Three newly published books argue that cars are destroying society as well as the planet. Is the world finally ready to rein in the automobile? My essay, in @bloomberg.com (gift link below)

By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal "Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport." www.economist.com/internationa...

5 Myths About Complete Streets (and the Truth Behind Them) www.cityhealth.org/resource/com...

More Transit Means Safer Streets - usa.streetsblog.org/2025/09/30/m...

America Has a Golden Opportunity to End the ‘Highway Boondoggle’ Crisis - usa.streetsblog.org/2025/10/09/a...

When someone rides an e-bike (or any bike!) on the sidewalk, it's really an unspoken request for a bike lane. Give it to them. After all, bike lanes makes car travel safer, too! Banning e-bikes writ large is the wrong approach in all circumstances. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...

This is good! And... While the latest public design was only like 30% or something, it was also not a boulevard. It was a high speed arterial (stroad). It would be hard to come up with a design that was more efficient at causing damage, injury, and death. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/09...

Storage of private vehicles is an expensive and inefficient use of Downtown land (and/or construction funds). Transit, bikes, and feet (or wheelchairs) are much more cost-effective modes. www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/...

"parking mandates force people who drive less than average to subsidize the parking costs of their higher-mileage neighbors." www.planetizen.com/blogs/135767...

Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson (Mayor 1901–1909) holding his copy of Henry George’s “Progress and Poverty.”

"Ohio’s climate risks aren’t being imposed from outside — they are the product of decisions made in Columbus, often at the behest of an industry we’ve chosen to protect. We are not bystanders in this crisis. We are participants. And we will all pay the price."

Past time for this to come off the local MPO's official legislative agenda. youtu.be/BVL8-7KxUz8?...

The 85th percentile rule is arbitrary, retrograde, unscientific garbage. And it kills people. thelandcle.org/stories/ohio...

Went to the Cleveland Fed Policy Summit and had some thoughts: thefundneo.org/transforming...

This is so incredibly backwards. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/08...

I'd say everyone here is pretty accurate. The catch: who wasn't there. As of now, the plan for the "boulevard" is anything but. Latest plan is an over-engineered, ugly, high-speed arterial that would likely be worse than what we currently have. www.crainscleveland.com/politics-pol...

Opinion: Ohio is the Poster Child for Why We Need a Stronger Federal Approach to Passenger Rail - usa.streetsblog.org/2025/08/01/o...

An unexpected Lockean piece on costly parking mandates. www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025...

"Transportation policy represents a key tool to address both the cost of living and climate crises. In the U.S., the shortcomings of today’s transportation system impact many facets of life, ranging from health care access to job retention to air quality." climateandcommunity.org/research/let...

"Of the two dozen policies outlined in the report, a moratorium on highway and major arterial expansion is one immediate step that every government in the country — down to state, county and city — can and should take immediately." usa.streetsblog.org/2025/07/28/o...

I'm not gonna pretend that I know what the path forward here is... ...and at the same time, I'm darn sure we have to confront how climate risks affect Cleveland. And the massive quantity of impermeable pavement we have. www.ideastream.org/environment-...

If you think traffic congestion is bad now, wait until cities cut 30-45% of their current bus & rail service. (People who don't ride public transit still benefit enormously from its existence.)

Infrastructure...week? Month? Year? Decade? Whatever it is, it needs to change. t4america.org/2025/05/22/t...

MOAR form-based codes! usa.streetsblog.org/2025/07/08/f...

The administration is right. Creating a great lakefront space won't be a traffic problem. Full stop. That's just not how traffic works. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/07...

That's more than the US emits in a year. The US produced a total of 6,197 MMTCO2e in 2023. That means this bill will add more than an entire US worth of climate pollution into the atmosphere.

YES to everything here! usa.streetsblog.org/2025/07/07/t...

Agree with almost all of this--and absolutely the overall point. It seems that despite some really good initiatives in certain pockets, systemic change has stalled...if not reversed. www.cleveland.com/opinion/2025...

Can't help but think that if there were less sprawl, there would be more resources available to these congregations to maintain the buildings. Be that via worshippers or philanthropy. signalcleveland.org/historic-bla...

"Clean air and safe outdoor space should be a right for every child, Cleveland students argue." thelandcle.org/stories/clea...

There was an old tweet that stuck with me: "If you can easily walk to the coffee shop but your barista has a one hour commute, you don't live in a walkable 15 minute city; you live in a theme park"

Pre-ordered this book and it recently arrived. Can't wait to dig in. usa.streetsblog.org/2025/05/28/w...

“The economic impact will approach zero.” - Mark Rosentraub, a professor of sports management and director of the Center for Sports Venues & Real Estate Development at the University of Michigan www.crainscleveland.com/sports-recre...

Highway shakedown: How local road users are subsidizing state highway investments www.brookings.edu/articles/hig...

Policy changes often take years to show results. And then there is congestion pricing in New York. Here are all of the ways we could find it having an immediate effect: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"Almost immediately after the tolls went into effect Jan. 5, they began to alter traffic patterns, commuter behavior, transit service, even the sound of gridlock and the on-time arrival of school buses." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

NYC’s congestion pricing is a policy miracle: Less traffic, less noise, faster transit, more business sales, more transit revenue. And it hasn’t produced the negative effects outside the cordon zone we were afraid of. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"Universal pre-K [leads] to a 1.2% rise in labor force participation, a 1.5% increase in employment, and a 1.6% growth in hours worked, resulting in higher aggregate earnings." www.nber.org/papers/w33767

"Ohio should invest in a multimodal system that will have the widest, broadest reach possible to meet the demands of all Ohioans." www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices...

crazy that an influx of dense infill housing can lower prices and make homeownership more attainable

ssti.us/2025/04/29/r... "Cities have no control over insurance companies, but they can control their land use plans & encourage responsible development in low-risk areas. That often means relaxing zoning constraints & incentivizing more compact, transit-oriented development in areas with less risk"

"The rates of fatal crashes and crime are both lower on public transportation than on roadways." www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-p...

"Without steep price hikes or road pricing, autonomous vehicles could increase delays by 63%." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"Considering that both sitting and car exhaust kill you, it’s a safe bet a lot of the net benefit to society is simply that cycling makes you less of a drag on health insurance and the safety net." grist.org/biking/one-m...

There's one concern here that seems to be in good faith (vehicle speed; safety) and a whole lot that...isn't. Including, research has showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that businesses do better when this kind of infrastructure replaces street parking. www.clevescene.com/news/debate-...

"The Secretary of Transportation says he hasn't seen enough data to believe in the benefits of bike lanes. So we put together an explainer help him out — mostly using information from his own department." usa.streetsblog.org/2025/04/25/s...

Make no mistake: the region and the state will pay for this, too. Not just for the stadium. Oh, and "this" doesn't just include initial construction. It'll also include at least a couple generations of maintenance liabilities. www.cleveland19.com/2025/04/25/b...

This bodes well for Cleveland Moves: "Tactical urbanism isn’t just faster and cheaper—it’s a practical feedback tool for making more informed, more effective public investments. And now, we’ve got the data to prove it." www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025...

"As larger, taller sport utility vehicles took over US roads, they also aggravated highway congestion, according to a new study. It’s yet another ill effect of 'car bloat.'" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...