“Car bloat”—increasingly oversized automobiles—worsens road safety, affordability and the environment. Here are some of the stories I wrote in 2025 examining the trend and proposing solutions. 🧵 In @vox.com, I likened car bloat to secondhand smoke (which helped bring down the US tobacco industry).

NSW suffering an eruption of the HDAs - that is, spot rezonings for high density housing Independent of any planning strategy. It’s looks like a game of ‘pin the development on the donkey’ - uncoordinated, haphazard, opaque in process, speculative, too open to corruption… Such a risk to all of us

Back when I-35 first sliced through Austin, Texas, in the 1950s, no visual archive was kept of the people whom the highway displaced. Now, as TxDOT annexes properties along I-35 to expand the interstate, documentary photographer Liz Moskowitz records some of the people and businesses being upended.

Must read article by @emfarrelly.bsky.social on the outrageous, undemocratic recent changes to NSW Planning Act. Premier Minns in pocket of the worst urgera & profiteers, environmental vandals & developers. This analysis ignored by MSM, sucked in by press release architectureau.com/articles/pro...

At Sydney’s mighty arms convention, weapons are sold as ‘solutions’. No one mentions the people they will target

100% this! I'm going to start calling those two-wheeled electric vehicles with throttles that don't require pedalling "e-motos" too. Hopefully we can shift the narrative => e-bikes are NOT a problem in Toronto's bike lanes, e-motos are the problem. #BikeTO #bikesky

Inside Labor’s plan to tax EVs www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

A broken university system is letting Australia down https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/a-broken-university-system-is-letting-australia-down/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-broken-university-system-is-letting-australia-down #auspol

RIP Kitkat, Mayor of 16th Street: “The mayor of this space was taken by technology that none of us asked for and…none of us consented to” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Today, I’m taking part in a half day work stoppage with fellow Curtin University NTEU comrades. We are taking part in protected industrial action to secure better workloads, pay and conditions for all Curtin Staff in our Enterprise Bargaining Agreement ✊ @nteunion.bsky.social

It’s Bike Month here in Western Australia, so it’s the perfect time for our public transport agency to release this ad campaign pointing out how embarrassing and disempowering it is to ride a bike

Slower speeds save lives: "...there were 2,638 people injured, including deaths, on low-speed roads in the most recent 18 months, compared with 3,520 injuries between April 2022 and September 2023, a reduction of 25%."

They know the climate chaos coming, they know their decision will make it worse, and kill any hope of mitigation, but they did it anyway - for their own benefit. Not a principle among them.

Welcome to the enshittification of cars. This is the worst thing to happen to cars since SUVs.

No, Jim, their primary purpose is to PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT. Kinda important during dual climate change and biodiversity extinction crises, which are an existential threat to humanity…and your precious economy. www.theguardian.com/business/202... Just another neoliberal Labor politician.

We need to talk about oversized trucks and the aesthetic of fascism.

“Expanding freeway networks undermines efforts to reduce emissions and encourage cleaner transport. It points to a deep-seated flaw in Australia’s urban planning systems which must be solved.” theconversation.com/australia-wh...

1.3 billion tonnes of GHG emissions and critical risks to Perth’s water security and the Northern Jarrah forests. There’s a few more days to make a submission on Alcoa’s plan to expand mining in Perth hills. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

CCWA will hold a “requiem for our reefs” at @wamuseum.bsky.social's Woodside Open Day to highlight the “devastating impact of Woodside’s emissions on WA’s coral reef system" & call for public support to stop WoodCIDE from "drilling for new gas under the pristine Scott Reef in the Browse Basin”

​Five years ago today, I wrote my first of 50+ stories about car safety. My motivation was simple: I couldn't understand why e-scooters were capped at 12 mph, but hulking SUVs could go 10x faster. The passage below still feels true. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The UK government, which is going all-in on AI, is asking people to delete emails in order to save water, claiming it will lighten the load on data centres.

Pls stop what you are doing and read this entire report on Israel's murder of journalist Anas al-Sharif and five colleagues in Gaza City. "He characterized Israel’s threats as 'Silence or Death,' and he vowed not to be silent." It ends with his final message. www.dropsitenews.com/p/anas-al-sh...

The best way to cap off a week is by walking around with a bunch of geography teachers talking urban infill, the housing crisis, gentrification, laneways and vegetable worshipping churches.

