That feeling when your entire rapid transit system converges on one easily disrupted segment — like, say, a 123-year old bridge that lifts for tall boats. Portland needs an rail tunnel under downtown. It’s the only megaproject in our region that excites me at this point.

One sign of a great leader is when they continue a defeated predecessor’s policy because it was a good policy. Bad leaders blow up everything just because it isn’t theirs. New York Mayor-Elect Mamdani will retain a key housing leader from Mayor Adams’s “City of Yes” work.

Visiting Strasbourg and love this quote from @humantransit.bsky.social “Strasbourg looks beautiful and serene, but in political terms you could also see it as a battlefield memorial, recording a triumph that involved major pain and suffering”

If I ever doubt the positive power of social media, I just remember when Elon Musk said something stupid about public transit & insulted @humantransit.bsky.social, then I called on Twitter to share examples of #GreatThingsThatHappenedOnTransit, then THIS HAPPENED! www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/...

Excited to add @sightline.org to this coalition letter declaring it "unacceptable that it costs up to five times more in the United States than in Europe to build and maintain an elevator" & advancing specific solutions. Your org should probably join too! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

That feeling when the subhead tells you that the headline is misleading, and that the whole story is unworthy of its placement at the top of the front page. @nytimes.com

I know many of you who follow me don't work in climate science, but this is the biggest story in climate right now. Breaking up NCAR makes us all less safe and is another act of self-harm that will take decades to recover from.

Many Americans Are Open to Car-Free Living humantransit.org/2025/12/many... via @humantransit.bsky.social

Fun conversation between me and @clmarohn of @strongtowns, motivated in part by my complaints about the transit chapter in his "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer." www.youtube.com/watch?v=JziN...

Great Jacob Wasserman article in the LATimes on the Los Angeles airport roadway plan: But no, the headline isn't true. It's not unusual to spend $1.5b to make traffic worse. @jacobwasserman.bsky.social www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

In Oregon we do things politely. This is the polite way to call out our current lack of leadership on transit funding. (Big service cuts coming in Portland next year, and in many other agencies in the state.)

A few thoughts on why the latent popularity of car-free living hasn’t translated to the funding changes necessary to make it possible: The millions of people who would like to drive less aren’t organized, so elected officials rarely hear from them, allowing the car-dominated status quo to fester.

I'm in @latimes.com today on why LAX's $1.5B plan to expand its road network will only make traffic worse. Instead: better FlyAway bus service, more bike/pedestrian/People Mover investment, and congestion pricing for the horseshoe to actually make it flow!:

Government communications should always be this truthful. www.denvergazette.com/2025/12/14/c...

Our "inexcusably fun" two day course in transit network design comes to Washington DC, Jan 15-16. A great way to explore the challenge of laying out transit service, for advocates and professionals. Please share! humantransit.org/2025/11/our-...

Remember, if a government agency collects public input at physical meetings, especially during the day, they will hear from retired people and people who are being paid by others to be there. Is that really a good sample of the public?

Overly cute bus stops generate Vehicle Miles Traveled from tourists. Design bus stops to attract and protect bus customers.

The US links health insurance to employment. It’s a brilliant way to trap people in jobs so that they are easier to exploit, while discouraging risk-taking. It is also a big burden on US businesses trying to compete overseas. Can anyone defend this system?

Access to opportunity should be what drives all discussions of transit expansion.

Everyone who thinks about cities needs to read this. Housing, transport, and economics are the same problem in cities. ”Access” is the technical term for how much you can get to from a destination. It’s how we evaluate so many critical choices in our lives.

Only 10% of Americans live car-free, but 40% are curious about car-freedom. Remember that the phrase "American love affair with the automobile" was invented by a car-industry copywriter for 1950s spon-con.

Both Chuck's piece and Jarrett's thread contain lots of food for thought on transit funding.

most people, left and right, treat traffic violence like the weather and not a specific policy choice

Well, this will get a reaction. Are Federal Transit Grants Hurting, Not Helping, Public Transportation? It's by @clmarohn.bsky.social at @strongtowns.org. Some thoughts .... 🧵 1/ www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025...

