The best description I have heard of Prop 13: The simplest, worst solution to a real crisis.

In 2024, Caltrain launched a new electrified service, which enabled faster and more frequent trains, a simplified schedule, as well as a more comfortable, modern riding experience the rivals the onboard experience of passenger trains in Europe or Asia.

I’m meeting friends for dinner in the South Bay. It’s only 14 miles, a short trip within this region. Yet have to allow for nearly an hour of travel time if I drive. Transit and cycling are worse, and even using an e-bike or combining cycling with transit can’t beat driving. 😭

Transitioning our economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy means:

Please enjoy this macro photo of my dog’s adorable nose!

Commuting by bicycle on a chilly winter day is very comfortable when you wear the right clothing!

It feels like rapid acceleration & higher top speeds should result in faster trip times. But at least in an urban street network, intersection capacity is a limiting factor, and no matter what speed you reach mid-block, you end up spending a lot of time waiting at stop signs and stop lights.

An unfortunate truth I am forced to accept about human psychology is that emotions good stories work far better than facts and rationality to sway people’s optinions.

The unfortunate truth is that to get better at something—running faster, lifting heavier weights, playing music, learning a language—challenge and struggle are essential to the process of getting better. If you simply do what is easy and comfortable and no more, you are not going to improve.

Great overview of how it's going: $ for transit Manhattan economy thriving Less pollution Some 🚛 traffic pushed to nights Fewer injuries

When I commute by car, I feel so stressed and trapped in rush hour congestion. Do others feel this way too? Do others realize how joyful and free it feels to fly past lines of stressed out drivers when you commute by bicycle, train, or express bus?

I love that the Portland Airport includes a bike assembly area near baggage claim for people traveling with a bicycle and leaving the airport on two wheels, as well as a transit station right at the terminal. It’s a rare delight to have such excellent accommodations for non-car airport travel!

My morning marathon training run along the Columbia River, with Mt Hood in the distance.

Our urban populations face a poly crisis: climate change, local air pollution, noise pollution, poor health from sedentary lifestyles, traffic congestion, increasingly unaffordable cars. In many ways, bicycles are a poly-solution. Local policy makers can meaningfully improve life with bicycles!

One of the nice features of the St John bicycle boulevard in downtown San Jose are the periodic modal filters that directing through car traffic to parallel streets, letting bicycles enjoy a low traffic through route. #DTSJ

Cars vs bikes is not an all or nothing, mutually exclusive choice. You can use bicycle, e-bike, or cargo bike when it makes sense to do so, and use a car for trips where a car is a better option.

I love where we live near downtown San Jose, so close to both BART and Caltrain. It means my wife and I can have plans together in SF or Oakland in the evening, but have different plans in the afternoon or late night and only need a single car, because I can take a train for one leg of the trip!

According to a recent study in Germany, cyclists (and pedestrians) are more interested in the common good than motorists. Perhaps it is because getting around on a bicycle requires you to engage with your environment and the people in it, while driving a car isolates you from all of that.

Downtown San Jose has pretty good urbanism, but things like this are a stark reminder of how far we have to go: right across the street from the University is a 7-11 on a corner lot with a 9 stall surface lot occupying the corner and an entrance that faces the lot and not the sidewalk. #DTSJ

The science is settled: rapid global warming is real and caused by human activities, and whatever else we do to mitigate it, we must end the burning of fossil fuels and dumping the CO₂ into the atmosphere and to do so as rapidly as possible.

Quite a lovely sunset view over one of the salt ponds on the bike commute home tonight!

As a longtime Disney Parks fan, I am deeply unhappy with the change from free FastPass to paid Lightning Lane. I rarely if ever pay for LL. Instead, I arrive early when lines are shortest, take advantage of single rider lines, and use other tricks of seasoned visitors.

You can’t justify the need for a bridge by the number of people swimming across a river. And you can’t justify the need for sidewalks and protected bike lanes based on the number of people willing to brave streets designed solely for cars and not people.

I haven’t had a daily car commute since November 2019. First I spent 3 months living in Tokyo with a 10 minute walk to work. I returned to the US in March ‘20 and worked from home for a couple of years. By the time I returned to the office in 2023, I had an e-bike and no desire to drive to work.

What a delightful sight to see in the bike locker at work this morning: not one, not two, but three electric cargo bikes!

Wow! San Jose made honorable mention in a CityNerd urbanism top ten list! We have had a substantial increase in percentage of low car households, those with access to zero or one car, increasing from 17% to 23% between 2010 and 2025.

