'The real scandal here is not “bike shed groundhog day.” It’s the groundhog day of car dependency, subsidised at vast public expense, locking us into congestion, pollution, poor health and missed climate targets.' Great piece from @ciarancannon.bsky.social www.thejournal.ie/readme/bike-...

“The e-bike market is skyrocketing — and, according to some studies, outpacing electric cars…The question now is: Do officials double down on deadly car-centric urban design, or do they rethink cities to encourage people to ditch four wheels for two?” Via @grist.org grist.org/transportati...

Promising innovation from the @dubcitycouncil.bsky.social

@tinydbass.bsky.social @irishdocsenv.bsky.social @olaln.bsky.social @fhmediastuff.bsky.social @kleyden.bsky.social 👇

“In 2023, cars and their drivers killed 8,820 American pedestrians and bicyclists — 7,314 pedestrians and 1,166 cyclists. They injured another 136,281, an increase of over 5,300 injuries from 2022.” Put the responsibility where it belongs. Via @jalopnik.bsky.social www.jalopnik.com/1979666/defe...

Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tonnes of tire fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by normal driving, account for 28% of microplastics entering the environment globally. Heavy vehicles eg SUVs/EVs especially. Via @us.theconversation.com

Speaking yesterday about the current extreme divisiveness in America, Obama said "at moments like this, when tensions are high, then part of the job of the president is to pull people together.” It is what American presidents do. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/u...

IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility. Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it. #CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social

Congestion charging in London caused an average of 7% drop in car ownership in affected areas (outer London near the charging boundary). If we want fewer cars in our streets, and all the benefits that brings, this is one of the tools that we know works. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very good piece authored by @cianginty.bsky.social.

"The steepest cost comes from depreciation - a 2024 Hyundai Tucson valued at €40,000 will have depreciated by about €6,274 over the course of this year, based on standard valuation tools." www.rte.ie/news/busines...

The puzzle.

“You have to hold developers to high standards. You don’t just let anything get built. The answer isn’t to say ‘no’ to everything—it’s to say, ‘Yes, if.’ If it meets our vision. If it improves our public realm. If it creates benefits, not just burdens.” My @sarasotamagazine.bsky.social interview.

COVID-19 was a "black swan event" because it was unexpected and disruptive. It revealed hidden dynamics in traffic patterns, allowing the researchers to study cause & effect essentially as a Natural Experiment. The same conditions could not have been created deliberately. www.bmj.com/content/388/...

The Shanghai study shows that congestion increases in a nonlinear way. A small rise in the number of vehicles can cause a big spike in delays & bottlenecks. This is because traffic jams often spread like a chain reaction, with one blockage triggering many others across the network. Intuitive, right?

NEW STUDY: A new study “confirms what many riders already know—cycling to work makes you healthier, more productive, and even reduces sick days.” “The most active cyclists chalked up 531 fewer sick days per 100 person-years compared to non-cyclists.” Via @momentummag.bsky.social

More Americans died while biking than in any previous year -- ever. (Sources: @bikeleague.bsky.social & injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicl...)

New RSA report shows 45 cyclists died and 1,278 were seriously injured on Irish roads from 2020-2024. Urban areas and male riders aged 56-65 most affected. csalert.ie/43lUj5d

People who cycle in Galway – for transport, utility or convenience – do so despite, not because of, the City Council's policies. What's particularly galling in this context is that the Council has literally campaigned for decades to unleash "suppressed demand" for driving.

This urban greenway in Galway, Millers Lane, is part of a well-planned train network 🚂🧵

Permeability of Galway City Centre for bicycles. A thread on contra-flow cycling🧵 Numerous one-way streets throughout the medieval city centre core create challenges in relation to permeability for cyclers. 🧵1/5

Never mind, MAGA, this is who Trump really represents. x.com/kaitlancolli...