"One fifth of urban and suburban US car owners express a definite interest in living car-free (18%), and an additional 40% are open to the idea. This is in addition to the small share (10%) of urban and suburban US residents currently living without a car"

Are you interesting in cities and how to make them better for everyone? Bluesky has, in my observation, the biggest and best community of urbanists and city-builders on social media, and STARTER PACKS were a KEY to creating that! I have a bunch of them. This was my first! go.bsky.app/G7isZfk

An astonishing percentage of Americans are open to car-free living. The problem isn't attitudes. The problem is the failure to invest in viable options. humantransit.org/2025/12/many...

Proposed new media idea: The Recanter, a publication consisting entirely of people arguing against their own former positions, and/or admitting error in some way. I think that would be a huge market for this. We’re all tired of reading people who are always right.

For today’s #LayoverLibrary, I’m reading ‘Human Transit’ by @humantransit.bsky.social. The book covers what makes transit effective, notably density, walkability, compactness, and linearity. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to get a better grasp on public transit.

Craven capitulation ... Uber Pulls Back From Electric Cars, Slashing Incentives for Drivers - After long pushing for government policies to speed adoption of electric cars, Uber embraced Trump's EV-battering legislation financialpost.com/pmn/business...

Dallas: A great case study in how the overhyping of "microtransit" is encouraging leaders to destroy useful transit networks.

Proposed new media idea: The Recanter, a publication consisting entirely of people arguing against their own former positions, and/or admitting error in some way. I think that would be a huge market for this. We’re all tired of reading people who are always right.

Is the US irredeemably a "car culture"? No. 18% of Americans are open to car-free living, which would be transformative. Focus on making that possible for them: transit, active modes, better land use. Change the facts and the culture will follow. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If you're in Oregon and you care about being able to go places, this needs your attention THIS MORNING. nomorefreewayspdx.com/option3/

Best reason to stay on X, and to block/mute aggressively to manage abuse: Leftists benefit from watching thoughtful well-intentioned non-leftists trying to figure things out together. It helps you figure out where you might build bridges with them. (Also, there are lots of leftists there.)

Oregon: Should we keep on trying to build an unpopular freeway widening in Portland, or fix potholes and keep snowplows going all over the state? Seems like there might be space for some urban-rural consensus here. nomorefreewayspdx.com/option3/

Excellent read!

Just updated my timeless piece on the math of Park-and-Ride. humantransit.org/basics-the-m...

I will have to send this to every member of Milton's Town Council. It's no accident that the ones who consistently vote against investing in transit while simultaneously complaining about 'empty buses' are also the ones who have never commuted by transit in their lives.

Excellent article!

A thing I’ve been using more in conversations about transportation choices is that you don’t have to change your choice. But providing desirable (reliable, convenient, timely, safe, enjoyable) choices beyond using a car means others in your community might. That benefits the mode you choose, too

The number of times I hear about rail when I bring up transit, is amazing. From advocates, or non-advocates. Even suburbanites who have never been on a transit vehicle say, we need Commuter Rail or we need Light Rail and that will solve their transit problems. It won't.

Autonomous vehicle expert @andrewmilleryyz.bsky.social processes the death-by-Waymo of a charismatic cat in San Francisco. open.substack.com/pub/changing...

If you’re into public transit, and you’re not following public transit consultant Dr. Jarrett Walker (PhD, Stanford, Humanities), aka @humantransit.bsky.social, then you‘re not doing TransitSky right.

Do you find yourself in conversations with people who like to talk about how "they would never ride a bus" or who worry about "bus stigma"? I was just reminded of this 2017 article of mine, which tries to blow all that nonsense away. Hope you find it useful. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New analysis shows that if regions "repurposed larger shares of their transportation expenditures into “multimodal” solutions, like bus, rail, & biking, governments could collectively save $1 trillion in public expenditures by 2050." Is one trillion a lot? Calling @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social!

Our "inexcusably fun" two day intensive course in transit network design comes to Washington DC, Jan 15-16! I'll be teaching. Please share! humantransit.org/2025/11/our-...

1) And boom, Des Moines becomes the latest city to adopt a bus network redesign from @humantransit.bsky.social and Associates! 🚌

Is your transit agency "succeeding"? It depends on the definition of success, and not everyone agrees on that. Here's my timeless article on this, just now updated a bit. humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...

New book day is a good day. Three new books from @wesmars.bsky.social @humantransit.bsky.social @holz-bau.bsky.social courtesy of @islandpress.bsky.social sale