Two postdoc positions in environmental data science at Boston U 🧪

Gift link to an article about the dramatic increase in pedestrian deaths in the United States and how those deaths cluster in Black, Latino, and Native American communities wapo.st/4polhCJ

My take on Mamdani's ambitious vision for revamping NYC streets: "The NYC DOT Commissioner position is going to be the most exciting job in American transportation." From the latest @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social (please ignore my crooked glasses): lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/episode-9-...

Harvard is hiring a new director for the Joint Center for Housing Studies. academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15490

At least in Cambridge/Somerville, there are plenty of e-cargo bike moms as well. And yes, it’s definitely a situation of come for the sustainability, stay for never having to worry about traffic or parking.

This week I wrote about the rise of the e-bike dad - this piece was originally going to run alongside the story I did in September about the bike boom in general, and we didn't have space in print, but here it is: www.economist.com/united-state...

Okay, the thing where literally anything going on at Harvard warrants coverage by NYT is getting out of hand…

Tenure-track professorship in human mobility, at Denmark’s Technical University (DTU). Highly recommended place for research, teaching and the benefits of working and living in (slightly north of) Copenhagen. #dktrp #dkjob efzu.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Have any of you been to Elko, Nevada? Is it nice there?

The federal shutdown has already affected me! Census Tract TIGER 2024 shapefiles are not available for New Jersey. Other states are fine. Other years are fine too. I can get 2022 tracts for New Jersey no problem, and they should be the same as 2024. But still.

Sunday was a rough day for us members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m so heartbroken for the families - and the ward family - in Grand Blanc, Michigan. President Nelson was a voice for peace and he will be missed.

LinkedIn is trying to tell me 895 people in the United Stated were hired as assistant to professors in the past week. I’m skeptical.

Obama on Charlie Kirk:

When I read this in The Emperor of All Maladies: “The risk of not having a mammogram until after age 50 is about the same as riding a bicycle for 15 hours without a helmet.” I wanted to yell: “In what city?” There is not much danger inherent to cycling. It’s the environment that’s dangerous.

I love that this thread was immediately followed in my feed by a WSJ article about how to make car travel less unpleasant.

Absolutely. There’s been a huge shift among those who walk to school where they are more likely to be accompanied by a (usually female) parent. Note that walking a kid to school is even more time consuming than driving them. A safe street is one that a child can navigate independently.

Supportive anecdata: since I got my new e-bike three months ago, I've put nearly 900 miles on it and roughly 25 miles on our car.

This is a real loss.

New drawing: Hire bike Notes on this cartoon: open.substack.com/pub/diagramc...

This is great. At its best, a university is not only a place to be exposed to new ideas and perspectives but also an environment that is conducive to changing your mind (i.e. learning and growing). This is true for all scholars, from undergraduate students to tenured professors.

Hey! With a quote from @gregmacfarlane.bsky.social !

Tuesday's Most Read # 1 - Did Two University of Utah Professors Use AI to Take SLC's Streets Away? link.theoverheadwire.com/mpn9c @buildingsaltlake.bsky.social

Question for my fellow middle-aged women: Did your feet grow by like a whole shoe size when you were in your 40s? Is this a thing that happens?

The Human Ecology division (part of the department of Human Geography) at Lund University is hiring a Senior Lecturer. This is a tenured position in a workplace with a strong tradition of critical research. Please forward to anyone who might be interested! lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

A police officer pulled me over on my bike for turning left through a pedestrian scramble phase, and that’s all it takes for me to go from being a vaguely centrist law-and-order type to just full defund-the-police.

Love this. My husband and I chose our wedding venues because they were on the same light rail line, so the whole wedding party could take the train from the ceremony to the reception.

The review I wish I could write: “I am satisfied with the authors’ revisions and have no additional comments for them, but I would like to suggest to Reviewer 2 that he needs to calm the heck down.”

Caroline Davis was about to make a mistake that could have severely damaged her car. Then a stranger stepped in, with an offer of help that brought her to tears.

The leaders of the former TRB committees focused on sustainability have put together this survey to gather input about possible paths forward. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This.

Oh my gosh, I let my seven year old walk to the neighborhood grocery store all the time. That’s not illegal. What is illegal is driving into a child with a car.

Former (or formerly aspiring) TRB committee members: What are you thinking from here? A. I’m done with TRB. B. I might submit papers or attend TRBAM, but won’t give my time to a committee. C. The best chance to make a difference is from the inside, so I’m filling out the member interest form.

Can’t wait to sit down to read this paper in more detail.

Pedestrian & cycling fatalities have risen quickly in the US. But impacts vary. Our new research on Boston shows that: —Traffic injury rates are 4x higher in communities of color than largely white areas. —People of color experience much higher traffic injury rates *outside* of their home areas.

In unsurprising news, the TRB committee that was previously "gender issues in transportation" is now "committee on women and families" and the equity committee (that was expanded from the prior environmental justice committee) no longer exists in any form.

Remember when we got this at the 2020 Annual Meeting? Feeling super nostalgic today.

New TRB committees are posted. nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/oth...

Our week-long transportation summer camp is free and open to any Oregon student entering the 9–12 grade! This year's camp will be held Aug 3–8 on the Portland State University campus. Learn more & apply now: trec.pdx.edu/summer-high-...

the gathering of expertise in the committees IS TRB. (or, was.) once arguably prestigious, now how should membership be judged?

Great new longitudinal research from Drs. Nick Ferenchak and Wes Marshall, showing the value of protected bike lanes (over single stripes, sharrows, or nothing) in increasing rates of cycle commuting. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Organizations and conferences that have the potential to partially fill the void left by TRB (a thread):

What the actual heck. I just heard about this today. I guess it was announced to committee chairs on Friday? This is the end of TRB as we know it.

These are all UTC grants right? It’s not clear to me whether they’re shutting down entire UTCs or just canceling specific UTC-funded grants.

I appreciate this statement from the Harvard Faculty Chapter of AAUP. Reminds me of this line from Good Night and Good Luck: “I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story, two equal and logical sides to an argument.” docs.google.com/document/d/e...

My son’s favorite TV show is the Hot Wheels series on Netflix. The villain is Professor Rearview, a professor who wears a bike helmet and wants to ban cars. He’s starting to notice some uncomfortable parallels with his mom. villains.fandom.com/wiki/Profess...

I have serious concerns about whether TRB is an organization I’m willing to continue to volunteer my time to. If the purpose of TRB is to identify needs for research, what is the point if we’re not allowed to express a need for research that is unpalatable to the political party in power?

I hadn’t realized Ranjani Srinivasan, one of the Columbia Students whose visa was revoked, was a 5th-year Urban Planning PhD student (and a Harvard GSD grad). Just hits that much closer to home. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/n...

I’m excited to read this book (now available for pre-order!) by my friend, Danielle Leavitt. It’s a history of Ukraine, with a focus on the current war, as experienced by 7 individual Ukrainians. I think this is a really important piece of writing. us.macmillan.com/books/978037...