"so-called"?

Make this make sense.

Investing smartly in public transit checks ALL the boxes right now, @mark-carney.bsky.social. It’s a credible example of both real nation-building & climate action. It’s a proven cost SAVER with a great ROI that makes Canadian cities more successful & competitive. It supports equity & affordability.

A significant % of my walls of books on better cities were published by @islandpress.bsky.social! I think VERY HIGHLY of @hboyer.bsky.social & IP, who are doing a HUGE service to the understanding of better cities with books by @humantransit.bsky.social, @modacitylife.com and so many more friends!

In some far future America, our descendants are amazed that we allowed private freight train companies to just block major city streets for unlimited amounts of time, with trains that weren't even moving. (SE 11th Ave. in Portland).

Folks, if you’re into public transit, and you’re not following public transit consultant Dr. Jarrett Walker (PhD, Stanford, humanities), then you‘re not doing TransitSky right.

Our bus network redesigns are increasing ridership! humantransit.org/2025/11/our-...

Timeline cleanse: Amazingly satisfying 5.5 minutes of early Baroque music by the Bellot Ensemble. Beautifully photographed too. Love watching musicians communicate in performance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eihb...

This keeps on happening Every time I think I come up with a new way to think about transit, it turns out @humantransit.bsky.social had already beat me to basically the same idea/conclusions 10-15 years ago 😭

There’s a sort of Dunning-Kruger effect happening where people who read widely, consider various perspectives, and put in effort to understand views they disagree with worry that they don’t do that enough, while people who don’t do any of that accuse others of being in a bubble and call it a day.

We see our job as transit planners as being at least half storytelling. The great Todd Litman explains why. www.planetizen.com/blogs/136153...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

The Trump administration keeps finding new ways to signal that it is opposed to the essence of what a city is. Recent immigrants, speaking their native languages, have been a normal part of city life for most of US history.

A Dallas suburb celebrates the opening of an expensive new rail line by threatening to withdraw from the transit agency that built it for them.

To quote my friend @drkatemarvel.bsky.social, climate change won't make humanity extinct but we can do better than "not extinct". Raise your standards people!

I am not the unsubscribing type, but even I reach my limits ...

Our Portland office is a converted house whose back porch is rotting. Contractor gives me a bid, says he can fix it in November, before winter makes it slick and dangerous. Gets back to me: "Wait, your building is commercial. That permit will take three months." Make this make sense.

Drawing on @humantransit.bsky.social, Chicago-based planner Joshua Woods: "If you are operating a fixed route transit network in anything resembling an urbanized area (city, town, suburb, village etc), [y]our primary focus should be to move the most people around." www.planetizen.com/blogs/136253...

Nice New Zealand review of my book Human Transit. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/09/16/b...

San Francisco is full of spectacular vistas. Then there's this, a gondola from the street up to the top of a five story building.

If you believe in free bus fares in New York City or other big cities, you really need this article by @emmbadger.bsky.social. It covers all the nuances that get lost in the shouting, explaining both why free fares are popular and why they're hard. (Free link.) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Portland: Have you taken @trimet.org's survey on transit service reduction priorities? The state transportation bill was inadequate so TriMet will have to make some cuts next year. They want your advice on what to prioritize. trimet.org/servicecuts/...

How much do you bench? 💪 So many groups have been taking the initiative and building benches so that folks waiting for transit have places to wait. These photos came to us from Strong Towns Baton Rouge!

Motorheads at IL Policy are at it again! New op-ed against transit funding, arguing proposed fees on car-based transpo are unfair to suburbanites, although they'll save CTA/Pace/Metra (which they use!). Rebuttal: chi.streetsblog.org/2025/10/20/r... @chicagocta.bsky.social @betterstreetschicago.org

Portland: Have you taken @trimet.org's survey on transit service reduction priorities? The state transportation bill was inadequate so TriMet will have to make some cuts next year. They want your advice on what to prioritize. trimet.org/servicecuts/...

I was in Dublin last year. The city works wonders with its bus system, redesigned by @humantransit.bsky.social , but this will be an important addition to a metro region of 1.2 million+ people. Some observations about riding Irish trams, double-deckers and commuter rail in my HIGH SPEED blog:

Excellent thread on security vs perceived security on transit. We live in interesting times when it comes to answering this question.

Such a good question: do we want public transport to BE safe or to FEEL safe? And the comments get into whether the unsafe view is driven by users or non-users, and how putting more security on PT can make it better and worse.

Driving is dangerous, but often perceived as safe. Public transit is often safer, but perceived to be unsafe. Why? Perhaps it's because automakers spend far more on advertising, marketing & brand management.🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

One more time for the people in the back: PEOPLE WHO USE TRANSIT THINK IT'S MUCH SAFER THAN PEOPLE WHO DON'T

Do we want public transit to *be* safe or *feel* safe? This paragraph from an @opb.org article on transit security in Portland captures why this issue is so hard. Crime is way down since '20 but some people don't feel safe. Why? 🧵 1/ www.opb.org/article/2025...

Actually, most things government does are like this.

Steven Conn's book "Americans against the City" is an essential history of American anti-urbanism. It will help you understand why fear and hostility toward people who live in cities runs so deeply in US culture and politics. Good summary: www.governing.com/urban/why-we...

Just like SimCity was not based on actual US minimum parking standards, because it would have made the cities too boring to keep players’ interest.

Good review of the new game Subway Builder. Warning: The game is not based on real US construction costs, because, in the designer's words, "it would have made the game unplayable." www.fastcompany.com/91421609/thi...

"Parking is such sweet sorrow"

The sign that captures my mood. #NoKings #Portland

For Tolkien fans, a timely passage for No Kings Eve, from WH Auden’s review of Lord of the Rings.

An inspirational read from the great James Fallows on the eve of No Kings Day in the US. fallows.substack.com/p/stand-up-s...

The American centrist punditocracy has decided that what the US transit industry needs are endless lectures about the importance of security. These writers misunderstand the problem, and are making things worse. 1/ www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Portland: Looks like we may not get bus lanes on the most congested parts of 82nd Ave., because the segment where they are most needed is, of course, exactly where there are the most businesses to complain. Bike Portland is on it.

Sigh. Even the great Rebecca Solnit is counting counties now. Every time you report a number of counties or percentage of counties, you are conceding that rural people just matter more than urban ones.

Word on the street is that there are a bunch of new folks joining Bluesky right now, so it seems like a good time to re-share my first & biggest STARTER PACK of urbanists & city-making organizations from across the world. Hope you’ll consider following the excellent accounts here. And please share!

Cardiff will be the first UK city to introduce a surcharge for oversized SUVs and trucks, "while very large vehicles – those over 3,500kg – will be excluded from residential permits entirely."

No matter how much sense trolleybuses make as a zero emission solution, the debate always ends up dominated by someone like this.

#Transit systems in some major US #cities are in dire straits, due to long-term under-investment and recent increasing tendency to view transit thru a culture war lens, argues @humantransit.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

He's right. The No Kings rallies will be defiantly anthropomorphic, except when they're zoomorphic.

When you feel the need for a big word, but all big words sound the same to you.

Trolleybuses pull power directly into efficient, hill-climbing engines without need for massive, pavement-crushing batteries. Next gen trolleys with in-motion charging offer significant off-wire travel, allowing incremental wire extension. SF and Seattle partnering: www.sfmta.com/media/43118/...

Seattle's transit agency is pivoting away from battery electric buses, and looking to reinvest in a well-tested technology: trolleybuses. www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/13/m...