🚨🚨The Senate has passed the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act as part of the NDAA! This is a historic level of bipartisan cooperation to expand Americans' access to housing. @aarmlovi.bsky.social, @awjustus.bsky.social, and @rohanaras.bsky.social unpack what's in the 310-page bill. ⬇️

1/ Learning lots about mass timber and prefab construction in a mass timber building in SE DC. The pavilion’s open design provides nice views of the air traffic out of joint base Andrews (c-5 galaxy transport aircraft pictured).

I can't stop thinking about this. We're pursuing zero fire risk in multifam, while tolerating much more in single-fam. People respond by building and living in single-fam, where they're exposed to not only one of the highest fire death risks in the developed world, but also TONS more car crash risk

ND Gov. Kelly Armstrong at @yimbytown.bsky.social : on any policy change, 20% of people will be cranky & loud against, 80% are supportive but busy living their lives & don’t speak up. Ignore the 20%. Turn off your social media. Find a compelling emotional hook to engage the silent 80%.

“For every five people leaving the trades we only have 1-2 entering,” we need more career and technical education, we need more legal immigration. - ND Gov Armstrong at #yimbytown

America lost 7k construction jobs in August, and overall job growth in the sector is now at its worst pace since the pandemic Over the last year, the US has lost 31k jobs in residential construction and only gained 78k jobs in nonresidential & civil construction

The Senate Banking Committee has advanced the ROAD to Housing Act—a rare, unanimous, bipartisan package tackling America’s housing shortage. 🏘️ @aarmlovi.bsky.social, @awjustus.bsky.social, and @rohanaras.bsky.social break down what’s in this 310-page bill ⬇️

1/ The latest from Factory Seconds, @lucagattonicelli.bsky.social drives multiple minivans and discovers that all new cars are not, in fact, good. Most motorists only have chance encounters with unfamiliar vehicles, so many operate with imperfect information when comparing different ones.

I have a new piece up (first with @niskanencenter.bsky.social!) The federal government spends billions of dollars on transit each year. What can the feds do to get more on the dollar? Two things: - Create an Army Corp for transit projects - Incentivize legalizing housing near transit

1/ Last week I explored current car headlight rules, tech, and how they perform. This week we look at how headlights developed alongside the automobile to bring us where we are today.

1/ Car headlights are brighter than ever, but are they helping us see or blinding us with glare? @gluesenkampperez.house.gov is asking the right questions so let's look into the answers and ask a lighting expert along the way.

1/ Car headlights are brighter than ever, but are they helping us see or blinding us with glare? @gluesenkampperez.house.gov is asking the right questions so let's look into the answers and ask a lighting expert along the way.

Yeesh. The Prospective Home Buyer index from NAHB. New cycle low. (via Kev Gordon) $XHB

After the Great Recession, we focused a lot on creating jobs and strengthening the economy. But now places with ample jobs are victims of their own success because housing can't keep up with the job growth! Fortunately, many places are already working on this problem but we have room to grow.

Last week, California passed a landmark law exempting many infill housing developments from CEQA. Here’s how we can do the same thing on a national level, exempting urban infill housing from NEPA. New report from Aaron Shroyer for @publicenterprise.bsky.social:

Does anyone at Transit Cost Proj. want to take this job? Seems like a great opportunity to put policy into practice. @alonlevy.bsky.social, @ndhapple.bsky.social, @egoldwyn.bsky.social careers.amtrak.com/job/Washingt...

Detroit files biggest nuisance abatement action in city's history against crypto platform Real Token and their 400+ residential nuisance properties. 1/ www.detroitnews.com/story/news/l...

Me, earlier this year: "Abundance offers a useful lens to confront obstacles standing in the way of affordable housing, quality health care and clean energy. But applying its insights to transportation requires considering the kind of infrastructure that gets built, not just the quantity."

Good essay on the pickle that is public order discourse and how important it is for public figures to lead by example.

Trying out a substack with a focus on cross-silo policy analysis covering the places we live, how we move around, and other topics. To explain this idea, I outline the roles of specialists and generalists as depicted in Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry murals. open.substack.com/pub/awjustus...

This is why this bill is even more horrible, it won’t even lead to more housing just fake ranches for the rich.

Good thread on the federal land sell-off provisions of the GOP's reconciliation bill:

The ENR bill gets a lot of heat for exactly what federal lands will be sold for housing. But it remains under-scrutinized on its possible housing production elements. Let’s look 1/

1/“Once the land is sold, we will never get it back," @repryanzinke.bsky.social is right. If we sell fed lands we should have a good reason because we can only pull this lever once. If a place like SLC is all out of ideas for housing with 1/2 the density of Atlanta it is short of that bar.

