🎁 This holiday season, give the gift of connection. Share The 51st with someone who cares about D.C. — invite them to subscribe or gift them a membership. Together we’ll grow a community that keeps local journalism alive. 51st.news/gift-subscri...

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

The Trump admin intends to dismantle the National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the US' leading weather and climate research institutions. We must urge Congress to halt this dangerous action immediately. 🔗Take action: act.ucsusa.org/4oWtCwz

Absolutely LOVE to see the f'ing Automotive News blame automakers for policy whiplash. Never woulda believed it, but it's a spot-on criticism. Auto companies have asked for uncertainty because they will always choose less regulation over stability. www.autonews.com/opinion/colu...

We’re not running out of good ideas, but the tech fetishists who have no ideas other than “but I put a lot of money and emotion into this basket” always do, and their narcissism does not allow them to consider that their failed ideas suck, and the flop sweat is palpable.

Great to see this @reuters.com article on how polluting the railroad industry is. Too often I hear people talk about rail as "efficient" because they ignore all the f'ing pollution. And the dirtiest locos are the ones in the railyards, which are in communities! www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Thank you to @vanhollen.senate.gov and @fetterman.senate.gov for reintroducing the Moving Transit Forward Act 🚌🚇, which would create a much needed federal program to fund increased transit service across the country. www.vanhollen.senate.gov/news/press-r...

This makes facially neutral policies--like poll taxes and literacy tests--that we know were adopted for discriminatory purposes legal. Organizations can now simply claim there was no discriminatory intent regardless of outcome. It's unconstrained institutionalized racism.

Important, exciting research — air pollution dropped 22% in NYC's congestion relief zone within the first 6 months of #CongestionPricing (with reductions in the surrounding neighborhoods, too) Cleaner air, better transit, great data — all thanks to #CongestionPricing!

Hello, world! We are DC's cargo bike lending library, a @waba.org project inspired by @mplscargobikelibrary.com and @communitypedalpower.org Borrow a cargo bike - free! #bikedc More information coming soon....

Way to stand up to... *checks notes* 61-year-old recreational players. Good work, USTA. 🙃

Guys, whatever made Detroit's vehicles so expensive, it wasn't their strenuous efforts in fuel economy @opinion.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

This is so dumb: I can't believe we're fighting this same stupid fight again just because automakers and oil companies like to f the American people. www.ucs.org/about/news/t...

Just how bad is the Trump administration's fuel economy proposal? IT VIOLATES THE 2020 requirement from the Energy Independency and Security Act. Good luck explaining how a maximum feasible standard falls below what Congress required more than a decade prior!

Y'know who didn't fuck their subjects for clicks and still believes that journalists should maintain writing standards and ethical boundaries? @51st.news. Support local media! 51st.news/membership/?...

Highway expansion is an out of control drug addiction.

This is indefensible bullshit. The administration right now is just acknowledging they don't believe in the laws of Congress nor the rights of the American people to breathe clean air. Absolutely bonkers response to the Clean Air Act.

Finally got around to reading this @washingtonpost.com article on pedestrian safety and was pleasantly surprised at how well they highlighted key issues, including lack of political will at all levels to reckon w/road design. But JFC I was not prepared for some of the crash details. wapo.st/4ojmnia

Today: Join me, @lewan.bsky.social, and @ucs.org colleagues to discuss how the scientific community can push back against the growing authoritarian threat and stand up for our democracy. secure.ucs.org/a/2025-11-20...

The two bills the House passed last night serve only to criminalize poverty and erode trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The Senate must vote these bills down and reject this blatant attack on DC’s local autonomy. Congress has no right to drag us backward.

The realization that technology is insufficient was THE motivating factor for me 15 years ago to apply my technical skills to policy, and I've never looked back. Change is not about technology -- it is about power.

Gee, the automotive industry simply designing to the test rather than broadly protecting public welfare? That's never happened before.

Car Size xkcd.com/3167/

⛽📉Over the last half a century, drivers have saved $5 Trillion at the pump thanks to the Corporate Fuel Average Economy program. But this program is in danger. If you don’t want the Trump Administration to weaken these rules or give another handout to oil companies and automakers.

Our transportation system puts mobility access on the backs of households through exorbitant private costs that flow to automotive industries to the tune of $1 trillion per year. This type of financial disaster is a virtual inevitability in what the US has designed. www.ucs.org/resources/fr...