The Quincentenary Bridge officially opened in 1987. The Council, and various others, claimed that it was solving the city's traffic issues from day one. Complaints about traffic being a "king size headache" were heard again FIVE years later. The campaign for an Outer Bypass began in the late 90s.

Cars would be a lot cooler if they weren’t responsible for 44k deaths a year in the U.S. alone, part of the 1.3 million worldwide, thanks to overpowered designs and deadly, oversized infrastructure built around them.

Paris 🚴🏼🚴🏽‍♂️🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏼💫🚴🏼🚴🏽‍♂️🚴🏼‍♀️❇️

Paris, 🚴🏽‍♂️🚴🏼‍♀️🚶🏻🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏽‍♂️‍➡️🚶🏾‍♀️‍➡️🏃🏽‍♂️🏃🏽🏃🏻‍♀️ A former motorhighway at the heart of the city

"Exciting things are happening in Cork [in the area of] Public Transport." -Taoiseach Micheál Martin today on The Pat Kenny Show. The future of Galway needs leadership. www.rte.ie/news/2025/04...

Cork on track to the future. And Galway? GLUAS LightRail has been found to be viable recently by the NTA. There is more to transport than a Ring Road! www.rte.ie/news/2025/04...

Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years as a result of a deliberate strategy. Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people. Good trade.

An excellent summary of the failed efforts of the @GalwayCityCo to build a Ring Road. Sustainable alternatives that include denser development in the city, @GLUASLightRail, school buses, and cycling infrastructure needed. irishcycle.com/2025/04/08/o...

America has an opportunity to lead the AI revolution, and Trump's main concern is bringing toaster factories to rural Ohio.

BREAKING: “We will build at a pace not seen since the 2nd World War.” Mark Carney announces he wants to double the pace of housing construction in Canada, half a million new homes/year. He wants the Federal Govt to get back into affordable home-building. Billions in housing loans/grants announced.

Moving City Hall out of the city centre was a terrible decision. And we still don't know how it happened.

Electric cars won't fix this.

READ THIS: “We found there’s this perfect one-to-one relationship. If a city increased its road capacity by 10% then driving in that city went up by 10%.” Still one of the best articles on why building bigger roads leads to more driving. Understanding #InducedDemand via @wired.com

Chaos might make "good television," but it's not good for the economy. www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

We "need to get rid of regulations that make it impossible to build things, and we need to invest money in order to achieve great things." We Can Achieve Great Things www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/o...

The only way @elonmusk and @realDonaldTrump could fire so many people is if they were born wealthy and have no idea what it is like to struggle to make a living and pay bills.

Philly is the latest city to use bus-mounted cameras to automatically ticket cars blocking transit lanes and bus stops. This is one the best transportation technology innovations of the last decade. Every city should be using it.

A recent peer-reviewed study of identical twins illustrated the value of living in a walkable neighborhood, showing a strong correlation between walkable neighborhoods, time spent walking, and positive health outcomes. Story: www.theurbanist.org/2025/02/14/w...

@alancurran.bsky.social Anything on the City Council website about this?

This is important — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY. There was also a 71% drop in air pollution. Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople www.forbes.com/sites/carlto...

Living in a walkable neighborhood can enhance your health and well-being. Land use planning decisions matter. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

“A new study of early separated lane projects in the U.S. across six cities finds a rise of ridership between 21% and 171% after the lanes were installed.” The pretty strong and convincing case for protected bike-lane networks in cities. In @fastcompany.com

Most of President Trump's Executive Orders will be overturned by the Courts. That's because he is attempting to overturn laws and contracts that are legally binding. If he wants change he has to work with Congess to change existing law and previous spending commitments.

My opinion too far on speed limits is that 30km/h is much too fast for housing estates and residential areas. In Germany's "ver­kehrs­be­ru­hig­ten Berei­chen" - Drivers must drive at walking pace (about 7km/h). - Pedestrians can use the whole width of the street. - Children can play anywhere.

Efficient transport infrastructure often looks empty. Inefficient infrastructure looks "busy".