everyday victories

Street capacity is a public resource to be allocated in the public interest.

This is terrorism.

“Occupying only 2 per cent of the street space, but carrying 75 per cent of the street users, the street cars prevent slow motion from becoming no motion.”

Or you can outlaw density.

People ask me: In a world where so many scary people keep asking for affordable housing, better bus service, bike-friendly communities, and streets people can actually walk across, how do you find the strength to defend the status quo? ...

“Crowds that pass through 60-foot streets might require two-hundred-foot streets.”

Operation Epic Egos A one-trillion-dollar war machine is in the hands of two fragile, self-pitying sociopaths. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize ..., I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”

As the White House demands $1.5 trillion we don’t have, borrowed from generations unborn, to arm a Pentagon that disdains defense in favor of “war,” to attack imaginary threats at unlimited cost, it’s worth getting reacquainted with the person who wants your money: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE8X...

“A street car passenger requires an average of only six square feet of street space; an automobile passenger requires eight times as much.”

For military contractors, victory is won every day. These are the new contracts and contract supplements awarded by the Defense Department on a single day: April 2. They total $2,932,835,666. Just another day.

The biggest current long-term threat to the national security of the United States is the Pentagon – and a White House that thinks its purpose is not defense but “war.”

We should have learned this already. In Senate confirmation hearings, only one question is necessary. Not a single current cabinet secretary can pass this elementary test.

Street capacity is a public resource to be allocated in the public interest. [Image via Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, fig. 6.1 (p. 160).]

“Peace through strength.” You keep using that word.

“Without street cars, there would either be such traffic congestion as would injure business or costly street improvements would be added to your tax bills.”

Can you imagine Council Bluffs, Iowa, without streetcars? In 1928 it was not easy. That year, the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway carried 165,000 passengers a day along 65 miles of track.

It’s not even close.

Technology changes but geometry endures. In 1923 Los Angeles was the most motorized large city on earth. There was already one automobile for every three Angelenos of all ages. ...

In elementary school I observed that children who were ashamed of their ignorance called things they did not understand “stupid” and “dumb.” The practice protected their egos at the expense of their minds. Both words remain favorites of the insecure Secretary of Defense.

Andy Boenau (@urbanismspeakeasy.com) is the Tom Paine of transportation planning.

Technology changes but geometry endures.

Andy Boenau is the Tom Paine of transportation planning.

Street capacity is a public resource to be allocated in the public interest.

Idolatry of the president is betrayal of the people. A cabinet secretary’s first duty is to advise. The capacity to advise depends upon a capacity to disagree. Any cabinet secretary who cannot disagree with the president is dangerously incompetent. ...

Your Word of the Day John Adams had a term for the current White House and its flunkies in Congress: “oligarchical junto.” Such a gang seeks “to destroy all the records, memorials, and histories of former times, which it did not like.”

“Street cars … carried over 40,000,000 people last year.” In Omaha.

On June 5, 2018, dedicating themselves to “the fulfillment of the human need for everyday movement in the manner most natural to the human being,” pedestrian advocates from all over Poland gathered together in Warsaw to found Piesza Polska. Delegates signed this declaration.

One year ago today, this despicable executive order was issued. A habitual liar presumes to lecture us about truth. A reckless narcissist presumes to lecture us about sanity. ...

Michael Replogle: “American transit agencies could substantially increase suburban transit use without increased operating costs by improving bicycle-transit integration.”

In 1927, the Kansas City Public Service Company operated 749 streetcars along 316 miles of track. It also operated 76 motor buses.

Technology changes but geometry endures.

The flag is not magic. It does not convert looting into patriotism. In 1986 Congress approved the first trillion-dollar federal budget, for 1987. That’s about $3 trillion in 2026 dollars. Today the US federal budget is about $7.4 trillion, up 2.5 times since 1987. ...

His chain is ours.

“The war machine keeps turning.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoT9...

To improve transit, integrate cycling into the transit system. To improve cycling, integrate transit into the cycling system. Cycling-transit integration yields synergies that make the partnership far greater than either system alone. Roland Kager and Lucas Harms show the way.

“You won’t have to wait more than a few seconds for a street car.”

The most alarming statements from senior White House officials are also among the most common: DT, despite his spectacular incompetence, is the “greatest president” (negotiator, deal maker, etc) in American history. Groupthink is mandatory. Fiascos are inevitable. ...

After all, it would be crazy to build a 384-acre sports complex with 21,000 parking spaces.

“Any failure traceable to arrogance … would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.”

As Interior Department cowards who fear the truth continue to remove signs from national parks, let us recall the example W.E.B. Du Bois set for us.

But first his car was towed.

This broken monster, who now has a 900-billion-dollar military he likes to play “war” with, wants you to mortgage your children’s future to give him $200 billion to spend on even more weapons.

Second Salesman got a parking ticket.

It’s not even close.

In 1929 most residents of Kansas City, Missouri, rode the streetcar. Nevertheless, on weekdays, automobiles efficiently transported about 200,000 empty seats into and out of the central business district. ...

Maybe encircling downtown Kansas City inside a tight noose of interstate highways solved this.

The “Save America” bill is the Betray America to Save MAGA bill. We in Virginia know how a minority in power can rewrite the voting rules to keep themselves power. ...

DT’s PAC is soliciting cash contributions in return for access to “unfiltered” national security briefings. DT: “I’m opening up spots on the National Security Briefing Membership.” “As a National Security Briefing member, you’ll receive my private national security briefings.”

“Drivin’ a car is getting to be the bunk!” … and then they pulled up the tracks.