Join the dots. My cartoon in today's @theageaustralia.bsky.social and @sydmorningherald.bsky.social (both newly arrived to Bluesky)

A new study of vehicular crashes in the UK shows that—after accounting for driver characteristics, road conditions, & more—adult pedestrians & cyclists had a 14% higher fatality rate when hit by an SUV rather than a regular car. Children had a shocking 77% higher fatality rate when hit by SUVs.

The Maintainers have released their “Maintainers Study Guide: A Guide to Ground Your Practice in Principles of Maintenance, Repair + Care” — a resource that “reflects nearly a decade of work” across The Maintainers’ conferences, fellowships, research networks, etc themaintainers.org/study-guide/

Who gets to define "false and distorted narratives"? How can we be sure these sweeping powers won't be misused to silence criticism of the Israeli government over its actions or defame dissenters? What definition of anti-Semitism will be applied? Will we get similar protections against Islamophobia?

Tesla's Supervised Robotaxi launch was a pathetic flop. Tesla's Supervised Robotaxi launched yesterday to much acclaim from the Tesla Cult. Since nobody who was at the event has properly summarized the first day, we thought we would do it. Below are our findings. 🧵

Thrilled to be partnering with the great folks over at @crikey.com.au to get some of @roycerk2.bsky.social's excellent reporting, like this deep dive on the fight to get Monash to break up with Woodside, out to more Australian readers! www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/19/m...

Excellent article by Rock Morton in the Saturday Paper this morning, on consultants Nous. These guys are so endemic in university managements I ended up writing a whole paper about them. They're basically vampires www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/educati...

The truly sad thing is absolutely no one thought the ALP would reject the NWS extension. Everyone knows the ALP deny climate change, everyone knows the ALP always does what gas companies demand.

"The chatbot’s instructions tell it to “de-emphasize the climate catastrophe narrative,” to focus on “real pollution, not CO2.” The bot is told to frame these arguments in the most reasonable possible way" "chatbots are useless" is wrong. They're very, very useful, for a certain kind of person:

Don't believe the spin from the WA Government. Pollution from the gas export plant is destroying the ancient Murujuga rock art. Rock art expert Professor Benjamin Smith read the report and set the record straight. Video from Friends of Australian Rock Art. #auspol

Labor, finding new ways to bring shame upon Australia. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...

Very much related to today's pod: Sightline has just released a guide on persuasive rhetoric for parking reformers. Do not discuss: density, driving, cars Do discuss: more homes, more community, less waste

The awesome power of climate breakdown Villages and resorts in mountainous regions are going to come under increasing threat as glaciers are destabilised and the permafrost that holds mountain faces together thaws This is just the first of many www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/3...

Pandemic of drivers in cars injuring peeps not in cars Yet another hit and run in Perth 58yo woman struck by a 36yo male driver in a maroon Nissan X-Trail 5pm 18 May2025 in Rockingham (location not given) The evening brings the most dangerous drivers! www.perthnow.com.au/news/perth/m...

Cybertrucks are piling up -- apparently no one wants to buy them -- but they can't stop making them, b/c shutting the factory down is too expensive. Great work all around.

The captured state www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...

🎶Despite all my pleas cars still won't stop smashing my teas 🎵

Seen on my neighbour’s RAM Truck. I’m impressed at Greta’s enduring ability to rile the fragile male psyche.

“To bet against the future on this scale – to bank on your bunker – is to betray, on the most basic level, our duties to one another, to the children we love, and to every other life form with whom we share a planetary home.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

The absolutely bonkers push for road tanks continues in Australia. Look at this deadly, city-choking yanktank. I hate this trend so much. Why are so many people buying these in a 'cost of living crisis'? www.drive.com.au/news/2026-mg... www.drive.com.au/news/austral...

If your reaction to this is "we should make bigger parking spaces" then you know how the process of car dependence works

Many drivers fail to notice bikes until it’s too late. Sometimes this phenomenon is referred to as SMIDSY (‘sorry mate, I didn’t see you’).

IMO this new study offers a golden opportunity for car bloat reformers to win over drivers. Appeal to their self-interest! Don't just talk about pedestrian danger; talk about traffic jams. Or talk about how big cars eliminate curbside parking spots (as in Montreal, below).

Labor intentionally designed the NVES so it didn't tackle the root cause of climbing transport pollution (big cars), and the Coalition is still opposing it because it's 'too strict on big cars'. May as well just actually do real climate policy folks www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As the federal election looms, crossbenchers warn it’s “recklessly negligent” to keep the Climate Risk Assessment report’s findings hidden from Australians. satpa.pe/LDTPwNF