Grassytrams are an effective urban stormwater management strategy, converting impervious areas into a green zone that eliminates 50%-70% of runoff.

For every proposal to improve urban life, there is an immediate reaction from someone living in a rural exurb who is ready to lose their mind over the costs and implications on their privilege to drive a 2-ton living room on wheels through a city they don't live in.

“China's network of high-speed, incredibly advanced trains, which in recent years has just come to crisscross the country are shuttling people around the country at hundreds of miles an hour. Whereas Amtrak just tried to update its Northeast Corridor train and it left a lot to be desired.” 🚆

“For some people being in roommate mode is a necessity for now. The enjoyment has been taken out of relationships because the cost of living is so extreme. And these couples and these partnerships, of course they're exhausted from working, and there's just not as much freedom anymore.” 💔

Who said romance is dead?

My morning commute:

TODAY is publication day for my first book! If You Want to Win, You’ve Got to Fight: A Guide To Effective Transportation Advocacy is a practical guide for people who want to make #transit, #bike, and street safety changes in their community Check it out at islandpress.org/books/if-you...

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed 4 years ago. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social we study its effects. US transport spending increased by 30%, but: —Funding for non-highway projects flatlined —Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure

Virginia House seats won by Democrats this century, out of the chamber's 100 seats: in 2001: 32 in 2003: 34 in 2005: 40 in 2007: 44 in 2009: 39 in 2011: 32 in 2013: 33 in 2015: 34 in 2017: 49 in 2019: 55 (first Dem majority since 1999) in 2021: 48 in 2023: 51 2025, i.e. this week: 64

This is sad news if they really go under. I just bought my first E-bike from Rad last year and have loved it so far. They were one of the earliest E-bike companies in the U.S. being founded in 2007 in Seattle, WA. techcrunch.com/2025/11/10/r...

On this day in 1889, a white mob abducted 18-year-old Orion “Owen” Anderson from jail in Leesburg, Virginia, and lynched him for allegedly frightening a white girl.

Last night’s election was big for housing ⬇️ —NIMBY NJ Gubernatorial candidate lost decisively. —Mamdani, promising to pause rent increases & develop 200k affordable units, won NYC decisively. —All pro-housing referendums in NYC passed. —Housing funding measures passed in Columbus & Denver.

By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal "Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport." www.economist.com/internationa...

“The price tag for free buses is higher: $700-800 million. But in the context of a $116 billion New York City budget, that money can be found. And what @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social has said about buses is he wants them not only to be free but faster.” 🚌💨

Did my first century today riding the Capital Trail up and back. #bicycling

"Cities should remain museum pieces for incumbents and any newcomer is strictly a burden" is the most loser mindset that powers the most loser politics in America today.

who creates the lively art and music scenes if the rent is too high? who makes cultural life? who serves you food or washes your dishes? who creates the fancy little restaurants that draw you to urban living? affordable housing is at the heart of what makes city life worthwhile.

Tfw your region is so scenic you just have to prevent people from seeing it through train windows by wrapping all of them with pictures of it

Every major bus route needs a dedicated bus lane. Dozens of people choosing the safer and more sustainable way to get around should not be held up by a few folks choosing to bring their private metal boxes downtown.

A day of delivering bread in Berlin. 🍞

Thanks so much to @emilypont.bsky.social for covering what might be the most underrated climate battlefield there is. As I say in the piece, in the Trump era, there is no clearer opportunity for state and local elected officials to make a tangible difference on climate than saving transit.

US public transit has plenty of good-news stories! www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/mbta-bo...

Drives me nuts that things like bike lanes get painted as luxury goods or harbingers of gentrification when making it easy and convenient to get around your city by bike could save low-income households thousands of dollars a year.

Berlin’s Festival of Lights

Every year I write the same, slightly grimmer story 1 in 10 five years ago 1 in 9 1 in 8 1 in 7 New York public school students experienced homelessness last school year, a record high. For @citylimitsnews.bsky.social I discuss the troubling rise buff.ly/ICwJLj3

Today on Volts: You know what sucks? Cars. They screw up cities, degrade our health, make us mean & selfish, induce terrible public policy, on & on. I talk with Doug Gordon & Sarah Goodyear, hosts of the unapologetic @thewaroncars.bsky.social podcast, about their new book & life after cars.

