WATCH—A quick overview of Baltimore City’s housing policy changes in the last year, and how best to move forward: youtu.be/NhEKohg9No4?...

"On Tuesday, Liman, who Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2019, came down squarely on the side of the Hochul and the MTA's power to keep the toll." nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/03/b...

Started a new short-form video series where I take the bus to my favorite Baltimore-area spots and show you how to get there on it. Since TikTok's having an aneurysm today, I'm posting my latest one here, and may just post them here every week, anyway lol

Went on @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social's youtube shorts page and saw this thumbnail and I believe this is a perfect reacion image. "What is the best way to commute to work or travel between cities?" Me:

Build METROS, not MAGLEVS! Our politicians talk far too much about pie in the sky plans for unproven technologies and not enough about the things that could build our cities from the ground up and from within. WATCH HERE: youtu.be/vXymdf0wBME

Do I know anyone in Montreal? I'll be visiting March 12-15 and would love to meet up with fellow Montreal Urbanists. I'll definitely check of the REM and other interests around the city.

The level of ambition here is really sad. It's such a big site so close to transit. I mocked up a plan in 15 minutes just to illustrate how much space we're talking about. There's even still space in the rear for a large surface lot or parking structure. TJ's footprint is the same.

Check out my new shortform video series I’m doing on Baltimore-area and DMV businesses! Aiming to have a new video out every week on all my platforms! Follow on here as well as YouTube, Substack, and TikTok!

NEW: Race still very much impacts how we move in Maryland and in Baltimore City specifically. We need to reckon with that as much as we need to remember our past as a state. open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

People who don't ride transit should still support it. Why? Because you can’t build your way out of traffic with more lanes, but you CAN transit your way out of it by giving others a better option. Fewer cars = faster commutes for all. 🚌💨 www.fastcompany.com/91493803/whe...

NEW: We need a public housing reckoning in America, and it needs to be built on the foundation of park & rides. Maryland is starting to do that, but at a far slower pace than is needed. open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

Great meeting up!

Any Baltimore or Maryland housing folks with an understanding of LIHTCs or HUD TCs in my feed that could answer a few questions for me for a video I'm working on? Not on-camera or anything, just for background info. I have an email out to HABC, but just haven't heard back, yet.

Wrote my first Substack article that was inspired by a clip from a video by @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social spdbird.substack.com/p/no-a-heavy... Feel free to give it a read! Also check out Phriendly Photog's channel here: www.youtube.com/@phriendlyph...

WATCH: youtu.be/nQSvhZZKv3Q DC can't subsidize its own sprawl the way other U.S. cities and states do, so it relies on Maryland and Virginia taxpayers from dense areas to do it for them.

SEPTA is far more valuable than you've been told, and has far better bones than you'd think. They have the best thru-running system on the continent, and could turn it into a light-metro system overnight, were the funding and political will there. Let's learn from them! youtu.be/FCrJqLVJYW0

WMATA is up next in our map making series using @metrodreamin.bsky.social! youtu.be/-lH1Mi0JWcM

A rail line to Ocean City, MARC trains to Virginia, service to Cumberland and Harrisburg, and so much more in my latest @metrodreamin.bsky.social map video on the YouTube channel! youtu.be/8IZZG5xsve4

Maryland will spend $62 million for families to receive full SNAP benefits for November baltimorebeat.com/maryland-wil...

What no one seems to care to talk abt amidst this particular govt shutdown blame game is the fact that every DMV-area food bank I've been to in the last 40 days has said 'oh, yea - we prepare every year for there to be a shutdown around Thanksgiving.' We are a broken country.

Latest on my Substack - my darkhorse for the most important passenger rail project going on in America today, and how it will greatly benefit Amtrak most: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

London can teach us a lot about transit, but not just us in Baltimore—us in the entire United States 🇺🇸 Had a blast doing this video and visiting family in the UK. youtu.be/2TY99n5jtmU

Je suis à un niveau avec mon français où je comprends beaucoup, mais je ne peux pas répondre avec la même vitesse ou énergie. Mon père n'a jamais parlé français avec nous, conversationnellement, donc quand je vais à Montréal, je réapprends, constantement.