This underscores the fundamental challenge of the BIL: for all it may have done to support #EV infrastructure and electrification, it fundamentally did not do jack to shift the transportation system itself, and if anything just further embedded the status quo #oil based boondoggle we have today.

It is wild, if not surprising I guess, that whether people could fly somewhere at Thanksgiving seemed to have more political effect than whether people could *eat* at Thanksgiving.

"Beyond being the 24th consecutive grant of emergency relief to the Trump administration, the cryptic ruling in Orr is a reminder of just how bankrupt the Court’s proffered justifications are in these cases—both legally and in other ways, too." Me on today's ugly #SCOTUS ruling in Trump v. Orr:

Apparently Sam Graves (House T&I) wants to put in place some new fees to "fix" the Highway Trust Fund. If you're gonna do that, maybe start with the folks responsible for breaking all that infrastructure in the first place? blog.ucs.org/dave-cooke/t...

The trucking industry keeps our economy moving—but that doesn’t give it a free pass for its negative impacts. From pollution in frontline communities to heat-trapping emissions and damaged roads and bridges, this fossil-fueled sector must pay its fair share.

🚗⚡ New in @science.org: My piece on why the U.S. needs to rethink its approach to China's electric vehicle industry (and what's at stake if it doesn’t). The competitive gap is bigger than you think. Thread 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"Because of other countries testing programs" President Trump ordered the Pentagon "to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis". Normally, testing nuclear weapons refers to explosive testing of a nuclear weapon, something the US has not done at full scale since 1992.

My @ucs.org colleague Dr. Laura Grego explains why the Pentagon's _claim_ that a A House of Dynamite is wrong about the effectiveness the anti-missile system that supposedly defends the US against long-range nuclear attack is a load of hooey. The system, as the movie says, is a coin-flip at best.

"It's okay for us to tell our customers to kill themselves" may be a novel defense strategy, but it certainly isn't a thorny legal question.

Lee Zeldin's legal authority to 'make the U.S. the AI capitol of the world': none. Lee Zeldin's commitment to his actual legal authority and responsibility to protect human health and the environment: also none.

I've heard so many people ask over the last few months: Whatever happened to that $1.1 billion Congress wouldn't let DC spend this spring? Many assume that money is still sitting around somewhere, but it's not! DC actually spent pretty much all of it. I found out how: wamu.org/story/25/10/...

More than ever before, people like Franklin and Saban are insisting that the expectations being put on coaches at powerhouse schools are too high, and that no mere mortal with an $85 million contract can be expected to deliver all the time. defector.com/you-can-have...

BIG DAY in Washington, DC for #NoKingsDay It’s a privilege to be in coalition with @indivisible.org and standing up for science and democracy together! @standupforscience.bsky.social #StandUpForScience Let’s see your signs!

I agree that scientists (and academics generally) need to be able to tell better stories about why their work matters, but doing so is 1) often not given credit internally, and 2) a different set of skills in many cases. Telling stories about why knowledge matters is a specialized field in itself.

That’s not how science works dip shit.

Just openly cheering the destruction of any representation of gay people in public space. They think their power is totally unrestricted, and the entire country will support them rolling back society to the 1950s, or maybe the 1850s

This is the kind of shit that loses people's faith in government. We lack true representation as it is -- the least the DC Council can be is transparent in acting upon what little authority they do have.

The biggest dumbass you've ever met in your life:

Time for another Nobel parking pass! (The only time I'll celebrate free parking.) Congrats, Professor Clarke and the @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Physics Dept.! news.berkeley.edu/2021/07/28/t...

"As Latino communities ramp up air quality monitoring, Trump’s EPA moves to weaken pollution regulations." Uprooter @thaliajuarez.bsky.social for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

An Open Letter to @npr.org: Our Streets Are No Accident medium.com/@lanrickbenn... h/t @howdoyou.guide @jessiesinger.bsky.social @poolontheruf.gg @tomflood.bsky.social #BikeTO #WalkTO

In the US, even a “cheap” transit bus costs 2-3x more than in Asia or Europe -- and one agency may pay twice as much as another for nearly identical vehicles. In Bloomberg, I explored a ripe opportunity to improve transportation by applying Abundance-coded, supply-side reforms. 🧵

Stop every campaign/effort telling people on bicycles/pedestrians and anyone outside the car how to be safe and divert ALL resources to remove every opportunity for drivers to be dangerous.

tapped sign courtesy of @tomflood.bsky.social