Happy Father’s Day, may you overcome life’s broken bolts with a combination of the proper tools and good temperament. www.motortrend.com/how-to/1808-...

Me, a housing advocate: endlessly pouring over the driest reports to make an argument for more homes based on facts. Trucking lobbyist: have you considered our job is a bit stressful?

“When I joined the Marine Corps I took an oath to the Constitution, not to a person, not to a party.” — Janessa Goldbeck “The last thing the U.S. military wants is the image of a young man or woman with a rifle imposing the will of executive power.” — MG (Ret.) Paul Eaton

For the price of a basic steering wheel and pedal assembly (Logitech G G920 - $290), I could compete in video game car races for years. Or I could buy one tire for a real race car that will last a few weekends in an entry-level series. hoosiertiregp.com/hoosier-circ...

"Leaded AvGas is not pollution, people are pollution." - LA Nimby

The downtown Detroit central steam heat system making an appearance during the #DetroitGP this weekend. Central steam plants are a hallmark of many older US cities, offering efficient energy to customers and visual interest for city dwellers. 1/

Certain parts of the BBBA get a lot of attention, less probed are the bill's impacts on housing and homeownership. The earlier TCJA took a major step toward reducing the distortionary wealth-building effects of homeownership vs renting, the BBBA doubles down on this change. 1/

A thoughtful thread on the book Stuck (w/ the author!) on the fates of people and places when we were more mobile.

Habeas, guaranteed by a bunch of woke English noblemen in the year 1215 when they sat down to write the Magna Carta. These rights, incorporated into the US legal system through our adoption of English common law as our system of default rules. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/re...

I'm in @thebulwark.com with a review of @yappelbaum.bsky.social's "Stuck." I liked the book a lot - my main point of critique is simply wondering whether we have it in us culturally to restore the high-mobility, opportunity-seeking era Appelbaum describes: www.thebulwark.com/p/can-americ...

The Highway Trust Fund is set to run dry by 2028. State DOTs are asking for $210 billion more—without addressing the poor outcomes their spending continues to produce. Is more money for the status quo is really the answer? Read more in our blog ⤵️ t4america.org/2025/05/12/s...

I've also posted a critical note challenging the @nber.org paper that @michaelwiebe.bsky.social critiques here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

If cities need motivation to rethink building codes that prohibit single-stair buildings, @aarmlovi.bsky.social has a great framing: relegalize Mrs. Maisel's apartment.

It's easy to lose sight of the big picture, but Rachel provides thorough context on the 2-stair mandate: "Since fires are more common in single-family homes than in new apartments, they say current rules may actually steer people toward less safe housing."

A gutting of the public service is the path toward increased project costs & longer project timelines. I suspect that the short-term labor savings will translate into long-term capital costs.

Concentrated benefits (real ID holdouts still get to fly), diffuse costs (every single traveler misses their flight).

New car prices, largely flat from when I first picked up a wrench until a 20% jump after 2020. Car buyers can scarcely afford further increases likely to follow from tariffs. 1/

Front license plates are a third rail of US automotive regulatory discourse. Understudied to the point it’s a policy-free zone where vibes rule. A study from TX A&M takes a clear look at the data including interviews with LEOs and other stakeholders. Cc @stephenjacobsmith.com @nilo.bsky.social

[Joint stock ownership corporate structure] is healing

Virginia has a version of this called the Highway user fee. It’s better than the T&I policy in two ways: 1) it uses a sliding scale to calculate the fee based on fuel mileage above 23.7mpg up to 100mpg, 2) the fee is calculated as 85% of what a car getting 23.7mpg would pay, allowing tax savings. 1/

The Slate truck illustrates a simple new vehicle is needed. We should reorient our vehicle safety rules (FMVSS) to prioritize fundamentals like improved driver sight lines over technical bandaids that drive up costs without fixing the underlying problem (truck has worse visibility than an M1 tank).

Imagine fearing the motor voter worse than the grim reaper

Standing up a whole national DMV because the gop is afraid of raising the gas tax is some foolishness that disproportionately penalizes thrifty people. The gas tax is imperfect but it scales with VMT and vehicle size. It also costs next to nothing to collect. www.nber.org/digest/jul04...

Re the Slate truck: Peter DL captures a lot of my caution when the tech optimists get over their skis. Especially in the auto industry, where innovation needs to survive the challenges of real world execution. 1/

For all of its flaws, the USA is a place where all different kinds of people have fought of their rights and won them, and the existence of that kind of idea and system makes America worth fighting for. It’s not perfect, but that’s why you struggle to make it better.