Reminder to car drivers in California: As of January 1, 2024, bicycles are legally allowed to go with the pedestrian walk signal, even when the main signal is red. This post brought to you by the driver who decided to stop, roll down his window, and yell at me about running a red light.

This morning, two weeks short of three years since I rode my new e-bike home from the bike shop, I rolled over 10,000 miles on the odometer!

Today was my first real rainy bike commute with my new Raincouture trench coat, and I very happy to report that between my coat and my Showers Pass rain pants, I arrived with completely dry work clothes underneath, even after a 17 mile, one hour commute with constant rain the entire time!

In sprawling places like much of the US, bicycles are a fantastic compliment to transit for car free mobility. I’m excited that BayWheels and SJ have added a bikeshare dock just outside the faregates of Berryessa/North San Jose BART Station, supplementing the dock a 7 minute walk from the station.

I embrace cycling as transportation, so prefer to ride in normal street clothing. When I was in Amsterdam this summer, I was delighted to add a stylish tench coat to my wardrobe with nice touches for cycling, like a two-way zip, fold down cuffs, and pockets with magnetic closures! rain-couture.nl

If you live in Santa Clara County and use the creek and river trail systems, we have entered the season where these trails are subject to periodic flooding. This is a great resource that shows near real-time trail flooding status that is invaluable to avoid flooded trail sections.

Life Hack: unanticipated disruptions to your routine forces you to try different options. You can use these short term annoyances as opportunities to mindfully sample alternatives that can make your life better in the long run! www.londoncentric.media/p/london-und...

The people want leaders who will fight for good climate policy and affordable housing.

Pet peeve: multi-use paths that are treated like optional recreational facilities, rather than critical transportation infrastructure that they actually are.

You know your train station needs better wayfinding signage when random strangers print out and tape up the signs that contain the information that disembarking riders actually need because the official signage is inadequate. Do better Diridon Station!

I’m so excited that I’ve been accepted to run the 2026 Boston Marathon! This will be my 8th consecutive Boston Marathon!

Franklin likes to help out around the house! Yesterday he helped water the garden! 😂

Bus, train, and tram fares: $22.15 Bike share fares: $3.44 A day without driving in traffic or dealing with parking, a day where I can get work done during my commute and enjoy an evening in the city with dinner and a concert: Priceless

If you have a relatively recent iPhone that includes an Action Button: Have you configured an action, and if so what action did you choose? How often do you use the Action Button?

If you are in the market for a new car, and you have considered an EV as an option, now may be a great time to buy or lease a new EV! Federal incentives expire at the end of this month, so dealers are offering great deals to move EVs off their lots before their prices effectively go up by $7500.

My daily commuter is a long-tail electric cargo bike, configured with large cargo bags instead of passenger seating. I love it because it handles like a normal bike. And on the way home from work, I can stop by the supermarket and buy an entire shopping cart of groceries, no need to plan ahead!

My daily bicycle commute on the San Francisco Bay Trail takes me past Moffett Field. I often see a variety of wildlife, but today was particularly special as I got to see this red tail hawk perched dramatically on the barbed wire fence surrounding the airfield!

TIL: 4-way stops are ubiquitous in the US. They shouldn’t be. Most 4-way stops are unwarranted and are misused to control speed. 4-way stops don’t work for speed control. There are better ways to control speed and to manage intersections in ways that are effective and safe for all road users.

I sincerely believe it would do so much good for us to have regular, face to face interactions with people different from ourselves, whether in pubs and cafes, bowling or softball leagues, unions or civic organizations, military service or volunteer organizations.

Unusual circumstances conspired to force me to drive to work instead of cycling as I normally do. It reminded me how frustrating I find it to be trapped in rush hour congestion. And it also reminded me of another advantage of cycling: I can park so much closer when I cycle than when I drive!

I’m so excited and proud to announce the biggest updates to the Google Translate mobile apps since I’ve been on the team, including a massively upgraded speech translation features and a brand new language practice feature. These features are rolling out now in the latest version! Update now!

If you see a teenager zooming by on what looks like a fat tire dirtbike with pedals, doing wheelies and traveling at 35mph or more, that is not an e-bike, and it’s probably not even a street legal moped or motorcycle. Please don’t call those things e-bikes as it unfairly stigmatizes actual e-bikes.

Motorists: If you are already stopped at an intersection, and a bicyclist is approaching from the left and comes to a stop, YOU have the right of way. You might think it is polite to wave the cyclist through, but it is confusing and it violates the rules of right-of-way.