This is very sad news. Eugene was a Charlottesville icon. Civil rights organizer. (He led he fight to desegregate the schools.) Affordable-housing innovator. Exceedingly generous to all with his time and, to the poor, his money. Successful businessman. A kind, loving man. We'll miss him terribly.

National Guard deployment in DC is costing $1 million/day www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/p... They’re there each time I step out of the Metro, idling in groups with nothing to do Meanwhile, around the corner, people are sleeping on the street, nowhere else to go, as Trump cuts funding for homeless people

“Trump political appointees had made it nearly impossible for them to do their jobs, which involve investigating and prosecuting landlords, real estate agents, lenders and others who discriminate based on race, religion, gender, family status or disability.”

“There are lots of grand things that we need to do around foreign and security policy, but we also are deeply worried that ordinary Germans are losing faith in the ability of politicians to get anything done, and top of that list is fixing the train.” 🚆 🇩🇪 www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

“Our train system is a question of democracy. People feel like nothing works anymore. The train system is viewed the same as the government. If I can’t rely on the train system, then the government isn’t doing its job.” 🚆 @zeit.de podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/d...

Homeownership rate by decade of birth by current age (United States) www.datawrapper.de/_/27AUY/

I’ll be on stage tonight at Industriesalon Schöneweide discussing how Berlin can redevelop one of the city’s last industrial areas seeking to reinvent itself as a good place to live, work, and play. Come out and see me and the other great panelists! 🏬🏭🏢

Bread delivery bike ride through the heart of Berlin. 🥖🚴🏼‍♂️💨

Europe’s streets are so much safer for cyclists than America’s, but drivers the world over think their convenience is more important than others’ lives.

“The big advantage of bikes is that they go directly from where you start to where you finish, when you need to go. The advantage over cars is that they need perhaps 1/10th of the amount of space. Roads that jam up quickly with cars can carry effectively unlimited numbers of people by bicycle.”

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

“We have sidewalks and bike infrastructure that’s extremely underdeveloped, road design that allows people to drive very quickly, and limited enforcement to prevent people from driving dangerously. That’s a recipe for having a lot of fatalities.” @justintyndall.bsky.social 🚸 @civilbeat.bsky.social

Ooh... free shipping at @bookshop.org today and tomorrow as part of their "anti-Prime sale." Includes preorders, so get your copy of Life After Cars. bookshop.org/a/9252/97805...

An under appreciated benefit of smartphones is now accessible they’ve made transit. Prior to having one I could not keep enough of the WMATA map in my head to use buses. Now I use them all over town.

“We know that housing affordability is a crisis here in Richmond. And we've got to do everything we can through the zoning code or through affordable housing investments to be able to address that issue in our city.” @dannyavula.bsky.social 🏬🏘️ @vpm.org rvasgotissues.vpm.org/2025/10/01/m...

Ride to Ramen Artist: Shang Daili

Pew finds something that everybody in codes and standards knows but few will say out loud: we apply far stricter fire safety standards to apartments than to houses. www.pew.org/en/research-...

So very excited to share that I’ll be writing about housing in Los Angeles and across California for Politico www.politico.com/blogs/politi...

“Imagine you had a good bike lane in your suburb. Imagine the buses came frequently. Those things would give you choices. But in our country, despite all the talk of liberty, we're rapidly disinvesting in all the things that would give people choices.” @thewaroncars.bsky.social

“Many homes in my Richmond neighborhood have had assessment increases of 50%-70% in the last five years. That can translate to an extra $1,000 a month in taxes. I have yet to meet a person whose income is increasing at a similar rate.”

New paper uses national zoning & housing metrics to test associations between zoning, housing supply & demographics, finds: —Increasing max. allowed density is not associated with more housing. —But increases in housing are associated with a higher Black resident share & lower white resident share.

Sometimes drivers are beyond parody.

D.C. folks who care about OR & WA housing might enjoy this @pewtrusts.org event next month. I think we're the only two states that have legalized co-living (aka SROs) in all multifamily zones! If that's a perfect fit for empty office buildings, sweet web.cvent.com/event/eee204...