agencies) themselves have substantially more near term priorities for reform than advocates.

I suspect there is a high correlation between people who think apartments should never be sold individually (“we don’t need more condos, we need affordable housing,” meaning deed-restricted and owned by nonprofits) and people who believe single-family houses shouldn’t be rented out

In an unlikely turn of events, I managed to convince the voting members of the UPC technical committee to accept my proposal, reversing the limits imposed on circuit venting. This will likely trickle down to California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Minnesota, Maine, Austin, Houston, and more.

Integrated, accessible, through-running electrified regional rail could transform Southern California and move high-speed rail forward. Join us on January 12th for a webinar from 5-6 pm to learn why this is so important and how we make it happen. actionnetwork.org/events/elect...

Self-driving cars are the most transformative transportation tech in a century. In 2025, I wrote a slew of stories exploring their effects. 🧵 In @vox.com, I explained why the convenience of self-driven rides could bring crippling congestion. Cities should act now to mitigate the risks.

The RFQ is out for CAHSR's new delivery plan. This builds on the August business case update, under which Bakersfield-Merced is out and Bakersfield-SF is in. This higher-revenue connection allows HSR to enter a P3 that will bring forward financing to allow them to complete the Pacheco Pass crossing.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority seeks to bring a consortium of private investors and developers on board by summer 2026 to begin the process of delivering high-speed rail faster, smarter and more economically. 🤝🚅 Learn more here: bit.ly/3LbE5q6

New blog post by @ctillier.bsky.social. I'd be curious to learn more about proposal #4 for improving trip time, modular/quick-build platform height increases, and about comparable examples.

to inaugurate the new blog, i've written about a local and contentious topic that's been on my mind for years. at its heart, it's about understanding the information that transit riders need. the case for splitting TTC Line 1:

As with underpriced fire insurance, the bill for Prop 13 is coming due. Cities were able to stave it off with Mello-Roos on new development at first, then with local sales and parcel taxes, but the bill is coming. The only things that could fix this are repealing Prop 13 or a lot of new development.

Massive congratulations are owed to the folks at @tvrr.bsky.social for their work on International Boulevard. It is *unquestionable* that their advocacy has saved multiple lives, something not many people can say. Quick 🧵on their blog post. www.oakrapidresponse.org/posts/intern...

So far Berkeley's San Pablo Ave plan recommends not even *studying* corridor upgrades until *after* Alameda County's project to the south is complete, which could be 2033 or beyond. Instead Berkeley needs to act *now* to initiate a study, if they hope to deliver anything in conjunction w development