This is brilliant.

Car Size xkcd.com/3167/

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed 4 years ago. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social we study its effects. US transport spending increased by 30%, but: —Funding for non-highway projects flatlined —Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure

"Fossil demand has been flat for industrial energy since 2014, for buildings since 2018, for road transport since 2019, & may peak for electricity this year. 2/3 of countries have already seen peak fossil demand in end-use sectors, & half the world has seen a peak in fossil fuels for electricity."

Breaking news from down under today, Australian scientists have figured out how to add a fifth vowel to the word "No", English speakers around the world call the discovery "devastating"

Absolutely amazing: they've got so much solar in Australia that they need more people to use more of it, so the gov't has instructed energy retailers to offer *at least three hours of free power* during the middle of the day. Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...

God I am listening to @aoc.bsky.social unapologetically celebrating cities -- urbanity, diversity, creativity, decency -- and it is giving me life. Nothing but respect for *my* president.

Exactly. Bicycling in the absence of car drivers is one of the most fun ways to move around. Bicycling in the presence of them is one of the worst.

US carmakers will make some short-term profits from selling more ICE vehicles, but in the long run it basically guarantees they’ll lose global market share to Chinese EV-makers that will simply have the better tech and vehicles once EVs mature.

who creates the lively art and music scenes if the rent is too high? who makes cultural life? who serves you food or washes your dishes? who creates the fancy little restaurants that draw you to urban living? affordable housing is at the heart of what makes city life worthwhile.

This is actually a pretty convincing argument for fare free transit…

most people don't want politics that hurt other people. we just want a long overcoat like david bowie and affordable housing

What if your ability to vote depended on your transport options? What if your ability to vote also shapes your transport options?🚍🗳️ My new Transport Reviews paper shows how democracy and transport are more connected than we think 👉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

We love guns more than kids. I don't see how you can interpret this as anything other than a diseased country in the latter stages of destroying itself.

Psst: Stop burning stuff on Earth for energy. Let the burning fireball in the sky be your energy source.

Combustion is the past, electricity is the future, pass it on.

You might think that the mayor of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's vast Northwest Territories, would be a fan of giant pickups. Nope. He's disgusted by car bloat. www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...

What if your ability to vote depended on your transport options? What if your ability to vote also shapes your transport options?🚍🗳️ My new Transport Reviews paper shows how democracy and transport are more connected than we think 👉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

I saw this neat Australian train book for kids on my lunch today

Fascinating study. Note that this is 1 in 10 adults. Factor in children and the percentage of non-driving Americans is much higher. Cities and towns need to account for their mobility needs too.

When it comes to road deaths, we often put the onus on people doing the dying rather than people doing the killing.

The US secretary of energy says the following. “We will double the natural gas exports from where they are today in the next four or five years,” Wright said in Italy. LNG, he noted, is “the fastest growing source of energy on the planet.” Who wants to tell this MIT-educated man?

In 2023, I spent a few months investigating why so many Aboriginal pedestrians were killed in road accidents in the NT. There was a lingering sense that racism played a part in this over representation, and that some drivers were dehumanising Aboriginal people. And lo: www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

Terrific piece, especially this part.

When someone says one thing to gain power and then a contradictory thing when exercising that power, the most useful lens for understanding it is power, not hypocrisy.

It’s not offshore wind that’s killing whales.

Respectfully disagree: 1) in fact it is unusual for a democracy w/ this level of GDP to turn authoritarian & so quickly; 2) the weakness of both institutions (congress & courts) and individuals (Schumer etc) is shocking. Would take less than 10 people in congress or 2 SC justices to stop all this.

Interesting-looking new article mapping the different strands of transport policy research doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Millions of Australians at risk from rising sea levels and heat deaths could soar, landmark climate report warns www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Dr. @ashishkjha.bsky.social, who led Biden’s coronavirus response, on what the Trump administration’s MAHA report leaves out. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/12/o...

Not only are combustion engine "hybrid" cars a pretty nasty marketing scam run by car companies to trick well-meaning consumers into burning fossil fuels, the gap between reality and their claims is getting *worse* every year: www.transportenvironment.org/articles/plu...

Best thing California could do to fight fascism is build more housing.

Attention Aussies & Kiwis (or folks from anywhere who like Aussie & Kiwi city-building): Here’s a new Starter Pack from @philipthalis.bsky.social you should check out! Wherever you are, I hope you’ll consider creating a “local” starter pack to help grow the global urbanist community! I’ll share it!

Migrants to Australia have displayed an inability to assimilate with local values and refuse to speak anything but their native tongue, a study covering the last 237 years has found.

Look at this graph. The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened. This is why we must build back union power.

Cyclists, don't forget to wear hi viz!

If the US government had to pay for medical care of its citizens, it might care more about climate change impacts, air and water pollution, gun violence, traffic crashes, the food we eat, etc. It’s past time for single payer healthcare.

This is incredible messaging. I encourage bike advocates everywhere to use a similar argument. As a side note, laws to limit public smoking were also met with incredible pushback. Now we take them for granted, but these were hard fought public health wins

Today: "For the first time in 30 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics...is substantially diverging from U.S. government vaccine recommendations." 🔹️"The AAP is strongly recommending COVID-19 shots for children ages 6 months to 2 years. Shots also... 1/3 www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...

If you aren't a public transit geek I despair of convincing you how important this chart is. Slow buses cut people off from opportunity. Stop respacing is controversial (everything is controversial) and yet the savings and benefits are huge. (We can help.)

Americans will visit Japan and post on social media, “Japan is living in 2075,” and meanwhile they’re just talking about a functioning public transportation system and healthcare not bankrupting people.

It is criminal what the US has done to its children through car culture. They go from supervised activity to car to supervised activity to car ... no wayfinding, no autonomy, no agency, no risk, no sense of adventure or surprise. We're raising helpless, emotionally fragile computer kids.

DC statehood is now an imperative. No more dicking around. Next Dem majority, get it done immediately.

I cant believe I’m seeing this. A political candidate in the national spotlight who cares about buses.

Zohran leads a RIDICULOUS pace for the Bus vs Pedestrian race on 34th St. God I love this town.

Vaccines are our greatest scientific achievement. This is criminal.

No, it's not only the US who will suffer from RFK Jr cancelling vaccine research. 1️⃣ You can't just instantly teleport research projects. Cancelling US projects slows global progress. 2️⃣ Preventing pandemics will always be a group project. The US is letting the team down & putting the world at risk.

It’s mind boggling how many additional people this administration is killing. “I have been in this business for over 50 years on the front lines of public health…And I can say unequivocally that this was the most dangerous public health decision I have ever seen made by a government body.”

Finally had a chance to ride the Brisbane Metro today!