We need to stop treating urban and rural America like misbehaving children and spend real money to fix them. And, yes, that means not giving so much to suburbia. open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

Urbanists don't talk enough about transit safety - and we need to change that. The murder of Iryna Zarutska wasn't the 1st murder of a woman on transit by a deranged man, and won't be the last. We need to fix so many things - and I write about them here: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

This is NICHE, but every time the MARC gets to Halethorpe, the auto voice says you can transfer to the “UMBC Shuttle” (fair) “and CityLink Yellow” The Yellow runs limited service + is a 16min walk up a steep incline to get to Washington & Ridge where it stops. Hardly a transfer.

The mainstream press in the U.S. candidly don’t know much about trains or passenger rail. YES—the new Acela IS slow, but you’re not giving the “why,” so here it is. A stop-by-stop breakdown on WHY the fastest train in the Americas is hardly fast at all: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

I see comments that say there should be "more positive content" about U.S. public transportation - and yes, good news is great. BUT - your wish for "more positive content" doesn't negate the fact that there's some AWFUL transit in this country that deserves to be criticized.

Rode the Penn Shuttle and timed how long the light rail takes to get thru the much maligned Howard Street corridor. Red light stops alone lead to lots of people saying they may never take the mode again, and who can blame them? youtu.be/6p9ZbX68nrw?...

This graphic is from a group OPPOSED to transit funding. See that green line? If you blink, you’ll miss it. That’s what’s needed to keep public transit afloat in PA. Condition funding, fine, but don’t act like it was ever going to sink PA. That’s a lie not even the transit detractors can sell.

Got frustrated this year with heat delays, so I made an explainer to educate on how summer can k*ll your commute: youtu.be/A2QnTf58zQM?...

Boston's MBTA can teach us a lot of what to do and what not to do when it comes to mass transit - still loved riding it tho: youtu.be/PKICgzDlh7s?...

If you're proposing a transit project that doesn't have value capture built-in, you aren't proposing the right project, and need to go back to the drawing board. There's not a single transportation project that JUST does transportation of human beings ON EARTH that entirely funds itself on tickets.

Call and email GOP PA state senators and tell them they need to fund SEPTA. They are holding up funding in the PA General Assembly.

You didn't choose driving. The U.S. government did for you. phriendlyphotog.substack.com/p/you-didnt-...

So many federally funded contracts expired today and there is terrible communication so people aren’t sure what to do… stay in their jobs, leave, take vacation, keep working… the chaos across communities is hard to explain. And people are scared to complain and face retaliation.

Remember, people less qualified than you are doing the things you don't think you can do. Get out of your own way and keep pushing forward. You are enough!

I did something new on the YouTube channel and built a Baltimore transit map on @metrodreamin.bsky.social This video's long, but you can hop thru it in the description and not get too caught up in the 58min timestamp lol www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7fL...

Bikeshare is America’s most slamdunk transit asset, and we need way more programs: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

Phil (Phriendly Photog) phriendlyphotog.substack.com/subscribe?pa...

Started a substack for my transit ranting - first post here: substack.com/@phriendlyph...

Transit social media has this incessant insistence that we need to elevate the positive, despite the exact opposite being true in the data. My videos on “this funding squabble is bad” get thousands of views. My videos on—‘here’s a plan to INCREASE funding!’ get crickets lol

I dived into the new BMore Bus plan put out this week by @mta.maryland.gov to see how it could transform bus service in the Baltimore region: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX7b...

There will be—and likely are right now—Type 1 diabetics in ICE custody who, due to language limitations or general chaos of being arrested unprepared, are w/o food, insulin, a glucose meter, fresh supplies, etc. who will brush with death or die in custody. My heart is broken.

We need to build *actual* BRT in America: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSL0...

I was only in England a little more than a week, and @mta.maryland.gov is doing diesel cab locomotives on the Penn Line?

An idea as to what platform screen doors would look like at a DC metro stop, that isn’t a rendering. This is Westminster station on London’s Jubilee Line.

The guy who killed those two Israeli embassy employees thinks he’s Luigi Mangione, but the difference is Luigi Mangione didn’t kill anyone.